Page 17 of To Hate You

“Oh...um.” I tucked my hair behind my ears, trying to come up with a plausible reason why I looked like shit. But I couldn’t think of any. “You know what...I’m not even going to try and make some bullshit excuse. Yes, I’ve been crying. And no, I don’t want to talk about it.”

He shrugged. “Noted. But I do think we’ll have to get a donut, or something drenched in chocolate to go with our coffee.”

I relaxed a little and smiled. “That sounds...great.”

“Awesome. Come on.”

Andrew opened the door for me, the bells chiming as we walked in. Indulgence was a quaint little place. The windows had wooden slats, and round tables were decorated with little copper pots holding sugar sachets. The walnut-colored flooring and the beige walls gave the place that warm cozy feeling.

The aroma of freshly ground coffee beans welcomed us. I breathed in deep and hummed. It was a smell that always managed to make me feel good. Maybe because it was the smell I used to wake up to when I was a child, when my mom was still alive.

“Let’s grab this table.” He pulled out the chair to the table closest to us and helped me in my seat before sitting down across from me. “You know, I’ve never actually been here before.”

“You haven’t?”

“Nope. We moved here a few months ago, and I never had the chance to explore Atherton that much.”

I placed my elbows on the table. “You and Spencer go to the same university, right?”

“Yup.”

“And you chose to move with your family to Atherton, which is quite the trip from the university you go to.”

He shrugged. “I know. It makes no sense.”

“No.” I smiled. “It doesn’t.”

The waitress walked up, holding her pen and notepad. “Can I get you guys anything?”

I snorted. She was asking if she could get us anything, yet she looked at Andrew the entire time. Not that I blamed her. The guy was a catch, a definite attention grabber with those magic unicorn dimples.

“I’ll have a long macchiato and a slice of the most chocolaty cake you have.” He looked my way. “You up for a piece of chocolate cake?”

“Why the hell not? Who’s counting calories today?”

The waitress reluctantly tore her attention from Andrew and glanced at me. “Would you also like the long macchiato?”

“Sure.” Just as the waitress turned, it hit me like a ton of bricks. “Um, on second thought. I’ll just have a decaf.”

The waitress nodded and walked off toward the coffee bar.

At first, I felt out of place, especially with Silas’ voice inside my head telling me that Andrew had a thing for me. But surprisingly, the conversation flowed as if we had known each other for years. And I didn’t pick up on anything weird or flirty from him. We were just two friends chatting and laughing and enjoying some chocolate cake. It felt good talking to someone without having that hollow feeling inside your stomach because the conversation was about the recent past that rained down a shitstorm of life-altering decisions.

“You should have seen your brother. Spencer was drunk off his ass, running around the lacrosse field in nothing but his torn boxers.” We both burst out laughing.

“I’d pay good money to have seen that,” I said between bursts of laughter.

“Oh, I have pictures.”

“You do?”

Andrew snickered as he nodded. “It was on everyone’s phones within ten minutes.” He took out his phone, but I held up my hands and pinched my eyes closed.

“No. Nope. I take that back. I don’t want to see my brother running around in his underwear, thank you very much.”

Our laughter settled, and I took the last sip of my decaf coffee before glancing at the copper clock against the wall, realizing that two hours had passed. “Wow. Where did the time go?”

He straightened in his seat. “I can get you another coffee or something else to drink.”

---