I stood in front of the man who robbed my bank completely alone. After finding out who he was I truly never wanted to see him again so this was unfortunate for me. Maybe this was the universe's way of saying "this is what you get".

Although my therapist turned out to be some lunatic, I'm still going to keep her advice. I'm not dating, not kissing, not even sex...no matter how he keeps looking at me. He's different from my past boyfriends, I saw exactly who he was when he first met. A criminal. And I had no business getting myself involved in that when I'm just getting myself together.

"Mia," he said slowly as he walked toward me.

I smiled nervously and stepped backward. We continued this little dance until my back was against the wall and he was looking down at me.

"Why did you stay?" I asked in my most confident voice.

"I was just wondering why you didn't snitch," he said.

I shrugged and moved away from the walls bf away from him. "Umm, it's none of my business. I gotta go," I said quickly. I picked up my purse from the couch and walked out of the room.

I heard him chuckle from behind me and my heart raced. Get it together, Mia. He's not good for you. He remained walking behind me and I groaned as I saw that I would need to take the elevator down and be trapped with him.

I stood in front of the elevator and pushed the button profusely. "Come on," I groaned. I was already over two hours late to work and I didn't want to be around Cain any longer.

From the corner of my eye, I saw him stand beside me. "Fingering the button won't get it to come, Mia."

I scoffed and ignored his innuendo as I tapped my foot impatiently. Why do these things take so long?

"Here, I saw these on the table. Which one is yours?" He put two phones in front of me and I took mine.

"Thanks, the other one is Queen's."

He nodded and slid it into his pocket. The elevator arrived with a ding and as soon as the doors opened I scurried in and walked to a corner of it. With all the space in the elevator, you'd think the man would stand elsewhere but he stood next to me like the thing was crowded.

I felt his arm graze mine and I took a step away. Thankfully the elevator didn't take as long to go down as it did to come and I was back on the first floor. I rushed out of the elevator and out of the building all the while Cain followed after me.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"To work," I replied dryly.

I walked through the busy streets with ease and I laughed as I heard Cain bump into a few people from behind me. "Get out of the way dumbass," someone yelled at him.

I expected a man such as Cain to say something in return but when didn't hear his reply I turned around. I jumped when I saw him directly behind me and I held up a finger. "I'm
sure this is stalking."

"I'm not stalking you. You're aware I'm following you," he said with a smile.

I let out a huff of laughter and turned on my heels. He grabbed my wrist and made me turn back to him and I gasped. "Get dinner with me."

"No," I answered. I wanted to remove my arm from his but he had a strong grip on it.

"Breakfast?"

"I don't eat breakfast."

"Lunch?"

"No."

"Coffee?" He asked as an amused look flashed in his eyes.

"I love coffee," I said.

He raised his brows in surprise and a smile returned to his face. "So you'll get coffee with me?"

"No."

"Let me take you to work," he offered.

I raised my brow and faced him. "Do you have a car?"

"Not here at this very second," he said as he looked around. "But I'm sure I could take one of these."

"You mean steal?" I asked with a scoff.

"Semantics."

"Bye, Cain." I managed to wiggle my arm out of his grasp and I made the short walk to the bus stop. I sat down on the bench with a frustrated sigh. Today was a mess and I was sure I'd lose my job for coming in this late. My boss was a stickler for punctuality and someone else was fired for being only ten minutes late.

With that thought running through my mind I buried my face in my hands and groaned.

"What's wrong, Mia?"

My head snapped up to see Cain leaning against the pole and looking down at me. He looked like a model and it became increasingly difficult to ignore the way his dark eyes looked at me. He flashed me a grin when he noticed I was staring and I rolled my eyes.

"Why are you still here?" I asked.

"Just want to make sure you arrive at your destination safely," he replied sincerely. I didn't know if it was genuine or not though, I had a habit of falling for words.

"Why do I have a feeling that you're the only danger I'm going to encounter?" I asked.

He bit his lip to hide a smile and he laughed softly as he hung his head down. When he looked back at me, he leaned off of the pole and walked toward me. He sat in an empty spot on the bench beside me and laid his forearms on his thighs.

He looked around at the street before turning to face me. "Maybe I should kidnap you," he suggested.

I laughed at his absurd suggestion and shook my head. "That's a bit much, don't you think?."

He smiled and shrugged. "Eh. Why not? We could have one of those love stories," he said. "Bank robber kidnaps good girl and falls in love."

"Good girl," I muttered in disbelief. That was something I was far from if my past actions were any indication.

"Oh?" He asked with a raised brow. "Are you a bad girl, Mia?"

I saw the bus coming and I stood up. "Enough, Cain." The bus slowed and came to a stop. And I turned to Cain. "Nice meeting you."

"You too," he said.

I turned back to the bus and stepped on and found a seat. I took out my phone to text my boss but jumped when Cain sat next to me. "We just said bye," I pointed out in shock.

"No, we said nice to meet you," he retorted.

