Page 11 of Sebastian

“Still here?” Donnie comes back from what has to be the world's fastest shower.

I force myself to move, to switch out my Mars t-shirt for a plain one and my gym shoes for my street ones. I can see Donnie eyeing me with a concerned look, but he’s not usually one to pry into other people’s business.

“I’m fine,” I offer because Donnie and I are friends. Because I don’t want him to go mentioning anything to Beau or Gavin, Beau’s husband and Mars’s co-owner. Because Beau and Gavin won’t hesitate to corner me and bombard me with questions. “Really, I’m good.”

He nods, still unconvinced. “Okay, sure.”

I zip up my bag and close the locker door. “Cool. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“Yeah. See you.”

On my way out, I wave goodbye to Sawyer, the guy who mans the front desk on evenings and weekends, then sidestep a group of people who are loitering by the little tables next to the juice bar. I push open the main doors and run headlong into someone.

Vanilla. Like a tray of gooey chocolate chip cookies. My mouth waters at the scent. It takes me a second to realize I’m sniffing someone and I take a step back to apologize. Only to find that I’ve walked into the person I’ve spent the last couple weeks looking for.

“Sebastian.”

“Hi.” He squeaks and glances quickly down at his shoulder.

My hands are around his arms—to hold him steady, of course, because we collided and I don’t want Sebastian falling over. I immediately pull my hands back, my palms still tingling from the touch, and stuff them into my pockets.

“Sorry about that.”

Sebastian’s eyes are wide as he stares up at me. Up close like this, I can see specks of gold in his brown irises. They sparkle in the late evening light.

“It’s okay.” Sebastian’s voice is quiet, just enough to bridge the gap between us. “You’re, uh, on your way out?” He winces and keeps stammering. “I mean, of course you’re on your way out. Sorry, stupid question.”

A smile tugs at my lips and warmth blossoms in my chest. He really is cute. “It’s not a stupid question. And yes, I’m all done with clients for the day.”

“Cool.”

I’ve stepped aside to let the door shut, but otherwise, my feet are perfectly content to stay glued to their spot on the sidewalk. I’ve spent nearly two weeks looking for these dark eyes, that dark hair, my feet aren’t about to let me walk away from it now. Sebastian makes no move to open the door either. So we stand there, in front of Mars, staring at each other like that’s a perfectly normal thing for two near strangers to do.

A knock on the glass door jolts me from the depths of Sebastian’s eyes.

“Hey, uh… mind if I…?” It’s Donnie, on the other side of the glass, smirking at me like all the dots have connected themselves and he knows exactly what’s going on.

I move out of the way, drop my chin to my chest, and rub the back of my neck.

“Sorry to interrupt.” Donnie’s voice drips with amusement.

“Oh! No, we’re not… we weren’t…” Sebastian is adorable when he’s nervous like this. I can see his flush under his naturally olive skin and it makes me wonder how far down his chest it extends.

“I was leaving,” I say, though now that Sebastian’s here, I don’t want to leave anymore.

“And I was going in,” Sebastian says more to me than to Donnie.

“Right…” Donnie looks back and forth between us, biting his lips like he’s trying really hard not to laugh. “Well, then, I will leave you two to it.”

He slips away, and thank god, because I don’t know what’s going on here, but there’s definitely something happening between me and Sebastian.

“So, um, you’re going home?” Sebastian asks, his voice taking on that soft quality again, like he’s speaking for my ears only.

“Yeah.”

“No big plans for the evening?”

“Nope.”

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