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“Not that you—” I clasped my hands together. “You know.”
Piper didn’t look up from her breakfast. “Yeah.”
I’d never been on the receiving end of someone hitting the road first. I’d never been the one walked out on. But Piper didn’t even walk out, she scurried like a mouse. Like she was afraid of getting caught. Like we hooked up, and she didn’t want to answer relationship questions over breakfast in the morning - same bullshit I did on the regular.
Fuck me. I’m losing my edge.
There was only one thing I could think to talk about. I reached over, picked up the cup of coffee, and set it in front of her. Piper raised her eyebrows, questions written in her gray eyes.
“Iced caramel nonfat latte, right?”
Cautiously, Piper wrapped her fingers around it. “Thank you?”
“That’s your coffee order?”
“Um…yes.” The ice had melted a long time ago but she didn’t mention it. “Where did you get this from?”
I was so focused on ordering her the coffee, I forgot the excuse for why and how I had the coffee. I shrugged, leaning back in my chair. “Some people had a…group order going.”
You fucking liar. You don’t even know anybody at this conference.
“A group order?” Piper took a hesitant sip. “Did you…like your coffee?”
You didn’t get any.
“It was great,” I replied. “Good price, too.”
You paid extra for an order under ten dollars. It was a fourteen-dollar fee.
She nodded slowly. “It’s good.”
“That it is,” I said, in the most awkward way I could’ve. Why was I talking like that? I’d never talked like that in my life. “That they did. Made some damn, fine, good coffee. Great coffee. You know? Out of…coffee beans. As…they do.”
Jesus fucking Christ. Get a fucking grip, Adam.
I had to find a way to salvage this. “Did you—?”
“Last night was a mistake,” Piper blurted out.
I glanced up and we looked at each other for a long moment.
“Ah.” I nodded, ignoring the way my stomach clenched. “Yeah. I was…definitely thinking the same thing. Yeah. Definitely. I was definitely thinking the same thing. Right on.”
The morning couldn’t have gotten more embarrassing if I actually tried.
“We can part ways amicably,” Piper said like she was reading off a notecard, and I realized she must’ve been preparing for this conversation this morning while I was jacking off on my bed thinking about her. “We’ll talk to your coach. They can find you a new babysitter, and you—um—we don’t tell anyone about the—the…the pool…”
She means all of it.
Piper Fontaine didn’t want anyone to know that she’d stooped low enough to get touched by the Marrs Manwhore. Great. It felt awesome.
Listlessly, I knocked back my cup of orange juice.
That was it then. We were saying goodbye. The only time I would get to see the ice princess was when she’d try to convince me to come around for a floor meeting on space heaters. It wouldn’t be like this.
“I’m sorry.”
Piper gazed over her coffee. “What?”
