coffee breaks [ Charlie Barber ]

III

"A... guy?"

You roll your eyes at Alec's overdramatic display of disbelief. "Yes, a guy, a very charming one in fact," you say matter-of-factly, head raised high as to avoid your friend's widened eyes from looking deep into yours.

"Are you serious? You've been having a romance novel moment and you only cared to tell me now!" He smacks your arm, hard— something you wish you could return as you focus on getting inside of the UCLA building. Alas, you're carrying too many coffees and pastries alike to do such a thing. "Well, I apologize for not updating you on my barely existing love life with the divorcée, however-"

"He's divorced?"

You remove and take a careful sip of your coffee that was originally in your brown paper bag before you groan. "Yes, and he's also at least ten years older than me now can we please focus on delivering these treats before missing our lectures?"

Alec's face is twisted like that of a housewife who's just heard the best gossip the suburban neighborhood has got to offer, mouth agape with a shocked smile and eyes squinted as if to see if you're bullshitting. "Since when do you have a thing for older men?"

You use your back to push open the doors, ears now filled with pleased greetings as you start handing out coffees and the occasional muffin. "Listen, Alec, what I have with the coffee shop DILF is about as tangible as the Theater History 101 paper you've yet to start writing."

Alec clutches his chest, feigning woundedness as he doubles over and dramatically gasps for air. "How dare you make such a low blow and remind me of my responsibilities, (L/n). How dare you," he croaks out, which you happily ignore as you hand over another coffee to a fellow student.

Alec shoots right back up when he sees you leaving the room, running right after you as you walk towards the only other class with orders you need to deliver. "So a DILF, huh? You planning on becoming a step-parent or something?"

"Oh my god, Alec, I haven't even spoken to him outside of the Coven! Don't you have your own love life to be invested in?" He rolls his eyes at you as he snatches the coffee cup with his name on it from the bag and takes a swig.

"There's a difference between our love lives, though. I have meaningless hookups that turn into one-month relationships, you are usually so busy that you don't even notice the amount of numbers that are snuck in your bag. The fact that the thing to catch your attention is some guy with kids-"

"-kid. Singular," you mumble as you look down, cheeks feeling warmer than they usually do. "Holy shit, look at you! This is what I mean- how hot is this guy to get you this fussy about it?"

You bite the inside of your cheek to stop yourself from smiling. "Listen, when you meet him you'll get it. He's... nice.

Alec scoffs. "Nice— yeah right. Did he look like he was packing heat or something underneath his divorcée pants?-"

"-Oh my god, shut the fuckup!" you groan out as you speed walk away from him to the next classroom.

"See you at the Coven!" He yells out before walking to his class.

"Gracefully late as always, I see." Alec shoots an apologetic grin his lecturers way, rushing to sit down next to whoever doesn't seem to frown at the thought of him next to them.

The lecturer claps his hands together, rubbing them together as he sits on his desk. "Now that everyone is present, we can start, yes? Any questions we need to get out of the way?"

Alec raises his hand, which earns him both a few chuckles and a few eye rolls. "Yes, Alec?"

"Care for a cinnamon roll, Mr. Barber?"

Charlie grins.

"I'd actually love one."

________________

Author here!

This is a shorter chapter, while the next chapter is a whopping 1.6k words!

And yes, as you can see I am pulling the classic lecturer Charlie Barber at UCLA. As you can also see, you aka (Y/n) is NOT a theater major! Oh no no no, student (Y/n) and lecturer Mr. Barber won't meet that easily! And when they do meet it'll be.... a doozy :)

Next chapter out now! :D