All I Need For Yule Is You

Chapter 5

"You had a lover's tiff." Gabi came up to him the next day.

"Lover's tiff? Lover's? " Sam scoffed, looking idly at Oliver, who was serving more coffee. Their eye-contact's had dwindled to zero after the talk last evening, which relieved Sam. It also infuriated him just as much.

"I'm sorry didn't you down a love potion? You are currently, by definition, a lover."

"Great. Marvellous."

"Why did you send him away though? It's clear you like him, the way you blush around him and keep sending him those looks."

It had been that evident? Oh no.

"I like him because of the love potion." Sam muttered, sighing morosely.

"Doesn't answer my question. " Gabi pressed.

"I didn't want to be a charity case to him." Sam confessed.

"What would you want to be, then?"

"Nothing that's induced by… unrealistic things." Sam said. "I don't believe in these potions. What they stand for. Why did Ana brew it anyway? I thought she was against it too. Making someone fall for another unwillingly seems cruel."

Gabi hmmmmmed. "No. You're right. That was odd of her. So, is that why you're avoiding Oliver? Because it's not real?"

"Yes! Yes, you get it Gabi. It's just that- it's great. Being in love, apparently, because it's warm and fuzzy and I've never been this awake and the world has developed at least a dozen more colors since it happened and whenever there's a customer of his height who walks over I think it's him for a second and then my heart is going faster than it's supposed to." Sam sighed. "It was that damn smile. He kept smiling at his customers."

"No, I like his smiles too." Gabi agreed conversationally. There was no reason for Sam to feel bristly about that, but he did. He knew it because of Ana's magic. "I mean. Because I think it gets him customers. And therefore it gets us customers."

"How does it get us customers, Gabi?" Sam scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"Only because he's been suggesting our shop to everyone he meets along the way? Why do you think we've had our spike in buyers since yesterday?" Gabi smiled fondly towards Everlovin' Coffee. "Boy's been selling us out."

Sam wasn't getting it. He wasn't getting it at all. "What? Why?"

"Try sounding a bit more happy and a bit less horrified about it."

"But why is he doing that?"

"Oh I don't know, Sam, maybe he's just a good person. Helping us out? I do have another theory, but I'm not sure-"

"No no no, I'd been a complete ass to him last evening." Sam said out loud, feeling like a git. Here was Oliver, trying to be friendly, and Sam had been outright rude to him. If only there had been no potions, he'd have had a nice friend, for senior year. "I should apologise."

Gabi nodded. "You absolutely should."

"I'm going." Sam set the cat down, standing up with determination.

"What, right now?! Sam, come-" Gabi started complaining, but Sam was already walking briskly towards Everlovin' Coffee. Not that it was a long walk. Not that he knew if Oliver even wanted to see him again. But he knew he'd been a shit human being, and nothing excused that.

There was no line to the counter right now, and Sam was almost sad about that, because that would at least have given him time to think about what had to be said. Because seeing Oliver nowadays scattered his thoughts to an irreparable level.