register and belly crawl my way to the backroom. And there was no way my guipure lace was belly crawling anywhere. Taking one last breath, and willing my nerves to calm, I turned around.
We made eye contact. At once, I was grateful I’d heard him come in, that I’d at least had a few seconds to prepare. I’d clearly caught him by surprise; the shock of the moment was written all over his face. He froze, his jaw hanging open, and his cell phone, once secure in his hand, clattered to the tile floor at his feet.
He scrambled to pick up his phone, wiping it on his sleeve before quickly dropping it into the inside pocket of his suit coat. And oh, what a suit. The color was good. Blue, not too bright, just bold enough to give him an edge over the more conservative grays and blacks. The fabric was expensive, the tailoring impeccable. His tie was great. Silk. Purple. And his shoes? Sweet tea and cornflakes. Medallion toe oxfords in a rich brown leather I immediately wished I could touch. I’d forgotten how good he made clothes look.
“Hi,” I managed to say.
For all the scrambling I’d witnessed seconds before, he recovered quickly and was suddenly as poised and polished as ever. “Hey, Dani,” he said, the words smooth and soft. “It’s great to see you.”
I admired and hated him in the same second for having such control over his emotions.
I closed my eyes and swallowed. Not many people made Southern sound as good as he did.
“What are you doing here?” I realized as soon as the words left my mouth how filled with hurt they sounded and I hated myself for being so transparent.
He dropped his eyes and I winced. He’d picked up on it too.
“Work,” he said. “I’m just here for a few days.”
“Work,” I repeated, curious about what that actually meant. Accounting work? Something different?
He’d been an accountant at LeFranc right up until the week we’d broken up, the same week he’d left the city altogether. Office gossip was that he’d been fired after a disagreement with his stepfather. I believed the disagreement part—Alex hadn’t been happy at LeFranc for a while—but my guess was that he’d left willingly, on his own terms.
Alexander Randall was not the kind of man who got fired.
A few weeks after he’d left, Isaac had texted me and told me he’d hired Alex to help him with his taxes and some other business stuff. He and Alex had met a few times while we’d been dating, and they’d liked each other enough to exchange numbers; Isaac had texted Alex money questions all the time before we’d broken up. Isaac had worried I’d be upset when he’d told me, but I’d mostly pretended not to care. I’d been firmly in the rage stage of my post-break-up grief at the time, when the mere mention of Alex’s name was enough to send me flying into a fit. And it’s not like they were hanging out. Alex was doing his taxes. That only took minutes of interaction.
Alex took a step forward. “How are you?” he asked, his tone so sincere, a spark of anger flared in my chest. He didn’t get to care about me anymore. Not here. Not now.
“Here are your drinks, Dani,” Chloe said softly behind me. I gave her a brief nod and mouthed a silent thank you.
I looked back at Alex and shrugged. “I’m fine,” I said. “The same, really.”
He nodded. “That’s good to hear.”
We stood there, the air between us so full of awkward and uncomfortable, I half-expected everyone else in the coffee shop to get up and walk out just to save themselves. When Alex didn’t say anything else, I picked up the drinks Chloe had left for me and started for the door. I held them up as I walked past, evidence presented before a judge. “I should get these to the office.”
“Of course.” Alex stepped to the side, but then he called after me. “Dani, wait.”
I turned around.
“I feel like we should . . . talk.”
Talk. Now he wanted to talk? A full year of silence and he suddenly decided he wanted to work it all out in the doorway of Java Jean’s? I almost laughed. “We should have talked a year ago.”
He closed his eyes. “I know. You’re right about that. I’m sorry—”
“Alex, stop.” I cut him off. “Just stop. I can’t do this here.”
His jaw was tight, his brow creased, but he nodded his