by Talya Andor
"I'll keep that in mind," Lucas said, rubbing his jaw. "Next time I want to surprise you, that is."
Soren grinned up at him. "I like surprises. It just has to be the right kind."
"Not from behind, then," Lucas joked, snickering as Soren rolled his eyes. "I'd kiss you, but I think I need to recover first. Ah, hell with it." He put his hands on Soren's hips and leaned in.
Further away, Lucas heard the door swing open and shut, and he hastily pulled away. "We'd better clock in," he murmured.
"Right."
As they headed for the front, Lucas slipping an apron on, he realized no one had actually come all the way into the back room, despite the door's opening. Someone must have been going for more milk, he decided, and dismissed the matter.
They emerged on the floor of the service island, and Aaron turned from the register with a harassed expression on his bearded face. "One moment," he told his customer. He aimed a finger at Soren. "You, on the bar. Sloane needs a break." Soren was already moving for the bar as Aaron finished speaking.
Lucas kept his face expressionless as that finger turned his way. "Daye, get your own till and put yourself in the bottom drawer. Then I'll take a break when you get back."
"Be right back," Lucas said, controlling the urge to be flippant. He didn't mind unleashing himself when the store was empty, but when the customers were around, store politics had no place on the floor.
"I can't believe he didn't have a second till waiting in the drawer," Lucas muttered, pushing his way through the back door.
"He did," piped a high voice behind him.
Lucas glanced over his shoulder at Sloane, grinned, and made room for her as they moved through the crowded back room. "Morning, Sloane."
"God, it's been absolutely wretched," she said. "Mostly because Aaron is such a shit to work with. Like I said, he started with two drawers, and he gave the bottom one to Monica."
"He gave a drawer to Monica?" Lucas whistled.
"Yeah, I think he was hoping to have a quiet morning or something."
They emerged into the office area, and Lucas headed for the safe, dragging over a chair to sit beside it while he waited. Sloane accompanied him, leaning against a ten-foot metal rack of broken and overstocked items.
"So when the rush, came he took over for Monica—" Lucas nodded, aware of Monica's problems handling cash and counting out wrong change, which was why he never put her on the till. "—and we haven't had a break since, for him to count out her till."
"Got it," Lucas said with a nod, dialing in the combination for the safe. He looked around for any stray paperwork. All he saw that was worthy of note was a copy of Slaughterhouse Five open face-down on the desktop calendar. Lucas smirked.
"I don't even know why Danice schedules him for openers," Sloane said. "He's a poor organizer, and though he's not rude to the customers, he's rude to us and the customers pick up on that."
Lucas sat back with a sigh. It would be five minutes before the safe opened, due to its time-delay safety feature. When it beeped, he would have to put in the other half of the code. That was fine, because he could chill out with Sloane.
"Pull up a seat," he said, gesturing to the folding chairs stacked behind him and leaning against the huge metal rack that held five-pound bags of beans.
"Ah, don't mind if I do," Sloane said with an impish smile, reaching for one. He got the sense he'd fallen into a trap of some kind.
"I'll talk to Danice," he said. "Aaron's usually on closing shifts, so I think Danice was just trying something new. I could have opened, but I'm not working a full shift today, and I guess he is, so he's shift super."
Sloane nodded, pursing her full mouth. Then she tilted her head, eyes gleaming. "So…"
A faint smile tugged at his lips as he remembered his conversation with Soren during lunch the day before. Lucas and Sloane had always been friendly, but Sloane was a close friend of Soren's, and he knew what she was after. "So…?" he repeated, drawing out the syllable.
"How have things been going with Soren, you ass?" she demanded, lashing out at him with a hand, yet not landing the blow. Her face was alight, and it struck him again how truly pretty she was.
Why hadn't he ever considered dating Sloane? Because she was too nice, he decided. Too personable. For the past year and a half, he'd been drowning his woes in a string of forgettable young women. It had taken nearly rejecting Soren to wake him up.
"Hmm…the past few weeks…" He swung his chair from side to side, glancing at her from the corner of his eye to gauge her reaction. "Now, what's new in my life that would make you ask such a thing?"
