"I'm going to kill Jamie."
"That seems extreme." She took a sip of her coffee, and Mac couldn't tell if she was embarrassed for him or entertained. Probably both.
"He's exaggerating. It wasn't—I mean, I didn't do multiple—"
"Mac." Rachel's smile was kind but there was something careful about it, like she was keeping a safe distance even while being nice. "It's fine. Really.”
"I just wanted to not mess this up," he admitted.
She glanced at her now-cold coffee. "This has gone cold, so that's a mess."
Mac stood quickly, grateful for something to do. "I can get you another one. What do you want?"
"Oh, you don't have to—"
"I want to. My treat. Since I invited you and my teammate ambushed our date."
Rachel hesitated, and for a moment Mac thought she might say no, might use this as an excuse to leave. But then she nodded. "Okay. Same thing. Latte with oat milk."
"Be right back."
Mac headed to the counter, where Sophie was already preparing drinks and very obviously not looking at him even though she was definitely aware of everything happening.
When he returned with a fresh latte, Rachel was looking at her phone. She put it away quickly when she saw him, but not before Mac noticed her expression; something tight and uncomfortable.
"Everything okay?" he asked, setting down her coffee.
"Fine. It was my mom." Rachel wrapped her hands around the warm latte. "She has impeccable timing."
"Do you need to call her back?"
"Definitely not." She said it firmly, then seemed to realize how that sounded. "I mean, we're not really talking much right now. It's complicated."
Mac wanted to ask more, but something in Rachel's posturetold him not to push. She'd gone from laughing at Jamie's story to closed-off in the span of two minutes.
"Family stuff is always complicated," he offered.
"Yeah." Rachel took a long sip of her latte, clearly using it as an excuse not to elaborate. "This is good. Thanks."
"No problem."
They sat in slightly awkward silence. Mac scrambled for something to say that wouldn't be too heavy or too light or too—
"So," Rachel said, "tell me about this team of yours. Sophie mentioned you all hang out a lot?"
And just like that, they were back on safe territory. Rachel asking questions, Mac answering, the conversation flowing but staying carefully on the surface. Nothing too deep. Nothing too vulnerable.
Mac talked about the team, about game nights and team dinners and the ridiculous group chat that never stopped. Rachel listened, smiled, laughed at the right moments. But there was something careful about the way she held herself, like she was participating but from behind glass.
It wasn't bad. It just wasn't... open.
And Mac realized with a sinking feeling that getting Rachel to trust him was going to take more than one coffee date and a bouquet.
But at least she was still here.
They'd been talking for three hours when Mac finally glanced at his phone and realized how much time had passed. He'd finished three coffees, his pulse skyhigh. The pastry plate was empty. Other customers had come and gone, but for them, the world outside the café had disappeared.
"I should probably let you get back to your day," Mac said reluctantly, even though the last thing he wanted was for this to end. "Unless—I mean, we could get more coffee? Or walk around? Or—"
