From the moment I met her, I knew she was young. I’m assuming she’s over the age of eighteen since she has a full-time job here, but it doesn’t help that she radiates youth. All of this said, the only word that comes to mind when I look at her is beautiful. There’s something about her self-assurance matched with her toughness that speaks to the dominant side of me. And as I profile her, I can tell that she’s begging for someone to takecontrol. For someone to free her from the life of always having to be the one in charge. Because you don’t get to be the way she is without going through some shit. Plus, when she thinks no one is looking, her face turns down just enough to clue me into the fact that she’s tired. Of what? I’m not sure. But part of me would love to find out more.
I must have been staring because when she turns around to hand me my drink, she has the biggest smirk on her face. Luckily for me, she doesn’t call me out on the fact that I was just checking her out. I clear my throat and reach for the coffee, handing her a ten-dollar bill in the exchange.
“Your drinks are on the house until further notice,” she tells me. “Penny said that I owe you… or the shop owes you for saving my life.” And she pushes the bill back in my direction.
I catch the slip of tongue about ‘her owing me’ and tell her, “I can’t let you do that. It’s too much.” I’ve gotten a lot of free stuff over the years. It comes with the territory of the job. But I know for a fact these mom-and-pop shops in California need all the money they can get, so I push the bill back.
She stares at it, chewing on her bottom lip, a bottom lip I wouldn’t mind sucking into my mouth, and finally picks it up. What I didn’t expect was for her to put it in the tip jar and say, “I’m giving Kyle half my tips in the mornings so this will help him a lot. Thank you.”
“That’s not wha–”
“I know it’s not what you were expecting but you gave me the money and now it’s mine to do with as I please.” She smirks at me. “Penny said free drinks for a month, but she never said I couldn’t take a fat tip from you.”
Her eyes widen in realization at the double entendre, and I can’t help but smile while she groans.
“Oh my God. I walked so hard into that one.” She covers her face with her hands and then starts to laugh. This is thesecond time she’s laughed in my presence, and I want to bottle up the sound because of how beautiful it is. What I wouldn’t give to see more of this side of her.
As her laughter subsides, her face is flush and her chest is heaving, a look that I can’t help but want to see when she’s naked and underneath me.
A thought that I can’t afford to have right now.
In a surprise gesture, she reaches her hand out. “I suppose if we’re going to be talking about your fat tip, I should introduce myself. I’m Jordan,” she says with a wide smile. A genuine, wide smile.
I don’t hesitate. I immediately take her hand in mine because this could be the only chance I get to touch her for longer than a fraction of a second. I notice right away how small her hand is compared to mine and I like it far too much. I wish I didn’t have to let go. “I’m Lucas,” I finally choke out.
Her forest green eyes are staring at my blue ones, and we don’t look away from each other. I’m fairly certain this is an inappropriate amount of time to shake hands, but I don’t want to let go.
I can’t.
A moment too soon, a door in the back opens, putting an end to our spell as Kyle walks through, not giving us a single glance as he ducks under a table with a scraper in hand.
Jordan’s hand quickly releases mine and she tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
“Anyways, I never said thank you for yesterday. So, thank you. If the situation were any different, I probably would have died. You saved my life.”
“You don’t have to thank me. It was nothing. Really. I just pulled the kid back like anyone would do.” I rub the back of my neck and divert my eyes. I hate compliments, especially when it’s literally in my job description to do what I did yesterday.
The corner of her mouth tips up. “Yeah. Sure,” she says, nodding her head like she knows I’m uncomfortable.
I hitch my thumb over my shoulder to signal I’m going to sit down. “I have a little work to do.”
Her eyes slightly widen. “Right, of course! Go do your thing. I’ll just be right here when you’re ready for your second mocha,” she rambles, much like the day before.
I pinch my lips together, staving off a smile, and turn to sit down. This time I take a seat closest to the register facing my pink-haired barista. Her mouth opens and closes like she wants to say something, surprise evident in her facial expression at the fact I am sitting in a different seat than normal. And like the professional I am, I school my features and spare her one last glance and then pull out my laptop from my briefcase to do some work.
We don’t talk the rest of the morning, but I catch her glancing in my direction more than once.
I’m extremely tempted to do a background check on her. It’s not like I haven’t used my resources to do it before. But something holds me back. She’s a distraction I can’t have right now, so there’s no need to dig into her life anyway. But there’s a deeper part of me that wants to get to know her. That wants her to tell me about her life while she also gets to know me too.
Instead, I open my phone and decide to check for her on all the dating apps. It’s not a background check or a simple conversation with her, but it will have to do.
It’s a way to get to know her without going too deep. At least that’s what I tell myself.
I make sure she’s distracted, a part of me knowing what I’m doing is invasive and wrong, while I search for her name. And sure enough, she pops up on the first app I download.
Right away I notice that there’s too much personal information on her profile. Jordan Ray, age: twenty-two, height:five feet two inches, lives in Daybreak. I internally groan. I’m going to need to fix some of this information. I choke a little on my coffee as I come across the part that says, “Feisty little firecracker who’s single and ready to mingle.” That doesn’t sound like something she would put in her profile… at all. If I had to guess, someone told her it would be a good idea to say that because more people would respond.
No wonder she got only dick pics.
