After You

chapter two

I gasp as the coffee gets everywhere, namely beneath my blouse and under my bra. Strong arms catch my elbows to steady me. It's like everything's in slow motion, watching the tray hit the ground between us, splashing both my bare feet and heels and his dress shoes.

Thankfully, the coffee and the tray is all I dropped.

"Holy shit." The person who grabbed me lets go and takes a step back – probably to assess the damage they've done.

I don't say anything as I look down at myself. I flick both my wrists and grab at my blouse, to stop it from sticking to my skin, but there's nothing that I can do. "Fuck."

"Are you okay?" the voice from before asks, and I snap my head up to face the perpetrator.

First, I notice how tall he is. He's at least a head taller, even though I wear heels, and he's wearing a suit – I spy a couple of small tattoos on his fingers, which makes me wonder if he's concealing any more. Raking my gaze from his hands to his face, I finally make eye contact – with eyes so blue that I suck in a breath. He's handsome, gorgeous, even. But I can't hide my anger.

"Do I look okay?" I snap, dropping my gaze to the scene between us. People bypass us, move around us, like we are, in fact, stuck in the middle of a crime scene. And I am the girl who shrieks bloody murder before being stabbed to death. "I have coffee all over me."

"Maybe you should watch where you're going," he says. "Or maybe you shouldn't be in such a rush."

I glare daggers at him. "Don't pull that shit on me," I say. "You're just as guilty. You didn't see me either."

He doesn't say anything for a time, but with the world moving about us, with time continuing and us both stuck in a tiny bubble of spilt coffee, he finally speaks.

"Here's a hundred dollars for a new shirt," he says as he pulls his wallet from his pocket and opens it.

All I can do is stare aghast at him. "I can't take your money."

"Then you pick a shirt and I'll buy it for you."

"I'm not going to pick out a new shirt and have you pay for it," I continue. "I don't even know you. And besides, I'm already late for work as it is."

"It could be the start of a new friendship," he says, tone light and playful, but I'm having none of it.

I blow strands of my hair from my face. "Absolutely not," I say, because the last thing I want to do is hang out with the man who has already ruined my day before it even began.

"So you're happy to go to work looking like that," he says, gesturing to my front.

The smell of coffee mixed with fabric softener stings my nostrils. I don't want to agree, nor do I want to walk into work looking like an absolute mess. It's bad enough that I stand here before this man looking the way I do, so there's no way in hell that I'm going to face my boss with a giant brown stain down my front when I'm meant to be the first person everyone sees when they enter his business. I don't even have a jacket to cover it up, or any spare clothes because Liv is going to bring those to me later.

"Fine," I say grudgingly, huffing and sighing internally at this stupid conundrum. "Buy me a stupid shirt."

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