Page 28 of Light My Fire Three Times
CHAPTER TEN
Leo
NOVEMBER 4TH
I’m walking,head down, phone in hand, doing the usual thing. Scrolling through the Christmas ad emails that have already started coming through, responding to texts, zoning out in that early morning haze that comes with the start of a shift.
My feet are on autopilot, taking me down the familiar streets, my mind a million miles away from the world around me.
Then,bam.
I slam into something or someone. My phone nearly flies out of my hand, and I stumble back, cursing under my breath.
“Shit!” I grunt, catching myself before I can faceplant on the sidewalk.
I glance up, about to mutter an apology, when I see her.
She’s standing there, arms crossed, looking at me as if I just committed a felony. Her face is flushed, her brows drawn together in a deep frown. She’s not smiling. Hell, she’s not even blinking.
And I can’t help but notice how intense she looks. She’s ready tothrow downover the fact that I didn’t watch where I was going.
“Watch where you’re going,” she snaps, cutting through the air sharply. “You nearly knocked me off my feet.”
I blink, thrown off by the sudden fire in her eyes.
“Sorry,” I mutter, stepping back.
But it’s too late. The words fall flat. I’ve already pissed her off too much.
She doesn't even acknowledge it. Instead, she gives me another pointed look.
“Yeah, right,” she scoffs, rolling her eyes. “I’m the one who has to be careful when people like you can’t even look up from their damn phones!”
Alright, this is new. Most people, when you bump into them, give you a pass, maybe a quick apology, and everyone moves on. Not this woman. She’s got a sharp edge to her, one that could cut through steel if she wanted it to.
I can feel the irritation rising in me, but I push it down. “I said I was sorry, alright? It was an accident.”
Her eyes narrow. She’s not buying any of it. “You think I care about your apology? Maybe if you weren’t glued to that thing, we wouldn’t be having this conversation! Thereareother people in the world, you know.”
That hits a nerve. I don’t know what it is about her, but she’s starting to make me feelI’mthe one in the wrong here.
I raise my eyebrows, trying to hold onto some of my patience. “Excuse me? You don’t get to lecture me just because I was texting. It was an accident.”
She lets out a derisive laugh, and I can see the sarcastic edge creeping in. “Oh, so now I’m the one in the wrong for expecting people to be aware of their surroundings? Yeah, real smooth.”
I don’t know what happens next. The words come out before I can stop them. They’ve been waiting in the back of my throat for this exact moment.
“You don’t have to be such a bitch about it.”
The second the words leave my mouth, I know I fucked up. But it’s too late. Her eyes widen, and I can see I’ve gonewaytoo far.
But I can’t gather the words back and stuff them in my mouth again, however much I want to.
Her jaw tightens, and I see the shift in her eyes, a flash of anger that takes the air out of the moment. The tension between us thickens.
“You really want to go there?” she spits out, filled with venom. “You wanna make this my problem when you’re the one who can’t keep his eyes on the road? Fucking hell, is this how you walk around your small town all the time?”
I’m standing a little straighter now, feeling the heat rise in my chest. She’s pushing all the wrong buttons, and I can feel my patience cracking.
