Before anyone could question him further, Alexa grabbed his elbow.

“Are you all right?” she hissed in his ear.

“That’s John!” Zack whispered back, barely managing to keep his voice down.

Alexa’s mouth popped open. She tightened her grip on his elbow and towed him away from the crowd. Zack could feel eyes watching them, but he didn’t care. His brain had cut to radio silence.

Alexa tossed him into the break room and shut the door behind them. There was a folding table in the center of the room with a few chairs scattered around it. Alexa pushed him into one of the chairs and stood with her arms crossed.

“Zack, I need you to level with me,” she commanded. “Are you sure that’s John?”

“Of course I’m sure!”

“But you only saw him once. You said so yourself a minute ago.”

“It’s him,” Zack insisted. “It’s definitely him.”

Alexa stared hard at him. “Then we need to call the police.”

“What? Why?”

“Clients can’t just show up where we work, Zack. You know that. It’s harassment and borderline stalking. Our address isn’t even listed, so how did he find this place?”

“I don’t know, but he’s not stalking me.”

“Why are you defending him? If any of your other clients showed up here, you wouldn’t hesitate to have them removed.”

Zack couldn’t argue with that, and company policy was explicit about how to deal with clients who tried to meet employees in person.

“Okay,” Zack said. “You’re right, he needs to leave . . .”

“But?”

“But I don’t want to call the cops on him. He’s my best client, and I’m guessing this means he still wants me. I don’t want to jeopardize that by getting him arrested. Besides, Colette hates getting cops involved.”

Alexa closed her eyes. “You have it so bad for this guy.”

“I do not!”

“Fine, whatever. What do you suggest we do?”

“We?”

“Of course, cupcake. I’m in this with you.”

Zack smiled softly at her, but then his brow puckered. “Actually, I have no idea what we should do.”

“Well, you’d better think of something fast, because he’s drawing attention. If Colette notices, she’ll call the cops on him anyway, just to make everyone get back to work.”

“It’s kind of weird that he’s just standing out there, now that I think about it.”

Alexa scoffed. “More like waiting.”

There was a beat of silence. Then they both gasped.

“Check your phone!” Alexa ordered.

Zack pulled it out. Sure enough, he had a text from the number John had given him, sent fifteen minutes ago. I’m outside your work. Come talk to me.

Alexa read it over his shoulder. “I gotta hand it to the guy. He’s got swagger.”

Zack’s heart skittered across his ribs. “Should I go?”