The Reason | ✓

2: Meet and Greets

2: Meet and Greets

We stay silent as we make our way out of the bookstore, him sliding his sunglasses down to the bridge of his nose even before we stepped out into the deserted street.

"What are you doing?" I ask curiously, and he glances at me before popping up the gray hood underneath his leather jacket. He leaves his sleeves rolled up.

"Hiding," he says and leaves it at that, leaving my mind spinning.

Hiding.

"Are you a criminal or something?" I laugh, but he doesn't join in. He smirks and holds the door open for me like a gentleman.

A criminal wouldn't hold open a door for someone like me.

As I walk through, he replies, "Not exactly." We stay quiet for a moment as we walk down the wet pavement, and when a shiver runs up my spine from a cool breeze blowing past us, I decide to keep talking to distract myself.

"Do you know where you're going?"

Even under the darkness of the clouds I can see his cheeks burn. "I was hoping you did."

I grin and take the chance to get a good look of this stranger. He's tall, and the way he walks shows how confident he is about himself. He licks his lips a lot. When I'm in the middle of checking him out, he turns to look at me like he's about to say something and I quickly turn away... too late. I can practically feel him smirking at me.

"Take a picture," he mutters, and I just roll my eyes.

"Only if you sign it for me," I tease, and he groans and playfully pushes me away from him.

"Shut up," he laughs, and I stick my tongue out at him, surprising myself with how fast I'm feeling comfortable in his company.

I stay quiet once more, and I can feel his gaze on me as we turn the corner. The pizza parlor is in sight. "I was kidding," he says, and I ignore him. "Please don't shut up."

I struggle to hide my smile, but inevitably fail. What an ass. "We're here."

I turn to look at him, but he's peering in through the windows. "Do you mind if we go somewhere a little more... quiet?"

I raise an eyebrow and consider for a moment whether he was telling the truth about not being a criminal. But, instead of paying attention to the details, I shrug. "Sure."

He looks away from the window and takes a glance around the street. "How 'bout there?" He points down the way to a little coffee shop hidden between two huge buildings. Wednesday's, it read. How cute.

I don't reply. Instead, we start walking in sync and we look at each other and laugh. "We laugh too much," I comment, and he shrugs.

"I don't mind."

"I guess I shouldn't either. It's been a while since I've laughed this much, actually."

He looks at me curiously and I realize too late that I maybe shouldn't have said that aloud. "What do you mean?"

"Let's wait 'til we've got some coffee in our system, yeah?" I reply hurriedly, and he watches me curiously but nods anyways. Thank goodness for kind boys.

"Okay."

Holding the door open for me once more, a blast of cool air blasts us and my arms burst into goosebumps underneath my sweater. Taking a step in, I find myself falling in love for the second time today.

Turquoise tile, brick walls, photographs of a smiling family framed neatly on the them. At the front, there is a chalkboard on the wall behind the glass counter with all of the menu items written in swirly cursive. In the glass case were different pastries that made my stomach grumble with unnecessary hunger.