Sara
“THE COFFEE ON our floor is free. Why are you dragging me here again?” I cocked a brow at Lisa when we arrived at the tiny coffee shop. There was a fall bite in the air, more than I was used to for only early September. Another adjustment I needed to make after relocating all the way upstate from Queens. I shivered in my light denim jacket.
“Well, the free coffee sucks,” she scoffed. “I’m used to it, but they make a killer latte here. It won’t break the bank, I promise. And I told you I wasn’t letting you molt in our room when you’re not working or in class.” She held the door open for me to walk through.
“Molt? I’m pretty sure I don’t have feathers.” I smirked as I strode up to the counter to read the menu on the wall.
“Hi, Sara. I guess this means I get my coffee after all.” My head swiveled to Drew’s voice. For the life of me, I couldn’t escape this guy.
“Hi, Drew. Lisa made me come here.” The words sounded garbled and defensive as they fell from my lips as I stumbled back when we made eye contact. What was it about this man that had me evaporating IQ points and any semblance of coordination?
“Coffee?” Lisa turned to me, her mouth twisted into a smirk before she looked over at Drew. “Hey, Drew.”
“Lisa,” he nodded a hello with his dreamy eyes fixed on me. Lisa and I were going to have a talk about forcing me into social situations that terrified me.
I frowned as I looked between them. “Drew let me stay late at the kitchen a few days ago and says I owe him coffee.”
“You know what?” Lisa glimpsed at her watch and moved backward toward the door. “I think I forgot something in our room, and coffee will keep me up late anyway. You should pay your debts, Sara.” I spied a quick wink before she bolted out the door.
Some friend she was. She forced me here and then ran out. I knew what she was trying to do, and her heart was in the right place—but I was going to kill her anyway.
Great, now what?
“So, you’re here, I’m here, why don’t you take a seat?” His mouth curved before he motioned to an empty table in the back. I headed over and slid into a wooden seat, sucking in a long breath and letting it out slowly, without any effect on my bobbing leg.
This was pathetic. It was only coffee. I’d be here fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, and leave. Pay my debt to Drew as he phrased it and move along. It’s coffee, Sara. For fuck’s sake.
“Looking to make a break for it?” I turned to Drew’s snicker.
“No. I . . .” I allowed myself a glance at his deep brown eyes and lush lips stretched into a smile. He was pretty and shiny, all right.
He raked his hands through his thick hair, still laughing at me, and settled across the table.
“You’re either looking to get this over with or casing the place. I don’t bite.” He raised his arms as he leaned back into the chair, his eyes falling to my bouncing leg. I stilled when his warm hand gave my quivering knee a quick squeeze. “Honest.”
My knee shaking ceased thanks to the odd, maybe a little too intimate, gesture. But I wasn’t offended or even taken aback, only embarrassed as shit for being once again an awkward basket case in this guy’s presence.
“I’m actually surprised you suggested coffee in the first place.” My lips pursed as our eyes met.
His brows crinkled as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “Why would you be surprised?”
I let out a long, humiliated sigh. “Because every interaction we’ve had up to this point has somehow made me act like an awkward mess. I’m actually afraid to stand from my seat as I’ll probably trip and land right in your lap.”
His head fell back as his broad and most likely ripped chest rumbled with a laugh. “If that happens, I promise I’ll catch you and set you down in your own seat. I’ll only make you linger on my lap for maybe . . .” He shrugged with an adorable smirk. “No more than a minute or so.”
I fought the smile threatening the corners of my mouth. My eyes drifted from Drew’s dreamy chocolate orbs to my fidgeting hands on the table.
Drew tapped my wrist for me to look up, his smile fading as he scooted his chair forward. “You’re a beautiful woman. A woman who keeps slipping away from me.” His eyes narrowed. “I tried to trick you into coffee, so we could get to know each other a little.”
“Trick me?” I crossed my arms.
“I was hoping to make you feel obligated. You can still pretend you’re paying back a debt if it makes it easier.”
It didn’t make it easier, but I wasn’t as uncomfortable as when I first arrived. Drew was smooth, but no bullshit alarms went off in my head. He seemed genuine, and it would be nice to get to know people other than Lisa and her circle of friends. That’s as far as it would be able to go, and I’d have to make sure that was crystal clear, but for the first time since he suggested it, spending time together didn’t make my body go rigid with panic. Maybe acknowledging how flustered he made me would take the power out of it, although the idea of lingering in his lap made me jumpy in a whole different way.
“What can I get you? Your leg stopped shaking but I’d probably go easy on the caffeine if I were you.”
I held in a laugh as I dug out my wallet. “Regular coffee with half-and-half is fine.”
Drew grabbed my wrist and shook his head. “On me.”
I pushed the money into his hand. “I do still owe you. I kept you at the test kitchen for an hour past your shift.”
“You stayed. Consider us even,” he whispered in my ear as he placed the money in front of me. Shit, he smelled good. I rubbed the back of my neck to get the tiny hairs to lay flat again.
My eyes followed Drew as he ambled up to the counter to give the barista our order. He caught me ogling—again—before heading back to our table with a smile and two cups in his hand.
