"After you," Dylan murmurs as he holds the door to the coffee shop open for me, eyes meeting mine as we share a smile.
I bite down on my lip as I enter the coffee shop, cheeks flushing. I can't help feeling like a schoolgirl with a crush around Dylan. Something about his charismatic personality and boyish good looks makes me feel like I'm in high school all over again. I don't entirely hate the feeling.
I step up the counter with Dylan trailing behind me, placing an order for a caramel iced coffee. Dylan orders a black coffee, and I'm wrestling with a five dollar bill when Dylan hands the cashier his debit card, covering both of our orders.
"You didn't have to do that," I say to Dylan once we're waiting on our drinks.
"I know." Dylan shoots me that crooked grin of his, shrugging. "I wanted to."
"But you paid last time," I point out. "At least let me get the next round."
"So that means there's going to be a next time?" Dylan is quick to ask, trying to play smug. However, his eyes gleam hopefully.
I blush as I realize what I've said, unsure of how to answer the question. "Well, I'd like for there to be a next time," I confess, shyly meeting Dylan's gaze.
"I'd like for there to be a next time, too," Dylan admits. "I'm still going to pay, though."
"Dylan!" I exclaim, shoving his shoulder whilst laughing. He laughs along, our gazes locking.
A barista hands us our drinks before either of us have the chance to say another word. Dylan and I take seats at our usual round table by the window.
"What are you thinking about?" Dylan asks as he takes a sip of his coffee. "You have that look on your face."
"What look?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.
Dylan chuckles. "That look you get when you're lost in thought."
I shrug, sipping my coffee before muttering, "I was just thinking about how crazy it is that you like hot coffee."
"What?" Dylan asks incredulously, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "I'm sitting here wondering how you can like iced coffee. Coffee wasn't meant to be a cold drink."
"Says who?" I bicker. "What? Is iced coffee not manly enough for you?"
Dylan rolls his eyes at my dig. "You know, maybe this thing between us isn't going to work out after all . . ."
It's my turn to roll my eyes. "That'd be a shame. Who else will buy coffees for me?"
Dylan shakes his head as he smiles. "I'm sure you've got boys lining up to buy you coffees, Rhodes."
I blush at the compliment. "Yet I'm sitting here with you," I murmur, returning his smile.
"Lucky me," Dylan retorts. He surprises me by resting his hand atop of mine, his warmth seeping into my skin. He laces his fingers through mine and I smile down at our intertwined hands, my heart fluttering. It's nice, sitting with a boy who makes me feel comfortable and safe.
But is that really what you want? A voice whispers in the back of my mind. Do you want to settle for a comfortable relationship? Or do you want a relationship that is safe at the same time it's reckless? A love that is pure yet wild. You want someone to counter you and complete you. Someone to bring the match to light your flame, to remind you that life is about taking risks. You don't want your heart to flutter with butterflies, you want the whole damn zoo.
You want . . .
Noah Reed.
I blink as the thought crosses my mind, realizing that I've been staring out of the window next to me that reveals the street outside. The second Noah's name passes through my head, I swear I see him. However, I must be imagining things, as there's no way Noah is here now, especially not when I'd just been thinking about him. That'd be too much of a coincidence.
I blink once more for good measure, sure that the image of Noah clouding my mind will disappear. I'm only seeing things. It's not real.
Yet it is.
My breath hitches as I study the image of Noah crossing the street, heading in my direction. I'm unable to take my eyes off of the boy who managed to capture my heart and break it all in the span of a few months, wondering if this is really happening.
Studying him closely, I find Noah to look relatively the same as when he left. His silhouette approaches closer, causing my heart to pound in my chest. His hair is the same shade of dark blond, though it's shorter now, a few unruly strands still making a point to hang messily over his forehead. His facial features seem sharper now somehow, as if they've hardened the same way I know he has within after all this time. If it's possible, Noah looks taller. He's stronger now, too, which I notice immediately. The width of his arms seems to have doubled, his shoulders broader than when he'd been a teenager.
I'm in a state of shock as I watch Noah wander toward the very café I'm sitting in now. My heart seizes has I realize that I don't know the version of Noah Reed I'm looking at now. I know the cold, "bad" boy he had tried to be when I first met him. I know the loving and passionate side of Noah Reed that I fell for so long ago. I know the fiery and tormented version of Noah Reed he had been when he left. But I don't know him as a man; don't know the first thing about the boy I see walking down the street.
Once upon a time, Noah Reed had been my whole world.
Now, I find myself thinking as I watch Noah reach for the door handle, entering the coffee shop, he's nothing but a stranger.
A stranger who knows my darkest secrets. A stranger who once held my heart in the palm of his hands, only to shatter it within his grasp. A stranger who knows my body in ways nobody else does, a stranger who loved me in a way no one else has.
A stranger who is staring at me as if he has seen a ghost.
____
a/n: i miss writing about blake and noah together so even this small interaction between them makes me happy sjsjsj