Coffee and Spice | Harvey | Stardew Valley

-13-

To say I'm a bundle of nerves as I walk to the bar would be an understatement. A more apt description would be that I'm lightning personified, charged with crackling energy that has replaced all of the blood in my veins.

There's no actual lightning now; The worst of the storm had passed over Stardew Valley the day before, but a smattering of clouds still hovers in the clear gray sky as though reluctant to leave. A constant drizzle of rain had persisted throughout the evening as a result, but I certainly wasn't complaining; I had been sweating under the effort of catching up on days' worth of farm chores and even after a long shower, the cool droplets of rain on my skin are welcoming.

I stop outside of the saloon door and turn my face towards the setting sun, which peeks in and out behind wispy clouds. The storm had banished the intense heat and replaced it with the gentle breezes that now lift my hair away from my face. This is the first night in almost a week that the saloon is open. A muted, yet cheerful glow is already dancing through the semi-opaque window on the front wall, bathing me in light. My eyes close as the rain runs down my face and absorbs into the neckline of my shirt.

I take several deep breaths, trying to compose myself. I know that I shouldn't be feeling this shy about seeing Harvey again, and yet butterflies are already fluttering around in my stomach and my fingers are tingling. He might already be in there now waiting for me. That thought sends the tingling throughout my whole body.

Over the past few days, I've had to stop myself from calling him. I had wanted to hear his voice again, to bask in the deep sound of it directed at me, filling me with a sensation that landed somewhere between anxious and exhilarated. Either way, it was dangerously addicting.

I stroke my fingers over his book that I have wrapped in my arms, protected from the moisture in the air. I had finished it that same night that Harvey called, just as I had predicted. It sounded silly, but part of me wanted to keep it just to have something that belonged to him in my possession.

"Enjoying the rain?"

Harvey's voice cleaves through me with the precision of a fast-moving bullet, so much more potent than over than phone. I open my eyes, crafting some witty response in my head, but the ability to speak eludes me as my gaze finds him there next to me.

His voice may have been a bullet, but the sight of him is a blade, piercing through my heart with a jagged edge that leaves ruin in its wake.

His hair is disheveled over his forehead, blocking his glasses from the brunt of the rain. He's in his usual attire: dress pants that do nothing to hide the outline of his thighs and a white, collared shirt with the standard straight tie. He's wearing a dark green jacket today that compliments the color of his eyes. Eyes that are roaming over every detail of my face with unrelenting concentration, as though he wants to commit it to memory.

"Just a little." I respond after an extended pause, swiping some of water off of my cheek self-consciously. "Um, are you ready to go inside?"

He blinks rapidly over at the saloon as if it had just now materialized out of thin air and then gives me a short nod. "Yes, I'm ready."

I turn towards the door, grateful for the excuse to look at something else. A new fear is brimming inside me at his appearance, that the closeness we had earned during our phone call would fall apart at the reality of actually speaking in person. That dread is only magnified when we step inside the boisterous bar and Shane is nowhere to be found. With his absence and Emily being occupied with serving customers, we wouldn't have any sort of buffer to combat the uneasiness between us if it became too much.

I wonder if Harvey's thoughts reflect mine. I feel him stop close behind me. His proximity is an irrepressible call to the energy that buzzes beneath the surface of my skin. I want to lean back against him, feel the stability and warmth of his body against my own. An entirely irrational inclination, especially considering our audience.