Page 1 of Caffeine & Chaos
1
Her.
There he was again, the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome, standing at her counter. Today he wore a slate grey Armani suit, effortlessly exuding a casual charm, accentuated by a peach dress shirt teasingly peeking through the undone midline. With the top button left open, his lightly bronzed neck drew Nadia’s gaze downward, trailing towards his chest. A subtle shift of weight to his hip, a nonchalant hand slipped into his pants pocket—every movement exuded power and unwavering confidence.
He’d been coming into the cafe every morning for the last month. She had tried to move past friendly chit chat last time he came in, but he had been preoccupied with something on his phone. She would get his attention today.
Nadia lingered at the back counter in front of the Cappuccino machine for a few more seconds; stealing glances of him in the mirror. She arched her back to accentuate her buttocks, and feigned a slight stretch as though she were suffering from some tension. She knew this move well – it had proved effective many times over. She felt his eyes move down the curvature of her frame as she brushed her long blonde hair aside to reveal the delicacy of her neckline.
“I’ll take my usual, Nadia.” He had clearly picked up on her signal and made no attempt to hide his interest as he looked her up and down, slowly. His eyes seemed to savour every curve, and each place they lingered felt as though his fingertips were brushing past her skin.
“Are you sure I can’t interest you in something... enticing and new today?” Nadia said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and giving him her award-winning come-hither look.
“What do you have to offer?” Without hesitation, he leaned in, piercing through her with his bold reply and suggestive smile.
Nadia’s throat tightened as she discerned a hint of raw, uninhibited intensity in his eyes—a fusion of intelligence veiled by a thinly concealed ferocity. Tilting his head to the side, he issued a silent challenge, daring her to match his gaze.
She had given that look a hundred times and was always gleefully delighted when the poor man before her turned bright red and shrunk away with embarrassment. Rather than shrinking, this man had blown her out of the water with one sentence. She felt her cheeks get hot as she fought to string together a coherent sentence.
“Oh, uh, we, umm, have our Cortadito Espresso on special today” Nadia stammered, losing her composure but feeling helpless to stop it. She had this irrepressible, mesmerized feeling, like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Mmhmm.” An amused chuckle escaped him as he leaned back, his shoulders squaring confidently. “Just my usual then, thank you.” With a casual glance away, he released Nadia from the relentless pressure of his gaze, appearing to lose interest.
Nadia called his order out to Mandy then immediately turned to the back counter and pretended to be busy. She wiped down the espresso machine and opened the cupboards to check the cardboard cup stock, all the while wondering what the hell was wrong with her. He was just a man of course, and like all men he was easily controlled by what lay between his legs. Still, she didn’t dare look up into the mirror, for fear he might see her.
Once she was certain he was gone she let out a long sigh of relief, allowing herself to sag against the back counter. She hadn’t even realized she was practically holding her breath the entire time he was there.
“You know who that is, right?” Mandy stood next to her with a wide smile plastered across her round face.
“Who?” Nadia said, feigning naivety.
“Who? Yah right, nice try. You know who. That gorgeous piece of man-meat we’ve all been drooling over for the past month. You know who that is, right?” Mandy stretched her hands forward in a demanding and inquisitive gesture.
“Okay, yeah, I might have noticed him.” She gave Mandy a playful shove and sly smile. She could always count on Mandy to call her on her bullshit. It was one of the things Nadia loved about her. “But what do you mean do I know who he is? Should I?”
Mandy made a rude noise, “I swear to God you live under a rock, Nadia. It’s a pretty, diamond encrusted, trust-fund-kid rock, but a rock none the less. His name is Ryan McKellen.” She began stepping backwards towards the till where a young woman was clearly becoming impatient waiting for some service. “Google him,” she instructed before turning her full attention to the customer.
Nadia spent the rest of her shift cloistered in a thick mental fog. The encounter with Ryan McKellen had left her feeling vulnerable and bruised. She always had the upper hand when it came to sexual attraction and found her visceral response to him unnerving.
She stepped out of the café a little after four that afternoon, greeted by the staggering heat and mugginess of the day. La Casa de Café de Maria, affectionately known as Casa Maria’s to the locals, was nestled in the historic district of downtown Miami. Nadia relished the character of the old buildings and the eclectic vibe permeating the neighborhood. Downtown Miami buzzed with activity, boasting parks, theaters, museums, and shops. Her apartment, one of the new high-rises in the rapidly expanding Greater Downtown area, stood in close proximity to the bustling business and financial district. It was the sole reason her mother tolerated her move here and continued to pay her rent.
Nadia tried to shake off the thoughts about her mother, but Valentina Moore was a constant presence in Nadia’s life. Wealthy, poised, and emotionally cold, Valentina taught Nadia from a young age to understand her power as a woman. Beauty and sex were weapons to be wielded against the foolish men of the world. ‘Men are ruled by their primal desires and a smart woman can, and should, use that to her advantage.’ Nadia could recite her mother’s words in her sleep. ‘Marriage is a business contract, and you don’t go into business with the poor.’ Working at Casa Maria’s put Nadia in contact with wealthy and powerful men on a daily basis. Unfortunately, this also meant, on a near daily basis, she had to explain to her mother that she hadn’t landed herself a rich man yet.
Nadia pulled her phone out of her pocket and brought up her internet browser. It was time to find out who Ryan McKellen was. Once her phone had loaded the content she stopped dead in her tracks. There was link after link related to Ryan McKellen, the self-made billionaire. She clicked on his Wikipedia article. Ryan McKellen was the CEO and founder of one of the largest international marketing firms in North America: System Seven Marketing. She clicked on another link. Ryan McKellen ranked number sixteen on Forbes’ list of the seventy-four most powerful people. System Seven Marketing was ranked number twelve on the Fortune five hundred list. He had been featured in nearly every popular business magazine – Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, Entrepreneur, Fast Company... Her heart pounded wildly.
Nadia took slow, steadying breaths, realization dawning on her. It made sense now why he hadn’t flinched at her audacious flirting. Shaking her head to clear it, she briskly tucked her phone in her pocket and chided herself internally; she shouldn’t be this star-struck. After all, she had been raised in the upper echelons of New York society. While she might not have mingled with billionaires, her own stepfather was certainly a millionaire.
Despite her pep talk, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was in way over her head.
The Watcher.
The room was cloaked in darkness, illuminated only by the dim glow of the streetlights filtering through the window. From his vantage point behind the drawn blinds, the man watched with rapt attention as she walked down the busy street below.
His heart hammered in his chest as he drank in the sight of her, his object of affection, moving with effortless grace along the sidewalk. Every stride she took sent a surge of electricity coursing through his veins, igniting the fire of his obsession with a fervor that consumed him whole.
With trembling hands, he reached for the camera beside him, its sleek black body a familiar extension of his desires. As she drew nearer, he steadied his grip, his breath catching in his throat as he framed her in the viewfinder, capturing her image in all its fleeting glory.
Click.