I sent the text to my boss and put my phone away as I faced Cain. "When will you leave me alone?"

"When you agree to go on a date with me," he said.

"I don't date," I replied.

His eyes dropped down to my lips and he smirked. "Then what do you do?"

"I do nothing," I answered with a shrug.

"Nothing at all?"

"Nope. I'm refraining from dating, sexual activities, and kissing for a while."

"For how long?"

I smiled and shook my head. I hadn't put a timeline on anything but I thought of the best answer and gave it to him. "Ten years."

"Ten years?!" He asked in shock.

"Ten. Years."

He laughed. "How do you expect anyone to wait-..." he paused and turned to me. "I'll ask again in ten years but you'll be mine before then."

His confidence was placed in the wrong basket. He didn't seem like a man to wait for anyone and I knew we were joking. I wasn't interested in him no matter how irresistible he seemed.

"What makes you think that?" I asked with a sigh.

"Because I KNOW I can annoy you, more than you can resist me," he replied smugly.

"I'm a lot stronger than I look, Cain."

"We'll see," he answered.

The bus suddenly swerved and I felt my body move backward but before my head could make contact with the window, Cain stopped it with his hand behind me.

"Sorry about that!" The bus driver yelled.

Cain's hand remained behind my head and our faces were inches apart. If either of us were to move at all we'd be kissing. My eyes dropped down to his lips and my breath hitched. I saw a smirk appear on his lips and he let go of me.

"And so our story begins," he said as he sat back into the seat.

A ding from my phone thankfully distracted me from having to give him a reply. I took my phone out of my bag and when I unlocked it my heart dropped.

Boss: You're fired.

I felt tears stinging my eyes as I read the text. This hurt more than anything but I didn't want to cry in front of Cain. I took calming breaths and ran my hands through my hair. How was I going to afford my rent? Every issue that would come as a result of my being fired surfaced in my mind.

I didn't notice a tear fall down my face until Cain touched my cheek. I forced a laugh and wiped it away. "Sorry."

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Umm, I got fired," I admitted.

"Why?" He asked seriously.

"I'm hours late and my boss has a rule about being on time," I said.

Cain sighed and wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I froze. "I could give you money if you need it."

"I appreciate it but I need a job." I didn't want to explain why. I didn't want to explain that my job had become a part of my schedule and that it would hurt me mentally to let it go. I needed that job because it was one of the things helping me recover.

"Hey, don't cry," he said as he rubbed my arm. "I'll take care of it."

I pulled away from his hold and looked up at him. "What do you mean?" I didn't want him robbing anybody again.

"I have an idea."

"What's the idea?" I asked.

"Trust me, Mia."

30 Minutes Later

"I was late because I saw him," I said as I gestured towards Cain. "I had to run to catch him, but I did it."

My boss grinned and looked at Cain who was slouched in his seat and handcuffed to the armrest of the chair. "This is amazing, Mia. You saved this branch."

"Does that mean I can have my job back?" I asked.

"Of course you can, I'm so sorry for firing you. Thank you," he said quickly and turned to Cain. "As for you, I'll be calling the police and you'll return every dime of what you took."

"Yeah, okay. Let's get this over with," Cain muttered. I bit a part of my lip and let out a breath to stop myself from smiling. I was skeptical when he offered to do this and I didn't think he would actually do it but he did. He was turning himself in so I'd keep my job.

Maybe I was wrong about him.

Stop, Mia.

I sighed and shook my head. I couldn't give in to him because he did one nice thing for me. My therapist, well ex-therapist told me I had a tendency to fixate on one kind of action a man does for me and cling to them. But I was different now. And I refused to go back to that me.

My boss quickly called the police and we all sat down silently. After a few minutes, Cain somehow managed to get into a conversation with my boss on how to better our security. If the man was good at anything, it was talking. It made me feel less bad about him going to jail knowing that.

"Are you going to fight us?" My boss asked.

"Nope, take me in."

My boss stood up with the cuff key and unlocked it from the chair. I expected Cain to try to run but he remained still as my boss placed the cuff onto his other wrist. He stood up with his arms behind his back and I stood up.

He winked at me and my boss led him out of the office. We walked through the bank and my coworkers were cheering and I couldn't imagine how embarrassed Cain was feeling. We neared the glass doors and I saw four cop cars holding guns up at the door.

"You're really a wanted man, huh?" I asked.

"I guess I am."

My boss let him go at the door and scurried away. "Get out slowly!" An officer ordered through a megaphone.

Cain laughed and turned to me. "Is this date worthy?"

"No," I replied with a smile.

He nodded and walked forward. "I'll see you around, Mia."

I didn't want to date or anything that would mess up my progress but a part of me hoped that his words were true. The newer and improved part of me hoped he was lying though. I watched as he pushed the door open with his shoulder and walked in front of the officers.

As soon as they saw he was restrained five of them grabbed him and led him to a car. He turned to look at me momentarily and my heart stopped. He winked at me before they pushed him into the car and I shook my head.

Don't come back, Cain.