Page 3 of Forever Only Once

I just smiled. “Good to know I look like crap.”

“Stop being evasive,” Paris said as she slid out of the booth, Myra right behind her.

The four of us had become friends a couple of years ago, though I had met Paris in college and knew Myra from when we were younger. Our families lived near each other, and with the way our families were, that meant we were always forced to attend the same parties and the same high-society events.

It wasn’t my favorite thing. However, Myra and I had been close, even though we’d been a couple of years apart in school.

Paris had been in a few classes with me in college. And Dakota owned this coffee shop. When I came in with Paris one day to catch up, we had started up a conversation with Dakota, and everything had snowballed from there. When Myra moved back to town, we picked up our friendship right away, and now it was the four of us against the world.

At least, that’s what we told ourselves.

“Let me get some coffee, and I’ll explain it all.”

“What are you in the mood for today?” Dakota asked, taking a step back so both Paris and Myra could hug me.

I embraced them tightly, closing my eyes for just a minute so I could pretend that I wasn’t still shaken or on the verge of throwing up.

“I’d love a vanilla latte.”

“That’s easy. I can do that for you. Now, go sit down. We already have a plate of pastries because…why don’t we just attack ourselves with sugar?”

I smiled at Dakota as she walked off and then followed Paris and Myra to our booth. We didn’t always sit here, but it was the most convenient booth for us to use when Dakota still needed to work.

And while Dakota’s staff was on the clock, and Dakota technically didn’t need to be behind the counter today, I knew that my friend wanted to make our coffees herself.

Her staff didn’t mind, at least that’s what they’d told me. They knew that Dakota was just particular when it came to her friends and her family.

Not that Dakota had much in the way of family, but the other woman was just as secretive as the rest of us.

“You want to tell us what happened?” Paris asked, raising a brow.

“Let’s wait until Dakota’s back,” I said, knowing that I wouldn’t get out of this. Frankly, I just wanted to get it off my chest. What had happened outside wasn’t why we were here today, so I’d just have to get over that little incident. It wasn’t as if something like that hadn’t happened before in my life. I held back a shudder. Sadly, it had. And incidents like it happened all over the world on a daily basis. Women were never safe. Not really.

Wasn’t that a thought I wanted to think right then? I sighed.

“I have your latte for you. Now, tell us what happened,” Dakota said as she took a seat in the booth. She had her back to the wall, her usual position so she could look out over her café.

I took a deep breath and tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, even though I was anything but. “Oh, I was just accosted on the road. I’m fine, though.” Everyone started talking at once, and I held up both hands. “One second.” I lifted the ceramic mug, blew on the top, and took a sip. I groaned, closing my eyes with my head tilted back. “Seriously, best coffee ever.”

Dakota leaned forward. “Thank you. Now, go back to the whole thing you just said about being accosted.”

I went through what had happened, and Paris’s eyes narrowed into slits by the end of my story. She was already trying to push Dakota out of the booth as if she could find the man and attack him, but I held up my hands again.

“It’s fine. Seriously. Let’s just move past it. I’m not going to press charges, even if I ever see him again. It was just something that happened.”

“It shouldn’t have happened at all,” Myra stated.

“But we both know it does. It’s fine. I’ll never see him again. If I do, I’ll probably kick him in the nuts.”

“You should have fucking kicked him in the nuts today,” Paris said, her voice low since she didn’t want to curse in the middle of the café.

Dakota was the one who scared me, though. She just kept looking at me, her gaze intense.

“No harm done. I’m just fine,” I said.

Dakota tilted her head, studying my face. “You are. If you weren’t, we would go out and find that man, and we would cut off his dick.” She smiled as she said it, but I froze for a second before everyone burst out laughing.

“You know it’s always the quiet and sweet ones,” Myra said, sipping her tea.

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