Page 14 of Love You A Latte

I wander over to her table, trying not to show how desperate and eager I am for her company, her voice, her attention.

“You just couldn’t stay away, huh?” I say, knowing I’m being hypocritical to the extreme.

Addison blushes, much to my consternation and delight, indicating that’s exactly what’s going on. She glares at me, or tries to, and I grin.

“Good,” I say, folding my arms and leaning against her table. I angle my head down and lower my voice. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you since you left last night.”

She turns even more red, somehow, and I’m immensely satisfied with myself.

Her eyebrows raise, like she doesn’t believe me, so I nodin emphasis as I straighten back up.

“Can I make you a latte?” I offer, and her mouth opens, but nothing comes out.

“Is that a yes?” I say, then chuckle. “Did you lose your voice? You haven’t said one thing yet.”

“Well, you haven’t really given me the chance to, have you?” she says, all sass, and I’m obsessed. My eyes light up and she rolls hers.

“There it is. So, sweets, what’ll it be?”

“Fine, you can make me a cinnamon latte.”

“Oh, Ican,can I?” I smirk, and she attempts to glare again, then lightly slaps my arm.

“You’re a menace this morning,” she says. “And I haven’t even had my coffee yet.”

“You’re right, I apologize. I’ll save all menacing until after you’ve had your caffeine fix.”

“Thank you,” she says, sticking her nose in the air, and I chuckle a bewildered laugh as I head back to the counter. I’m pretty sure there was nearly steam coming out of my ears only minutes ago, and now I feel like I could fart rainbows if I wanted to.

My gaze trips across everyone and everything else over the next couple hours, constantly being pulled back to the angel by the window. It just so happens that she can’t seem to keep her eyes off me either, I note with satisfaction.

She starts to pack up sometime after the lunch rush, and I saunter over.

“Done for the day?” I ask, and Addison sighs.

“Yeah, I think I’m ready to call it quits.”

“Hmm. Did you get any work done?” I ask.

Addison pauses her movements and turns to me, her eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean?”

“You claimed you were here to work, but it seemed to me that you spent more time staring at me than your laptop,” I say, failing to hide my teasing smirk.

Addison turns that adorable glare on me again, and my smirk turns to a full grin.

“So what? Maybe I was looking at the menu behind you.”

“So…” I lean in again, close enough that our noses are only inches apart. Her gaze flickers between my eyes and my mouth. “I liked it.”

“Oh,” she breathes, the word puffing against my lips.

I lean back, giving her space again, and she simply stares at me before ducking to hide her smile.

“Just to be clear,” I say, “youareflirting with me, right? Because I’m flirting with you, but I can’t quite tell…” I quirk a brow, and she blinks, then blushes, then breaks into a short laugh.

“Ugh, I thought I was so much smoother than this.” Addison shakes her head as she speaks, a self-deprecating sort of crook to her mouth. “But you intimidate me, and I guess I’m out of practice.”

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