Don't Tell My Brother

Chapter 22 - When Worlds Collide

By the time he looked up, Damien was at the other end of the counter. Lucas was left leaning against the cool glass of the display case. Alex looked equally nonplussed, mouth open, as she'd just been about to speak.

Lucas took the opportunity to examine Damien's friends. They were football guys, much like a lot of Mark's friends: tall, bulky, and way too loud. Already they were laughing about something, disturbing the usually peaceful atmosphere of the bakery.

"This is where you work?" One of the guys was asking, the one with dark skin and a chunky silver watch on his wrist.

"Fuck off." Damien responded with a laugh, leaning forward over the counter. "We don't all have Daddy's money, y'know."

"Yeah, but this?"

Lucas watched Damien as he spoke, but Damien didn't even glance his way. His attention seemed completely absorbed by his friends, or by Mallory, who was standing right in front of him and apparently saying something so interesting that Damien had to lean right down to listen intently. Far closer than necessary, in Lucas' opinion. It was as if Lucas wasn't even there.

He glanced back to Alex, who'd folded her arms over her chest.

"Rude."

"It's fine, Alex. They're his friends, of course he's going to talk to them." Lucas didn't know who he was trying to convince. "Now, what else did you want?"

He was just finalising Alex's order, closing the cake boxes and looking for some string to tie them with, when Lisa stuck her head through the door. No doubt because of the noise Damien and his friends were making. Behind them, customers were waiting, and they didn't look happy.

"Who're they?" She dusted her hands on her apron, and stepped out beside Lucas. "Is that his girlfriend?" Lisa had lowered her voice to an excited, conspiratorial whisper, probably because this was some new gossip she could share with his mother.

Lucas followed her line of sight, to where Mallory was resting a hand on Damien's forearm, looking up at him with big green eyes, framed by long, dark lashes. Automatically, he answered.

"No." It came out a little harsher than he'd meant it to. And, he realised, he didn't even know if that was true. "I mean, I don't know. Maybe."

"Well, I hope so." Lisa said, smiling affectionately at the pair. "She's very pretty, isn't she?"

Lucas made an effort to shrug, sound as casual as possible. "I don't know. I guess so."

Lisa was right. Mallory was pretty, and she and Damien did make a good couple, and even though Lucas was only about ten feet from the two, he couldn't have been further away. Embarrassed, and feeling unbearably stupid, he began to turn back to Alex. But Lisa reached out to stop him.

"The girlfriend's all very nice, but could you go and tell him to hurry it up? I don't pay him to sit around and chat, so let him know that if they're not buying anything, they need to get out of the way." Lisa was back to business as usual, and with another glance at Mallory, she disappeared back into the kitchen.

Now Lucas would have to approach them. He felt dread curling in the pit of his stomach, making him feel uneasy. He didn't like approaching groups of new people, especially people like this, who were clearly confident and popular and probably wouldn't welcome this interruption. Social situations were difficult at the best of times. But he had to. After all, Damien wasn't doing his job, and a handful of customers were starting to look genuinely annoyed, craning their necks to see what was going on at the register.

With a sigh, he finished the last of Alex's order, slid the box across the top of the display case towards her, and dusted his hands off on his apron. It'd be fine. Damien was his friend, sort of. He'd laugh about it.