Page 137 of Cold As Ice

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There was a steady flow of customers all afternoon. It was quieter than the weekend, but enough to keep me and Kayleigh’s other part-time girl, Jess, on our toes.

“I’m taking off,” Jess said. “See you soon.”

“You will.” I smiled as I wiped down a table.

It was forty-five minutes until closing, and the place was empty except for a couple enjoying their second cup of coffee.

I delivered the tray of empties into the back for Kayleigh to deal with and went back to start cleaning out the display cabinets. The coffee machine was the last thing we cleaned since there was always a chance of a last-minute customer or two.

The doorbell chimed, and I smiled to myself. But it quickly dropped when I saw Austin.

“Hey,” he said a little sheepishly.

“What are you doing here?”

“Can we talk?”

“I don’t think so, Austin. I’m at work, and you’re—”

“It’s fine, Mads. You can take ten,” Kayleigh, the traitor, called from behind me.

“I—”

“Please,” he implored, his expression lined with guilt.

“Fine. Do you want something to drink?”

“A bottle of water, please.”

With a small nod, I grabbed a bottle and another one for myself and joined him at the table furthest away from our two remaining customers.

“I owe you an apology,” he said, that icy stare of his fixed right on me. Heating me from the inside out, which made no sense.

We were done.

Over.

“Apology accepted. You can go now.”

“Madi, come on, please.”

“What, Austin? What do you possibly want me to say? You called things off. You ran the second you were reminded of my situation. You did that.” I kept my voice low, but it didn’t disguise the hurt there. Because I was hurt.

He had hurt me.

It wasn’t supposed to happen. But it had.

“I know… Fuck.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “I know, okay. I panicked. I’ve never been in a relationship before. It’s not something I’ve wanted before.”

“What are you saying?” My brows furrowed because hearing that word from his mouth…

Relationship.

I didn’t want to deal with this today.

“I… I miss you.”

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