"She ordered a latte, voice like honey dripping over broken glass. I knocked back the rest of my rotgut coffee, grimacing at the taste. If the Lord had tasted this coffee, the Day of Wrath would have come.

I knew I should've walked away, but my feet had other ideas. Before I knew it, I was standing next to her, close enough to catch a whiff of her perfume. It smelled expensive, like gardenias and bad decisions.

'Buy you a cup?' I asked, trying to sound casual, like my heart wasn't doing the jitterbug in my chest.

She turned those baby blues on me, and I felt like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. 'I've got my own, thanks,' she said, cool as a cucumber in January.

'Well, then,' I said, 'how about I buy you dinner instead?'"

#AI