There was a quick lesson on the register before Britt went back to cleaning off tables, Ada went back to making drinks and Tom took his post ringing customers up.

Tom's last comment to her before fleeing the kitchen gave her the answers she needed, but didn't bring her mind any more clarity. She was still in a daze, but having other people pick up the slack made a world of difference.

He charmed the customers, keeping them happy and distracted from the slower service and busy atmosphere. It took him a while to ring each person up, but he took the stress with ease and not a single customer complained.

The downpour turned into a light rain, which shifted to a slight drizzle. The evening became nice enough where it diverted a portion of her customers, which was fine by her. Having had little sleep the entire week, Ada was ready for some downtime.

With now only a half hour before close, Tom took on the tower of dishes in the kitchen, Britt wiped down all the tables and booths, and Ada swept and mopped the floors and cleaned off the machines.

"I think I'm gonna head out," Britt announced as she released her dishrag in the bucket of soapy water.

Ada balanced the mop handle between a table and chair before plopping herself beside it. "I don't know how I would have survived the night without the two of you," Ada admitted. "Britt, thank you. And not just for tonight, but for everything."

Britt shrugged before glancing over in the kitchen's direction before she sat down next to Ada. "What's going on between you and Mr. B?" Her tone wasn't joking or excited like it had been Wednesday before Tom showed up. Now she seemed more uneasy than anything.

Ada realized then the situation between her and Tom was interesting to Britt when it was in theory. She'd been quiet after Tom had left on Wednesday and had likely eavesdropped on the conversation from the hallway.

"I don't know." Ada licked her lips and leaned her arms against the table. "I never expected him to want me back. I just figured I'd spend an eternity pining for him in secret."

"Like you have been for the last four years?"

Ada's head shot up and body jerked backward in her chair. "I have not!"

"Oh, yes you have," Britt said with a laugh. "You've had a thing for him since freshman year. You've always been crazy for the guy. Maybe you never said it out loud or even admitted it to yourself, but I've watched you light up around him for four years."

Ada opened her mouth to refute it, then snapped it closed when she realized there was little point. In all reality, Britt was right. She wasn't sure if it'd always been a crush, but something had always been there, creeping in the backdrop.

"Is this crazy?" Ada wasn't sure if the question was directed at Britt or herself.

But Britt didn't hesitate to throw her two cents in. "It's not just crazy, it's nuts." She dropped her head in her hands and shrugged her shoulders. "But why should that stop you?"

Ada could list a dozen reasons and then some. And the 'Carrie Cautious' in her wanted to go through each of those reasons and pick through them until she knew every conclusion to every scenario.

Britt placed her hand on top of Ada's before continuing. "What do you want?"

There were many reasons to not go for whatever was happening between her and Tom, yet the one pro seemed to outweigh all cons she could think of.

"Him," Ada wiped at her face as she answered, as if she was cleaning the shame from her body. "I want him."

Britt smiled at her, then stood from the chair and scooped up her purse. "Then I'm gunna go so you can go get him." Britt gave her a wink and Ada watched as she turned off the open sign and the shop lights, leaving only the front counter, hallway and the kitchen lit.

She went back behind the counter and turned off the last set of lights. Now the only lights on were the ones in the kitchen and the dim sconces on the brick walls they left on after close.

She didn't notice the romantic feel they gave in this building until Tom came out of the kitchen and they illuminated his body perfectly. She also noticed in the light that Tom's shirt was soaking wet.

"Did you have an argument with the dishwasher?"

Tom looked down at his shirt and grinned, pulling the fabric away from his body to air it out. "A political debate," Tom corrected playfully. "I guess things got a little heated."

Ada went to the edge of the back counter and grabbed a coffee shop shirt. She planned to give him one on her last day at school, but he seemed in need of it now. She could still give him the sweatshirt, and another present she hoped would arrive on time. "I'd say you earned yourself one of these bad boys."

Tom took the shirt from her hand and tossed it on the counter before taking off his own. He peeled the wet fabric from his body, seeming to struggle with it.

Ada didn't mind the battle. It was like seeing him undress himself in slow motion. Slow. Glorious. Motion.

"I'm up here," he taunted.

Ada didn't bother glancing up. "Yeah, I know. I've seen all that. Now I'm enjoying this."

Tom chuckled and grabbed the clean shirt.

"Thank you for tonight. And for taking off your shirt," she added. "Both were very much appreciated."

