He was sitting on the same spot.

His back to the register, his spot looked onto the street with just the glass separating them. He watched her approach and feeling self-conscious, Suzy looked away.

It was her restaurant, dammit!

Why did she get so shy around him?

Maybe it was the speculative way he looked at her. Like he was carefully observing her every move with his icy blue eyes. He was the one sitting behind the display glass of her store, but she was the one who felt like she was on display.

She ignored him and briskly walked back inside her cafe. She had to get her inventory under control, she hated running out to the store when they ran out of supplies in the middle of the day.

There were three more customers in her store, not counting the intense man whose broad back she could see, now that she was back inside the cafe. He hadn't turned around, but Suzy could still feel the tension, like there was an invisible thread connecting them.

Men generally didn't make her nervous. But when he entered the cafe and offered to help her, she had stupidly stared after him for almost a minute before refusing his help.

After that day, he usually came in at around seven. He hung around drinking black coffee and had the occasional croissant. They hadn't spoken since that day.

Suzy quickly walked to the back of the store to the pantry to unload her supplies. Both Shay, her twenty-year-old assistant, and Gwen, her partner, were in the pantry.

Shay stood up on tiptoe and looked out of the glass window on the pantry door.

"God, boink him already, the tension is killing me!" Shay let out a dramatic sigh.

Gwen, her fifty-year-old co-owner and Suzy's good friend, giggled like a school-girl.

Suzy shot Shay an annoyed glance. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, it's kind of obvious the way you two keep staring at each other. Go on, say hi to the poor man, put him out of his misery." Gwen prodded and Suzy let out a derisive snort.

"I don't know what you're talking about and for God's sake keep your voice down!"

Shay gave a pointed look to the silver-haired Gwen. Gwen, who was still svelte in spite of being a grandmother to three, shrugged an elegant shoulder. It was thanks to Gwen, her next-door neighbor in Trenton, New Jersey, that she had finally gotten the nerve to open her cafe. Gwen had helped with the capital and she was a shrewd business-woman. They had hired Shay in the first month when they realized that the cafe was doing a decent business.

"Oh no, is there like a rule against asking out customers?" Shay asked in alarm.

"No, but there should be. It does make sense." Suzy countered. She oversaw the trays of food in the pantry. Ever since the intense man had started frequenting her cafe, she was too chicken to go outside and man the counter. That task fell on Shay and Gwen.

"I was barely getting hang of all the rules here, and now you have to go and invent new ones?" Shay shook her head at Gwen and they exchanged smiles.

"Well, there aren't that many rules, you know?" Suzy said, a tad defensive.

Shay held up her hand and started ticking off fingers. "No boyfriends in the cafe," a second finger followed the first one, "The previous day's milk cannot be used, it all goes to Goodwill," a third finger came down, "Customers have to be greeted with a "May I help you?", not a "Hey" or "What's up?", a fourth finger joined the previous ones, "No discounts to family and friends, though we can invite them over on Christmas." She turned to Gwen. "Am I missing anything?"

Gwen laughed. "Oh honey, she has a whole lot of rules! You haven't even begun to scratch the surface!"

"Ooh, tell me more!"

Suzy frowned at Shay's excitement. "Who's going to man the register? We can't all sit in the pantry gossiping."

Gwen gave her an arch look. "I need Shay in the back with me, Suze. Why don't you go on to the cash register?"

Suzy's eyes widened, then narrowed at Gwen. Gwen's lightly lined face relaxed into an innocent smile. Gwen had been a constant in Suzy's life and the woman knew her too well.

Not wanting to seem a coward, Suzy marched to the counter. She could hear Gwen and Shay start gossiping even before the door to the pantry swung shut.

She walked to the counter and saw that most of her customers had left. They were closing in a few minutes anyway.

The man was the only customer left. He was up and was already wearing his coat, on the way out. His counter was clean, he wasn't one of the messy customers that the cafe got too often.

"H-Have a nice day!" Suzy called out, then got busy wiping the counters. She didn't want his icy-blue gaze on her. His blue eyes on his dark face made her uncomfortable, for what reason, she didn't yet know.

