Page 34 of My Revenant
“Ugh, fine, gimme some cash, then.” I surrendered.
Roy didn’t question me any further, simply retrieved his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out a twenty, holding it out to me between two thick, oil-stained fingers.
I snatched it up and tossed my helmet at him, which he caught with another huff as I turned and exited the shop again.
The Cozy Cow was only a five-minute walk from Roy and Declan’s Auto Repairs, so I left my baby in the lot and made the trip on foot.
This early in the morning, there were rarely any dine-in customers, though office and retail workers would stop in for takeaway caffeine on their way into work. That was why the figure at the window caught my attention—well, that and the fact that Jonah Hargreaves always had a way of pulling my attention to him like a magnet.
Today’s hoodie was a dark purple, pulled up over his head, which rested on the glass window. His eyes were closed, brow furrowed like he was annoyed that he couldn’t sleep in the middle of the diner at seven forty-five in the morning.
It was impossible not to be aware of him, and as if he could feel it too, his eyes snapped open, immediately finding mine. The glare he sent me had twice the regular level of heat, and I knew without a doubt he remembered our last encounter very clearly despite thefact he’d been drunk. He looked ready to pick up where we’d left off, like any sudden movement and he’d jump the table and drive his bony fist into my jaw again. I almost wanted him to. My insides buzzed with the need to be pressed against him in whatever way I could get.
“Just the regular?” Amanda asked from the counter, breaking the building tension between us as I turned to look at her.
“Just mine and Roy’s,” I answered her.
“Bryce not working today?”
“He is, but he can get his own.”
Amanda rolled her eyes, though her expression was amused as she put in the total, and I paid with the cash Roy had given me. “You’re a menace.” She smiled.
She was one of the few people in Port Skelton who didn’t seem to find me intimidating or try to avoid me. It had been an accident, really, saving her. The piece of shit she’d called a partner had owed Archer money, and when I’d gone to collect he’d been in the middle of beating her, so I gave it back to him tenfold. He couldn’t beat her with two broken arms, but I also broke a leg just cause I could. She’d finally left him after that, moved out of Meadow Park into a house share with some chicks she went to school with. I knew because for some reason she liked to tell me these things as she made my order.
While Amanda rambled on about her housemates, I turned back to my honey-eyed inferno, only to find his fire was no longer directed at me. Instead he was glaring at the barista as if she had somehow offended him. I didn’t like that. I wanted his glare, his attention. All of it.
Picking up a plastic stirring spoon and a cube of sugar, I aimed, lining up my shot with my shitty catapult. Load. Aim. Fire.
The sugar cube soared through the air, hitting its mark—the side of Jonah’s head—before crumbling over his clothes and the booth.
Attention successfully captured.
His fire intensified, igniting me where I stood. I smiled, and it just pissed him off further. When his eyes eventually left mine again, I watched him look over the contents of his table, undoubtedly looking for something he could throw back at me. I was worried he’d go for the ceramic mug steaming in front of him, if only because I didn’t feel like causing Amanda the trouble of cleaning it up, but before he could decide, the door chimed and Becca breezed in.
“Dex,” Amanda called behind me, and as Jonah’s attention was stolen away from me once more, I turned to face her and the tray of three coffees she held out for me to take.
“I said Bryce could come get his own,” I grumbled.
“You did,” she agreed before waving her hand at me. “Now get out of here.”
I rolled my eyes, and as I was about to turn for the exit, I felt the thump and crumbling of what was undoubtedly a sugar cube exploding as it hit the back of my jacket.
“Jonah!” Becca scolded as I turned, coffee tray in hand, and made my way over to their booth.
Jonah glared, and Becca’s eyes were wide with shock and uncertainty at my approach. Plucking Bryce’s coffee from the tray, conveniently marked with a B on the lid. I offered Becca my most dazzling smile and a wink as I put it down in front of her at the table.
Two birds, one coffee.
The shock garnered from both of them as I turned for the exit was incredibly satisfying, that was until another much heavier thump hit the back of my jacket, accompanied by hot,sweet-smelling liquid splashing up my neck and down the back of my jeans.
There was a heavy silence as every person in the diner stopped what they were doing. Even the buzz of the milk frother on the coffee machine halted as Amanda looked on in horror.
Well then. I wasn’t about to let that slide, especially not with this many witnesses.
I walked back to the booth, keeping my expression neutral. Jonah’s face flushed pink, either in anger or embarrassment at his own actions, like maybe he’d acted without thinking that one through.
“That was a mistake, Rabbit,” I told him as I plucked my coffee from the tray and emptied it over his head.
