Growing Up and Other Tall Tales

Chapter 34

"He'll do it," I tell Zeke exhausted and then hold up an index finger before he could smile too widely, "You so owe me."

"I owe you my first born," he kisses me on the cheek

"I don't like children, you can keep it."

A minute before Arjan is scheduled to arrive, Zeke carries a plate of cookies to Aiden's table throwing me an excited but nervous glance. I roll my eyes and leaned against the counter waiting for his Marc Antony or Guinevere or—

"Hello, can I take your–"

"Where's the normal guy?"

"–order... what?"

"The–" Arjan pauses and probably realizing belatedly that this is probably weird and all kinds of stalkerish, but that it's too late to turn back now. "–the guy who usually works this shift. He's not here?"

I stare at him confusedly. And I let him wonder whether the new person is trying to figure out who he is talking about or trying to work out whether or not to call the police on him.

"Are you talking about Zeke?"

"Yeah, him." He chuckles, "I don't really know anything else about him, honestly. Just that he works here," he mumbles awkwardly and I add on and I'm hopelessly infatuated with the bastard. I hide a smile and watch with each passing second his shame creeping back to him with the urge to throw himself off a mental mountain.

"Is that him you are talking about?" I clear my throat and gesture over at Aiden's table

I can't see Aiden's face but judging but his gestures even I'd be fooled by their enthusiastic discussion. Zeke's smiling brightly and leaning forward into Aiden and clearly my dude isn't backing down. I laugh into my closed fist.

"Who's that?" Arjan asks weakly

"He's one of my friends. Apparently, he and Zeke has some stuff in common," I shrug trying to hide the remnants of my smile

"Ah," Arjan drags out

"So can I take your order?" I cut in trying to distract him from longingly looking at the pair

He turns to me, dazed look giving away to panic and I almost feel bad for him, "Um. Anything."

"Anything?" I ask apologetically

"Yeah," he mutters disheartened and I groan knowing that I should probably price him for a really expensive drink but I just get him a regular coffee. Poor bastard.

"Have a nice day," I tell him and he nods sad eyes at me before lugging himself out of the door. I rub my temples, "I'm going to hell,"

Walking over towards the happy, giggling pair, I slap Aiden on the back and sat on the ledge of his seat.

"I think he's going to kill himself. You might want to run after him." I inform making Zeke stand up abruptly

"It worked?" he asks excitedly and I shrugged unwilling to admit, "You are gorgeous." He says before kissing me on the cheek and then after a moment of hesitation leaning into kiss Aiden's cheek as well, "You both are."

I look at Aiden's face as Zeke bustles out of the café and began laughing heartily at it. His mouth makes a precious little surprised o and it was perhaps one of the most endearing things to happen.

"I think you've competition," I say wisely and he wriggles his eyebrows at me making me laugh harder

I sit down in front of him waving at one of the new girls to take my place for a moment to grill him for details when he rounds up on me and asks,

"Why does Zeke think we are dating?"

His face is still carrying hints of a smile so I know he isn't mad by the fatally wrong assumption but something makes my own blood run cold and I, personally, don't want to read too much into it.

"Zeke doesn't think often," I tell him seriously, "So when he does it's kind of apocalyptic."

"He was telling me about your Canadian boyfriend. Should I be worried?" he picks up a cookie and breaks off a piece

I make a face and he holds my stare before breaking into fits of chuckles. I kick him under the table and threaten to take his food away from him.