He met my gaze and nodded, so Joy must have shown him my photo, which would have been nice if she’d done the same for me. It’s not like he was unattractive or anything, just…maybe a little odd.
I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to do now that I was able to see he’d gotten his own drink, so I shoved one hand into the pocket of my trousers and approached his table. “Karl, right?”
“With aK?” he said it so it sounded like a question, and I wondered if he was actually serious, like it was pronounced differently somehow with aC. His whole life was he really that tortured by the misuse of aC?
“Yes, I remembered from your text,” I said, trying to make light of it.
His smile looked more like a grimace, but I wasn’t going to judge him for it. I gave him a quick once-over since I could see he was doing the same thing to me. Even sitting, I could tell he was tall and a little gangly. His face was thin enough I could see his cheekbones, and it made his eyes look bigger than they really were. His hair was thin and a little wispy and that strange color somewhere between blond and brown that didn’t really have a name.
I couldn’t help but wonder about Joy’s taste, considering the way she’d described him.
“Do you want me to get your drink?” Karl asked after a long beat.
I shook my head, snapping out of my thoughts. “No. I’ll just…” God, I was awkward. I wondered if Joy had told this poor man that I’d also never dated before. “I’ll be right back.”
I hurried up to the counter and decided against caffeine because I was already jittery enough. I’d been kept up until three in the morning thanks to my delightful neighbor and whatever the fuck he was working on, and my nerves about the date had given me strange, stress nightmares.
I wasn’t looking forward to a repeat.
“Herbal tea,” I said to the barista.
The man gave me a curious look, and it probably had something to do with my tone, which had to sound panicked, but he nodded all the same and took my card, tapping it against the little pad beside his register.
“Give me two seconds,” he said, and I appreciated being able to wait at the counter instead of sitting awkwardly at the table with Karl until they called my name.
Two seconds really was almost two seconds, though, and I wasn’t close to composing myself by the time he passed over the paper cup and leaned in close. “Would you like an angel shot with that?”
I blinked at him. “A…what?”
“An angel shot,” he murmured. His gaze flickered back toward the table where Karl sat, then landed on me. “Are you safe?”
“Oh,” I breathed out. Angel shot had to be some kind of code, and it was sweet but also humiliating. Was I really so awkward that I looked like I was in danger? “Um…I’m fine. Really. But thanks.”
He didn’t quite look like he believed me, but he still let me walk away. I felt his gaze on me, and I wondered then if it was my nerves making it seem like I was in trouble or if maybe Karl was some kind of serial killer.
“Was he hitting on you?” Karl asked as I started to slide into the seat.
I stared at him. “Hm?”
“The person serving the coffee. Was he hitting on you?”
I bristled immediately. I wanted to blame Nicolai for the reaction, but for all that he was an absolute ass who destroyed so much of me, he’d never given a shit if someone else paid me attention. It turned out I was just the kind of man who didn’t tolerate that kind of possessive bullshit from someone I just met.
“Does it matter?”
Karl blinked, then sighed. “You could do worse.”
Okay, that was… weirder. “Listen, if you think this is a bad idea, we can call it quits, and I’ll tell Joy it was all my fault.” I wanted to give the man an out. And if he was a serial killer, I could only pray he’d take me up on it.
Karl looked even stiffer somehow, then suddenly deflated like he was a balloon losing air. “I’m so sorry. It’s been a stressful week, and I have a major career change coming up, which I’m trying to prepare for. But I’ve known your sister for a while, and she said you were nice. And good looking. She wasn’t wrong,” he added after a beat of silence. “I think you’re a little out of my league.”
My cheeks pinked, and I felt a little dizzy from the emotional whiplash, but I figured everyone deserved a second chance, and if anyone could understand insecurity, it was me. “Um, trust me, I’m not. And he wasn’t hitting on me,” I finally said, not willing to tell him that the barista thought he might be some sort of predator. I took a sip of my tea and grimaced. Whatever blend it was, it was unbearably bitter. “He was just being pretentious.”
“Ah.” Karl chuckled quietly. “You’ll find that a lot around here.”
I looked at him again, letting some of my apprehension fade away. There weren’t sparks, but then again, I didn’t want sparks. Sparks had never done anything good for me in my entire life. “It certainly feels like home.”
Karl’s eyes brightened a bit, and I thought for just a second that I could like him. “Your sister tells me you were living in England. How was that?”