Fixation (excerpt) - moved to Galatea

Chapter 1

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This is an excerpt that contains just the first 5 chapters. 

Per my contract with Galatea, I have to take the rest of it down. The entire book will be available on the Galatea app on the 10th of January 2024.

Thank you to everyone who has read the book so far.

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Chapter 1

"Would you be free for coffee this week?" Vernon asked me exactly four days ago in the post office line, after a five-minute-long small talk where we avoided any meaningful topics. The question only doubled the initial shock, so the 'yes' I provided in answer could only be explained by a complete malfunction of the working part of my brain. After all, I haven't seen him for five years, blissfully living in ignorance since our break up. We exchanged numbers, but I didn't expect to hear from him ever again.

Yet, here I am. Approaching the meeting place - Poppies - a cute little coffee bar we used to hang at occasionally. Since I moved away from this neighborhood some time ago, it wasn't that convenient for me to frequent it anymore. But he maybe did.

Surprisingly, I'm not as nervous about this meeting as I expected myself to be. Maybe because since he texted me two days ago, I had plenty of time to laugh at my initial reaction. This was no different from catching up with an old friend, I said to myself, and calmly went about my days. Vernon can't affect me anymore, I thought proudly.

This foolish belief held up until now.

Even though I'm ten minutes early - as always to basically everything - he's already waiting for me in the bar's garden, an occurrence so rare during our six-month relationship, that it now gives me a sense of slight unease.

The first thing I notice is that long, taut body, leisurely draped over the iron-wrought chair, the ankle of one leg set over the knee of another. One of his sinewy arms is outstretched over the tabletop, his fingers tapping over it to the tune wafting from the speakers. Those pitch-black eyes, the darkest I've ever seen, trace lazily over his surroundings, like he's overseeing his kingdom, and you can almost spot the quiet confidence simmering in the hot air around him. Silently, I curse the fact that he is probably the only person in that garden not bent over a phone. He'll surely see me approach, and suddenly, the widest summer dress I have camouflaged my body in feels like it reveals too much.

As soon as one of my feet steps into the garden, my gaze purposefully cast down to shield me from his, I feel his eyes on me; an awareness that never really left me, after all.

"Hey," he says happily when I'm at the table, a wide grin breaking out over the face I once found irresistible, and gets up. I half expect him to pull out my chair, but he steps in front of me, bends his head down while one of his hands lightly touches my shoulder, and kisses me on the cheek.

A friend's greeting.

We are not friends.

"Hey," I reply, dazed already, and quickly sit down across from him. He settles in too, shifting his chair to face me.

"So happy you could make it," he says warmly. "I just arrived myself. Let's order and get that out of the way."

"Yes, ah, lemme see," I take the menu to pick something out, like I don't know it by heart. I need to stare at anything but him, finding his choice of words odd.

Get it out of the way? Way of what?

Orders placed, I steel myself to look back at him. Immediately, I almost wish I didn't. While we were together, being the sole focus of his attention had an effect of a strong aphrodisiac. Now, it's unnerving, since I don't know how to properly react to it. Or, even better, not react at all. As if he can sense my lingering discomfort, he offers me a placating smile before he speaks.