Chapter 86

A bell jingled as Octavia opened the door and stepped inside. She walked right up to the counter of the coffee shop and stood, waiting for the lone barista working the espresso machine to notice her.

“I’ll be with you in a minute,” he said, glancing over his shoulder. At the sight of Octavia, Raemon turned around.

“Octavia.”

“Ha,” Octavia said, smiling. “Not so nice to have someone sneak up on you, is it?”

Raemon set down the steel container he had in one hand with a gentle smirk on his face.

“I never snuck up on you.”

“Yes, you did. That’s exactly what happened the other day. I wasn’t expecting to see you and then—poof! There you were. I’ll bet you didn’t expect me to find you here, did you?”

“I thought you might,” Raemon said casually, “once Gracie did anyway.”

“But you didn’t expect her to tell me, did you?” Octavia continued, refusing to lose her triumphant glare.

“You’re friends, so, yes, I thought she would.”

“But then you didn’t expect me to show up, did you?”

Raemon met her gaze with serene eyes.

“I hoped you would.”

That silenced her.

Meanwhile, another customer walked up to the counter and stood waiting by the register.

Octavia stood by quietly and waited while Raemon took down the man’s order and then moved to the machines behind him to make the drink.

She watched as he expertly ground beans, turned the machine knobs, and worked up a layer of froth in the cream.

The artisanal coffee he poured into a ceramic mug and handed to the waiting customer over the counter was something like a work of art.

“What can I get you?” Raemon asked, coming back to where Octavia was waiting.

Octavia shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t really want coffee.”

A smile tugged at Raemon’s lips. “You came to a coffee shop with no intention of getting coffee? How strange.”

Octavia made a face. “Fine. I’ll have a latte, then. With cream and sugar…and extra foam. And a swirly design in the foam like you did for that other guy.”

Raemon smiled, then moved to make her drink.

“So how long have you worked here?” Octavia asked.

“Two days,” Raemon replied.

“Damn. And they already have you working the counter by yourself?”

“I have sufficient experience.”

“From where?”

“Around.”

Octavia would have demanded a straightforward answer, but he was setting a steaming cup of coffee before her. She took a seat at one of the bar stools before the counter and lifted the cup to her lips.

“Mhmm…,” she said, savoring the taste, “this is good.”

“Medium dark roast beans from Kenya,” Raemon said. He began dusting off the espresso machine behind him.

“Oh, Kenya. That’s where my mother is right now, I think. She stopped by there after spending a month or so in Egypt, I think.”

“Algeria,” Raemon corrected.

Octavia looked up from her cup warily. “How do you know?”

“She told me,” he answered while wiping down the counters.

“But when?”

“When I last saw her.”

“When was this? Why was this?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Um…NO.”

Raemon was spared from answering when the last person in the store came up to deposit his empty mug at the counter.

Raemon thanked him and wished him a good night. Then the man left. There was no one else in the store but the two of them.

Octavia watched as Raemon walked to the doors and locked them.

“What did you do that for?” Octavia asked.

“It’s our closing time.”

“But I’m still here. Shouldn’t you wait till every customer has left?”

“Are you leaving?”

“I still haven’t finished my latte.”

“Then finish it.”

She scowled at her drink. “Doesn’t seem professional of you.”

Raemon was complacent as he moved around the small space, gathering stray mugs and wiping down the tables. “The policy is to lock the doors at six thirty. Anyone who’s inside can stay till seven.”

“Your boss must really trust you,” Octavia remarked, “if they’re already leaving you to lock up by yourself.”

Octavia observed him as he moved around the room. She began noticing things about him that she hadn’t previously.

A blue beanie was covering his long hair, and it looked like he had been shaving more regularly.

The button-up plaid shirt was rolled up to his elbows, exposing his toned arms, and he had exchanged the faded, traveler jeans Octavia had previously seen him in for a pair of dark-blue ones.

He really looked the part of a barista.

“So where have you been?” Octavia asked once Raemon had returned to the counter. “Gracie said you said you’d been traveling.”

“Yes,” Raemon replied, “I’ve been to a number of places.”

“Such as?”

“Mauritania. Morocco. Sierra Leone. Brazil. Colombia. Thailand. Bhutan…”

“Whoa. That’s a lot of ground to cover. What were you doing?”

Raemon shrugged as he dried a mug with a dishcloth.

“This and that. Whatever I found to do. Sometimes it would be computer-related work or manual labor. Always just enough to get a meal for the day and somewhere to sleep.”

Octavia watched his face as he spoke. There was a calm easiness to it that she’d never seen in him before.

“They said…I mean, Indira told me, and all the newspapers said…that you gave up everything. Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“So you had…nothing? Not a single dollar to your name?”

“I had at least ten dollars.”

“But not millions. Or billions. You just…gave it up?”

“More or less.”

“But…why?”

He set the mug down, lining it up with the other five.

“I had to.”

“Because…?”

“It would only get in the way of what I wanted,” Raemon said.

“And what did you want?”

“To find something.”

“What thing?”

“I can’t say.”

“Well…did you? I mean…did you find that thing?”

“That,” Raemon said, directing an intense look at Octavia, “remains to be seen.”

Octavia frowned but didn’t pry any further.

“I need to do the final inventory in the back,” Raemon said. “Wait here and I’ll see you home after.”

“You don’t have to. I can get an Uber or something,” Octavia said.

“All the same, I’m asking you to wait,” Raemon said moving toward the door behind the counter, “then I’ll answer the rest of the questions you have.”

