Latte Darling: Book Two of The Darling Series

I make sure my keys are in my pocket and head out into the parking lot.

“Off to lunch again, Boss?” Tom asks, smoking a cigarette, not hiding the smile on his face.

“Yeah,” is the only answer I give.

I hear a couple of barely covered snickers, but I ignore them.

So fucking what that I’m leaving for lunch. It’s Friday and I’m the boss. I can do whatever the fuck I want.

And so what if I’ve left for lunch every day this week.

It’s no one else’s business what I do. And Maddie doesn’t seem to mind. The last two days she’s also brought food to share with me.

Maddie also doesn’t seem to mind that I usually end up eating half her food along with my own. I’ll have to take up weight-lifting again if I keep this up, though she seems to like my size.

Starting my car, I glance at my phone and roll my eyes when I see a text from Brian.

Brian: Whatcha doing for lunch today?

I ignore the message and shift into drive, stomping on the gas.

Brian had given me a few side-looks on Monday night when we both got home from work around the same time. But he didn’t say anything, so neither did I. But then the looks continued, and Wednesday night he cracked. Telling me he’d called the shop to talk to me about something and one of the guys told him that I’d been disappearing every day for lunch.

Disappearing. Like I was sneaking off or some shit.

So I told him that I found a new lunch place that I liked. And the little twerp replied with that lunch place have anything to do with the reason you didn’t sleep at home last weekend?

I lifted a shoulder, burying the lingering guilt I still feel over kinda stealing his girl.

Except that’s not fair to Maddie. Because she was never his. And she’s perfect for me.

Me. And no one else.

Letting thoughts of Maddie swirl in my mind, it’s not long before I find myself back in her little shop.

It feels weird to walk into BeanBag with empty hands, but yesterday Maddie insisted that she’d provide lunch. And since she’s an amazing cook, and I’m not an idiot, I didn’t argue.

“Hey, Axel!” the woman, Leslie, waves at me.

I dip my chin, “Afternoon.”

“Maddie told me to have you take a seat. She’ll be out soon.”

Nodding, I find our usual table and only have to wait a few minutes before Maddie appears. She has Leslie trailing her, both of them laden with plates and mugs.

I start to rise but Maddie shakes her head, “We got it!”

My eyes drink her in as she settles all the items on the table. Her hair is pulled back in a long loose braid. Her tight gray shirt has a small stain across the top of one boob, and she’s wearing my favorite pair of jeans. The ones that look damn near painted on.

We haven’t spent a night together since last weekend. But it’s not like we’ve been avoiding each other. We’ve had lunch every day and text every night. And it seemed like the right call to leave it at that. But I plan to put an end to our chastity tonight. Because seeing Maddie is great. But not touching Maddie is torture.

Thanking Leslie, Maddie lowers herself into the seat across from me. She adjusts the plates, pushes another amazing looking latte towards me, but she doesn’t meet my eyes.

With my guard up, I close my hand over one of Maddie’s fidgeting ones, “What’s the matter?”

“Hmm?” she glances up, but quickly averts her gaze back to the table.

“Baby.” I use my other hand to reach out and grip her chin. “Look at me.”

She does.

“What’s the matter?” I ask again.

Waiting for her to talk, I rub my thumb along her jawline. And when her exhaled sigh tickles across my wrist and I know I have her.

“Are you free tomorrow?”

Her question isn’t what I was expecting, but I nod my head.

“Will you, um…” she slumps a little, “will you be my date to a wedding?”

My eyes widen, “That’s tomorrow?”

I remember her telling me that her friend – Elouise, I think – was getting married soon. But I didn’t realize it was already this weekend.

“Yeah. Sorry. I know I should’ve brought it up sooner. I mean that was the whole reason why I signed up for online dating in the first place. But now that it’s here… it just seems like a really big ask.”

It’s my turn to sigh, “Maddie, please stop worrying. It’s not a big ask.”

She does that baby deer blink at me, the one that would make me agree to anything. But I don’t need any convincing. Sure, it might seem soon to go to a wedding together, but I’m sure as shit not letting some other guy go with her.

“You’ll go?”

I lift a brow, silently commanding her to change the way she said that.

The edges of her mouth tip up. “You’ll go.”

I nod, “I’ll go.”

Slipping her hands out of my grip, Maddie scoots her chair back then quickly circles the table.

“What’s this?”

But I don’t really need to ask, because in the next heartbeat, Maddie’s thrown her arms around my neck in a hug.

With our size difference, she doesn’t have to bend over much but the angle is perfect for her soft tits to press against the top of my chest.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you…” the words are mumbled against my shoulder.

“You’re welcome.” I stroke a hand up her back. “But if you don’t stop soon, I’m gonna need a pillow for my lap.”

I feel her body vibrate with a laugh before she straightens and hurries back to her chair.

“Now tell me the details while we eat, because this looks delicious.”

As I devour the smoked turkey pasta salad Maddie tells me all about the wedding.

It’s not too fancy. Not too far from here. No gifts. And open bar.

It all sounds good until Maddie explains that Elouise is staying at her place tonight and they’ll be together until the wedding starts tomorrow. So, I’ll have to occupy myself until then. But the second that cake is cut… Maddie’s all mine.