"Anytime," Tom said with a wink and a smile before slipping the shirt on, this time with far more efficiency. "Listen, I think I should get going."

"I want you to kiss me," Ada blurted out, for once not wishing to take back the words that dribbled out her mouth. "Tonight."

"Oh yeah?" His voice went up an octave or two, and he crammed his hands in the pockets of his dark jeans.

Instead of walking toward Tom, she withdrew from her place behind the counter and strolled over to the area of the coffee shop set up like a living room. It was to the side of the large windows, out of sight of any pedestrians outside.

"Yup," she said, not allowing herself to turn back. "I'm not waiting another week for this thing. You're gonna put your arms around me like you did before and you're gonna finish what you started. You can't admit that you have feelings for me and then almost kiss me, then force me to wait a week for it. That's just a dick move."

Tom attempted to hold back a smile, but it still tugged at the edges of his mouth and twinkled in his eyes. "Isn't it a dick move to ask me to kiss you while I'm still your teacher?"

Ada shrugged. "Somehow I'll learn to live with myself. Mine is just a question. You'd be a dick through your actions, which is really unbecoming." Ada crossed her arms. Her body was heating with each step he took toward her. "You can turn me down, but I wouldn't recommend it."

He exchanged a knowing look with her before granting a bemused smile to take over his face. He was only a few feet away from her now. "And what happens if I turn you down?"

Ada licked her lips, recognizing the 'Bennet Trance' was taking over the closer he got to her. "Hell if I know," she admitted. "I just really want you to kiss me."

One more step and he was now only a foot away from her before he halted in his tracks. His eye contact was firm and intense as he swallowed hard. "Say that again."

His voice was smooth, tranquil and somewhat resigned, which only pulled Ada in more.

Ada held in a breath, the strength of his stare undoing her. "I want you to kiss me."

It was Tom who did this to her. He turned her from 'straight A Ada' with her eyes on the future to a woman who had eyes only for him.

The foot between them was eliminated. She'd repeat the words over and over again if he'd wanted her to, but he didn't require her words to know what she wanted. He could see it printed all across her body like a map with one destination. He could study the indications in her breaths, wanting eyes, shaky body or quivering mouth and they would all lead him to one place.

And he seemed to take it all in, his eyes studying every clue that showed him just how badly she wanted all this, before he wrapped one arm around her waist while the other hand brushed up and down her side.

"You know this is a bad idea, right?"

Ada opened her mouth to speak, but the sound was barely audible. She tried again and had to push the words out. "Best bad idea I've ever had."

Tom's knuckles trailed across her stomach as he kept firm eye contact with her. "If we start something, there's going to be consequences. People won't like it when they find out, and they will find out."

"So be it."

His knuckles caught the bottom of her shirt and skimmed her bare skin for only a note before the shirt fell back into place. Ada dropped her head back, and she took in a heavy breath, filling her lungs with his forever scent of coffee and chocolate with a hint of sweat from a hard night work.

The feel of his heated breath against her neck caused Ada to stumble, and she grabbed onto him for balance. When she did, it only drew him closer and his lips grazed the skin, filling her with unbearable need. All rational thought disappeared the moment he began leaving a trail of kisses across her neck, against her chin, up her jawline and another just below her ear.

Each kiss was a small fragment of seduction, as if she needed to be seduced into kissing him.

"My legs are going to stop working in about five seconds."

Tom left another small kiss on her forehead before he seized her by the waist and picked her up with ease, looking around for a place to put her. He set her down on a bistro chair, just barely out of view of the window.

The moment she landed on the chair, Ada kept her legs around him, unwilling to let him go. Her pulse quickened the longer he looked at her with those incredible eyes of his. Every inch of her felt his stare.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" he questioned, his hands holding firm on her waist and his eyes holding firm on hers.

The heat of his body and grasp of his hands on her waist drove any words she knew out of her brain. So instead she took off his cap and tossed it on the table beside her. Ada entwined her fingers behind his neck to pull him closer and erased the distance between his lips and her own.

The chemistry that was always there between them now felt minuscule compared to the chemistry in that single, fleeting kiss. With the gentle brush of her lips, she told him what she wanted and what she wanted was him, no matter where that took her.

As soon as their lips separated she kissed him again, this time taking her time. That familiar shiver danced up her spine and clouded her brain. It was one she felt every time he looked at her with those perfectly soft yet playfully mischievous eyes of his.

Ada opened her eyes and saw him staring at her lips, felt his thumb trace the outline of her lower lip.

