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"DON'T CLOSE EARLY tonight, Ben. It's bad for business." Lia scolded as she pulled her jacket over her body. Ben truthfully didn't understand how she was the owner of the store considering she hardly did any work. "Okay, I won't." He assured, although he was mostly trying to convince himself. "I mean it, Benjamin." She pointed an accusing finger at him, glaring at him through her eyebrows.
Something was different about her. She was acting different, her hair and makeup were always messed up, and she didn't have her sweet undertone when she scolded him nowadays. "Okay, okay. I got it." He threw his hands up in surrender, trying to push the feeling that something was terribly wrong away.
"Good because I swear to god if I come back and find out that you closed this store early, I'm going to fire you." The threat alone was enough for him to nod sternly, not even thinking about closing early now. "Goodbye." She said quickly before running out of the café. Something was definitely different. Usually, she hugged Ben before she left, and even fixed his uniform sometimes, but she just left.
Ben didn't think much of it, deciding that she was most likely in a hurry. He wasted no time getting to work, stocking, and cleaning whenever he deemed it necessary. But it was fairly slow. He got a single customer maybe once every thirty minutes. Sure, he didn't mind the fact that he wasn't working nearly as hard as he was used to, but it was painfully slow.
It wasn't until around 4 o'clock did it start to pick up. He wasn't entirely sure where the business had come from, but it kept him occupied. It kept him from thinking that something was wrong because deep inside, he had this uneasy feeling. And it all involved Lia.
He wasn't sure if something had happened to either her or her family, or if Lia was just straight-up lying to him. He had asked her if she was alright when she had confronted him about closing the café early, but she pushed him away, insisting that she was alright. But Ben knew her better than that.
To be fair, she practically helped raise him. He'd been working for her for years at this point. He knows when something's up with her. And it seemed like Lia had noticed that he was reading her like an open book because she had been avoiding him when she could.
When business started to slow down again, he had started to spin a ballpoint pen with his fingers. It was something he had picked up during school considering he was always bored. "Excuse me." Ben didn't even have to look up to know who was standing at the other side of the counter.
A grin started to grow on his face as he looked up from his hands, exchanging a gaze with the one and only Spencer Reid. "Spencer. It's good to see you." Ben set the pen down, letting it roll across the counter for a moment before it was stopped by the drink machine. "You as well, Ben."
Ben already got to work on his drink. He didn't even have to measure the teaspoons of sugar anymore. He just had it perfected. "You're becoming a regular, Spence. I'm starting to think it's not just the coffee you come for." Ben winked at him as he pushed the lid onto the cup.
Spencer smiled and pretended to think. "Hmm. What makes you think that?" He teased, moving over to sit on one of the stools at the side of the counter.
"Just a hunch," Ben told him, immediately having to get to work once again. The next customer ordered a bit of a complicated drink but Ben was expecting no less considering she was a teenager. He wrote down exactly what she said and got to work, furrowing his eyebrows as he concentrated.
Spencer couldn't help but admire him while he worked. He loved how his hair framed his face perfectly and the way his eyebrows would push together before retracting as he wrote on his notepad. His left cheek would sink in just barely while he worked, most likely a dimple. His jaw would flex anytime he got frustrated or annoyed. And his fingers moved quickly—most likely due to the years of experience he's had. He was absolutely gorgeous. It was like he was created by God. Absolutely zero faults in his looks and anything he does.
"Alrighty, here's your drink. Have a good day." The teenager thanked him, sending him a flirtatious smile that only Ben seemed to catch. He gave her an awkward smile in return, not really caring about her obvious attraction toward him. When she walked out the door, he turned and focused solely on Spencer, who had yet to take a sip of his coffee. He had been far too busy studying Ben's absolutely perfect features to even think about it.
"Hello? Earth to Spencer." Spencer was finally knocked out of his trance when Ben snapped his fingers in his face, a teasing smile planted on his face. "What's the matter, love? Entranced by my beauty?" Spencer gulped as he felt his cheeks heat up and a feeling rise in his stomach. Ben laughed a little and grabbed ahold of his hand, squeezing it. "Don't worry. I'm just messing with you."
Usually, Spencer wouldn't dare let anyone touch his hands, even just a finger. But something about Ben's hand holding his just felt so right. He felt as if he was in a hallmark movie where everything can be guessed easily because of how overused the tropes were. But he couldn't help it. He was so deeply interested in Ben. He had no idea what the boy was doing to him. It was like Ben had cast a spell on him that was unbreakable no matter what happened. So instead of jerking his hand away like he did with everyone else, even his own mother, he relaxed, squeezing Ben's hand back.
And it was then and only then did he make a groundbreaking discovery.
He was definitely in love with Benjamin Laurent.
But what he didn't know was Ben felt the exact same way.
