"You forget how hard it is to ignore someone who looks the way you do," He replied smoothly, taking advantage of the close proximity between the two of us.
Running his large hands slowly down my arms before looping them around my waist possessively...
Not weird in the sense that we were at each other's throats—that was our normal. But weird in the sense that we weren't fighting at all.
Matío had been... absent.
Not physically, but in every other way that mattered. He was home less, barely around, leaving early and coming back late, spending more time locked away in his office or disappearing to god knows where. And when we did cross paths, the tension was thick, unspoken. He didn't look at me the same, didn't throw sarcastic comments my way, didn't annoy me just for the hell of it. It was like I'd done more than just piss him off that night—I'd knocked something off balance.
And for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why that unsettled me.
I told myself I didn't care. That if he wanted to avoid me, that was fine. But I was lying to myself, and I fucking knew it.
Because it wasn't just me.
He was the one who almost kissed me first.
That thought alone made my stomach twist. I shook my head, running a hand through my hair as I stood in front of the mirror, adjusting my apron before heading out. It didn't matter. He was obviously over it, and I should be too.
I had better things to do than waste my time thinking about Matío Narvarro.
—
The rush at the coffee shop was the perfect distraction.
Orders were coming in nonstop, customers in and out, the smell of espresso and vanilla lingering in the air. My hands moved on autopilot—grinding beans, steaming milk, wiping down counters—while my mind focused on anything but the mess that was my current life.
Cyrus was being his usual annoying self, leaning against the counter instead of actually working, stirring his iced coffee with his straw like he had all the time in the world.
"You look like you've been thinking too hard," he said, watching me as I poured a caramel drizzle over a macchiato. "And that's dangerous. What's got you all zoned out?"
"I don't zone out," I muttered, passing him the drink.
Leana snorted from the register, smirking as she rang up a customer. "Oh, you absolutely do. You've been acting a little off lately. Something's going on in that pretty little head of yours."