"What the hell are you doing to me, Ada?" he questioned. But Tom didn't wait for her answer before he captured her in a kiss that set fire to her body.

This kiss was not fleeting or gentle. Raw need collided with a forbidden desire they'd tried their best to ignore. The feel of his lips moving greedily against hers knocked the air from Ada's lungs and the thoughts from her brain. Her lips parted for him and Tom took the offer without a moment's hesitation, slipping his tongue inside. Kiss after kiss she felt herself lose all control. Moans and whimpers escaped from her lips and her hands travelled up his shirt to pull him closer in a demanding urgency.

Ada deepened every kiss as her body arched into his. She needed him; anything and everything he would give. Her heart craved this moment for longer than she wanted to admit, and her body was responding to him in ways she couldn't seem to control.

Tom left one last kiss on her lower lip before breaking his lips away from hers and let out a heavy breath that she took in as her own.

"If you keep doing that, we're going to end up naked on that couch."

"Was that meant to be a warning or a promise?"

Tom let out an exasperated laugh. "You and I both know that our first time shouldn't be a quick screw on a public couch."

Ada drew in another breath and ran her fingers through her tangled hair. "God, that sounds tempting."

"It does at that," Tom admitted. "But it's not gonna happen."

Tom backed away from her, his gray eyes remaining on her body and becoming clouded over as the electricity built up. He wiped at his face and shook his head before pacing with a slight stumble around the furniture. For a full minute, the sound of his feet hitting the hardwood floors at a random pace was the only sound in the room, minus Ada's loud heartbeat.

Finally, he made a move for the couch.

Ada waited until he was almost sat down. "Is that the couch I was going to be naked on?"

His ass hadn't yet hit the cushion before he shook his head at her and moved to the chair instead.

"So what happens now?"

Tom lowered his temple to his fist and shrugged. "Fuck if I know."

"Do I have to wait until after graduation before I kiss you again?"

"Yeah, cause that rule turned out so well the first time. I won't make it out of this room without kissing you again if you keep looking at me like that."

"How am I looking at you?"

"I don't know how to describe it, but it's sexy as hell. You know, you basically turned into a vixen and seduced me tonight."

Ada bit her lip and smiled, a flush taking over her cheeks. "Oh yeah?" She was a bit proud of herself for that. She'd never tried to seduce anyone before. Ada had a boyfriend before, but never once tried to be a seductress with him.

"Oh, yeah."

"How was I at it?" she asked.

Tom laughed and shook his head at her. "I'll have to answer that later. Right now blood seems to be flowing everywhere but my brain."

A wicked smile took over Ada's face as she glanced down at the outline of his erection. "You were good at your part too, you know," Ada admitted. "I'd say you more than exceeded my pretty high expectations."

"That wasn't number three."

"Huh?" Ada wasn't positive about this, but she was certain her body would disintegrate if he kissed her any better than he just had.

Headlights shone through the window and Tom left the chair to look at the car that had just pulled up outside the cafe. "I think that's your mom's Subaru." His nonchalant tone surprised her.

She was not so nonchalant about it. Ada pulled her tangled hair up into a ponytail and forced herself out of her chair. "You can sneak out the back," Ada offered.

Tom just sat back down in his chair, seeming to not have a care in the world. "There's no way I can make it to the kitchen without them seeing me."

Ada wanted to argue with him, but the moment she opened her mouth, the door handle turned and her mother and Crystal walked into the building, laughing.

Crystal spotted Ada. "Hey! I figured you forgot the kitchen lights on or something. How was tonight?"

"New girl didn't show and I couldn't get a hold of Rachel," Ada explained, feeling her tiredness kick in and mingle with the nervous feeling in her stomach.

"And I bet it was insane with the rain. Oh, I'm sorry, Ada. Why didn't you call?"

Tom spoke up from the chair. "Ada didn't want to ruin your plans, so Britt and I chipped in. She just left."

The sound of Tom's voice caused both her mother and Crystal to jump.

Crystal put her hand over her heart. "You scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry." Tom rose from the chair, peering up at her from his lowered head. "I should get going. You ladies have a good night."

"Wait," Crystal said before she went into her purse. "Let me pay you for your work."

Tom waved the gesture off. "Don't worry about it." Tom walked past them and put his hand on the doorknob. "See you tomorrow, Ada."

Ada's eyes remained on him as she watched him give a polite nod of the head to her mother and Crystal before leaving.