By the time he hands her the coffee, I'm next to her.

"Think you can spare ten minutes?" I ask getting deep into her personal space.

She narrows her blue eyes as she looks at me. "You again?"

"That's right." I flash her a smile. "Since I paid for your coffee, it's a date, whether you like it or not."

"You did not. How much?" She asks my new best friend Teddy.

"Sorry," he shrugs. "It's on him." He motions to me.

"Is that so?"

I smirk at her, with my arms crossed over my chest, enjoying the look on her face. "See, like I said, a date."

She looks around us and asks in a mocking tone, "This is your idea of a date?"

"I'll take what I can get, and since this is the only place I can get some face time with you, this has to do."

"Listen. Cooper, was it?"

"You remember. I must have made an impression."

"Too bad it's not a good one."

"Come on now, you mean to tell me you haven't thought about me at all?" I hold her stare and lean forward a tiny bit, hoping she picks up on my silent invitation for her to touch me. "You didn't wonder about me? Not one little bit?" I smirk letting her know I think she's full of shit.

She shakes her head.

"You didn't leave here and consider the possibility that you made a terrible mistake not giving me a chance? You haven't crawled into bed one night since, closed your eyes, and imagined my hands on your body? Or what kissing me would be like? Not even for a split second?"

"Not at all," she says then quickly darts her eyes off to the side. She's lying. I want to call bullshit, but I don't think that will help me win her over.

"Then I have to admit that I'm disappointed, I'd even go so far as to say I'm borderline crushed, because I thought about you a whole lot." I stand to my full height, inching even closer to her, so that she's forced to look up into my eyes. "I pictured your face at the end of the day, and those soft, beautiful lips." I reach out and pull my thumb across her bottom lip. She doesn't pull away or slap my hand. She takes a slow deep breath. I've got the reaction I wanted. Her mind is racing with images of us. I need to keep them coming.

"I've wondered if you could script it, what would your perfect kiss be like? Would you want me to stare into your eyes, and pull you close?" My hand curls around her hip and I'm subtly bringing her close to me, just like I'm describing. "Would you want our lips to meet and move slow and tender? Or do you like the hard, hungry kisses that invite desperate touching and pawing?" Her lips part slightly. The red color of her face deepens. She wants me damn it. I just hope she's not too proud to admit it.

"But if you're sure thoughts like that haven't crossed your mind at all since we last saw each other then, I guess I was wrong." I let my hand slip from her as I force myself to pull back and inch away. "Wrong about you. About how perfect you'd feel in my arms. It makes me wonder what other things I might be wrong about. Are you really a Shatter My World Doll? or is it more like a Stick A Knife In My Heart Cutie?" I'm further away than I want to be, and she doesn't look like she gives a shit. Fuck.

I keep backing up toward my table until I'm halfway across the small coffee shop. She's not saying anything, not responding. I need to find enough words to fill the space until she tells me to stop. I talk, and keep talking.

"If you're not the least bit curious, then I'll make it up to you right now by walking away. I'll just walk out that door, and smother the burning attraction I feel for you that has me obsessed, and wondering everything about you. And don't worry, I won't bother you. I won't show up here anymore. In fact even if chance pulls us together unexpectedly, I'll make it my business to stay away and make sure you don't ever see me again."

I turn calling her bluff, hoping like hell she'll make a move to stop me. I pick my book up off my table in the corner, still waiting. Still hoping. Without even glancing in her direction, I head straight for the door. I keep my eyes forward, willing her to call out to me, to stop me. I can't let her know how fucking crushed I am at this very moment that she's about to let me walk away, and out of her life.

"Alright." She makes a sound like she's sucking her teeth, and looks even more annoyed. "Fine. I have a few minutes to talk."

I turn back and gesture toward her, book in hand, giving her a taste of her disinterested attitude. "No. It's fine. I wouldn't want to put you out or anything. I guess I'm the only one struck by Cupid's arrow, and you shouldn't have to suffer because of it."

"Would you please stop." A hint of a smile plays at her lips.

"Please, don't feel obligated to do anything on my behalf." It's working. She's advancing toward me. "This unyielding attraction I have for you, that blinds me to the rest of the world, it's my cross to bear, and mine alone."

She laughs, and that sound has my insides melting like an ice over a flame. I don't realize that I'm staring at her with a dumb smile on my face until she speaks.

"What?"

"That sound."

"What sound?" She asks looking around her for the thing that's making me smile.

"Your laugh. It's beautiful. Just like you."

Her face betrays her surprise. "You know, Cooper. I believe that's the first honest thing you've said to me."

I shake my head in disagreement. "Everything I just said is true. I have thought about you non-stop since you walked out that door. I have wondered how you like to be kissed so when it happens, because make no mistake it's going to happen, it'll be perfect. And I do want to know everything there is to know about you."

She looks away.

"Here's my phone." I hold it out to her, terrified of the words coming out of my mouth, but I can't stop them. It's like there's no connection between my brain and my mouth. If I thought the whole situation with Madeline/ Madison was bad, why the fuck am I inviting more trouble with this one?

"Call yourself so you have my number, look through my pictures. Whatever you want."

"You knew you were hoping to see me. You could've bought yourself a new phone."

"Why would I go through so much trouble when you won't give me the time of day?"

Before she can answer. Before things can fall apart, my eyes shift away from the girl I'm dying to get with and fall onto a girl being wheeled into the coffee shop. She's young and beautiful. Probably late teens or early twenties. Her eyes are filled with tears.

Something about her yanks on my heartstrings, and I can't help but stare. Her hair is so dark against her pale skin, and her eyes are such a pretty blue. Her face wrestles me into to the past. She's a living ghost. Luna. I know it's not her. It can't be her, but the sadness this girl's face holds, reminds me so much of Luna. And that is the last person I need to be thinking of right now.

Ever.

The woman pushing the wheelchair, who I'm guessing is the girl's mother, bends down to speak to her. I'm statue-still watching these strangers.

"Are you okay?" I hear close to my ear. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

The voice comes from the woman standing next to me whose name I still don't know. The woman that up until five seconds ago I almost had convinced to spend some time with me. Now she's fallen into the background. So much so, I vaguely hear her. I can't focus on her or the words coming out of her mouth. I'm unable to peel my eyes off of the other girl that entered the shop. I watch and listen to the interaction in front of me.