"Lucas!" Now she landed a blow on his knee. "Come on, give over. I was on bar, and all I saw right then was the back of Soren's head. He's been avoiding me, or busy, not sure which. I can't tell if he's over the moon or needs a shoulder to cry on."
"Okay, okay…" Lucas swiveled to face her, propping his elbows on his knees and studying his interlaced fingers. "I dunno if Soren's updated his status yet—but I've updated mine. It's official as of yesterday: he's trying me out in the boyfriend department."
Sloane's mouth dropped open. "That fast!" She snorted incredulously, then burst into a grin.
"I'm not sure four or five dates counts as fast," Lucas said, grinning.
Sloane lapsed back into her seat, smiling in an amazed sort of fashion. "Well, good for you. I'm happy for you…and ecstatic for Soren!" She leaned forward, bending herself practically double as she leaned on her knees. "Now as his friend I'm entitled to warn you: if you hurt him…"
"Please. We're both adults. I have a reputation, yeah, but…I'm in this for a relationship. I wouldn't have started anything with Soren if I just wanted to mess with him and break his heart."
"Fair enough." Sloane straightened and gave him a serious face. "I hope you mean that, Lucas. I don't think he could take it if you were toying with him."
"I know," Lucas said. He thought by this point, he knew more about it than Sloane.
Sloane seemed to intuit his seriousness from his expression and jumped up, yanking her apron off and balling it up. "Right. That's all I wanted to know, Lucas. And good luck."
"Thanks," Lucas replied, looking up from his hands. He hoped he wouldn't need it. He was in the floating stage, the honeymoon stage, where everything was bright and beautiful and natural. All he was thinking about at that point was spending as much time with Soren as possible.
The safe beeped. Time to get back to work.
The store was a madhouse when Lucas returned to the floor. Once he logged in, he lost himself in the rhythm of the rush. They had a line of customers winding out the store, and when Sloane returned, Lucas put her on bar with Soren so they could slam the line of cups down.
The rush passed in a blur, almost pleasant for the fact that Soren had chosen to work the end of the bar nearest the register, and their eyes met every time Lucas gave a drink order to him. Once the line dwindled and Aaron returned, the results of the morning rush became apparent. The store was a mess.
Aaron pointed at Monica. "Check the floor, will you?"
Monica shrugged and headed for the floor, grabbing a bin on her way out.
Smart girl. "Did you count out the bottom till?" Lucas asked Aaron.
Aaron glared at him, then fixed his evil eye on the pastry display. "Of course, I did. What do you think took me so long?" He snorted.
Lucas, who had seen the copy of Slaughterhouse 5, held his tongue.
" You trying to tell me how to do my job, Daye?" Aaron rolled his shoulders aggressively.
There was a sharp intake of breath behind him, but Lucas didn't dare turn around. He maintained eye contact with Aaron, jaw muscles flexing. "It was a simple question. Not a challenge. I think we all saw the little star next to your name on the schedule this morning." The star denoted a shift supervisor.
The timer on one of the coffee urns went off, and the other shrilled out in the next heartbeat. Aaron broke eye contact first. "Wilkenson, change
it. Daye, when Baker gets back tell her to bring the dishes to the back room. I'm going to go empty the sanitizer."
"Fine," Lucas said to empty air, as Aaron turned on his heel and went through the back door again. He shook his head.
"He never pulls any of this bull when Danice or Michelle are around," Sloane said softly, and Lucas turned to see her leaning on the edge of the wall that separated bar from register. Soren walked up the mats, going for the coffee urns, but Lucas blocked his way.
"I can handle it," Lucas said with a faint grin.
"But Aaron said…" Soren protested.
"I know what he said, but he wasn't really thinking," Lucas said, gesturing at the espresso bar. "I can handle this. The bar probably needs your attention more." The stainless-steel service was a mess of spilled milk, dripped espresso and syrup, and probably needed its porta-filters cleaned and more.
Soren flashed him a shy smile and turned back to the bar with a nod. "You're not wrong."
"Sloane," Lucas began, casting an eye around the store.
"Aye, sir," Sloane said, snapping to attention and tossing him a saucy salute. "Mop the tables. Lord knows Monica won't think to do it."
