Zara's POV
He was already there when I arrived.
That surprised me. I had given myself the twenty-minute walk to Wabash to build a wall, rehearse a script, and decide exactly how much I was going to say. I had not factored in Cole Mercer arriving first and sitting with his jacket off and a coffee already ordered for me like he had simply assumed I would come.
I sat down across from him.
"Black," he said, nodding at the cup. "You ordered it that way at the hotel bar."
"You remember that."
"I remember most things."
I wrapped my hands around the cup and said nothing. Outside, Wabash was loud with early evening traffic and the rattle of the L overhead. Inside the café it was warm and close and completely wrong for this conversation.
He spoke first. "I didn't know until today."
"I know.
