Hours left to board the flight to wedding-doom: twenty-four.
Level of anxiety: reaching emergency status.
Contingency plan: triple-chocolate brownie. A truckload of it.
If yesterday had told me anything, it was that I had been a total idiot, cutting on some of the things that made me feel happy. Or at the very least, a little less bad. I knew that stuffing my mouth with chocolate was a far stretch from sending my so-called diet down the drain. But whatever. I was a woman of extremes.
And that was exactly what had brought me to Madison Avenue. More specifically, to the only place in New York City that held the power to appease the raging beast that was my anxiety right now.
“Do you want your order to go, Lina?” Sally asked from the other side of the counter. “How is Rosie, by the way? Is she not joining you?”
“I wish she were, but I’m flying solo today.”
Last night, I had been on the phone with Rosie for about two hours. Telling her what I was about to embark on hadn’t been easy, and she might have squealed—unnecessarily—and bugged me with more of that stuff about heated looks between Aaron and me she had clearly been imagining, but it was good, having my best friend back on my team. Even if that was Team Deception. Having her waiting in New York when I came back from my trip to wedding-doom with an understanding smile and the pint of ice cream I’d definitely need would mean the world.
“And no, thanks. I’ll have my coffee and brownie here.” I paused, reconsidering that. “Brownies—make it two, please,” I told Sally as I followed her with my gaze from the counter to the espresso machine. “I can indulge. I have the whole day to lounge and relax. I took the day off work.”
She methodically weighed the coffee beans. “Oh, you must have really missed me if you are sticking around for so long,” she commented as she smiled at me over her shoulder. “Not that I’d blame you. Who wouldn’t miss me, right?”
I chuckled. “Of course I missed you. You are my favorite barista in the whole world.” My eyes kept tracking all her movements; I was already salivating.
“Oh. Now, you are saying that only because I have the goods, but keep going, please.”
I was ready to admit that and perhaps ask her to marry me, too, if that meant an endless supply of free coffee for the rest of my life. Then, I saw her gaze move somewhere behind me as she pressed the buttons that made the caffeinated magic happen.
An appreciative gleam appeared in Sally’s eyes.
“Good morning,” she told whoever was behind me. Then, she gave me a mischievous glance before focusing on her new customer again. “Same as always? Double espresso, no sugar?” She paused, and I felt the newcomer right behind me.
I frowned, something sounding very familiar about that order. Black, bitter, and soulless, just like—
“Coming right up, Aaron.”
My spine stiffened as I kept my head straight ahead while my eyes widened.
“Thank you, Sally.”
That voice. It belonged to the man who would be boarding a plane with me tomorrow. The one man who I would be introducing to my family as my dear fake boyfriend.
Turning slowly in his direction, I was welcomed by a pair of ocean-blue eyes, wrapped in a serious expression I knew very well. My mouth opened, but I didn’t get the chance to say anything.
“It’s worse than I thought,” he said, scanning my face as his lips pressed into a thin line.
“Excuse me?” I scoffed, imitating him and gawking at him up and down.
“Your eyes.” He pointed in the direction of my head. “They look huge in your face. Bigger than usual. Are you sure caffeine is a good idea? You seem a little rattled already.”
My huge and bigger than usual eyes narrowed. “Rattled?”
“Yes.” He nodded nonchalantly. “Like you’ll flip any moment now.”
Biting back a couple of bad words, I took a deep breath to stop myself from flipping—like he had said—right there and then. “First of all, I am calm.” That earned me a look that told me he wasn’t buying it. “Yes. Not only calm, but also serene, mind you. Just like one of those ponds where the water doesn’t even move.”
I turned away from him, taking in Sally, who was leaning against the counter, chin resting on the back of her hand, engrossed in my conversation with Aaron. “I’m starting to miss you less and less, Sally,” I quipped and watched her smile widen as she straightened. I sent Aaron a side-glance. “Aren’t you supposed to be at work, Mr. Robot? You know, instead of out and about, pointing out how rattled random women look?”