The man didn't reply. She was acutely conscious of the fact that he was watching her. She turned around to switch off the coffee machine, she wasn't expecting any more customers this late.

"Hey."

Suzy turned and her falsely cheerful smile slid off her face. He was much more striking up close. His face was clean shaven, his hair closely cropped. His features were sharp, the blue eyes striking in a tanned face. He was well-built and tall, probably half a foot taller than Suzy's five-foot-six frame. The man had approached the counter cautiously as if half expecting her to scream and bolt out of there.

Get it together! She ordered herself. She couldn't let herself become a complete fool over a man. She wasn't that green behind her ears.

"Hi!" She returned brightly. "M-more coffee?"

He looked at her and gave a slight shake of his head. "You're Suzy, right?"

He knew her name!

"Umm, yes?" How did he know her name?

"Hi, I don't think you remember me. We were neighbors many years back." He stretched out a strong, sinewy hand. Automatically, she extended hers and it was enveloped in his warmth. Her hand seemed much smaller in comparison, her flesh paler.

"I'm Jake. I think you spoke to my mother?" His mother? When Suzy gave him a confused look, he elaborated. "Vera Larson? From Milpitas, Long Island?" He frowned at her. "On Facebook?"

Realization dawned and she deflated with an "Ohh". Vera was a sweet old lady who had tracked her down on Facebook. Until she was eight years old, they had resided in Milpitas, then her father had been transferred to Trenton. She hadn't remembered Vera at all, but she seemed very friendly and her mother remembered her. Knowing that Vera was talkative but essentially harmless, Suzy had chatted away.

She dimly remembered now. She had said that her son worked in the same neighborhood and she would ask him to pay a visit. So, this Jake guy was paying a visit out of courtesy to his mother. And she had been fawning all over him!

"You honestly don't remember me, do you?" Jake removed his hand and put it in his jacket pocket.

"Well, it was many years back, sixteen to be exact." Suzy patted her hand on the front of her apron, a bit self-conscious. The Larson kids hadn't interacted with her a lot, except Jake's older sister, Nicole. They had played together a few times, she had been nice and a few years older than Suzy.

She looked at Jake's features, trying to imagine those fierce ice-blue eyes in a black-haired kid. She remembered him dimly, he had mostly ignored her, but then, so had she.

"Oh, I do remember you a bit." She confessed and smiled at him, eyes furtively darting to check his hand. His hands were in his jacket pockets, so there was no way to check if he was married or not. She hoped he wasn't. But since there was a dearth of good-looking, single men all over the world, the odds weren't in her favor.

He looked around the cafe, and Suzy could breathe again. "This is a great place. Do you bake the treats on display?" Jake pointed to the well-lit display. The first row had doughnuts, the second pastries and croissants, and the third has savories. The painstaking efforts to set up the display had definitely paid off.

"Oh no, Gwen, that is my partner, sources it from local bakers. My partner in this restaurant not a real-life partner, you know what I mean?"

Oh God! Did she just say that?

She cleared her throat, his face hadn't changed expression so she went on, "If their goods sell, we keep a percentage. The coffee is brewed in-house though.

"Well, my pal Drew went on about the donuts at this place-"

"Oh, I should get you one." She bounded behind the counter. "Which one would you like?"

Jake gave her a slow smile. It wasn't very friendly, but definitely interested.

"How about chocolate, but only if you join me." Jake gestured to a cozy corner table.

"Sure." She returned a shy smile.

After Suzy put the CLOSED sign on the door, they settled on the table with doughnuts and coffee. He reposed languidly, like a Sultan facing his harem and indulgently waiting for them to feed him grapes.

What a ridiculous thought!

"This is quite an enterprise to have when so young, Suzy. You should be proud of yourself."

Suzy found herself blushing. "Well, it's thanks to Gwen, my partner. She helped me come up with the capital, though we also took a hefty loan from the bank. And I'm still learning the ropes."

She turned to the pantry with a frown, remembering her business partner and assistant. Gwen and Shay were being suspiciously quiet. They probably had their ears glued to the pantry door.

"Well, that's impressive. I thought young girls like you were too busy living their life."

