The Coffee Shop Read Online Free PDF Page B

calls for some girl named Kristin on a regular basis. I always knew when Kristin had a new boyfriend, and it was like the changing of the guard, I’ll tell you. One time, a wrong number kept ringing and tried coming on to me. I am busy thinking, ‘Poor Kristin. That she had to hook up with some creep that goes behind her back with a wrong phone number, for God’s sake!’ And when I wouldn’t have any part of it, I was told I was a drag.” He was hanging on every word, and she smiled.
    “But that’s another story?”
    “Yes, I can say that it was.”
    “So, how will I be able to get a hold of you?”
    “Well, you’re here now. What is it you wish to say to me?”
    “I wish to say, you need to get a phone.”
    She sighed. “All right, I’ll get one, if only to end this conversation about getting one.” He smiled as if he’d won some sort of award, and she wondered why he thought it so important.
    “Here is my phone number.” He handed her a card, and she took it.
    “You go around with cards with your name on them?”
    “Why sure, doesn’t everyone?”
    “Yes, but don’t you like have your lawyers do all the negotiating or something?”
    “Negotiating?”
    “Well, yeah. Okay, I admit I don’t have any idea what I am talking about when it comes to things like this.” She stopped. “I just realized how that sounds. You’re probably wondering if I know anything about anything, at this point, aren’t you?”
    “I never said that.”
    “No, but you’re probably thinking it.” Looking over, the waiter was pretending not to be listening, but she knew he’d heard every word. “I best let you get back to whatever it is that you do.”
    “What is it you think that I do all day?”
    She studied him closely, trying to see into his very soul. “You sit on this huge pile of money, throwing it in the air, and go, ‘Wee!’”
    He looked serious. “How did you know?” But then he laughed. “I tell you what. When you get a phone, you give me a call. How does that sound?”
    “I think I can manage that one.”
    He stood and held her chair for her. “Where shall I tell Lawrence to drop you off?”
    “The mall, just up the road here.”
    “The mall?”
    “Yes, I need to…why, what’s wrong with the mall?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Oh, you thought I was going to have him take me home. That way you’d know where I live. So if I don’t call you back, you know where to stalk me.”
    A look of concern crossed his face.
    “You’re not planning on calling me back.”
    She laughed. “I notice how you glossed over the whole stalking you comment. Yes, I will call you.”

    Lawrence dropped her at the mall, Derrick watching as she strolled in its open doors, and he was so tempted to join her. But then her comment about the stalking came to mind, and he didn’t want to appear too anxious, even if he was. He waited, wondering if he’d see her come out, but realized he better leave. It wasn’t as if he could easily hide a limousine, not one the size of his anyway. “Take me home, Lawrence.”
    “Yes, Mr. Sloane.”
    His cell phone rang, and he answered it.
    “Is this soon enough?”
    “Annie?”
    There was a pause. “Were you expecting some other girl to call?”
    “No. No, it’s just that I only just left you. I wasn’t expecting a call so soon.”
    “Well, I bought a cell phone.”

Chapter Four
    “Oh, God! You’re here already.”
    Derrick was holding his hand up, about to knock upon Annie’s apartment door, when she came bursting out of the elevator practically knocking him flat. “And you’re not, apparently.”
    A look of disappointment crossed her otherwise carefree expression, and she slumped her shoulders and shrugged. “Oh, and it was going to be so perfect too. Well, in my mind it was.” Turning the key in the lock, she gave the door a push to get it open. “Sticks a little. I’m so used to it I don’t even think about it anymore. But the look on your face just now reminded