Coffee Shop

• 13 •

I love you.

The words lingered in the air as he leaned me back onto the table and moved the hair from my face. His tears slowed and made his eyes glisten and sparkle with a different pain like he shouldn't have said the words.

Because I hadn't said it back...

I wanted to, but I was stuck in my head, processing everything he'd said.

He lost someone close to him and took the blame for their death. Our nightly walks; why he seemed overprotective since day one, his friend was the reason, weren't they? He couldn't let another person leave his sight at night, fearing they'd meet the same fate. It hurt me to see such a beautiful person, both inside and out, struggle with demons that wouldn't leave him alone.

I felt his hand grip the back of my shirt, afraid I'd leave. His other hand trembled against my cheek. "Brian, I-" I started to say, but he pressed one finger against my lips.

"You don't have to say it," he whispered and closed his eyes. "Don't feel you need to say it back. It just, it came out... and I-"

I wouldn't let him hurt himself anymore.

"I love you," I said to him, moving my lips against his finger. Taking his hand in mine, I sat up straight and away from the table, letting my hair fall around our heads, hiding us from the space outside. "I love you, too."

"Kay-"

It was my turn to press my finger against his lip. I forced them closed, then trailed my fingertips along his bottom lip and down to his chin. Tracing the scar, I followed the lines around his neck and behind his ear, where I gently stroked until I let my fingers slide into his short hair.

"I would be lying if I said I didn't love you, and maybe, maybe I've felt this from the second I saw you, I don't know. You may have tried to live day by day before me, but Brian, before you, my life was an endless storm. From the second I left my house and came to the city, it was nothing but rain and thunder-"

His eyes searched mine as I spoke.

"-that is, until you. Until I walked into this shop and saw you. You had this light in your smile; you have this light. I'm drawn to it, need it, and can't sleep until I have it. Until I have you."

His hands pulled me closer, sliding up into my shirt and along my back. Hot fingertips slid under my bra strap. "Kay..." he breathed my name against my lips.

"I love you," I said again, closing my eyes. "I love you, Brian."

|||

Our world spun, circling around us at speeds we couldn't see. With locked lips and tight grips, we went from the table to the floor, until he requested a taxi to pick us up. I thought he'd take me home and was too eager to walk, but when we stepped out of the ride and out into the street, we were far from my apartment and close to the beach.

And to the tallest apartment complex I'd ever seen.

"Come on," he said, taking my hand as he reached for his keys.

I followed him as he took me towards the main entrance, but my eyes were glued to the white sand that fought to keep water at bay. I remembered when he said he walked the beach at night sometimes and wondered why he'd travel so far to do it. It was because he lived right beside it.

An elevator ding pulled me from my thoughts, my eyes away from the tall, glass windows, and back at his golden eyes as he smiled at me. "I'm on the fifth floor," he said as he pulled me into the square space and nodded towards the bottoms on my right. "Can you press it, please?"