I gave her the dad glare, and she zipped her lips, but she looked worryingly intrigued by the whole thing, and that was a bad thing. A really bad thing.
After she left, I joined Rocket in the back and he showed me the spray booth setup, which Has had popped back to help with, thankfully missing Leah by about ten minutes.
“Looks good, man. Hey, I’m sorry about earlier. She kinda caught me on the hop. I’m usually prepared for her visits, but I fucked up today. I really do want to keep her away from the club and all things biker related if I can.”
“She rides a scooter, man.” I grinned, even though I hated the fucking thing.
“I know. And that’s as much of a two wheeled life as she’s getting, got it?”
Rocket tossed the last of his tools in his toolbox and slammed it shut.
“Wasn’t gonna try anything, man. I like them my age, or older, whatever. I’m not into kids.”
He hefted the toolbox, and grabbed his cut.
“You coming back to the clubhouse that doesn’t exist?”
Prick.
Caroline
IAGONISED FOR DAYS after the coffee date. Was it a date? Was it a pity invite? Did he want to see me again? Should I just go into the shop and say hi?
I’d been working on a web design project for days, but every time I tried to work on it, I found my mind wandering, and while that wasn’t unusual for me, it was delaying me enough that my client was going to get frustrated. The last thing I wanted was aphone call to suffer through, so I had to force myself to focus on it.
Web design hadn’t been the dream, and in fact, the dream had changed a few times, as each led me to too many people, and too much pressure on my fragile soul. I wasn’t cut out for offices, and meetings, and conference calls, and in person visits to sites, back when I was studying to be an architect. Or for collaborations with teams, back when I was apprenticing in advertising. Web design gave me the opportunity to work from home, to stay online rather than on a phone, and to surround myself with the home comforts that made me work better, to enhance my productivity.
After a morning of forcing myself to focus on the web design, and completing the most complex set of pages they required, I figured I was due a break, so despite my nerves, and my uncertainty, I found myself lingering outside the coffee shop again. I eyed the long queue nervously, mentally preparing myself for noise, and chatter, and strong smells, and all the things that overwhelmed me on days like this, and that’s when I heard him.
“It’s like you read my mind,” Harley’s voice piped up behind me, and I spun on the spot, instinctively tightening my grip on my helmet as I moved.
He offered me a surprised smile, and reached out to tuck my hair behind my ear. See? Little touches like that made me feel special, protected, and yet safe, even though it was a person touching me. If another person tried that, I’d have hit them with the helmet and caused a whole mess of trouble.
“Hi,” I said finally, biting my lip to stop some inappropriate desperate comment from escaping.
He watched me for a moment, and glanced at his phone.
“Do you have time to join me for one? I’ve got almost an hour.” Oh. I thought he was checking messages, since I was standing there like an idiot.
“I have time,” I blurted, rolling my eyes at myself. I took a deep breath and tried again. “That’d be nice, thanks.”
Harley tucked his phone in his pocket and gestured to the same table we’d sat at before.
“You wanna hold our table? Fair warning, this time we’re having food too. What’ll ya have?”
I looked at him blankly and he nodded slowly, as if I’d spoken out loud, even though I’d remained silent.
“Got any allergies or intense dislikes?”
“Besides people?”
He laughed, guiding me to the seat I used last time.
“Yeah. Impossible to avoid those sometimes. Why don’t I surprise you?”
I found myself nodding and watching him head inside, while a million things raced around my mind. Why was he here? Why were we here at the same time? What did it mean? Why was he indulging my weirdness? Why was he in there when I should be paying? What if he ordered food I wouldn’t like? By the time he reappeared, my fists were clenched on the table, as I fought the noise in my head, so I could try to be normal for a bit.
He pushed a drink toward my hands and sat down, watching me quietly while I blinked slowly and put my focus on the heat of my mug, the scent of my mocha, and finally the gentle smile on his face, when I managed to meet his eyes.