She sipped the rest of her latte in silence until the last drop of the creamy liquid was gone.

Looking around the empty room, she was still for a moment, then she hopped off her seat and headed for the door behind the counter that Raemon had gone through.

A short, dark hall with a small office to one side eventually opened up to a small, narrow room lined with wire shelves piled with boxes of sugar and spices, and bags of coffee beans were stacked on top of each other.

She saw Raemon standing before one of the shelves with a clipboard in hand.

“I know I’m probably not supposed to be here,” Octavia said as Raemon looked up.

“I didn’t say that.”

“But I probably shouldn’t, right?”

“Probably.”

Octavia walked to where he stood and leaned back against the long wooden table between the shelves lining each wall of the room.

“It was way quiet back there. Creepy, even,” Octavia said. “Where are you staying, by the way?”

“Outside.”

Her eyes widened. “You mean…in the parking lot?”

“Yes.”

“You’re homeless?!”

A gentle smirk teased his lips. “Technically, yes. My home has four wheels and a four-cylinder engine.”

“You live in your car?”

“Camper van. That’s what it’s designed for.”

“Oh…,” Octavia said softly.

With every minute that passed in his presence, she realized how much more different this man was from the Raemon Kentworth she used to know.

This man before her nonchalantly mentioned his homelessness and lack of financial resources in the same way one would comment on their job promotion and brand new BMW.

“Right,” Raemon said suddenly, checking off something on his list. “That’s done.”

He turned to face Octavia, who was still leaning against the workbench. Her arms were folded around her body, and she was staring at the brown tiles on the floor with a furrowed brow.

“Something wrong?” Raemon asked, coming to stand before her.

Octavia looked up. “Nothing…,” she said quietly.

Like he couldn’t help it, Raemon brought a hand to her cheek. His eyes searched hers.

“Tell me, Tavi.”

A little laugh escaped her lips. “Weird to hear you call me that. Again…I mean.”

Raemon was still for a second with an intense gaze focused on Octavia. Then the clipboard in his hand suddenly clattered to the floor.

Raemon’s arms were around Octavia in a second, and he pulled her close to him.

Octavia’s hands found themselves pressed against his chest, suddenly reminded of that immovable hardness that they had experienced a long time ago.

She looked up into the face that was lowering itself to hers, his lips inching closer to her mouth. Suddenly he stopped.

“Octavia,” Raemon said, his voice strained by ragged breathing.

“What?”

“I want to kiss you right now.”

“Do you? No kidding…”

She felt his arms tighten around her.

“In fact…I want to do a whole lot more to you than that.”

“At least one thing about you hasn’t changed,” Octavia said, suppressing a smile. “You talk too much.”

“Do you want me to kiss you?”

“Please do.”

He brought a hand to her forehead, trailed his fingers down the side of her face, and then took her chin in one hand.

“Do you want me to do more than just kiss you?”

Octavia grinned. “I’ll take whatever you’ve got.”

Raemon’s mouth came down on hers so fast she barely had a second to take a breath.

It was all so familiar. The feeling of his lips against hers, his tongue pushing into her mouth. His arms around her body, taking in her form, sliding over her arms and under her shirt.

His hardness pushing up against her, his solid chest pressing against her breasts and his manhood against her stomach, indicating just how aroused he was.

When one hand of his slipped into the waistband of her pants and traveled to the center of her wet core, he discovered just how aroused she was as well.

Octavia gasped against his shoulder as his fingers worked their way into her middle. His lips sucked at her neck, her cheek, her ear—any part of her they could get.

His other hand held her close, his arm wrapped around her body in an iron embrace, his fingers clenching at her butt.

“Holy fuck,” Octavia breathed, clenching at his shirt in her frenzied state. “You haven’t lost your touch, I can tell you that.”

He briefly brought his lips back to her mouth and kissed her hard. She felt his fingers quicken their pace inside her.

“I have a lot of lost time to make up for,” he whispered huskily.

It wasn’t long before she reached her peak, hot and fast with Raemon’s fingers still inside her. He held on to her as she did; she threw one arm around his neck and clenched at his shirt with the other.

His large form steadied her, made her feel secure and anchored.

When she was done, he nudged at her lips with his, his hand still tickling her insides, reminding her of the burning passion he’d been able to elicit from her body.

“Oh fuck,” Octavia breathed, letting her head fall to his shoulder. “That was good.”

Raemon’s lips were continuing with their assault on her ear. “It’s been too long since I’ve done this.”

“I’ll say,” Octavia responded. “Did you learn some new tricks on the road? Or maybe I feel this great because it’s been like a month since I got some…”

“No…,” Raemon said, “it’s because it’s you, Octavia. Finally, I can have you again.”

Octavia stiffened, then lifted her head off his shoulder to look him in the eyes.

“What?”

Raemon rubbed at her cheek with his thumb. “I haven’t been with anyone since you, Octavia. I couldn’t.”

“You didn’t have to do that, Raemon.”

“I know.”

“So…this is the first time in like, a while, that you’ve…you know?” She stopped. “But you haven’t yet…not really.”

“It’s enough,” he said, lowering his lips to her neck.

Octavia was silent as he teased the tingly skin on her neck with his lips.

“Your van’s parked outside, right?” Octavia asked.

Raemon lifted his head. “Yes. Why?”

“Does it have a bed?”

“Of sorts.”

“Can two people fit in it?”

A roguish smile spread over his face. “Possibly. But they’d have to lie really, really close together.”

Octavia smiled. “I think we could manage that.”