“You are not a random woman,” he countered calmly, and then he leaned on the counter. Right beside me. “And I was, in the morning. But I have the rest of the day off.”
“A vacation?” I gasped theatrically. “Hell must have frozen over if Aaron Blackford took a day off.”
He never, ever did.
“Half day,” he corrected me.
Sally placed both our orders on the counter. At the same time. Which struck me as odd, given that I had placed mine more than a few minutes before Aaron.
I narrowed my eyes at the woman as she gifted me with an angelic smile. “There you go, guys. Nothing but the best for my favorite customers. Double espresso, no sugar. And a flat white.”
That reminded me of something she had said earlier about Aaron having a usual order.
“How often do you come here, Aaron?” I queried. Not often if I had never stumbled upon him in the past, considering how religiously I visited Around the Corner. “How do you even know this place?”
There were Google Maps, Tripadvisor, Time Out, and a million other sites that could be behind his discovery. And yet …
“Often enough,” he answered, pulling out his wallet from his pocket.
With my eyes still narrowed and tracking how his long fingers fumbled with his wallet, a memory flashed in my mind. I had talked to Aaron about Around the Corner. Or I had been talking to myself about it and Aaron had happened to hear it—whatever. It was the day he had shown up and helped me with the Open Day stuff. My back straightened with the realization.
“What’s so surprising, Catalina? I pay attention when you talk. Even when you mumble to yourself. Which you do very often. But every once in a while, you do say something interesting.”
“Are you a mind reader or something?”
“Thankfully not. I’d be terrified to know what you were thinking most of the time.” He stretched his arm and handed his credit card to Sally. “It’s on me.”
Okay. First of all, terrified? And second of all, I mumbled? Often?
Watching Sally as she took the credit card snapped me out of my stupid shock.
“Wait,” I yelped. That got both Sally’s and Aaron’s attention. “You don’t have to pay for my order. I have my own money.”
“I’m sure you do, but I want to.”
“But what if I don’t want you to?” I argued.
Sally’s gaze jumped from me to the man beside me.
I turned too, finding Aaron’s calm expression.
“And is there any particular reason why you don’t want me to, Catalina? Something tells me, if this were anyone else, you wouldn’t even bat an eyelash at getting a free coffee and brownie.” He eyed the counter. “Brownies.”
“Well, yes. There is a reason, smart-ass.” I took a step toward him. A small one. I lowered my voice. “I owe you enough as it is, and I am not talking just about the fish tacos from yesterday, okay?” Our gazes met. “I don’t need you to put me into further debt.”
If the way his face changed was something to go by, that last part of my statement seemed to really bother him.
“You don’t owe me a single thing,” he said with a scowl. “Me buying you a coffee, tacos, or anything for that matter doesn’t put you in my debt.” His head shook, a few of the usually perfectly-in-place locks of dark hair bouncing and grabbing my attention. The scowl fell off, replaced by a somewhat-distant look. “Will you ever accept anything from me without putting up this big of a fight?”
“That’s …” I trailed off, not knowing what to tell him. “That’s not an easy question to answer, Blackford.”
He tilted his head. “I see.”
Then, he angled his large body toward me, eating a big chunk of the distance that had been separating us. The motion had been unexpected, and my breath hitched with surprise. Hyperaware of how close he had come, I stuttered. Suddenly not knowing what to say or if I was expected to say anything at all.
Aaron’s arm reached out, the backs of his fingers gracing my temple. My lips parted, tingles spreading down my skin.
It was him who lowered his voice then. “Always fighting me.”
I looked up at his handsome and stern face, his assessing blue eyes surveying my reaction.
“Resisting me.”
My heart tripped, making my chest feel like I had just sprinted a mile or two.
Aaron’s head dipped, his mouth coming close to where his fingers had been a few seconds ago. Almost as close as it had been when we danced. “It’s like you want me to beg. Is that something you’d enjoy? Me begging?” His voice sounded so … intimate. Hushed. But it was his next words that scattered my thoughts all over the place. “Is that what this is? You like bringing me to my knees?”
