Done Hiding as Your Backup Plaything I'm Shining Golden as a Queen - Chapter 47: Chapter 47

Sure enough, it poured all night long.
When I dragged myself out of bed the next morning, a misty drizzle was still falling, turning the UCLA campus into something out of a moody indie film.
I grabbed my umbrella and headed to the boba shop. It was one of those trendy places—bigger than your average Starbucks, with ten sleek wooden tables and an Instagram-worthy "dream wall" where customers pinned colorful notes with their wishes and secrets.
As I pushed the door open, the wind rushed in behind me, making dozens of Post-its flutter and dance like confetti.
The shop had a cramped changing area in the back where I quickly swapped my hoodie for their signature mint-green polo and black apron.
Then the eight-hour shift from hell began.
The manager said I had "good customer-facing energy" (translation: I was conventionally attractive enough to put at the front) and stationed me on register duty.
The job wasn't rocket science, but standing in one spot for eight hours straight had turned my feet into throbbing blocks of pain.
Around 9 PM, just as I was mentally calculating how many minutes until closing, someone pushed through the front door. The wind chimes jangled and the dream wall notes performed their synchronized flutter routine.
I kept my eyes on the register screen, too tired to look up. "What can I get for you tonight?"
"Just lemon water."
"Coming right up."
I punched in the order mechanically, but as the receipt printed, something about that voice sent electricity up my spine. I looked up and crashed straight into those dark eyes I'd know anywhere.
He was wearing a pale blue hoodie that somehow made his skin look airbrushed, his dark hair artfully messed up by the wind. That face—the one I'd been trying and failing to forget since high school—looked even more devastating up close.
Jax raised an eyebrow, one corner of his mouth lifting slightly. "Heard a rumor you were working here. Had to see it to believe it."
I momentarily forgot how words worked, my tongue darting out to wet my suddenly dry lips. "Did you seriously track me down at work?"
Jax just gave me that enigmatic half-smile that revealed absolutely nothing.
I pressed my lips together, grabbed his lemon water when it was ready, and practically shoved it across the counter.
He took the drink but made no move to leave.
After a moment of just standing there, making my heart perform gymnastics, he asked, "When are you done here?"
"Five minutes," I answered before I could stop myself.
Jax nodded once and walked back out the door.
After changing back into my clothes, I stepped outside with my umbrella, scanning the mostly empty street. That's when I spotted him sitting on a bench outside, looking like he was posing for an urban fashion shoot. His long legs were crossed at the ankles, his profile half-hidden in the glow of a nearby streetlight. A small orange ember glowed near his mouth.
He was smoking, because of course he was.
"...You actually waited?" I asked, hating how my voice betrayed my surprise.
"Obviously," he replied with that lazy drawl that did stupid things to my insides.
"Why would you do that?"
Despite my question, I found myself gravitating toward him like he had his own magnetic field.
He tilted his head back to look at me, cigarette balanced between his lips, the evening breeze lifting his hair in that perfect way that seemed choreographed. In that moment, he looked exactly like the boy who'd ruined me for everyone else years ago.
"Liana," he said, my name sounding different in his voice, "are you into me?"
The unexpected question hit me like I'd walked into a glass door.
For once in my life, I felt genuinely terrified.
My feet froze to the sidewalk. It was like standing at the edge of a cliff—one step forward and I'd free-fall into something I couldn't control.
One step back and I'd be safe in my comfortable unrequited pining.
"What? No way," I lied, my voice higher than normal. "I just see you as, like, an older brother figure or whatever."
"Is that right?"
He flashed that knowing smile that made my stomach drop. "Then maybe stop looking at me like I'm the last lifeboat on the Titanic."
With that simple statement, my palms instantly started sweating and my face felt like it was on fire.
Of course—you can lie with your mouth all day long, but your eyes always tell the truth.
I stood there in silence, my mind racing for some plausible denial.
Jax took a long drag of his cigarette, casually adjusting his sleeve cuff like we were discussing the weather.
Acting like he hadn't just stripped away the defense mechanism I'd been perfecting for years.
"So do you want to date me or what?" he asked suddenly.
"WHAT?!"
I looked up so fast I nearly gave myself whiplash.
"I said," he repeated slower, like I might not understand English, "do you want to date me?"
My brain completely short-circuited. "Is this some kind of fraternity dare? Or did you lose a bet?"
"Nope, dead serious." He removed the cigarette from his lips and crushed it in a nearby trash can with deliberate movements.
Then he straightened up, those dark eyes looking directly into mine with an intensity that made it hard to breathe. "I like you, Liana Frost. Will you go out with me?"
"But weren't you dating Rosalia?" The words tumbled out before I could stop them.
Jax's eyes widened slightly. "Who fed you that line of BS?"
His reaction...
"I literally saw you two about to kiss on the rooftop of our building," I said, the memory still sharp enough to hurt.
"That's creative fiction," Jax said firmly. "She tried to kiss me, but I dodged faster than someone avoiding a League of Legends gank."
His voice was so matter-of-fact in the night air, and the gaming reference so unexpectedly dorky coming from him, that I couldn't help the laugh that escaped me.