"Well, I'm twenty-six, almost twenty-seven. Hardly young. I always wanted to have something of my own." She looked around at the cheerful little cafe, the walls which she had painted herself. Though most new businesses failed within two years, she had high hopes for her cafe. People always needed good food and even better coffee, after all.

"Well, I'm a couple of years older than you and still think that's impressive." Jake's eyes glinted with sincerity.

"And a hefty amount of good luck," Suzy admitted, bashfully. Jake had placed his hands on the table. His fingers were long with a dusting of thick, dark hair. And guess what? No wedding ring!

She looked up to see Jake's icy gaze on her. Eek! Maybe she wasn't so subtle in checking his marital status after all. His intense gaze was unnerving, it was as if he was looking straight into the very depths of her soul. Staring into his eyes was a dangerous game, but damn if she could look away. She hitched in a breath and gulped. His gaze didn't waver. And his expression gave away nothing.

To distract him, she said. "Why didn't you tell me sooner you were Vera's son? I would've never guessed in a million years."

Jake smiled and leaned into her. "Well, I had to be sure it's you."

"How did you find out it's me, then?" Belatedly, Suzy remembered that she was the only white woman in her twenties in the café.

"I heard your colleagues call out your name. You were always in the back when I was in the cafe. I didn't want to disturb you when you were busy."

Oh, so he'd noticed that? He had probably also noticed her blushing and avoiding him whenever he came into the cafe.

Subtle, very subtle, Suze, she admonished herself.

She mumbled something about inventory management in the pantry.

She saw a glint of teasing appear in his eyes. "I remember how your dad would celebrate whenever the Red Sox won a game over the Yankees. Are you also a Sox fan?"

Suzy sat up in indignation. Baseball was a very serious business. "Of course! Both my grandparents were from Boston. So, I definitely am!"

"What do you say to watching a game this Friday then? Yankees vs the Sox. It will be interesting. I can arrange for the tickets."

Suzy loved baseball. She perked up immediately. "Sure!"

Oh, wait.

"Are you asking me out?"

"We can go just as friends if you like. Any boyfriend or anyone special that may object to that?" Jake again leaned back in the chair, his posture casual and confident. It was, as if, he already knew that she didn't have a boyfriend.

Suzy put her chin up. "Not currently, but I don't allow my boyfriends to dictate who I should be friendly with."

"Noted, ma'am." He leaned towards her. "Whereas I don't go around "dictating" to women, I would like to know where my woman is all the same. It's my job to protect her, after all."

"How old-fashioned." Suzy retorted. He was subjecting her to an icy-gazed scrutiny. What would it be like to let such an intense man in her life? How would he treat "his woman"?

Suzy shivered at the thought. She hadn't had anyone to take care of her for too long, it wouldn't be easy for her to relinquish control.

"Yes, I guess I am," Jake admitted. "So, are we on for Friday? Should I pick you up around the same time? Here?"

"What? No! I- That is we, don't allow pickups or hook-ups in the cafe. No boyfriends, too. I mean, to keep a professional facade."

She added, "I hope you understand. As the owner, I need to set an example."

His eyes scanned her face and for a minute she thought he was contemplating withdrawing his offer. What the hell was wrong with her anyway? She wanted to go to the game, didn't she?

"I'll meet you at the stadium. How about that?" She also added, for good measure. "I haven't seen a real game in ages!"

His features were unreadable. "Yes, I don't mind at all. We'll exchange numbers and co-ordinate."

When Suzy handed over her phone for him to feed his number in, he finished the task and chuckled.

"What?" Suzy asked.

"I was thinking, if we do continue seeing each other, we may want to tweak the "No boyfriends in the cafe" rule. Unless your rules are set in stone."

There was a twinkle in his eye as he teased her.

She bit her lip and shook her head with regret. "Well, I have never broken any of my rules, Jake. So, don't hold your breath."

He got up to leave and extended a firm handshake. As she grasped his warm hand in hers, he pulled her up.

He put his mouth to her ear and whispered, "Sweetheart, some rules are meant to be broken."

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A/N: Did you like this chapter? Do vote or comment.

The formatting is different for this chapter, I hope that's not a problem.

Until next Thursday!

Cheers,

S.