He smiled as he laid a tip on the table. “Yeah. It was. Can I walk you to your car?”
It was maybe half a minute’s journey away, but Mina didn’t point that out. “Sure.”
He stopped just a few yards outside the door. “Can we get together again sometime soon?”
Mina tried to hide her surprise, but the look that passed through his eyes told her she’d been unsuccessful.
“After all, I owe you a coffee.”
She smiled. “Actually, I think it’s the other way around. You bought me a latte and I abandoned it.”
A sharp gust of wind sent Mina’s hair dancing and he closed the distance between them, invading her personal space in a way that made her want to run through the poses they’d struck together earlier that afternoon in the studio. “OK. You got me. I just want an excuse to see you again.”
A shiver of mingled delight and alarm raced through Mina’s being. “Really?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“Yeah. I’d kind of hoped you’d gleaned that from the kiss, though.”
Beneath the heavy makeup she hadn’t taken the time to wash off in the studio, Mina blushed. He was almost close enough to kiss her again, and her heart was racing as if he were about to.
“How about Tuesday?” he asked. “I’m not working late that night.”
She searched her mind for a prior obligation or excuse but found nothing.
He misread her silence. “Do you have to work then?”
She shook her head. “No. Tuesday will be fine.” She’d meet him and use the time alone with him to explain who she really was. When he found out that she and Jess were a package deal, he wouldn’t be interested in seeing her again and that would be OK. It would sting, but she couldn’t leave him in the dark. Not after the kiss. The memory of it sent her heart racing, and she could have used a little heartbreak to balance the effect.
“I’ll pick you up. Any time after six will be fine with me.”
“How about seven?” That would give her time to cook dinner for Jess before she left.
“Perfect.” He leaned in suddenly, settling his hands on Mina’s sides and pulling her to him. The kiss he gave her was sweet, but she sensed the tension beneath his restrained movements. She felt it too but didn’t dare give in. After all, this would be their last kiss.
****
“Mina, take a look at this.”
Mina tucked a stack of bills into her register, closed the drawer and turned to face her co-worker Amy. Amy was holding a cell phone, a snapshot on display on the screen. “You took a picture?” Ashley was the subject of the photo, looking annoyed as she stood behind the bank counter in her white sweater with its comically positioned salad dressing stain. After lunch that day she’d gone about her work for an hour before finally catching sight of her reflection in the drive-through teller window and noticing the bright orange smudge.
Amy shook her head. “Not me. Brian took it.”
Laughter echoed across the lobby. Mina turned to see Brian, one of the loan officers, peeking out from his cubicle and flashing her and Amy a mischievous grin. It wasn’t just the other tellers who couldn’t stand Ashley. She’d only been working at the bank for three weeks and she’d already succeeded in offending almost every one of the employees, except for the managers. She treated anyone with a lick of power like royalty, simpering and ‘brown-nosing’, as Brian liked to call it.
“He’s calling her ‘Thousand Island Tits’,” Amy said, returning Brian’s grin.
The bank’s front double-doors swung open and Mina suppressed a snigger as a customer entered. “I think it was actually French dressing.”
Amy cast a glance over her shoulder.
“I’ll take care of him,” Mina said, nodding at the customer as she stepped toward her register.
She didn’t quite make it. An argyle blur collided with her shoulder and sent her spinning. She tipped into Amy, knocking her against the counter. As they struggled to regain their balance and untangle themselves, something clattered against the floor tiles.
Amy’s cell phone. It ricocheted off the wall and hit the spiked heel of Ashley’s shoe. She stood there glaring from above the high neck of her argyle sweater, her eyes darting between the phone, Amy and Mina. Whether or not she’d realized that Amy and Mina had been talking about her at first, she’d seen the photo now.
“Are you OK?” Amy brushed a few stray curls out of her eyes and shot Mina a look of concern. It was a good thing neither she nor Mina were wearing shoes like Ashley’s. They probably would have broken their ankles if they had been.