Page 69 of Nine-Tenths

The kiss is…

Holy shit, nowthisis a kiss.

It's wet, and it's filthy.

He's got one hand on my chin and another on the crown of my head, holding my face up, holding mestillso he can dip his forked tongue into my mouth.

"Mmph!" I say into his own mouth, because he's not letting me up for air.

Honestly, I could get on board with this. There's jerks upstairs and we're totally making out, but you know what? If Dav wants to keep kissing me like this until I pass out from lack of oxygen, I am a-o-fucking-kay with that.

I reach up to tangle my hands in his hair, urge him to kiss harder, deeper. I tilt my head back, make it as clear as I can with lips, and teeth, and tongue, and breath, and heartbeat, and skin, that I'm here for him. That I am all his, no matter what he has to say to the pricks upstairs.

And then, just as I'm getting into the swing of things, he's gone. He's eeled out of my arms and out the door so fast I'm dizzy.

A dull prick against the inside of my wrist makes me jump. When I turn on the light, I can see what's jabbing me. His lapel pin, with its ominous sigil, is stuck under the band of my watch. I must have accidentally skimmed it right off his waistcoat when I reached up.

I wobble up the stairs.

The front of the café is empty, save for Hadi, and she's sitting on one of the sofas looking absolutely wrecked. When I say empty, I meanempty. There isn't a single bean in the place. The glass canisters are barren, the mason jars are missing. Even the compost bin is gone.

"What happened?" I pant. I know my mouth is bitten-red, and my hair is mussed, and the front of my jeans isn’t sitting exactly flat, but that’s not why she’s so shaken.

"They're gone."

"Good fucking riddance. Bunch of uptight pricks." I say, then stare in horror at the growing queue of customers. "Shit, though. How are we supposed to make coffee?"

"I think that's literally the least of what they care about."

"We’ll ask the customers to come back tomorrow." This is Hadi's livelihood we're talking about. I can be mad at the self-important royal assholes later. Right now we gotta get the beans going so they have enough time to cool. "Come on, we roast more. Is Dav already in the kitchen?"

"Is he…?" Hadi pulls herself to her feet, coming over to me, stumbling like she's seen a ghost.

"Dav! Start up the roaster, babe!"

"Colin," Hadi says, grabbing my elbows. "Colin!"

"What?" I ask, looking over my shoulder for my boyfriend. "Dav!"

"Colin!" Hadi shakes me once, hard enough to get my attention, expression grim. "You're notlistening. They’regone."

My heart flops, my stomach flips, and the world under my feet lurches.

"Gone," I repeat, as the smile falls off my face. I take a step away, and Hadi lets me go. Every breath judders behind my ribs, like a knife skidding along bone when someone stabs you sloppily. "That's… I don't…"

"They told him to go with them and he went," Hadi says softly. "There was a limo parked out front, and he got in it, and they drove away."

The pastry cabinet is cool against my back when I slide down onto the floor.

"Oh.Oh," I hiss, insides churning. "Oh,fuck."

The thing he wanted to leave behind wasme.

Chapter Twenty

It takes us a few moments to have enough brainpower to tell the crowd clogging the sidewalk that Beanevolence isn't opening today. Some dickbag whines that he drove three hours to get there, and Hadi flips him off as she locks up.

My phone vibrates a minute later, and I'm treated to the horror-show of pictures of me gathering likes at the top of the hashtag. In it, I'm sitting with my back against the counter, face dead white, hair a bigger wreck than usual, mouth kiss-chapped and eyes swollen.