Page 2 of Don't Scare Me, My Love

His scream turned into a laugh.

He also raised his hands to show me they were empty. We stared at each other, waiting for our heartbeats to calm. I nodded to acknowledge that this was an unplanned shock for both of us, but that I understood that this was one of those harmless stories I would tell once while it was fresh, but then never again.

He copied my nod and rocked closer to me. His legs squeezed into the footwell as if his car should have been twice as big for him to have enough legroom. He settled into the seat and rolled down the window a crack.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said in a husky voice.

Wasn’t it more like I scared him? He was the one who screamed first.

I took in his soft brown eyes, his wide lips that his beard tried to hide, and the way he sat there, talking to me casually as if he had already decided that we would bond over this experience. If the whole situation hadn’t been so out of the blue, I might even have acknowledged that this guywasone of those good-looking men I claimed never appeared in Seastone: bearded, about myage, with his shirt accidentally rolled up, revealing some skin and belly hair.

“I ran out of gas last night,” he said as if that explained why he parked behind the gas station instead of next to the pump.

“Happens,” I replied.

His gaze lingered on my face for a moment, and I could tell by the twitch in his eyes that he had the same questions about my eye patch that everyone else had when they first met me.

“Store will be open in about fifteen minutes. Maybe twenty,” I said to cut him off before he could ask. The worsening rain didn’t help with my motivation to answer stupid questions about why I was wearing an eye patch. No matter how hot the person asking was.

I turned around, stuck my key in the back door, pushed it open, and hurried out of the rain. As I turned around to close the door behind me, I found him still smiling.

“Thanks,” he said, pressing his mouth to the crack.

And as much as I wanted to smile back at him, I was so out of practice that I just raised my eyebrows and closed the door.

The rain peltedagainst the back door as I deactivated the security system. A few drops made their way from my coat to the floor, and, hell, all I could see before my eye was his smile.

What was wrong with this guy? Why was I so flustered now that my wish of someone hot being in the car came true?

I shook my head. My watch vibrated, reminding me it was five minutes to seven, time to turn on the coffee machine so it could heat up. But I was in no hurry—not even with a guy like him close by. The best thing would be if he had to wait anyway. That would mean I could watch him through the shop windowsfor a few more minutes before he filled up and drove away, never to be seen again.

I shuffled into the break room on the right, took off my dripping coat, and hung it in the locker farthest from the door. I punched the numbers into the safe on the opposite side of the wall and pulled out the till. On my way through the small hallway toward the cash register, I switched on the lights and glanced into the restrooms—which wasn’t such an unpleasant task anymore because now I pay a company from Ashbourne to clean them every night. So far, I haven’t seen any disgusting shit for two months. As I walked into the store, my eyes searched the front windows to see if that guy would show up.

The covered area in front of the store couldn’t be emptier. Not even any of my regulars came early, eager to get their daily coffee.

What did I expect? That he would stand there, waiting to come in and talk to me after his first reaction to seeing me was a frightened scream?

I took a deep breath and turned around to the most important task of my morning routine: firing up the coffee machine.

Coffee accounted for about thirty percent of the sales. It had high margins, and many of the old folks from town came here to get one. They jumped at the chance to chat with someone and get out of the house, even if they didn’t have to fill up their car. It was a win-win, and I was happy to connect with them.

With three short beeps, the machine announced that it had warmed up and was ready for orders, so I pressed the button for a medium roast black coffee. The first one of the day was always mine—only to make sure that the machine worked properly, of course.

Once that was done, I usually made the rounds to see if Stan, Gary, or Chris, my three trusted employees who work theevening shifts, had restocked the candies and snacks. A cursory glance revealed no noticeable shortage, so I postponed that task, unlocked the front door, and trudged behind the counter to enjoy my beverage.

I pulled out the folding stool I had bought for Gary’s aching back and sat down behind the register, coffee steaming in my face. At 7:04, the bell on the main door announced that Mr. I-Sleep-In-My-Minivan had finally made his way inside, and,damn, he looked even better without a tinted window between us. His head was level with the plastic severed hands I had hung from the ceiling with a ladder a week ago for the upcoming Halloween.

His eyes wandered around the store as if he’d never been in a gas station. “This place is perfect.” He looked at the coolers I had decorated with fake cobwebs, the carved pumpkin next to the door, and the banner on the back wall wishing everyone aHappy Halloweenbefore he fixed his eyes on me. “Good morning.”

“Morning.” I sipped my coffee without taking my eye off him. He probably thought I was suspicious of him—which wasn’t entirely wrong—but our incident gave me the perfect excuse to check out this beautiful example of a man. He was gorgeous. Definitely not from around here because I would’ve remembered someone like him.

He walked up to me, turning his head as he scanned the snacks left and right of him. “Can I have a coffee, please?”

“Sure. Want me to leave some room for cream?”

He shook his head, picked up two bags of beef jerky, and threw them on the counter. I placed a paper cup under the nozzle and hit the button on the machine.

“Sorry again for screaming like a little girl,” he said.

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