Page 92 of Sugarlips
Chloe
Istood there stunned as Tanja’s legs released their viper grip on Liam’s waist. They scrambled off of each other like two teenagers caught in the limo on prom night.
Tanja seemed surprisingly unaffected by me walking in as she snapped her legs together and fixed her lipstick.
Only Liam seemed to notice the tear that fell down my cheek. I quickly brushed it away.He’s not mine to be possessive of.Hadn’t I made that perfectly clear? That we couldn’t be together? Just what did I expect to happen? Well, I didn’t expect him to jump on Tanja … she didn’t even seem like his type. If anything, he seemed constantly annoyed by her.
“We were not hooking up,” Liam said, taking a step closer to me.
“We weren’t?”
“No. We weren’t.” He glared at Tanja in response. “This is just a big misunderstanding. See, the coffee pot broke and she cut her ankle…”
I glanced down at my feet where my sneakers were standing in a pool of lukewarm coffee and glass. “It’s fine,” I snapped, hating the edge in my voice. “But there’s a line of customers waiting.” I gestured out the window where a literal line of people seemed to be staring at us like this was a show with their dessert.
Tanja and Liam were out of their sight line, but I sure wasn’t.
“Thanks for the help, Tanja. I can take it from here if you two want to … go somewhere. Together.” Those words burned like poison at the back of my throat.
“Oh, come on, Chloe. You have to know that I wouldnever… not with Tanja. Not with anyone.”
“How could I know that? You’re single, she’s single.”
The customers next in line shared a quick glance at each other.Shit.To our customers, Liam wasn’t single and neither was I. We were together. A couple.
I cleared my throat and yanked theBack in Five Minutessign down. Gritting my teeth against the fake smile as the next customer approached, I asked, “What can I get you?” I ignored the flaming jealousy that itched down my back.
“Uh, I’m going to go,” Tanja whispered as the click of her heels faded behind me. “I’ll call you in the morning, Chloe.”
I waved over my shoulder, not trusting myself yet to turn and look at her.
“Chloe, can we talk?” Liam was so close I could feel the hot breath of his whisper on the side of my face.
“I think we should just work.”
“Well, I want to talk. You were able to leave for an hour to go talk to your ex-fiancé, but you can’t spare five minutes for me?”
I whipped around to face him and, although the smile was still plastered on my face, my eyes were heated flames of anger. Anger that I had no right to feel—which only pissed me off more. “We kind of have an audience right now,” I whispered. “And this is ourbusiness. I’m not going to throw away a line of paying customers because your libido got the best of you. Trust me, when it comes to Tanja, you’re not the first and you won’t be the last.”
“The business? You’re concerned about thebusiness?” Liam snorted and pinned his fists to his hips. “That’s funny. Because I’m concerned about you. About us.”
“There is no us,” I whispered. But even as I said it, my eyes filled with moisture.
His chest hitched with the breath he took. Yanking a tray of donuts from the storage bin, he passed them down to the customer in front of us.
“Could you set those on that table over there?” he asked, pointing to the picnic table in the park a few feet away. They seemed startled, but took the box and set it down on the picnic table as he asked.
“What are you doing?” I asked, but he completely ignored me, cupping his hands around his mouth and yelling, “Free donuts as an apology for the hold-up! It’s going to be another few minutes. I hope you’ll wait around, but if not, be sure to come visit us another night.”
I hooked my hand around his elbow and yanked him away from the window. “What are youdoing?”
“I need to know,” he said. “I need to know if you really feltnothingwhen you walked in and found Tanja all over me.”
Tanjaall overhim? He’d literally had his hands on her breasts.
What I felt was far from nothing. My heart—my stupid, fragile heart felt like it had cracked in two at the sight. “It looked like a pretty even participation if you ask me.”
He shook his head. “How can you say that? Isn’t it obvious how head over heels in love withyouI am? I don’t evenlikeTanja. She’s selfish and aterriblefriend.”
