Love Like War (LGBT) ✅

Chapter 3

3.

Tristan thought Aiden was weird.

They'd run into each other a few more times after their first meeting, even though Aiden was doing his best to avoid him—each encounter left him more in pieces, so unsure about everything—but Keeter was a small town and it was inevitable that it happened. It was ridiculous, though, to be browsing the supermarket aisles and reaching for the chocolate Pop-Tarts at the same time Tristan did. In Rhome.

He jerked his hand back quickly, displacing the milk carton in his basket and only able to watch as it spilt onto the floor, frozen.

The two of them were silent as the tannoy announced 'cleanup in aisle three' in its universally well known voice and then a harassed looking teenager arrived, bucket and mop rolling behind her.

"Hey," he knelt down beside her, picking up the wet cardboard and throwing it into the bucket. "Sorry about the mess, I'm not usually this clumsy."

"It's fine," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'd just be stacking shelves anyway."

"Minimum wage jobs," Aiden joked, "you never forget your first, huh? I remember I worked three months full time at McDonald's and trust me when I say it's a lot more fun being the customer."

"Oh! My boyfriend works at McDonalds, the one just near Highway 114?"

"I know it."

He didn't but, seriously, what was one Mcdonalds from another? When he'd worked there, stalking out a feral werewolf, he'd found that he could be sent to any of the three establishments in the area if they were low on staff. It'd been annoying, forcing him to spend more time gauging the regulars and workers, but each one of them had the same operating procedure and it'd been an easy job compared to some of the other hunts. It'd also put him off cheeseburgers and fries for a good year.

Rachel, which was the girl's name, turned out to have come from Keeter, too, because it was a damn small world out here in Texas, and she'd heard about him and Callie, with the sheriff's official story being that they were sociology students. Law enforcement still thought they were FBI so they had free rein in the town while Mary and Conor knew differently. And, of course, she knew Conor, too, hadn't he mentioned they were twins?

"What a coincidence, your brother knows my sister."

"Everyone knows everyone in Keeter," she laughed, "but, yeah, he's taken a shine to her."

"He's jailbait," he said, injecting a little mirth in his voice. "He's going to get her into trouble."

"Oh, please, us girls are more mature than that, she's not going to fall for him after a month."

It wasn't her he was worried about.

"Staff call, staff call, Rachel to the checkouts."

Evidently, the management had had enough of her dawdling and she pulled a face, shrugging. "Can't disobey the boss. Maybe I'll see you at checkout?"

He winked. "Wouldn't dream of going anywhere else."

After roughly ten more minutes of browsing the aisles, he figured he'd left it long enough for the crowds to clear at the checkout and, more importantly, for Tristan to have left. Of course, with his luck that day, he shouldn't have been surprised to see him being served by another cashier and Rachel's eager little wave when she saw him meant he couldn't turn around.

"Hey, I thought you got lost out there," she said, scanning the first of his items.

"It's a pretty big store, I forgot where to find the milk."