“Tell you what, I’ll order the coffee this time,” Spence said as he held the door open for me to step into the local cafe all of us college kids went to between classes—a.k.a. one of the five Starbucks within a two-block radius.
“Funny,” I said. “You just can’t seem to admit you liked the warm cinnamon hug of a festive latte.”
“Does that mean you’re requesting one?”
I wrinkled my nose. “I’ll take the hot caffeine kick of a double espresso. In coffee. With a ton of milk.”
Spence’s hand brushed my shoulder as we wove to a table. “That afraid of Harper’s midterm, huh?”
“Considering I’m requesting a caffeine bomb four days before we even get the paper returned, I can’t promise you what I’ll be doing when time ticks down further.” I mulled this over. “Probably that wine infused hot chocolate that’s all over the internet, before resorting to straight up liquor shots in bed.”
He laughed. “Save us a seat. I’ll get you your fix.”
I sat down at a two-top, watching Spence’s broad back as he took his place in line. He didn’t take his phone out and scroll aimlessly as he waited like most of the patrons in front and behind him. And around me. I decided to be more like Spence and resisted the urge to pull out my phone as I sat. Instead, I interlaced my fingers and glanced around while chewing my lower lip, feeling weird, and not just because of my lack of a social media security blanket.
Everything about me became creeptastic when I was around Spence. I prattled on about nothing, fidgeted and twitched, worried about how I was coming across, actually guffawed at his jokes in a way that truly startled him…this was not an Emme I was used to hanging out with.
Sure, I was never Prom Queen or the super popular girl at parties, but at least I knew how to communicate past Neanderthal grunts. What was it about Spence that had me fumbling? Insecurity? Spence was uber-intelligent and had the kind of underdog past where even the most cold-hearted vampire would say, I’m rooting for you, bro, but was that really enough to make a forward-thinking millenial like myself blush?
Spence was walking toward me, two cups in hand. We caught eyes and he capped off our clink with a sweet grin that felt like a warm tug meant only to pull me closer. I responded in kind.
“Hope you have a lot of tasks this afternoon,” Spence said as he sat across from me, bringing with him a waft of fresh coffee grinds and spicy cedar cologne. He pointed at my cup once he set it down. “‘Cause that shit’ll have you buzzed enough for four lines of coke.”
“My only drug of choice,” I said, and lifted my drink in cheers before taking a satisfying sip. “Mm. Perfect.”
Spence’s hand moved to rub at his lips, his eyes roaming over my mouth in a way that made me feel I had a dribble of coffee leaking out, and so I licked them.
That sent his pupils flaring, and the temptation of him had curls of steam drifting down, down, to my center, in a way that stoked and heated. I wriggled in my seat, wishing my hot coffee were an extra-extra-large ice water instead.
“So…” I cleared my throat by taking too big of a glug and almost choked. The coffee shop seemed to disappear around us. I didn’t hear a single thing, other than any sound coming from Spence. The drum of his fingers. The bob of his Adam’s apple as he drank. The tick of his watch. All things only the supersonic hearing of a sex-craved lioness could sense. “About last night…”
He surprised me by saying, with a steady stare, “I’m glad you came over.”
My coffee made a hollow clonk on the table. “You are?”
“Yeah, I am,” he said with a soft laugh. “It was unexpected but good to talk to you. Outside of the official business of tutoring, of course.”
“I want you to know—I don’t normally bang on people’s doors just before dawn filled with tequila and anger—”
“Tequila-fury is the only way I like my chicks to greet me at three in the morning.”
Ack. I did it. I guffawed.
He sat back, studying me with a sexy side-lean of a smile.
I attempted to recover. “Your chicks? This is a common thing to happen to you?”
Spence tried to emulate contrite but failed miserably. “You’re the first to resist tearing my clothes off.”
Oh, how right he was. It had taken every atom in my body to keep from tackling him to the floor and stripping him naked. “Good to know Drunk Me has standards.”
“To be honest.” Spence sobered by rubbing a hand down his face. “I didn’t expect that we’d…talk. But we did, and things were said that maybe were better left…”
I flashed back to his words. I met his eyes and said softly, “I’m glad they were said. And…I’m sad they were stopped.”
Spence blinked warily. “I don’t tend to talk about that with many people.” He tried for a laugh. “I’m not even sure how we got around to something so serious. In fact, how about we forget it. If you want, we could run over today’s class, take a look at your notes. Free of charge, even—”
Spence went to fish through his bag but I caught his hand. “Don’t run.”
