Page 42 of A Secret Escape

But then, I somehow got into college, and he didn’t even apply anywhere, so… that was basically it.”

Marcus’s eyes are focused on the table, his hands wrapped around his cup. He’s not smiling, but he doesn’t appear angry or disgusted. I search every line of his face, wishing more than anything that I could read his mind, but I can’t tell what he’s thinking.

Desperate to lift the mood, to find something to draw his gaze back up to me, a voice in my head tells me to be honest - to cement that my confession earlier wasn’t just in the heat of the moment.

My chest feels tight, like the words are pressing against my ribs, begging to get out. I can’t tell if I’m about to be brave or stupid.

“To be honest,” I say, speaking slowly, my heart rate ratcheting up to super speed as it tries to stop me saying the next words that are on the tip of my tongue. “You’re… pretty much the only guy I’ve thought about at all over the last two years.”

I focus my gaze entirely on my coffee cup, swirling the base of it on the table in front of me. I don’t dare look at him, in case I’ve completely freaked him out.

“You’re joking,” he says, and my eyes jump up, hearing the smile in his voice.

Seeing his face, my heart fucking soars, doing loop-de-loops in my rib cage as I take in the wide grin lighting up his face, his eyes glimmering with that magical sparkle that I am so completely, utterly, hopelessly in love with.

“No,” I say, my cheeks flushing with a burning heat as I coyly brush a strand of hair off my face. “I’ve had a crush on you ever since the first day I met you.”

He laughs, his face lit up in a bewildered smile. “Damn.”

God, I would literally give my left kidney at the moment to be able to read his mind.

“Sorry,” I say, hoping my confession doesn’t make him uncomfortable.

“What the hell are you sorry for?” he asks, the smile on his face providing some reassurance.

I feel my face grow even redder as my heart thunders in my chest.

“I don’t know.”

“If anything, I’m the one that needs to be sorry,” he says.

I look up at him, truly confused. “What?”

“Lila, you’re… the most incredible girl I’ve ever met. I swear. There’s just something about you that…” He laughs. “God, this sounds so… I don’t know, but, seeing you, makes my day.”

I gape at him in amazement, my brain refusing to process what he’s saying .

“You’re lying.”

He laughs. “I swear, I’m not.”

He has his hands crossed on his chest, leaning back in his chair, and God, why does he have to look so fucking good?

His eyes sparkle and his mouth is curled into a smile that reveals a glimpse of his perfect white teeth, surrounded by that perfectly shaped beard that now has some stubble growing out around the sharp lines down his neck.

“I should have asked you out way sooner,” he says.

“Why didn’t you?”

“We work together and all. And honestly, I never thought you’d be interested. I just figured you’d think I was some sleezy old creep trying to pick up younger girls,” he says as we both burst out in a laugh.

“Not at all,” I say, smiling at him as he reaches across the table and takes my hand.

I cannot believe he’s liked me all this time too.

“How old actually are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

His smile turns from a simple joy to that sexy, devilish playfulness that instantly gets my heart racing and my insides clenching with need.

“You mean to say you haven’t looked me up?”

I laugh slightly, biting my lip as a fresh wave of heat flushes across my face.

Of course I had, but the computer system at work didn’t give me access to staff personal info past first and last name and job title, and on his Facebook profile, he only had the date of his birthday, not the year.

I shake my head with a sweet smile, thinking that if I said anything out loud, it would give me away.

“Take a guess,” he teases.

“No, honestly, I’m terrible with ages. ”

He stretches his leg out under the table, gently rubbing his foot against my leg, and I wonder how it’s possible that even such a simple motion sends a tingle shooting across my skin.

“Go on, just have a guess. I’m curious,” he insists.

I study his features closely. His skin is smooth, without many wrinkles aside from the soft creases at the corners of his eyes.

His hair is mostly dark, though a scattering of silver streaks highlights every few strands.

At work, his hair is always styled up and slicked back.

Today, it lays softer on his head, a few loose tendrils hanging down, and it’s rough and scruffy in the cutest way.

“Hmm, I’ll go with….forty….six?”

“Oof.” He hits his fist to his chest, imitating the sound of an arrow striking him in the heart.