Whoa.
An extremely familiar heat climbed up my neck, spreading to my cheeks. Heating my skin. Then, it rushed back all the way down, making me way too warm in a matter of seconds.
Aaron’s gaze held mine as something dipped in my belly. “Let me treat you, okay? I want to.”
My lips dried and then pressed together as I tried to get ahold of the chaos rushing through my mind and body.
“Okay,” I breathed out, sounding all shaky and wrong. I cleared my throat. Twice. “Pay for my coffee. I’m not interested in you begging or putting on any kind of show in the middle of the coffee shop.” I cleared my throat a third time, my voice still not sounding right. “So, please, pay away.” I paused, trying to get my body back on track. “And thanks.”
Aaron nodded, the start of a satisfied smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “See? It wasn’t all that hard, was it?” he pointed out. His lips inched further up, looking all smug and—
Oh wait.
Realization dawned. “You were …” I couldn’t believe this. Any of this. My reaction to him. The fact that he had just made me … hot, just for fun and giggles. “You were just making a point.”
His lips twitched. “Maybe I was,” Aaron said, finally stepping out of my personal space and turning away. He looked over at me, that tug of his lips still up. “Are you disappointed, Catalina?”
I can’t believe this.
And what was worse, this only meant that he was aware of the effect he had on me. He knew what his proximity did to my senses. To my body. And he had just used it to win this stupid discussion.
I gaped at his profile as he brought his mug to his lips, looking all pleased.
“You know what, Aaron?” I shrugged my shoulders, fighting the smile that wanted to break across my expression. “I truly am disappointed.”
“You are?” That smug look fell off his face.
“Oh, so much. And you know what I do when that happens?” I turned to Sally. “Sally, I’ll have one of everything you have on display. And I changed my mind. I’ll get everything to go, please.” My lips broke on what I hoped wasn’t an evil grin. “He insists on paying.” I pointed at Aaron with my thumb. “So, please, let him do that before he runs away all your customers with I don’t know what antics about him getting on his knees.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want that,” Sally said with a wink. “You do like our lemon bars. Should I put two instead of one?” she asked as she grabbed one of the biggest containers.
I nodded. “What a lovely idea. I do love them, and why not two blueberry muffins too? They look fantastic from here.”
Aaron remained by my side as he witnessed my little display. “If you think I’m not elated to see you eat, then you don’t understand how serious I was yesterday.”
I ignored the way that made me feel.
“But I still hope you are going to share.”
“I thought you were treating me, not the other way around.” I turned in his direction again, leaning my hip on the counter and placing a hand on my waist.
If I hadn’t known him any better, it would have been easy to overlook the unfiltered amusement shining in his eyes. But it was right there.
And as I peered into that handsome face I had despised—perhaps unfairly, okay, fine—so often in the past, it hit me. I was just as amused, if not a little more. And we did not have only that in common. Both of us were doing an awful job at hiding it too.
But somehow, for the first time in history, neither of us seemed to care. We simply continued looking at each other as we stood there. Gazes locked. Both of us fighting what I knew were petty smiles. Hiding our amusement like a pair of stubborn idiots, waiting for the other to break and grin first.
“All right.” Sally’s voice broke through the spell, making me turn abruptly. She was smiling. Brightly. “Order packed and ready.”
“Okay, thanks,” I muttered. With a little bit of a struggle, I managed to gently hug everything to my chest. “All right, Blackford. Thank you too. Always a pleasure doing business with you.”
“You really are not going to share, are you?”
“Nope.”
We stared at each other for a long moment.
“I …” He trailed off, looking like he was changing his mind about something. My heart raced. “I don’t like running through the terminal. So, try not to be late tomorrow. It’s not—”
“Cute. I know, Blackford. Bye.” Then, I turned on my heels and walked away.
First, he’d persecuted my sweets, and now, this.
One day, I was going to throw something at that ridiculously symmetrical face of his. I truly was, but it was never going to be a brownie.
