Chapter 16
The Message
(Axel’s POV)
I stared at my phone like it was some kind of hallucination.
Maya: Coffee? I would like to see you.
My heart punched my ribs. I blinked, rereading the message three times to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.
She wanted to see me.
Me.
Axel Hendrikson.
Not as a patient. Not in a professional setting. Just… coffee.
It wasn’t a doctor-patient check-in. She wasn’t asking about my ankle. No. That text meant something else. It had to.
I knew she felt it too. She felt the pull and she was done denying it.
I jumped off the couch, pacing across the living room like a lunatic. My phone stayed in my hand, clutched like a lifeline.
She felt it too. The tension. The pull. The way her eyes held mine longer than necessary. The way she never looked away firs
