Exposure & Shutter Speeds

| 15 |

Beth

Henry held tight as he led me towards the promised coffee shop. Neither of us was speaking, and neither of us made a move to extricate our hands from one another's. If I was being honest with myself, which quite frankly I was trying at all costs to avoid, I liked his huge, warm hand in mine. The longer he held my hand, the closer my heart rate came to resembling some sort of normal rhythm.

I collided with something solid. It was Henry. Again. This was starting to be a rather pleasant habit! He had stopped just outside a cozy looking coffee shop. He looked down at me with a puzzled look on his face, and then motioned towards the door. As he opened the door and indicated I was to go before him, I could feel his eyes on me as I walked in.

A wall of scent hit me and I inhaled deeply. The smell was intoxicating. The strongest of them was coffee, dark and bitter with familiar notes of coziness to it. Then the notes of cinnamon and fresh bread followed straight after. This place smelled of a cozy day curled up reading in an overstuffed armchair that swallowed you. This place smelled like home.

Henry cleared his throat, reminding me he was here. I must have had a look of awe and happiness spread across my face, as he smirked down at me.

"I had a feeling you would like this place." He said, chuckling. The timbre of his voice shot through me, hitting places deep inside me that I was sure where unreachable. Places I thought could never be revived.

I struggled to cover up my brief moment of lust, and looked up at him, hoping the dim lights and flickering shadows from the fireplace in the corner could hide the colour rising in my cheeks. "How did you know?" I asked back, hoping his answer would distract myself from the alien urge to kiss him.

Henry's eyes briefly lingered on my cheeks, and flicked up to my eyes. Those eyes. They had the same intensity of a building thunderstorm. You know when the heat and humidity is stifling, and the whole natural world just stands still before all hell breaks loose. I gulped. Staring into his eyes, I wondered if all hell was about to break loose in my carefully constructed world of solitude.

"I can read you like a book Beth." He replied, his voice low and intoxicating. I wanted to keep asking him questions just to hear him talk.

Henry then lead me to a corner booth, right across from the fireplace. The seats where edged with a rich, red gum wood. Weathered but polished up to a smooth, reflective shine. The chairs where covered in a gorgeous, worn linen fabric. Gold, teal and purple embroidery thread cross crossed everywhere in crazy, haphazard patterns. I sat down, and the chairs swallowed me up. This was the kind of place you spent hours pouring over books, or talking about love, life and politics with someone whilst endless streams of coffee and baked goods flowed. How could I have never seen this place before?

I looked up at Henry, who was observing me with a grin spread across his face. "What?" I asked, confused about what he found so amusing.

"I just love how you don't try and hide how much you love this place. Your reactions played out across your face are adorable." He replied, smirking at me again.

I looked down at the table and traced the knots in the wood with my fingers. I peers back up at Henry through my eyelashes. "Thanks for the help back there. I thought I could handle it. Apparently not."

"I don't know, I saw that slap. I thought you handled it pretty well! Please warn me if I'm ever headed down the path of pissing you off, because I certainly don't want to be on the receiving end of one of your slaps - and I've been shot before!" He laughed.

I looked up at him, eyes wide. "You've been shot before?!" I exclaimed, panic edging in. Of course. One bad guy to the next.

"It's not what you think. I run a security firm. It was all in the line of duty." He said like it was nothing.