ᴛʜᴇ ʀɪᴠᴀʟꜱ ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴀᴄᴛ - ₀₂₀

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𝘞𝘙𝘌𝘕 𝘑𝘈𝘔𝘌𝘚

WALKING INTO THE CAFÉ IS LIKE walking into a war zone, except the soldiers are crunchy granola teens and middle aged men with briefcases.

When I see Rhys sitting in my usual spot, a flicker of warmth evades my chest. Immediately I realize i’m having a heart attack and try to breath normally as I step in line.

My eyes gravitate back to Rhys on their own and I see him scrolling on his phone. He’s wearing dress pants, a fitted black sweater and a necklace. He’s scrolling on his phone with an unreadable expression on his face. It’s not anger that I see, but it’s something along the lines of confusion, maybe?

I step up to the cashier and order my drink. I look back over at Rhys and scan the table. He doesn’t have a drink near him, so I order a black cold brew coffee. In his fridge the day I went over, I saw a coffee press in his fridge, and the day he sat next to me at this coffee shop, I saw the writing on his cup.

Once i’m done paying for the two drinks, they’re already made. So I grab them from the cashier and make my way to the table.

Rhys looks up when I place his coffee in front of him. He doesn’t say anything as I take a seat in the chair opposite him. I take out my laptop and phone from my bag and sip my drink, I got a matcha latte with vanilla foam. It’s good.

“Evening, Miss James.” Rhys’s deep voice breaks into the thoughts about my latte.

“Evening.” I don’t look up as I log onto my laptop. I pull up my email to see I have a new email in my inbox. It’s from Fernando himself.

My eyebrows crease when I read it, and I can feel Rhys watching me as I do.

𝘛𝘖: 𝘸𝘫𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴@𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘦@𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
𝘍𝘙𝘖𝘔: 𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰.𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯@𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺.𝘤𝘰𝘮
𝘚𝘜𝘉𝘑𝘌𝘊𝘛: 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘱
𝘊𝘊: 𝘮𝘢𝘹𝘪𝘯𝘦.𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘴@𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰 𝘒𝘪𝘥𝘴,
𝘈𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘺 𝘶𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘭, 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴, 𝘦𝘵𝘤. 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘔𝘢𝘹𝘪𝘯𝘦.

𝘍𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘉𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴.

I look up to meet Rhys’s curious eyes. I tilt my head and turn my laptop to him, not certain he’s seen the email.

“What is it?” Rhys asks. I motion to the laptop but Rhys uses the toe of his shoe to pull my chair toward him. Then when i’m close enough he closes the distant between us by grabbing onto my seat and pulling me to him.

I steady myself by placing a hand on the table and a hand on his chest. I feel the heat of his skin beneath the fabric of his sweater. The memory of his bare chest flashes into my mind. The memory of him sitting back in his chair, the buttons of his shirt undone, his belt unclasped and the look in his eyes.

I slowly remove my hand from his chest and clear my throat. I reach over the table and grab my laptop. Rhys faintly clears his throat as I sit back down. I place the laptop in front of the both of us and wait until he finishes reading it.

“So, we have to book everything and plan the meetings.” Rhys half asks half states.

“Seems like it. Since we’re both here, it’ll be easier to plan everything in person and not over the phone.” I take my laptop back and go to a hotel website.

After I scroll silently for a few moments I find a five star hotel in the same town that the meetings have to be. I click on it and look at Rhys.

“That’s fine.” He says without looking at the screen, instead choosing to keep his eyes on me. I nod.

“Okay, i’ll book it for two days and one night. That’s enough time right?” I don’t wait for his reply as I click buttons and book two rooms then use the companies information to pay for it.

“Rooms are paid for and now we just need to get there. Does carpooling work for you?” I finally look at Rhys again, and his eyes are already on me.

It’s like i’ve had his attention since the second i sat down. It’s weird, it’s creepy and I totally don’t like it. It makes me wonder what he’s thinking behind those gray eyes. And I don’t like wondering. I like knowing.

“I’ll pick you up Friday at five.” Again, it’s another half question half statement.

