“You look…great,” the man sitting across from me said, pulling me out of my thoughts.
My gaze fell back on him, catching the steam from his coffee curling into the air.
Rowan McRae.
Finally.
A series of events had led me to keep pushing our meetings. And I was tired of his incessant calls and texts. I needed to clear the air, make a choice, stick to it.
So after getting another call last night, I made it a mission to see him today.
“You don’t look too bad yourself.” I tried to keep it light, and he laughed softly, that same low, disarming laugh I remembered.
His gaze held mine, familiar and steady, untainted by grudge, which made me relax a little.
He leaned over the table, grabbing the white mug that had his coffee, then he took a sip gently, his eyes pinned on me.
He then exhaled, setting the mug down. “So…how has life been treating you?” he asked genuinely.
“Good.” The lie tasted bitter. Because school was a daily nightmare. Family was a concept I had never known. Friends? Just Kenzo. Love? It was…complicated. But I wouldn’t be boring him with these. The less he knew, the better.
“School?” he pressed. “How’s that been?”
“Good, I supposed.” I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “Nothing much has happened.”
I finally lifted the cup, took a sip, and let the heat burn my tongue. Another lie swallowed down.
“Cool.” He nodded, his gaze flickering away, scanning the room absently.
“And you?” I asked, eager to shift the focus. “How about work? Found anything yet? And did you look into Quantum Pixels’ offer? I saw the email unanswered for days. I tried contacting you in case you didn’t see it.”
The memory of the woman who opened the door that day flickered, though hazy. I realised I didn’t really look at her much. I was too angry to.
“That.” He exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t know why the email dropped in the spam. I didn’t get to it on time. My sister forgot to mention to me that you came, so it kind of ended up as a missed opportunity.” His eyes flickered to me. “It was given to someone else.”
Shit. That lady was his sister? Well, damn.
“What can I say?” he mused. “Maybe it was never mine.”
“I’m sure another will come eventually.” I didn’t know how that sounded. I hope it didn’t come out as dismissive. Perhaps, this was just a wrong topic. Anything else but job. I was responsible for him losing the last one.
“I missed you, Beth.” His sudden and quiet confession stole the air from my lungs. “I missed you a lot.”
My breath stumbled again, fingers tightening around the handle of the mug. “Yeah.” A pause, a moment of hesitation, then I whispered, “I missed you too.”
His chair scraped against the floor as he pulled it closer to the table. My lips parted in a tiny gasp when he suddenly grabbed my hand in his, warmth seeping into my skin.
“Can we work it out?” he asked, the pad of his thumb running soothing circles on the back of my palm. “Us? Can we make us work again? This time, for real?”
It was just a simple question. And it was just a simple yes or no as the answer. But something began to lurk in the darkest pitof my mind.Fear. It was as if something was coming, something really wrong.
My heart tripped, its rhythm faltering, my nerves on edge.
Then just like that, the glass door of the shop swung open, the bell chiming.
The chill in the air was instant, cutting through the warmth like a blade.
There was an obvious shift, an unmistakable disturbance. The kind of presence that made the hair on the back of my neck rise before I even looked.
