By eight-thirty, I'm almost convinced.
Then the door opens, he walks in, and my heart does something structurally unsound.
He's wearing dark jeans and a charcoal sweater that matches the shade of his eyes. His hair is slightly damp like he just showered, and he looks exactly the same as yesterday except somehow more, like someone turned up the contrast on a photo.
He sees me immediately, but he doesn't smile, doesn't nod, doesn't acknowledge me beyond that one look.
And yet...
I feel it anyway—that recognition, that weight of attention that makes my pulse jump.
Then he walks to the corner booth and sits down.
I stand frozen at the counter.
"Breathe," Jolie whispers beside me.
I breathe.
"Now walk over there."
"I can't—"
"You can. You're literally a waitress. Walking over to tables is your job."
"Jolie—"
"Go. Before I go instead and tell him you've been obsessing over his coffee routine for a month."
I go.
I walk across the café with a menu I don't need because he knows the menu by heart at this point, and my hands are steady even though my heart is doing that thing again, and when I reach his table, I open my mouth to say—
"Good morning."
His voice stops me. Low and unhurried and carrying that accent that does something to my nervous system I don't have a name for.
"Good morning," I manage.
"Your car." He's not looking at the menu. He's looking at me. "It made it here."
"It did."
"The tires."
"Still attached."
His mouth does that almost-smile thing. "For now."
I should say something clever. Something that indicates I'm a competent adult who doesn't need a stranger's opinion on her vehicle maintenance. Instead I ask: "How did you get my number?"
The words just come out. Unplanned. Unfiltered. And I immediately want to take them back because we're in the middle of the café during breakfast rush and this is not the time or place for this conversation.
“I think you already know the answer to that.” A slight smile plays over his lips as he says this, and I have to fight against the urge to smile back...just because.
“Jolie?”
“She offered it out of the blue.”