His fingers stiffened. “Run? I wasn’t—”
“I’ve kept thinking, all morning, especially when I woke up alone in your bed, that some kind of mistake was made. That I pushed you too far or that what went on last night shouldn’t’ve happened, but it’s taken this moment, talking to you right here, to realize that there’s nothing to regret. I want to get to know you better, that’s all. But I’m not going to force you to tell me things you don’t want to. I’m sitting across from you and I like that I’m here, and that’s all it has to be. You’re a damned difficult man to chip away at, Spence.”
There. I paused for breath, my grip clenching and releasing his, and fell back in my chair like I’d just finished a speech fit for a President. Or perhaps it was the effects of my espresso jitters combined with a hangover.
He said nothing in response. In that moment of silence, the cafe came rushing into my ears. The voices, the fizz of the espresso machines, the jarring spins of the blenders.
“I could say the same for you,” Spence eventually said.
I propped my elbows on the table. “Challenge accepted. What do you want to know?”
“Why, of all the apartments, did you choose to come to mine last night?”
The question threw me, but I’d be damned if I let him see it. “You know why.”
He arched his brows as he raised his drink to his lips. “I do?”
Sugared energy slipped into my veins, and I rode the high. It was now or never. “I wanted to jump your bones.”
His cup froze in midair, but I forged on. “I got drunk, thought about the sexual tension between us—actually, I’m not sure which came first, but either way I was frustrated beyond belief as to why you hadn’t seduced me yet. Then I run into Daya, who very well could be the reason—”
“Daya and I aren’t an item.”
“Could be the reason,” I reiterated, “or, more likely, you were just being stubborn. Something was making you hesitant and scared—”
He lowered his coffee. “I take extreme insult to that.”
“And so I took matters into my own hands and decided to confront you, tequila courage and all, and get to the bottom of it.” I paused for more fuel, then sorely realized my drink was empty. “What’s crazy is that instead of the mind-blowing sex I aimed for, I got to see another part of you. And that was better. Seeing that softer side, it was—”
Spence leaned forward and said in a low, terribly alluring voice, “We could still do mind-blowing.”
“You’re throwing off the conversation.”
“No.” His stare didn’t waver. “I’m simply telling you that I want it, too.”
My tongue crumbled like I’d just licked dry ice.
“Em! Hey!”
The overly cheery, I-totally-know-I’m-interrupting-something-and-loving-it voice of a certain Jade Montague pealed between Spence and my’s very close, noses almost touching, faces.
I jumped back, but Spence took his time, his gaze lingering on me before turning to Jade, who was now standing at our table.
“Glad I caught you,” she said to me.
“Um, Jade, this is Spence.” I held out a hand. “Spence, my excitable roommate, Jade.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said to Spence. “I’ve certainly heard—”
“So were you looking for me?” I interrupted, extra friendly.
Spence smiled.
“Yeah, I texted but I guess you haven’t looked at your phone in a while.”
Jade might as well have finished her sentence with a wink-wink. I wanted to murder her. Or at the very least, catalogue this day so the next time she had a new man I could happily return the favor.
“One of my lab partners is having a birthday blowout,” she continued. “Or wanting to, anyway. Their planner double-booked and since Ming’s the cheaper client, she got shafted. I gave her your name, figured you could add this to your resume.”
“Ming Cho?” Spence asked. “I know her.”
I squinted at him, but his innocent expression hinted at nothing. But I perked up as Jade’s words sunk in. “And she agreed to talk to me?”
“Her dad’s some honcho in China, willing to fund the entire thing including the best planners in the city, but when I spoke of you and how awesome you were, Ming decided to take the chance and meet with you.”
“Jade, that’s awesome! And…entirely unlikely. I’m no one. Why would she ever—”
“Hey now,” Jade said. “Don’t do that. You single handedly decorated our entire apartment—including Becca’s vomit room, might I add—in four days.”
“That’s different. It’s decorating for friends, not putting together a professional party.”
“And,” she continued, nonplussed, “Are you or are you not currently studying to run your own dream?”
Spence cocked his head.
“Well…yeah,” I said.
“Babe, I know your taste. I know your talent. All you need is a jumping off point to prove to everyone else you have what it takes. Of course I recommended you to Ming. At a discount,” she added.
“Why isn’t she going with another professional planner?”
