Love At First Text ✔️

Him

Sebastian was at Charlotte's on Wednesday night. Such wasn't a common occurrence – most of the time, he was sat at home by this point, four beers deep, watching some shit movie on Netflix. He'd needed some moral support this evening though. Most wouldn't have come to Charlotte for that, but Seb knew no one better for the job.

She'd cooked dinner – a tomato and chicken pasta bake because 'times are hard' and she couldn't afford to cook from scratch – and he was sat on the sofa with her, laptop opened on his knees, bowl of food at his chest, and his phone on the armrest beside him. Charlotte was being magnificently helpful, scrolling endlessly on her own phone, pausing only to take a mouthful of food. She'd only decided to assist Seb after mumbling about his poor time management and that he was as useless as Elijah at organising.

Sebastian already knew that. He'd given himself less than two days to organise his and Eden's date on Friday. Of course, he'd not had much of a window to begin with, but now, he wished he'd started looking yesterday, instead of watch Eden scribble down notes for two hours over a video call.

"Do you have a price range?" Charlotte asked him through a mouthful of food. Sebastian shook his head, turning to his friend who looked hopefully at him, holding out her phone to display her find.

"Chapstick that's in Spain." He sighed.

She threw up a hand in exasperation, returning to scrolling. "You said no price range!" She quipped, just as the door clicked open. "Catch a fucking flight. Hi babe! Dinner in the oven!" She called out to Elijah, who he assumed had just got back from his aunties.

Seb didn't look up to greet his friend but was aware of how he walked up to the sofa, stealing Charlotte's attention for a kiss. "Hi beautiful." He mumbled. His focus turned to Seb. "Hello person who does not live here."

"Su casa es mi casa." Sebastian muttered in return. Elijah grunted something about that not being the saying, but Sebastian ignored him. He was too focused to engage.

"How's Tan and Mase?" Charlotte shouted to him in the kitchen.

"Fine." He returned. "She's asked us to come to dinner next week. Mitch is going to be there." Charlotte made a feeble groan, and Seb couldn't help but query.

"Who's Mitch?" He asked her.

"Tan's new boyfriend." She answered, tapping away on the phone screen.

"You don't like him?"

"Oh, no. I do. It's just hard to be in his company." She admitted, fixing Sebastian with a knowing stare. "He's an absolute Adonis, and I'm always worried I'm staring." She made a pained expression, as though recalling the appearance of this man actually hurt her.

Sebastian chuckled, more so when Charlotte began dramatically fanning herself with a hand. Elijah re-joined the pair in the living room and looked between the both of them. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing Lijah." She smiled sweetly, portraying innocence, but Elijah didn't seem all too convinced. "But now you're here, I have a bone to pick with you." He grunted, falling on to the second sofa.

"I told you, it doesn't matter how many adoption ads you send me, I'm not getting you a fucking dog for your birthday." He said, shovelling the food into his mouth.

Charlotte pouted. "I know. You've made that devastatingly clear." She fixed her posture, sitting up straighter on the couch. "No, what I actually want to know, is why you've never taken me to a zookeeper experience."

"Because cleaning Gipetto's tank makes you gag, so I can hardly see you enjoying shovelling giraffe shit." Elijah scrunched up his face. "Where the fuck has this come from, anyway?"