Page 24 of Catch a Tiger

His palm slaps the table. “Then you literally have no problems here, just your stupid brain telling you there should be one.”

Silence stretches between them while she nibbles on her bottom lip. Is it really so simple? Is she really overcomplicating this? “What do I do?”

He waves a hand in the air. “Oh, that’s easy. Just tell the guy you have feelings for him too. That’s all he was trying to tell you, Maria. He has feelings for you. It’s the start of something great. You’ll see.”

“I don’t want to tell him in a text.”

He shrugs again. “Then meet him somewhere.”

“Now?” she asks a little too loudly because, by the look in his eyes, he means right this second. “I’m at work!”

He holds out his hand, palm up. “Give me your apron.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m taking over your shift so that you can go talk to your lover boy.”

She curses under her breath. “I can’t let you do that.”

“Why?” He frowns. “I have nothing else to do. Homer is at work and there’s literally nothing on the TV during the day.”

He’s being serious. Literally serious. He holds out a hand for her apron, and before she knows it, she’s untying it. “Are you sure about this?”

“Yes. Now go.”

Standing from her chair, she pulls out her phone and texts Mark as she leaves The Brew.

Chapter 11

Mark

In his living room, pacing the length of his floor, Mark chews on his thumbnail. He hasn’t chewed his nails since he was in high school, but when he got a text from Maria, he started to worry and immediately picked up the habit once again.

The text said that she wanted to talk. He has no idea what that means, but he had given her his address anyway. He was getting ready for his lunch break at the time and had rushed home to beat her there. The last thing he wants is for her to have to wait for him.

Since it is his lunch break, he should be eating right now, but eating is the furthest thing from his mind. Whereas he was previously hungry, that all disappeared with one text message.

A week. He’s waited an entire agonizing week to hear back from her. He had almost given up hope. Sean had even noticed, though he never told Sean the details about what happened between them. He knows that Sean would try to hook him up with another girl to get over the brief but intense rollercoaster that came with Maria.

But the week has been the hardest thing he’s ever done. He refrained from calling her, from texting, or going over to her apartment just to see her face and smell her unique scent. He stopped himself several times from going to the coffee shop and ordering a cup of coffee from whoever was there, just to inquire about Maria.

Does he regret telling Maria anything now? No. He’d do it all over again.

A knock sounds on his door and he startles, having been so lost in thought while he paced.

He heads to the door and quickly opens it. Maria stands there, hands clasped in front of her. She’s wearing a blue dress today and matching shoes. She lifts her gaze to meet his and for a moment, they just stand there staring at one another.

“Hi,” she whispers.

“Hey.”

“I’m…uh. I’m sorry that I asked to meet you in the middle of the day. I know you’re busy with your job and I hope I wasn’t an inconvenience but I really wanted to talk to you before I chickened out.” She rambled. He’s noticed that she rambles when she’s nervous.

He opens the door wider. “You’re never an inconvenience to me, Maria. Want to come in?”

She nods and he moves out of the way to let her enter. When she’s inside, he shuts the door and watches as she glances around.

He doesn’t live in a small house. His job affords him to have a four-bedroom, three-bathroom home with an underground pool in the backyard. The floor is all wood, a selling point for him when he was looking at houses.