Book of Love - David Horne Page 0,15

number." The girl pointed at Matt, who had a look of utter horror on his face.

"If you don't pay for your books and stop harassing my employee, I will have no other option than to ask you to leave and never return," Alfie said in a no-nonsense voice, his anger clearly showing in his face and tone of voice.

This was also when Matt realized that when Alfie was mad apparently his British accent came out thicker. He sounded posh to Matt's ears.

The girl's friends were recording Alfie as he watched the girl and stuttering that he couldn't do that. Then, she wanted to speak to the manager. She asked if Alfie knew whose daughter she was and her father would make Matt give her his number.

Alfie leaned forward to look the girl in the eyes and said in a deadpan voice. "I am the owner. Please leave. You are now banned from the store.

The girl and her friends left all red-faced while the rest of the customers cheered. Some even gave Matt a little extra cash.

All in all, it wasn't such a bad day.

Chapter Five

Days turned into weeks, and soon Matt had to go back to school, Alfie waved him off when he asked if he would be okay with Matt taking smaller shifts. Alfie had smirked at him and told him that he would be fine on his own and that he was a big boy.

The crush Matt had on Alfie, the one he hoped would fade, had stayed and was growing into something Matt was not yet ready to face, so the fact that school had started again was a big sigh of relief for him.

Matt also noticed that Alfie would spend roughly half the week at the apartment, it was when he was there that Matt learned that Alfie was an early riser and that he didn't like the taste of coffee that much but drank it for the convenience of it, but when he had the time, he would indulge in brewing loose tea leaves. It was an indulgence that Matt quickly grew to love as Alfie had a large variety in teas.

Having a cup of steaming hot cup of tea before bed soon became a ritual for Matt, even more so when Alfie was there as the Alfie had brewing tea down to an art. An art Matt grew to love dearly.

It was also when Alfie slept over at the apartment that Matt learned that Alfie's guilty pleasures were watching tacky American reality TV shows and laugh at how absurd Americans could be. He then showed Matt some British reality shows to show Matt that British people could be tacky too. Matt had joined in pretty fast in the guilty pleasures but mostly to hear Alfie laugh and snort as he watched young people acting like “imbeciles” as he would often mutter with a shake of his head.

Matt later learned that Alfie had a die-hard love for anything salted caramel and then went out of his way to find anything salted caramel flavored by pure accident, of course. Alfie's face brightening was more than worth the effort.

Alfie also seemed to get cold easily and was usually in a sweater when Matt was just in a long sleeve. Alfie once commented that Matt radiated heat and was very tempted to just cuddle with him to steal his heat. Matt had to bite his tongue from telling Alfie that he was more than welcome to do so, but he knew his cheeks bled red. He knew that Alfie could read his face by then and knew that Alfie could tell he didn't not like the idea. What Matt did realize very quickly was that Alfie was easy to like and even easier to like him more than friends.

It came to a point where he didn't know how to act around Alfie without giving himself away. He ended up running to his mother for advice, but she just told him to talk to Alfie. Maybe he wouldn't be opposed to trying something. Matt merely scoffed and reminded his mother of the history between them, but his mom didn't look impressed by his excuse.

Matt chose to do nothing but slowly fall for his boss and roommate.

***

Weeks turned into months, and Matt knew he was in a mess. He knew that the more he got to know Alfie and even Sam, who only grew more adorable each day. The more he fell in love, but, short of moving out, there