Spices (FIRST DRAFT) ~ An Alejandro and Alfred Story

𝓣𝔀𝓮𝓷𝓽𝔂

A/N: I totally did not start working at 11pm and stay up until 3 am (5 hours straight) two nights in a row to write this long ass heart-wrenching chapter.... :)
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The movie date was going great. We were watching a romantic comedy, one of those really cheesy ones about the main characters ending up together purely by fate. The guy runs into the girl on his way somewhere, and soon, they notice that they can't escape each other, repeatedly seeing the other person at their job or at parties. Are me and Alejandro like that? Right place, right time?

I did not care much for rom coms. I wasn’t picky with them, and I couldn't say I actually enjoyed a lot of them. They were pretty unrealistic and predictable. There wasn't much excitement. Still, based on what I noticed on all those sad dates with girls I’ve gone on, I feel like a lot of people are drawn to them because of the comfort they get from the expected good ending. You could trust that everything will be okay in the end, especially with something so nerve-wracking as love, which most of the time spits at you and stomps you out like a cigarette butt.

Is that why I found them hard to watch? Because the world could not let me be happy and constantly kept running into dead ends? I wasn't trying to put myself down by buying tickets to it, I thought it would be more lighthearted this time. It did feel like a different experience. Maybe because I had someone to share it with. Someone that could look at the screen with me and go “That’s not how it works at all! But we have it figured out, too.” Although, I did not need a movie to remind me of my life. It just seemed like an appropriate thing to go on a little date to. Throughout the movie, when I felt like the cheery couple ironically reminded me of Alejandro and I, I would turn my head subtly at him, watching his relaxed slump in the seat, his attractive face and softened eyes. It was like a second movie beside me or a dream. He was my own movie love interest, the one specially moulded for the main character. Everything felt so real all of a sudden, like my brain finally caught up with my life and could appreciate all that has happened.

Some more into the movie I went to get Alejandro and I some drinks at the snack bar, coincidently standing right behind Georgie, who looked much too suave then the rest of the people in line. He was smart with how he dressed. Despite being the most simple rich man I've met and truly could befriend, without any hidden schemes and intentions from both of us, he always presented himself as chic as one could.

I raised my brows at him with a quick smile as a greeting. It's been so long since we hung out as just friends I was at a loss for words to say to him. I prayed for him to care enough to start some kind of conversation.

He turns to me swiftly and snaps his fingers, which were decorated with rings saying, “Damn, listen, I keep forgettin’ to tell you. Since you've been missing work, you haven't got the messages, huh?”

“What messages?” I cock my head to the side as I pull out my wallet, getting closer to the front of the line.

“Your office phone has been blowin’ up, and Millie has been dropping off all your letters on my desk. They're all from the devil- I mean your dad.”

I feel my blood drain for a second. Crap. My father was supposed to be sending me weekly letters, expecting a prompt reply to them from me as well. To be honest, it was getting tiring hearing the same boring things every other day. I always wondered how he found the time to write multi-paged letters going on and on about some meeting he went to and all the entrepreneurs my age who were so much more successful than I am. He would write about the company founders and the managers and their offers for me, attaching even more contracts and forms for me to fill out. Most of their offers were shit anyway. As obedient of a son as I am, I can sense the greedy obsessions with me, the son of the Daryll Brookstone. Each letter became so repetitive they all blurred together in my mind and soon I dropped responding to them altogether.