“Actually, I’m saving that seat,” I quickly tell him. “I’m meeting someone, so I don’t really have time to chat.”
“I’ll get up when they arrive. Who are you meeting? My aunt?”
“No, not your aunt.” He waits for me to elaborate, and I begrudgingly do so. “As it happens, I’m meeting a man.”
“Are you?” he asks. “Not the park perv from the other day, I hope.”
“No, a different one.”
“A different park perv?”
I push my computer away a few inches and rub my eyes. “No, hopefully there will be no park pervs involved in today’s festivities. But I do need the seat, so if you could just pretend that I’m not here, that would probably be best. Trust me when I say that this situation is more complicated than it seems.”
Liam makes no move to get up, and we both then hear the barista call out his name. I give him anotherit was nice seeing yousmile as he hesitantly stands and tucks in his chair.
“Well, I better get that then.” He seems the slightest bit dejected, and I feel bad but unsure of what exactly I can do about it given the circumstances. “I guess it was nice bumping into you.”
“You, too,” I reply.
Liam gives me a stiff kind of nod that almost looks like a bow and walks to the counter to pay for his drink. Pulling my laptop closer again, I reenter my password and try not to watch as he heads for the door. I’m attempting to ignore the faint disappointment brought on by his absence until I hear the chair beside me being unceremoniously scraped back. I turn towards the sound just as Liam settles himself at the table directly to my left. I’m momentarily flabbergasted as he takes a sip of his coffee and begins scrolling through his phone.
“Beg your pardon,” I say with layered-on sweetness. “But what exactly are you doing?”
“Just checking some emails,” he answers, keeping his eyes glued to the phone.
“And you need to do that right here? You’re two saucy leg maneuvers away from straddling me, and not in a good way.”
Liam coughs on his coffee, the smallest bit staining his white Henley shirt. “I told you,” he says once he’s recovered, “I come into this café every morning. I’m just abiding by my daily routine.”
“And you have to abide by it at a table that’s adjacent to mine?”
“It’s a crowded café, Winnie. It’s not as if I can sit just anywhere.”
I look around the spacious coffee shop that is currently filled to a quarter of its capacity. “There’s a minimum of fourteen other spots where you can sit.”
“But this chair is my favorite. I’ve tried all the others over the years, and this one is best suited to my shape and weight.”
I scoff and close my computer, crossing my arms across my chest. “For the record, your British accent doesn’t make you any less annoying in this moment.”
Liam shakes his head with a little laugh, and I may or may not be inwardly elated by the sound of it.
“You fail to see that me sitting here is a purely chivalric gesture. What if the person you’re about to meet is a hardened criminal or prefers opera to the theater?”
“Then I’ll blast him with my Taser and leave England a hero.”
“I doubt you were able to get a Taser through customs.”
“I’m surprisingly stealthy. I could hide a grenade launcher in my hair and no one would ever know.”
“I like your hair,” he says genuinely.
“Lies do not become us, Liam.”
He puts down his phone then, looking at me in a calm and honest way that leaves me feeling a little dazed.
“There’s more to this story than you’re letting on. Why the back-to-back meetups while you’re traveling on a work trip? And why is my aunt so keen to hear about them?”
I take a dramatic breath and turn to face him. “You’ve riddled me out, Mr. Holmes. Your aunt and I are working undercover to catch an international jewel thief, and your presence here is putting our entire operation in jeopardy.”