Jade cocked a hip. “Okay, so I maybe promised her completed lab work for the next month, but c’mon Emme! This is an amazing opportunity.” She said the last part so fast I nearly missed it, “And all the greats are entirely booked.”
I mm’d in agreement. Most planners required at least six months advanced notice. And this was…well, this was an opportunity wrapped in a big red bow with a card in all-caps saying YOU BETTER NOT FUCK THIS UP, EMME.
“I texted you all her info,” Jade said. “So let me know how it goes. And make sure to feature me in all your testimonials when you’re a famous planner for the stars.”
“Jade.” I stood and heaved her into a huge hug. “You’re the best. I can’t thank you enough.”
She let out a labored laugh. “Okay. Breathing. Important.”
I released her and fell back into my chair, my smile spanning as wide as this over-crowded room. Beaming at Spence, I resisted rubbing my hands in glee. His smile in return was slow, but genuine. Like he was regarding me in some unique way, whose meaning was only known to him.
“I’ll see you tonight,” Jade said as she turned for the door and waved. “Nice meeting you, Spence—oh! You should totally come to zombie night on Thursday.”
Dearest Jade. Her successful match-making today could only be allowed to go so far.
I scoffed and waved her away. “As if Spence would want to—”
“Count me in,” he said. This time, he turned up the wattage to rival my beam.
“Done!” Jade said, and suddenly I was surrounded by mutant smiles. “Emme can give you the info. See you guys!”
“You like zombies?” I asked him once Jade left.
“Nothing against them, but I seem to enjoy nights with you more,” he responded, and all the coffee in my gut turned into espresso-flavored jello.
I shrugged and looked at him sideways. “They seem to be pretty good so far.”
“What’s this about planning a birthday?”
The question startled me out of flirt-mode into humble pie. “Oh, that. It’s sort of my dream to be an event planner of sorts.”
“So that’s what your business major is going towards, then. Running your own event company.”
“Yep.” I held both hands around my empty cup, wishing it still had the caffeinated warmth I craved. “You should’ve seen my parties as a kid. My mom gave up as soon as my six-year-old self created a scrapbook of color schemes for my Sprinkles party.”
“Sprinkles…party?”
“Your face, right there, is exactly how Mom looked. You know, sprinkles! White balloons filled with rainbow confetti, multi-colored sparklers, layered cake, neon sprinkles all over the place. You’d be amazed at what you could do with—” I stopped, realizing Spence was staring at me too closely, like maybe he was mentally taking a step back from the raven-haired girl across from him touting the creative amazingness of rainbow sprinkles.
“I’ll be right back,” Spence said, and my stomach sank. Perhaps my simple passion of themes and parties were too juvenile for the law school bound, justice-driven Spencer Rolfe. We were probably better as the fuck buddies he proposed we’d be, and I was naive to think I could connect with him on a level that might hurt him. Happy memories, childhood parties…he probably had none of that. God, I was an idiot.
“But when I get back,” he said as he rose, “I want to hear all about the birthdays you planned. And I’m assuming many other events throughout the years.”
I offered a tentative smile. “Any holiday I came across, it acquired a theme.”
Spence paused before turning, seeming to think before saying, “Usually I’m lecturing you on long-dead poets, but seeing you now, I like it.”
“I’m glad,” I said, then dared to venture, “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to hear about such frivolous stuff. I mean, it’s stupid compared to—”
“Are you kidding?” he said. “I’m no idiot. I know that shit takes a ton of effort and premeditation. Besides, this is something you love and I’m just learning about. Especially with the way you sucked all the passion in this room into your body and spilled it out to me in the span of a minute.” He angled his head. “In the form of rainbow confetti. Why wouldn’t I want to know that part of you?”
I stared at him as if he’d just showed me he had supernatural powers. How was he real?
“I’m gonna grab us two more cups, then you’re going to tell me all about how you came to New York. And hey.” He bent down and covered my hand with his. “Don’t you ever be ashamed of something you feel like you were born to do.”
When he walked away, I was finally able to blink. I followed his form to the line at the back of the cafe, all the while thinking how much I’d lucked out with a guy who was actually interested in what I had to say, multi-colored candy and all. He’d listen intently, I knew, and ask all the good, probing questions that would have me blabbing deeply woven memories and even insecurities, all while making me feel like I was the most important person he’d ever spoken to.
At that thought, as I watched Spence saunter up to the counter and place our order with the barista, I wished, so badly, that he would allow me to do the same with him.