I nod and sip my latte. Then remember something. Ugh. I must actually make a sound because Rhys furrows his eyebrows at me.

“It’s my cat. Puff. I can’t leave her alone for two days. Well a night and a day. She’s doesn’t do well alone.” I think back to the time I left her alone for a whole day to go talk to Angie in person. Puff had ripped up my pillows and broken a vase. For such a calm and tiny creature, she sure can flip a switch between cute and crazy.

Rhys sips his coffee and shrugs. “My roommate doesn’t mind cats. He could watch her.”

Puff’s like my daughter. I wouldn’t leave her with someone I can’t trust. But Lex is visiting her parents this weekend so she can’t catsit. Lex. That reminds me. Rhys’s roommate is the same guy who Lex went home with that night at the bar. And if I know anything about her, i’d say she’s still seeing him. So if she trusts him, so will I.

“Yeah. That works. If he can watch her. I’ll give him my spare key so he can check in on her.” I dig through my bag until my finger skims over the cold metal of my spare key.

I pull it out and hand it to Rhys. He takes it and puts it away safely. When I look back at Rhys, he looks at me like i’m crazy.

“You’re actually okay with that? Someone you barely know taking care of your cat.” He says it while looking into my eyes.

“Should I not be okay with it? Is your roommate like a cat-napper? Does he roast them over a fire and eat them like ribs?” I narrow my eyes at Rhys.

“No. No, the weirdest thing Maxon has ever done was back in high school when he ate a snow cone made of the shavings off the ice rink.”

I stare at Rhys, Rhys stares at me. I narrow my eyes. Rhys smirks.

“Seriously?” I ask.

“Seriously. It was a dare for the hockey team initiation. After we’d gotten on the team, he was known as ‘Cone Boy’.” Rhys sips his drink.

“What was your dare for the ‘initiation’?” I ask, leaning my chin in my hand.

“It’s stupid.” He shakes his head but my stare doesn’t budge. “Fine. I was a freshman and had never even touched a girl my age. But the thing that changed that all, was when they dared me to seduce a single mom into giving me her number.” He shook his head, remembering the event.

“And did you do it?”

Rhys’s lips quirk up. “Yeah. Yeah I got her number and something else too.” He shook his head more. “The lady gave me her…panties.” My mouth falls open.

“Didn’t she know you were a child? You were like, what fourteen?” I asked disgusted. What a weird woman.

“Fifteen, but yeah she knew. It wasn’t a big deal and that’s how I broke out of my shell, so I kind of have her to thank.” Rhys shrugs.

I tried to imagine how it played out. Little fifteen year old Rhys going up to a woman and asking for her number, his teammates laughing in the background, then the woman probably had a pervy smile when she dropped her granny pannies and handed them to him.

Rhys didn’t seem half as disgusted as I felt, but maybe it’s just because it was a long time ago.

“So what was your nickname after that?” I tried to change the subject a tad.

“Don’t laugh.” He said.

I narrow my eyes at him; like a ‘really?’. He nods, agreeing with me.

“‘Kitty Wetter'” His face was serious, but he cringed just a bit. I stared at him until he explained. “Her underwear had kittens on them and they were, well wet.” I was sure to catch flys because my mouth was hanging wide.

“Your kidding.” “I’m not.”

I scrunched my nose and hid my face in my sleeve. Rhys just nods, like he was saying ‘yeah, it really was that bad’.

Rhys sipped his coffee and stared at me, my face still buried in my sleeve. The corner of his lips twitched up and he placed his coffee down.

“Speaking of nicknames. Why do you address me as ‘Moose’ in your emails?” He changed the subject, and I was glad.

“The first time you emailed me, your name had autocorrected to ‘Rhys Moose‘.” I watched as Rhys’s eyes squint at me.

“Really?” He face remains passive yet bothered.

“Really.” I sip my latte and refocus on my laptop, surfing different websites as I watch Rhys in my peripheral vision. He runs a hand through his hair as a scowl pastes on his face.

I like toying with him.

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