“I’m sorry!” I exclaim, dropping my head into my hands in embarrassment, but the sound of his laugh brings me right back.

“I’m only playing. You’re not far off. I’m forty-five,” he says.

“Oh. Okay. That’s not too bad.”

“Oh yea?” He raises an eyebrow.

“Yea. Besides, I was being generous,” I joke and he laughs - a big, loud laugh that warms my soul from the inside out, radiating a smile across my face that feels like it’s going to stay there forever.

“Alright then, what about you?” he asks. His eyes are still lit up with laughter.

“Your turn to guess,” I shoot back at him.

He smiles knowingly. “Twenty-five,” he says without even stopping to think.

I look at him with pleasant surprise. He sounds confident, as if he already knew.

“You’ve looked me up, haven’t you? ”

He winks at me in response and I smile from the warmth of knowing that he’s thought about me enough to look me up.

I guess that also means he must have manager access to the system so he could actually see my age. Damn.

Picking up my cup to finish the last of my coffee, I sigh, my gaze drifting inadvertently out the window, when suddenly, a movement in the corner of my eye makes my heart stop.

A man is walking casually on the opposite side of the road.

He looks familiar, but I don’t know from where.

He glances at us and I quickly look back down at the table.

When I look back up a moment later, the man is gone.

“You alright?” Marcus asks.

“Yea…” My voice trails off, wondering if I should say something.

He follows my line of sight across the road, but there’s no one there.

“You sure?” he asks, leaning forward and taking my hand. I let out a big breath. His touch instantly relaxes me in a way that somehow only he can.

“I just thought I saw someone outside, but it’s nothing. I don’t know who it was.”

Marcus’s face suddenly turns into a frown as he stands up, craning his neck to look down the street.

“What? Your ex?” he says, a bit too loud.

The girl behind the counter glances at us as I grab his hand and pull him back down.

“No, it wasn’t! It was just someone I thought looked familiar! I’m probably just being paranoid.”

He looks back at me, his eyebrows furrowed with concern, then glances out the window again.

“Are you sure?”

I look again at the car. There’s still no one in it, and yet …

“No,” I say in barely a whisper.

“No, you’re not sure?”

His eyes dart between looking at me and out the window and back at me again, trying to spot something.

I lean in to whisper and he mirrors my movement, drawn forward as though there’s an invisible string between us that’s tightening, pulling us closer.

“Do you see that black car?”

“No. Which car?” He turns to look out the window and I point in the direction of where the car is parked.

“There. The black Range Rover with tinted windows.”

“That car’s huge. There’s no way it’s the one from the other night. I would have remembered that.”

“No, I don’t think it’s from then. But the tinted windows… I mean… how many cars really have tinted windows?”

Marcus’s face relaxes as he pulls back slightly. “Lots of cars can have tinted windows. My car’s back windows are tinted. I wouldn’t worry about that.”

He’s right. I’m probably overreacting.

But still, I can’t shake the uneasy feeling that the person I saw looked familiar. I just didn’t get a good enough look at his face to place him.

It definitely wasn’t Chris, but who else could it have been? One of his gang?

“Come on,” Marcus says, rising to his feet. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll pick up some food and get back, alright?”

“Yea, that sounds good.” I stand and he picks up both our empty cups, tossing them into the bin on his way to the door.

He holds it open for me, and I step outside, the cold air brushing my skin as we walk hand in hand back to his car .

A storm of emotions swirls within me, the fear and uncertainty having risen to the forefront again, tangling with the dizzying rush of hearing Marcus say he wished he’d asked me out sooner.

He said seeing me makes his day.

The memory of his words sends a warm flush through me, spreading like sunlight under my skin. I can still see the look in his eyes when he said it – steady, unguarded. Like he meant every word.

Angela’s never going to believe me!

Marcus sets the sat nav to the local supermarket, and as we drive down the street, I notice that the Range Rover isn’t there anymore in the spot it had been. I look around but don’t see it on the street.

Letting out another deep breath, I relax a bit more, convincing myself I was just being paranoid.

By the time we’re strolling through the supermarket, the fear has settled back down to a distant niggle.