“So, Sara. Let’s see where we left off.” He set the coffee in front of me with a handful of sugar packets. “I didn’t know which sugar to get you, so I grabbed a couple packets of each. You come from Queens, you transferred here . . .”
“And I’m thirty-two . . . and have an eight-year-old daughter,” I blurted as I grabbed two sugars and emptied them into my coffee, blending with the stirrer as I avoided Drew’s reaction.
“So that’s the reason for the long break.” He nodded. “What’s her name?”
Another surprised smile stretched my lips. I usually got the “wow, you have a kid, what’s that like?” from single friends or younger coworkers that didn’t understand the concept of being a parent. Lisa, and now Drew, didn’t make me feel awkward or odd because I was a mom. It was a wonderful, if foreign, feeling. Drew asking her name caused a warmth to spread in my chest I couldn’t explain. Plus, he was still sitting here and not running for the hills yet.
“Victoria.” I wrapped my hands around the cup and took a sip.
“And her father is . . .”
“Taking care of her in Queens with his soon-to-be wife.” I held back a smile at the relief washing over Drew’s face.
“New stepfamily, huh?” He winced. “She’ll get used to it. Took me a little while when I was a kid, but now I don’t even think about it. It’s just normal.”
“You have a stepmother?”
“Stepfather. My mother had me when she was really young. She still gets mistaken for my sister sometimes. She met my stepdad when I was about six.”
“Do you see your father?” Drew’s mouth strained for a moment before he set his cup down.
“I’m sorry.” I grimaced. “I didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s okay. Yes and no. I see him once in a while, but he’s never been what you’d call a full-time parent. My mom had it pretty hard for a while. I’m glad she found someone like Phil and had it easier when she had my sister.”
“How old is your sister?”
“She just turned seven. I was eighteen when she was born.”
A quick math equation ran through my head. Drew was seventeen when I had my daughter and was seven years younger than I was. I was already working two jobs when he was only a kid. The ease I was starting to feel in his presence evaporated.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Where’d you go?” He nudged my ankle with the tip of his foot.
“Nowhere, nothing.” My coffee cup almost slipped out of my hands as I set it back down.
“I don’t care that you’re thirty-two and have a daughter. I know that’s why you keep mentioning it. Does it bother you that I’m twenty-five?”
“No,” I clipped as I lied. Josh was a couple of years younger than me. I didn’t realize it the night I met him, and two years is a world of difference away from almost a decade, especially now. Drew was in the prime of his young life, and I had extra years and a load of baggage I couldn’t see a man his age wanting anything to do with. But this was only coffee, right? Why was I getting so ahead of myself?
I sucked in a long breath and let it out slowly before I brought my eyes back to his. “I’ve never been the most social person, at least since Victoria was born. I worked two, sometimes three jobs, and didn’t have time for friends or small talk or . . . coffee.”
Drew’s eyes grew wide. “Three jobs? Wow, you’re a warrior.”
I shrugged. “My daughter wanted to go to dance school, and her recital costumes cost the same as my utility bills. So, the extra hours and skipping a meal or two paid for a lot of sequins.” I laughed but Drew didn’t laugh with me.
“Victoria is lucky to have such an amazing mother. I’m glad you found a way to go back to school.” He gave me a heart-stopping, but sincere smile.
I nodded. “Me too. I owe her father a lot. He took her in, so I could take the internship at McQuaid’s and finish school. I’m in the accelerated program, so I’m only here for a year.”
“She’s his kid, too. It sounds like you almost killed yourself taking care of her alone. He owes you both.”
I silently agreed with a shrug, not wanting to taint a nice afternoon with the whole one-night stand and not telling her father she existed story.
“So, what about you? What are you studying? I thought you lived in Berman Hall, but I never saw you after that day.”
“I was helping a friend move in when I almost knocked you over. I was beginning to think you were an illusion until I saw you at Night Owls.”
I froze, unable to hide a cringe. “I remember.”
“Next time you want in on pool, just say so.”
"Anyway,” I sighed, rolling my eyes and hoping he didn't notice the blush I knew was creeping on my heated cheeks, “you’re not a culinary student, so—”
“No, I’m an IT grad student. I wound up working the test kitchen since all the IT jobs were taken. It’s easy work, which is great since this last year is a bitch.”
“Until culinary students like me mosey in and ruin your night?”
“You didn’t ruin my night. You were the highlight of my day.” His eyes found mine as the air in the coffee shop thickened. Or maybe the air just thickened between us.
Nope, nope. This was coffee. We could talk and be friendly but that’s it.
“Drew, listen . . . I’m . . . still trying to figure things out. I haven’t been just Sara in a long time. So long, I don’t even know who she is.” I chuckled to myself. “I’m not ready for any—”
“Are you ready for a friend?” A soft smile lifted the corners of his lips. His lush, full lips. Any female on campus would kill to be in my seat. It all seemed unfair. What was he doing wasting time with me?
“I’d like that. Although, you’ve only had a peek at the hot mess I am. I’m still learning basic socialization.”
“I can teach you. I convinced you to stay, didn’t I?”
I laughed at his cocky smirk. “Are you sure you want to burden yourself with having a friend like that?”
His grin grew wider.
“I can handle you.”
My mouth parched at the husky rasp of his voice. I took a long, shaky sip of lukewarm coffee.
But can I handle you?