After that point, they navigated the rest of the hour with minor bobbles. Monica shipped dirty dishes to Aaron and returned with clean ones. Aaron spent an hour in the back 'doing the dishes,' which was a five-minute job, ten for a dawdler, and returned to the front with fresh pitchers of frappuccino mix from the fridge.
"Daye, go take your break," he said with a scowl, moving for the register.
Soren spoke up. "Aaron, can I take my break right now too?"
Aaron sized up the store in a glance. It was quiet, with only a handful of patrons lingering past the rush. They had no new customers.
"No, you can't."
Lucas opened his mouth.
"I don't want to hear it from you, Daye," Aaron said, leveling his glare on Soren. "I'm shift super, not you."
Lucas retreated, tearing his apron off and balling it up. He checked the store schedule again when he got to the back, and to his satisfaction, Danice was coming in, and soon. "Of course, by then he'll be on model behavior," he said to himself.
"You got something you want to say to me?"
With a start, Lucas turned. Aaron stood between the fridge and the sanitizer, staring at him and rocking slightly on the balls of his feet. There was an edgy look on his face.
"Yeah, actually," Lucas said, crossing his arms. "If you've got a problem with me, Fosmark, you talk to me about it. If you can't talk to me, you take it to management. But don't take it out on the crew."
Aaron's face worked as he processed that, as if he was trying to find some flaw or fault by which to attack. "Fair enough," he managed through his clenched jaw. "And if you're going to work with me, don't undercut my authority when I'm the shift supervisor, and not you."
Lucas nodded slowly, keeping his temper in check. "You keep your temper with the crew, including me, when I'm your crew. Or I'll have no choice but to mention it to management."
"Have I lost my temper?" Aaron gave him a thin, unpleasant smile. "Daye, you haven't seen me lose my temper yet. I'll keep my temper if you keep your eye on the job and not whatever pretty distraction comes your way."
Lucas shook his head, heart thudding uneasily. "Whatever. Do what you feel you have to, Aaron, and I'll go my way if you go yours."
Aaron turned on his heel and returned to the floor, leaving Lucas to wonder:
What did Aaron know, or think he knew?
*~*~*
The afternoon outside was brisk, but not nearly so much as the cold snap that had gripped them in North Portland for the past week. While Soren fell into step beside Lucas along the sidewalk, Lucas tried to slip his arm into Soren's, which he foiled neatly by going boneless and slipping right out of it.
"Please, not around St. Johns," Soren whispered, feeling ashamed that he felt he had to say that. It wasn't the most elevated of neighborhoods, and besides, it was close to where they worked.
Lucas looked around. "I see your point."
Soren smiled in apology and as they climbed into Lucas's car nearby, he turned to look at the store. There was a green-aproned figure in the window.
"Amazing," he murmured, turning away and directing his gaze to something more pleasant.
"What?" Lucas asked, steering his car into traffic, yet managing to flick a smile in Soren's direction.
"Well, you know I got off my shift half an hour earlier than you, so I waited. I mean, we'd already agreed…" In one of the idle moments when Aaron had been playing supervisor in back, they had decided to go over to Lucas's for a late lunch/afternoon snack/'stay-over-as-long-as-you-like' sort of thing, the back and forth conversation of their detail-wrangling sending Sloane into a fit of giggles.
"Right."
"Aaron was in the back for part of the time while I was trying to do homework and wait for you," Soren said, and frowned out at the street beyond the windshield. "I didn't pay much attention at the time, but he said I should watch who I aligned myself with, or something stupid like that. Now his warning seems more sinister."
Lucas glanced over at him, then back to the road. "I'd like to make some appropriate surprised noise like 'you're kidding,' but why would you be? What do you mean, now his warning seems more sinister?"
Soren glanced out the window. "Well, while you were pulling out, I saw Aaron watching your car from the store window."
Lucas slammed a hand down on the steering wheel and cursed, glaring out the window. "That asshole. I can't believe his balls. He's pissed at me, and he's taking it out on you. God, I wish I could…" Lucas cut himself off and growled in frustration.
