’What the hell is taking so long?’ You read the text and cursed. Shit. He was mad. Again. ’Just waiting for the coffees. It’s really busy.’ Your anxiety grew by the second, just like Sam’s anger probably was.

“Caramel macchiato and Double-shot Americano for Y/N. Have a good one.” 

Finally. You smiled and grabbed the coffees. “You too”, you said looking back over your shoulder. The next thing you knew, you slammed into a someone. Hot coffee went all over your front and the chest of the stranger. “Oh my God! I am so sorry! I- I..here let me help you.”

He was swiping coffee from his chest, mumbling in Spanish. His brow was furrowed as you used napkins to help clean the coffee.  He shed the leather jacket, that’s when you noticed the badge and gun.

“Oh shit. You’re a cop…Detective…” You stumbled over your words. His polo shirt was tight, face scruffy, his curly, dark, overly long hair was, well sexy.. ‘Jesus get a grip, Y/N.’

 “I’ll survive. Are you okay?” His eyes looked you over for injuries. A smile crossed his face. 

Wow. He had the most beautiful brown eyes you had ever seen. “No, I’m, uh, I’m fine. Looks like you got the worst of it.” He looked vaguely familiar, but you didn’t know from where.

“Nah. Really it’s fine. I have about a hundred more of these shirts at home.” he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. He narrowed his eyes slightly. “You look so familiar.”

“I was thinking the same about you,” you responded back. “I’m Y/F/N. Y/F/N Y/L/N. Maybe we know one another from Bellvue. I’m a PA there in the ER.”

He thought about it, “That’s it! You took care of my mom when she slipped on the ice and broke your ankle last month.” 

Thinking back you did remember his mom. “Oh, she is the sweetest. Cesaria, right? How is she?” You touched his arm in a comforting manner.

"She’s great. Getting the cast of soon. I’ll tell you asked after her.” He smiled and you thought you’d melt right there. “I’m Nick by the way. Nick Amaro.” He offered his hand to shake and you accepted. His hand was warm and soft. 

“Well, I better go. Sorry again about the shirt, and scalding coffee. I owe you one.” You slipped him a business card with your info on it.  You were backing away from Nick, unable to stop smiling.

“This doesn’t look like waiting for coffee to me,” Sam’s voice made you stop dead in your tracks. ‘Oh shit.,’ you thought to yourself.

You plastered a smile on your face, then pressed up to kiss his cheek. “Uh, I uh ran into him, literally. I wasn’t paying attention and smacked right into his chest. We took care of his mom last month. This is NIck.”

He took in your appearance, then looked at Nick. “Sam, I’m the boyfriend. Hey sorry, man. She can be a little clumsy.” Sam replaced his cold stare with his fake, polite, I’m a doctor face. He put a possessive arm around your waist. HIs fingers dug into your waist causing you to wince.

Nick’s brown eyes stay trained on you for a beat too long before he turned his gaze to Sam. “No problem. Really.” His jaw clenched when he saw the pained expression on your face. He seemed to not miss a thing.

“We need to get going, sweetie,” Sam said. He grabbed your hand in his and squeezed, hard. “Nice to meet you Nile.” He lowered his gaze to you. “Guess I’ll have to do without coffee this morning.” The smile on his face sent chills down your spine.

Nick watched as the two of you left the coffee shop. He knew deep down that something was not right. He had seen his Dad treat his Mom the same way. ‘Just stay out of it Amaro. Maybe it’s not what you think,.’  he said to himself. But he knew he was right. He could feel it in his bones. No way he was going to ignore his instincts.