Page 95 of The Last Dance

I glance around the room as I walk towards the counter. Looking for anyone that appears to be waiting for someone.

‘Hey, Ambri.’ Lexi, one of my favorite baristas, greets me with a smile. She didn’t work here when I did, but considering I’m here nearly every single day, we’re on a first-name basis. ‘Want your usual?’

‘Yeah. Hey, have you seen someone in here that looks like they might be waiting on someone?’

‘Only the whole store.’ She laughs.

‘Right.’ I laugh with her, pulling my wallet from my bag to pay when the door dings opened. I turn to look, taking a second glance when he registers. The colorful ink on his skin is what I notice first. Bare skin is barely visible from his fingers to his neck. The overgrown five o’clock shadow, flannel shirt on top of all the tattoos make him look like a lumberjack gone bad.

‘Oh. My. God.’ Lexi nearly drops a shot glass full of espresso to the ground. ‘Do you know who that is?’ she whispers over to me, but I can’t look away because I do indeed know who it is.

Brad Winston. Lead singer of Infusion.

He stops in the middle of the coffee shop, all eyes on him, as he looks around the room.

‘Ambri Jennings?’ He announces it like they do on the overhead speaker when a rogue child is found without their mother at the grocery store.

‘Holy fuck,’ I say out loud a little louder than intended. How on earth could he know I even exist?

He turns to me with a grin. ‘You must be Ambri?’

I nod, my mouth still hanging open from the shock of him saying my name. Brad Winston just said my name, twice. And he’s coming over here. Holy shit, he’s coming over here. Too bad I’m glued to the floor, too paralyzed to act like a normal human being.

‘I got this.’ He pulls a wallet from his pocket, sliding a twenty across the counter to Lexi and shoving his wallet back in his pocket. He takes the wallet from my hand, slides it back into my bag and leads me across the room with a hand on my back.

‘You can breathe. I’m really not that exciting. Just a normal guy.’

I giggle like I’m twelve. Maybe celebrities aren’t such a good thing for me to write about? I’m obviously not cool enough to keep my shit together. Like Rachel onFriendswhenever Joey mentionsDays of Our Lives. That’s me. The girl no one will invite to parties because I’ll go all crazy fangirl on them.

‘Are you nuts?’ I ask him with another giggle. ‘You’re about the furthest thing from a normal guy ever.’

He laughs. ‘I’ll take that as a compliment. Care to sit?’ He motions to the empty chair I’m now standing next to as he sets my coffee he’s now holding on the table.

I can only nod. The door dings open again and I’m afraid to look and see who else might be walking in. I look anyway. Henry. My heart does a flip as he walks my way, a smile on his face.

Holy shit, we’re meeting Brad of Infusion. He’s gonna die. Well… maybe he’s not as big of a fan as I am but I’m sure he’ll think it’s cool.

‘Oh, good. You made it.’ He walks up to Brad, shaking his now-extended hand with a smile, as if they’re old friends.

‘She might be having a stroke?’ Brad shrugs as he nods my direction.

‘Hey.’ Henry reaches up, touching my shoulder. ‘You OK?’

‘Whatis even happening?’ I ask, pulling him by the arm across the coffee shop with me.

‘How do you know him?’ I demand. ‘And why didn’t I know you knew him?’

He grins. ‘I met him in LA. Did some logo and website work for him and we kept in touch. He has a house here and I thought maybe he’d be the perfect thing for the site?’

‘Youdid this? For my site?’

‘I did this foryou.’ He leans in, saying it right into my ear, sending chills through my spine. ‘Can you do this?’

I nod, forcing myself to take a breath and pull myself together.

‘Sorry about that.’ Henry makes his way back over to Brad. ‘I guess I probably should have told her before you got here.’ He glances over at me with an eyebrow raised, nodding his head in Brad’s direction, attempting to get me to move across the room towards him.

‘You’d be surprised how often it happens.’ He laughs. ‘I’ll never get used to it.’

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