Smitten Over Coffee

Chapter Nine: Spiced Mocha Latte

"Thank you."

Flora looked up from her sketchbook when she heard a familiar voice and saw Julian picking up his drink at the counter. When he turned and noticed her watching him, a smile spread across his face. Flora found she could not hold back a smile of her own. She set aside her work as he approached and took a seat in the leather armchair beside her own.

"Hey, how you been?" he asked.

"Not too bad. Yourself?"

"Just got off from work, so pretty tired."

"Oh, well I won't keep you—"

"No, no." Julian smiled. "I always have time to chat with a coffee friend. Besides, sitting is a really nice thing right now."

"What do you do for—" Flora's eyes widened when she caught sight of the blood running down his right arm. "You're bleeding!"

He glanced down at the blood casually. "Oh, right. Guess I didn't bandage that as well as I thought I had."

Flora set her spiced mocha latte on the low table in front of the two armchairs and scooted to the edge of her seat. Without even asking, she grabbed his hand and examined it closely. His index finger was wrapped in a bandage, but the blood had seeped through and was now trickling down his wrist.

"How on earth did this happen?" she asked, looking up at him.

His eyes were fixed on his hand still being held in her own, but when she spoke, his gaze moved to her face. He gave a quick smile. "Occupational hazard. It's okay, I've got plenty of bandages."

He set his coffee down and dug into the pocket of his jeans with his free hand, pulling out several bandages as well as bandage wrappers and other pieces of trash. Flora tried not to laugh as the pieces of paper scattered all over the floor.

"Here, let me see those," she said as she released his hand and took the pile of bandages from him.

"I'm a bit of a slob, sorry."

Flora chose a sturdy looking butterfly bandage and unwrapped it. "So where exactly do you work that you would slice your finger open like this?"

"A diner."

"Are you a chef?"

"More like a cook, but I'm totally down with you calling me a chef. Makes me sound way cooler."

A soft laugh escaped Flora's lips, but when she removed Julian's old bandage, the laughter quickly dissipated. "Julian, this is a really bad cut. Are you sure you don't need stitches?"

He waved away her concerns. "Please, I've had stitches before. This cut definitely doesn't warrant a trip to the ER."

Raising her eyebrows skeptically, she proceeded to wrap the fresh bandage around the cut. "How did you manage to hurt yourself so badly?"

"I got distracted."

"By what, exactly?"

"Ah, the music I was listening."

"You got distracted by music?"

"Yeah, it happens sometimes."

"It had to be pretty great music to get so distracted."

"Yeah, yeah, it was."

"So who was it?"

"Hmm?"

"The singer. Or band. The one that distracted you so badly you almost sliced your finger off."

Clearing his throat, Julian averted his eyes. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

Still holding his hand, Flora leaned forward with a wicked smile. "Is it so bad that you actually refuse to tell me?"