Soren couldn't help but chuckle.
Lucas's glare swung toward him, but as it did, his expression softened. "What about you? Are you okay?"
"Me?" Soren asked. "I'm fine. He didn't say or do anything more than he normally does. He glares at me, that's all. Whenever I turn my head he's always glaring."
"That's about all he can do. You don't make a lot of mistakes, you know."
A feeling of awkwardness, of crowding nervousness, closed in on Soren again during the drive to Lucas's apartment. They were alone again. When they arrived, though, Lucas took his hand and Soren didn't try to twist away. Lucas released his hand to precede him on the stairs, so instead, Soren put his hands on Lucas's hips as he followed him closely. He caught the flash of Lucas's grin when they reached the top of the stairs, before he was pulled close and kissed.
At the same time yesterday, Soren had been single.
Boyfriend.
There wasn't any way to deny he was gay anymore. In his mind had been an unformed resolve that it didn't matter, it wasn't real, unless there was proof in the form of a significant other. Now he had Lucas.
"Come on," Lucas whispered, "it's cold out here. Let me warm you up."
Inside, they shucked their jackets and stripped off their gloves. Soren toed off his shoes and added them to the line at the mat inside the door, looking curiously at the Asian boy who was seated on one of the couches with a remote control in hand, clicking through the channels compulsively.
"Hey," the boy greeted, lifting a hand to wave. His eyes passed over Lucas, Soren, then returned to the TV.
"This is Alec," Lucas said. "My other roommate. Alec, this is Soren."
Alec raised a hand again without taking his eyes from the TV. Click-click-click.
"Alec?" Lucas said, raising his voice a little. Alec looked up. "Soren is my boyfriend." He turned to Soren. "May as well tell everyone, right? If he doesn't know already."
"Really?" Alec asked, now sounding interested. "Man, I knew it! Jay owes me twenty bucks."
"You…h-he what?"
"You ain't straight!" Alec exclaimed, jumping to his feet, tossing the remote to the couch. Soren noted objectively that he was as gorgeous as Lucas had claimed. He was lean, decked out in scruffy clothes, and his face was almost delicate-featured bu
t for a blunt nose and firm jawline.
"I-I'm bisexual," Lucas said, clearly taken aback.
"So? You're not straight, so bitch owes me twenty bucks! 'Scuse me, gotta go collect." Alec muscled past them. He flashed Lucas and Soren a mischievous grin that lightened his somber face, and then grabbed a jacket and slipped his shoes on. The door slammed behind him.
"What just happened?" Soren asked.
"Apparently Alec's a little weirder…and more perceptive…than I thought," Lucas replied slowly, yoking an arm around Soren's shoulders and drawing him further into the apartment. "You want a drink?"
Soren grabbed a seat at the kitchen bar while Lucas got them drinks. He was strangely reticent to jump right into the groove of yesterday, kissing, touching, yet he did want it. Still, there were other things…
"So how late can you stay?" Lucas asked, straddling the chair beside him. His gaze was intent, that same appraising, heated look of yesterday.
"Well…" Soren popped his Coke open. "I had a lot of homework this weekend: a couple of papers, a few assignments to finish…"
"Really?" Lucas leaned back, looking disappointed. "Hey, next time, if you want to keep your assignments on a flash drive, you can always use my laptop, you know. Or Alec's or Brandon's computers, hell, they're pretty much communal desktops."
Soren grinned at him. "Actually, I finished the only assignment that's due tomorrow, but I did bring some stuff on a drive…mostly because I figured I could use the computer lab tomorrow in between classes."
"So that means…?"
"I can stay as long as you'll have me," Soren finished, glancing sidelong, pushing his Coke between his palms.
Lucas grinned. "Stay the night," he entreated, his voice low. "I won't…do anything, you know? But stay. Just to sleep. If that's okay with you?"
Soren nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
That much decided between them, Lucas turned his attention to his Coke for a moment, popping the tab and turning his can around in his hands before looking at Soren again. It was as if he was giving him a moment to compose himself, to register the enormity of the decision—and for Soren, who'd never even participated in sleepovers as a kid, it was a big thing.