Diamonds Dancing

Fifty

To be completely honest, she thought, staring down at the rich liquid in her cup, she didn't really like coffee.

Coffee tasted mostly bitter on her tongue, it gave her no pleasure. She did not understand the hype over the drink and why so many people swore by it.

There was an empty place in her chest as she glanced at the dark liquid. She poured more cream into her untouched coffee, watching the thread of off-white swirl like a vortex, and yearned to wash every memory she had down its current.

After a long pause in what felt like forever, he reacted with a sheer nod of his head.

"I understand." Wait a minute, what?

She swallowed her emotions, seizing a look at the kind-hearted man across from her. He had an expression on his face that told her he appreciated what she was trying to say. "You do?"

"Yeah," His Brooklyn accent pulled at her heartstrings. "You're in love with the worlds biggest music producer, I get it."

Her cheeks were on fire as she shook her head. "It's not like that, I'm not, uh," the words sounded strange to say out loud, "in love with him or anything."

Or anything?

She didn't even know herself what she meant by that.

Archie eyed the tight grip she had around her coffee mug, amused. "You don't need to feel bad about choosing Slater Ivanov over me. Believe me, I would've done the same."

"Please don't say that." She felt the beads of sweat form on the skin of her inner thighs, sticking to the material of her jeans. "You're an incredible person, Archie, seriously any girl would be lucky to have you."

"Any girl but you, right?" He was smiling, despite his comment sounding harsh. It was anything but.

Her frown deepened. "I, uh, I... I'm so sorry."

After a moment, she sighed in defeat and dropped her head in shame. "You don't deserve this, I should've been more vocal about my feelings from the start."

His smile only grows bigger. "I'm only messing with you, Rika. As much as I wanted this to work between us, I can't villainize you for not feeling the same thing I feel."

He was making it harder for her, she didn't want to make anyone feel like how felt in that moment.

He was so nice and understanding, there was not one bad thing to say about the delivery man.

"I wish things were different." He continued to say, shrugging his shoulders. "But they're not and that's okay."

She dry-swallowed but kept her expression even.

"Have you still got my number?"

Rika nodded delicately. "Of course I do." She was confused and taken aback by his odd question, she had no reason to delete his contact.

He had done nothing wrong, the blame was all on her.

That surprised him not at all. "Then you know who to call first if you ever want to go for a coffee or stroll in the city."