Androphobia

iii. eyes like ice

And then he was gone.

"Thea, are you okay?"

Judith's voice broke my train of thought. I looked at her, then back at the man in front of me. He was waiting to pay for the children's books on the counter with a strange expression on his face.

"Yeah. Sorry." Swallowing, I swept a hand through my hair and took the books. I was seeing things. It wasn't him. It wasn't either of those two. It was just a dad trying to buy some books for his kids. He was innocent. He wasn't going to hurt me.

That had been my constant mantra over the few months of me working here and I truly wanted to keep believing it, but what had recently happened to me deemed the statement false. Perhaps my fear really was legitimate. Perhaps it was well founded. Taking a peek at Judith, I couldn't comprehend how she wasn't afraid of the man standing in front of us. Why was I afraid and she wasn't?

As soon as the customer had left, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"You sure you okay? You don't wanna take a break, lovely?" asked Judith again.

"I'm okay, don't worry," I tried to reassure her with a little wave of my hands. I wanted to change the subject. "So how was your week?

And with that, she gleefully commenced her daily chat.

Somehow, we ended up approaching the topic of vegetable soups while I served customers. "And sometimes, I make spicy parsnip soup," she told me and I nodded my head with wide eyes, taking a mental note of the idea. "My son is working today but I'm meeting up with my friends this evening. They said to me, 'Judy, have you made soup this year?' And I said, 'Yes, yes, come along and we can have some soup together. I'll make some bread, just seeded bread. It's delicious with it.' So that's what I'm doing tonight."

"That sounds lovely," I smiled. "If you ever have the time to write down the recipe, I'd love to-"

"Oh, love, serve this man. He's been waiting for you the entire time," she chortled, making me blush as I realised that I had gotten too distracted.

"I'm sorry, sir," I said and bowed my head bashfully, looking at the counter in search of what he wanted to buy, but there was nothing that he had put down.

Tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, I nervously glanced up at the man, only to have my throat tighten.

The man was... breathtaking.

His eyes were what I noticed first. You couldn't help but notice them. They were a haunting blue that looked like they'd been frosted over, just as the ground was during winter, and remained fixed, unmoving. He looked at me with so much certainty as a pair of sharp, thick brows pulled together and shadowed those eyes. His hair was obsidian, falling over part of his face; his jaw was chiselled and sharp; his pink, sensual lips set in a line as he carefully assessed me.

I was in awe of the man, struck by how striking his every feature appeared to be. Every aspect of his face was strong. He looked inhuman.

I felt my heart begin to thud faster and faster as the man stepped closer to the till, looming forward until I was craning my neck to look at him. Every inch of his body was made of pure muscle. Dressed in a suit, several tattoos appeared to crawl up his neck and my eyes flickered to his hands, only to find them inked with plenty of black too; I wondered if there was any inch of him that had been left unmarked. The tattoos ran under his sleeves, leading to bulging arms that he slowly rested on the counter.

I blinked at him.

"Um... is-is there anything I can do for you, sir?"

I silently cursed myself for sounding so weak. A loud slurp resonated from beside me and I would have burst out in laughter at the fact that Judith was sipping tea so noisily at a moment like this, but I was too entranced by the man's eyes. They were so intensely cold and it felt as if I would get lost in those icy plains forever if I wasn't careful, but I didn't have the strength to pull away.