For a moment, my breath caught in my throat at the sight of the approaching man. I hadn’t seen Andrey ever since leaving highschool, but he didn’t change so much that I didn’t recognise his sculpted face with its hollow cheeks and strong jaw.

He did change, though. He had been an object of attention of every hormonal teen in school, and years only added to his appeal. Andrey was a head taller than me before, but I was ready to swear that he gained several more centimetres, judging by how he towered over my table.

His chestnut bangs fell on his forehead in waves, while the rest of his hair was cut short. A dark stubble framed the lower part of his face—a recent addition, one that made him seem a couple years older. Not a teen anymore, but a male macho man.

Andrey was dressed in a black T-shirt with a wolf-headed logo on it and tattered jeans. Both items did little to hide the pronounced muscles of his body. I could even see the veins on his arms. Kids in school called Andrey Shvarts after Arnold Schwarzenegger because of these guns.

Even the harsh expression on his face did nothing to diminish Andrey’s rugged handsomeness and his pure animal magnetism. There was a day when I felt lucky to be the one whom Andrey let close to himself.

That was before I found out the true depths of Andrey’s charming personality.

I glowered right back at him, making a deep breath to hold my shit together. I really didn’t want to meet him, and even less so in the situation like that one.

Opposite of me, Rita experienced a typical female reaction at Andrey’s looks: lust at first sight. Good thing that there was Panda too, who shared my pure unfriendliness.

“Andrey, who the hell you think you are to just barge in my chill-out time uninvited and demand answers?” I asked through my teeth. “I wrote you black on white that I’m not interested in meeting or chatting with you.”

I saw Rita shaking off her initial purely body-based reaction and nodding in my support. “Yeah. This is a public place, you prick!”

Andrey’s face darkened more. He leaned forward and slammed his palms on our table. He also completely ignored Rita and Panda, instead focusing only on me. “Diana, don’t make me angry.”

I stood up, feeling bitter anger bubbling inside of me. I wanted to punch him, but I wasn’t really a violent person. Plus, the only thing that would hurt would be my fist. “Shouldn’t I be the one to tell you this?”

Rita stood up too, her hands on her hips. “You heard her, man. You aren’t welcome here!”

Andrey continued to ignore her. “Diana, you told me you loved me. Believe me, I didn’t want to leave the city. My family forced me to move with them in these backwoods. I couldn’t even call you from there. Now I finally return, and this is how you meet me?”

I ground my teeth. “Andrey, did you forget one important detail? One where I broke up with you before all that happened?”

“I didn’t think you were serious, but I thought it will be better for you to hate me while I’m gone than to miss me.”

I groaned inwardly. “First, I was one hundred percent serious. Second, Andrey, this is just the sort of high-handedness that pushed me to break up with you in the first place.” I shook my head. “Now go away or I will call security.”

Our argument had attracted a noticeable amount of attention already. Other customers were eyeing our table with curious and wary looks, and so did the diner’s staff. A security person—an aged, plump woman in a black uniform—looked at us with narrowed eyes from her post near the entrance. On second thought, I didn’t want to call for her help. If she and Andrey fought, even a taser wouldn’t help her much.

“You are just angry at me for leaving,” Andrey said in a tone so definite that I felt my upper lip curling to show my teeth. “But I told you, Diana, I had no choice! My family is very strict on living together. I only recently had a chance to leave on my own.”

I clenched my fists. There was just no arguing with him. Other times I would smile, nod and do what I wanted to do anyway, but right now I wanted to be away from him, and Andrey was blocking my exit. “Get out of here!”

My hand moved before my higher brain could process my idea fully. I grabbed the ceramic cup with my unfinished tea and flung its contents towards Andrey.

He froze, a cool liquid dropping from his T-shirt on the floor. For a couple of seconds, his eyes were on the wet spot on his clothes. Then he lifted his gaze at me again, and the rage in them made my blood run cold.

I stood still as well, unknowing what to do. I didn’t think when I provoked him like that, but damn. If Andrey planned to be violent, then he deserved it all, and if he didn’t… then he deserved it anyway, and I didn’t need to be afraid.

Still, this must’ve been a first for him. In school, no one dared to act like that towards him. What’s worse, I saw the security woman coming in, saying something in her walkie-talkie.

Shit was going down, and fast.

“You didn’t just do that,” Andrey growled. “No one disrespects me like that. Even you.”

Delusional, like always.

“Girls, is this man harassing you?” the security woman asked as she walked up to our table, keeping a hand on her taser holster.

Andrey sharply turned towards her. “This is between us.”

The security woman frowned. “I wasn’t asking you, boy.”

With my heart beating like mad, I squeezed past Panda to interrupt another conflict coming up. “No, he is right, this is really between us, and Andrey was just leaving.” I gave him a sharp look, urging him to agree. “Leaving, so we could talk la-ter.”

He growled again. “No. We are talking about this NOW.”

Andrey leaned towards my face, so close that I could feel his hot breath on my skin. No, scratch that—not just hot, but almost scalding. Weirdly so… But I wasn’t in the presence of mind to dwell on it. I was too busy thinking about how to make Andrey finally fucking chill.

Suddenly, Panda, who sat quietly until now, stood up. Without saying a word, she lunged at Andrey, who ignored her just like Rita before.

Her fist flew like a bullet, hitting Andrey’s neck with enough force to make him stagger and step back. He gasped for air, but it only took him a second to recover enough to turn towards Panda with a scowl on his face…

Only to be hit with a taser on his side. The entire sequence of actions happened quicker than I described it.

“The worst type of men, that one,” the security woman said, packing her taser, as Andrey convulsed on the floor. “Don’t worry, girls, I had called the cops. He will have time to recover at the police station.”

My eyes met Andrey’s furious gaze, and I gulped as I looked away. Still, I couldn’t find in myself to be mad about what just happened—I was more awed at Panda’s punch technique. Should I call her Kung-Fu Panda now?