Sort-of Soulmates

Chapter Seven: Dylan

It takes me like 3 weeks to write 3000 words of my thesis, but 3 days to write 3000 words of fiction. The lesson here, folks, is don't do a PhD, they're really hard and you will start to lose your mind by the end.

*sighs wistfully at the thought of August* soon...

Love, Cam

♡

Alex had very skilfully survived the lunch with Minty and Sammy, and now we were headed to the café. Alex hadn't told me much about Abigail, bar two facts; she was Luther and Alex's closest friend in the world, and she was a complete force of nature.

When we arrived at the café, Alex looked around in surprise. The tables were freshly cleaned, the shelves had been reorganised, there were potted plants everywhere that looked like they'd just stepped out of a botanical garden, there were freshly baked muffins sat out that smelled incredible, and Luther was, by the looks of it, cleaning the windows.

"Wow," Alex said, attracting his attention.

Luther gave him a dirty look. "Yeah. Thanks for this. It's been a super chill time."

"I can see that," Alex replied, looking faintly stunned. "Why does it look better than when we first did it up?"

A sharp, high-pitched voice sounded from behind us. "Because I was out of town that weekend."

Alex spun on his heel to locate the source of the voice, with me awkwardly turning around also to see the infamous Abigail. What I found was a woman about two metres tall, with flowing red curls and bright blue eyes. A birthmark spread across her face. She had her arms folded across her chest and was staring at me intensely with a glare, as though she was trying to analyse everything from one look at my face. I was too alarmed to smile.

"Where'd you get the plants?" Alex asked, which had clearly been the first thing to come into his head.

Abigail rolled her eyes and reached into her pocket. "There's a florist three doors down. Ask for Frank. This is his card and you get a discount because you're a small business owner on the street. You should consider doing that for other businesses here."

Alex took the card that she pulled out, and sheepishly said, "I guess I have somewhat neglected getting to know the neighbours."

"Mmhm," she said, raising an eyebrow and nodding at me sharply. "So, that's Dylan, I'm guessing."

"Yes," Alex replied. "That's Dylan. Dylan, this is Abigail."

I nodded, waving awkwardly at her. "Hello."

Clearly, I was not about to skilfully withstand this meeting.

"So," she said, eyeing us both in turn. "You're together. Like, actual-boyfriends-who-go-on-dates together?"

"Yes," we replied.

"And you've been seeing each other for months, secretly?" she asked, clearly unconvinced.

"Yes," we replied again.

There was a tense ten seconds, in which Abigail looked at me, and then looked at Alex. I felt like a crushing weight was being piled on top of me with every second that passed. If Alex thought my sister would be the one to figure us out, he was wrong. It was this woman. I could feel the back of my neck heating up, sweat starting to prickle at the skin. What if she just called us out on it right here? What the hell would even happen?

Then Abigail smiled a bright, wide smile, and she cheerfully said, "Amazing!"

"Hm?" I asked, a little dazed by the tonal shift.