Page 29 of Creep

For a moment, I couldn’t say anything. Words were like the butterflies I’d chased with Caden when we were little—fluttering away and always out of reach.

“Can I order?” He didn’t sound annoyed as he asked. If anything, the amusement was very much clear in his eyes and his voice.

His voice.

Fuck, but his voice was something else. Deep and addictive. Like black coffee with a hint of caramel.

I nodded.

He tapped his fingers on the counter three times as his eyes moved past me to the huge hanging menu board.

“An Americano. Black.”

“Coming right up,” I said, unable to stop the breathless quality from seeping out of my voice. What the hell was wrong with me?

I shook my head and moved away to get his order in, wondering if I should start believing in something as silly as fate. This was the third time I saw the man in as little as a month. What were the chances?

My heart thudded heavily in my chest, and for a moment, I forgot all of my problems.

I was just a normal woman, living in New York, with normal woman problems, and things just didn’t seem so bad. My hands shook as I closed the lid on the man’s coffee cup and brought it over to the counter. He was standing there, waiting for it.

And Victoria wasn’t too far away.

She caught my eye and winked at me just as I placed the coffee cup on the counter.

I felt myself deflating on the spot. It wasn’t like Victoria was doing anything to me by showing interest in a man I had no claim to. For all she knew, I was still very much into Brody, and this man, this strangely beautiful man, was nothing to me.

“Thank you, sweetheart,” the man said, placing a twenty on the counter for me before picking up his cup. I watched as he made his way outside the coffee shop, his broad back to me as he took in the view. I could see his arm movements, indicating he was taking a small sip of his coffee and pulling out his phone with his other hand.

Was he texting his girlfriend? There was no way a man who looked likethatdidn’t have a girlfriend, which meant Victoria might not have a chance with him. I didn’t know which I wanted less—for the man to have a girlfriend or for Victoria not to have a chance with him.

It didn’t matter.

Victoria had always been the more outspoken one between the two of us. I wasn’t shy by any means, but that didn’t mean I would feel comfortable just approaching a stranger and striking up a conversation.

And I could do nothing but stand helplessly by as Victoria made her way outside and stood next to the man, a flirtatious smile on her face as she pushed her long locks of red hair back over her shoulder.

She was talking to him. I didn’t know what she usually said in situations like this to get men to fall over themselves for her, but it usually worked.

Her eyes were animated until, finally, she stopped talking long enough for the man to respond. I frowned as the happy look on her face soured. She said something back to him, no longer looking like her usual cheerful self from moments before.

The man shook his head and walked away, leaving her standing there, watching his retreat before she turned back to me and headed inside the coffee shop.

“Are you okay?” I asked when she got close to me.

“That man is either gay or taken,” she said flippantly.

My brows rose in surprise. “How do you know?”

“Because,” she said, moving in closer to me. “He said he wasn’t interested in me.”

And she got either that he was into men or had someone else already out of that? He could just be… not interested.

I didn’t say that, though. Victoria wasn’t known for being levelheaded, especially when she felt there was a slight toward her in some way.

With a huff, she grabbed the drink she had left at the counter and walked to one of the corner tables in the shop by the windows. I turned away and wiped the counter, even if it was already spotless.

I wasn’t feeling as deflated as I had been when I watched my friend approach the man, even if I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell he could be mine.

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