Free Consequence by Shelly Crane Page A

closer. "Uh…can you stay for one cup of coffee? I'm buying." He tried for a smile again, but I just couldn't let this go any farther.
                  "I'm late for work already." I turned to give Paul a twenty and told him to keep the change. When I turned back, I expected dark eyes to be gone, done with me, but he wasn't. I smiled and started to move around him toward the side back door.
                  He called for me to wait a second as he ran back to get his bag from the table, but I kept going. Before I reached the door, his hand gently caught my long sleeve in his fingers. I looked down at his hand first and then at his face. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "I'm not trying to be creepy, I just…" He licked his lips.
                  His red shirt had a fireman symbol on the front with the number 22 in the middle of it. His jeans were dark, worn, and ripped a little at the knee. He wore black boots and had a brown leather band around his wrist that had the word VIVERE on it.
                  Wow, this boy was going to be a problem if I didn't get away.
                  "I know. I wish I had time to talk, I really do, but I have to go."
                  "I do feel it," he said in a harsh voice. "I said I didn't feel it before, but I do."
                  Every movement but breathing stopped. "Feel what?"
                  "Like…" He moved his hand to my face and I froze in hopeful awe. He swept my hair back behind my ear. "Like we were meant to be here at the same time."
                  It was when his finger touched the rim of my ear that I felt my life changing before my eyes. He sucked in a huge breath right along with me and immediately I felt his hands on both sides of my face, pulling me in to press his forehead to mine as we watched the scenes play out. I worried about him. He must be a human because I'd never seen him before and was probably freaking out, but all I could do in that second was cling to his shirt with my empty hand, fisting the fabric and hanging on as I watched our future life together.
                  In one vision, we were lying in the tall grass somewhere. He ran his fingers up and down my arm. I talked and he listened like his life depended on it. The next one was us as we walked hand in hand down the sand at the beach house my parents owned. He had a bandage across his neck and his arm was in a sling, but he smiled so wide as he looked down at me, black eye and all. And then the third came, us in front of a big house. It was a place that looked familiar, but we stood there, older in our years, proud…like we belonged there on the big lawn and grand landscapes that seemed overgrown, but once beautiful. He was kissing my lips so softly.
                  We eased out of our reverie and his smile wasn't one of a human, it was one of someone who knew exactly what was going on. He moved us gently, pressing my back to the wall by the back door, but kept my face blissfully captive in his warm hands that I just knew were big and hard-worked calloused. "Oh, my g… It can't be," he said, but his smile refuted those words. "It's…really you."
                  "And I don't even know your name," I whispered in return.
                  He chuckled a little, deep and heady. "Seth."
                  "I'm Ava," I answered before he could ask.
                  "Ava," he repeated and I felt shivers run over me. He smiled, moving a little closer before letting his forehead touch mine once more. "I can't believe this is happening."
                  "I don't have to wait anymore," I realized. Even with school and work and everything going on, I was constantly waiting for this. It consumed a little piece in the back of my brain and I was subconsciously always looking for the one whose touch would bind me to him and also set me