Free Our Chance by Natasha Preston

don’t think I have enough time for a quickie.” My voice was much too loud for an unusually quiet coffee shop and no less than four people looked up. The young man in the smart pinstripe suit gave me more attention than necessary. If he thought I was having a quickie with him he was going to be disappointed.
    “Christ, people are watching,” I muttered into the phone. Why did I continue to answer his calls in public?
    Damon laughed, as I thought he would. “Let’s step this up.”
    “Let’s not!” I’d like to think that if he was here he would stop but he absolutely wouldn’t. Now I didn’t care what people thought of me, but Damon didn’t care on a whole different level. “Seriously, what do you want?”
    He laughed again and replied, “I just wanted to see if we’re still on for tonight.”
    “We are. Chloe and Logan are meeting us at the restaurant so we can meet after work and go tomorrow if you want?”
    “Yeah, sure, I’ll come by and pick you up.”
    “Okay.”
    “You are?”
    I frowned, my heart speeding up. “Yeah, why?”
    There was a pause that I didn’t like at all. He cleared his throat. “You just seem different, quieter, I don’t know.”
    “The entire coffee shop doesn’t think so.”
    “Nell.”
    “Yes?”
    Sighing, he said, “Is everything okay? We can talk about that, right?”
    No. We couldn’t talk about the really personal stuff, that was for couples and we weren’t a couple. “Everything’s fine, Damon, it’s just my boss and his son. You know what an arse they can be.”
    “Those jumped up little pricks will only be sorry when you’re gone. When are you thinking about changing jobs?”
    I snorted. “About three months ago. I’m going to look into it soon.”
    “Okay, well if you need any help…”
    My eye twitched. I rarely asked anyone for help and I hated it when it was randomly offered. People thinking I needed help made me feel weak.
    “Thanks,” I bit out, “but I’m fine.”
    “Alright.”
    Sighing, I asked, “So how was your weekend?”
    He instantly brightened and it better not because of the girl. “It was good, nice to catch up with the family. What did you do?”
    “Got drunk with Chloe, showed the world my underwear, and then went to dinner at my mum’s.” And had the worst day I’d had in a long time.
    “Right. How drunk were you?” He asked. I could hear amusement and concern in his voice and knew he was fishing to find out if I’d gone home with anyone.
    “I remember getting to the bar and waking up in the morning so I’m going with considerably drunk. It was a good night though. I think.”
    “I’ve not seen you drunk for too long.”
    “We’ll rectify that soon. Anyway, I better go and eat. I’ll see you after work, okay?”
    “Yeah, see you later, Nell.”
    I hung up and picked at a slice of lemon cake for the next half an hour and I pretended it was normal that Damon hadn’t sent me a follow on dirty text. I usually got one if we’d spoken during my lunch break, especially if he’d mentioned sex or my underwear. He’d probably realised that he’d made me feel uncomfortable with his offer of help, which was going to make seeing him later awkward.
    I grabbed my handbag and headed out of the door. A relationship wasn’t something I wanted because of the drama, responsibility, work and the fact that it would probably all go to hell but I felt like all of that was exactly what I already had with Damon. Our casual relationship was turning into something it shouldn’t be and I didn’t know how long I could ignore that for.
    Back at my desk, I started with a pile of invoice filing that had somehow become my job. Damon had started texting throughout the rest of afternoon but my mind wasn’t in it, no matter how rude the messages were. After a while he’d given up and I couldn’t blame him. I was determined not to let him think I was a moody bitch and cancel on me, so as soon as The Ogre and his son left – early as