I was so intent on staring in at them as I sauntered towards the door that I didn’t see the man on his way out until I had walked right into him.
‘Arghh.’
He’d let out a little yelp. That coffee he was holding – and now wearing – must’ve been hot.
‘Oh no,’ I said reaching out my hands as if I thought I might be able to catch some of it. But his once-pristine white T-shirt had done that for me. The dark brown stain was spreading across his chest as I stared at it. I couldn’t help but notice, it was a rather broad chest. ‘I’m so sorry. Did I do that?’
‘No!’ he said, his deep voice laced with sarcasm. And a little hint of something else, but I wasn’t sure what. ‘I believe it was the Invisible Man.’
I glanced up into a pair of startlingly deep brown eyes, framed by lashes many women might kill for. Tiny creases formed on his bronzed skin at the corners of his eyes but then they disappeared as his eyes grew wider. I had been about to give him a piece of my mind. It wasn’t as if I’d bumped into him on purpose. But now I couldn’t think of a thing to say as we stared at one another.
‘It was probably my fault,’ he eventually said, his deep voice sounding deeper and more throaty than before.
‘No, no. I’m sure it was mine. I was so busy looking at the … the…’
‘Cakes?’ he finished for me.
‘Erm. Yes. The cakes. I wasn’t paying attention and I didn’t … see you there. Until now.’
For some absurd reason, I reached out and ran my fingers over the stain and down his chest and I might have been mistaken but I was sure he sucked in a breath.
‘Did that hurt?’
‘What? That? Oh. This you mean?’ He tugged at his T-shirt with his free hand and the material slowly peeled away from his body, as if it was reluctant to leave his skin. Which oddly enough sent a little tingly wave across my own chest. ‘Erm. A little.’ He gave a valiant smile. I bet it had hurt a lot. ‘I can hardly feel it now.’
‘I’ll pay to have your T-shirt cleaned.’
‘No need. It’ll come out in the wash.’
‘Coffee stains are tough to remove.’
‘It was tea.’
‘Tea? That’s just as bad. Although neither is as hard to get out as blood.’
‘Blood? Do you have experience in this field then? Should I consider myself lucky?’
‘What? Oh no. Erm. I do deal with stains in my job.’
‘You’re a cleaner?’
‘Not exactly.’
I didn’t like to tell strangers I was a police officer, especially not a detective. I don’t know why but it always made people behave differently once they knew what I did for a living. And most men made stupid jokes about handcuffs and bed posts.
Although bed posts and handcuffs were painting a little picture in my own mind right now.
I must stop thinking about sex!
‘I’m an electrician,’ he said.
I wasn’t entirely surprised. He’d lit a spark in me, that was for sure.
‘Excuse me,’ a voice said from somewhere behind him. His tall, broad frame hid her from view.
‘Sorry.’ I meant to step back but instead I stepped forward. Right onto his bare toe. The man was wearing flip flops. ‘Oh God. I’m so, so sorry!’ I jumped back, as did he, and his handsome face sort of crumpled for a second.
The woman tutted and glowered at us both in turn as she walked out of the café via the gap we had made.
