Page 13 of Freshman

He spent Saturday catching up on sleep and readjusting from night shift, leaving Sunday as his only full day to do what he wanted.

That Sunday, he wanted to see his best friend.

Alfie dragged himself out of bed, got dressed, made himself look semi-human, then got the bus into town. Tia was his bright spark in an otherwise dreary existence. She always had a beaming smile for him, always bubbled over with excitement and pulled him along for the ride.

No matter how hard he found work or how sluggish he felt after sleeping most of his Saturday, she was always happy to see him.

He stepped off the bus, strolled past the bank and clothes shops, and then he was there, staring up at the café Tia worked in. Mr Cuppa. She spotted him through the window, waving frantically. The customer she served grimaced when it looked like she dropped something from his tray. Thankfully it was only napkins.

Alfie stepped inside and sat down in his preferred corner near the back, away from the window, and where the blinding lights dangling from the ceiling barely reached. Mr Cuppa had a minimalist look to the place. The tables were small, and the chairs were back-breaking. Tia had told him it was deliberate to make sure customers didn’t get too comfortable, and the small tables were so their portion sizes looked bigger.

Tia held her finger towards him, gesturing he should wait and not order. He nodded, removing his jacket and throwing it over the back of his chair. Tia had her black hair up in a high ponytail that swished when she walked.

Tia went behind the counter and hung up her apron. She made two coffees, adding straws, then grabbed a cheesecake slice with two forks so they could share.

“For the vampire,” she announced, placing Alfie’s coffee on the table.

“Vampire? Oh…right.”

Working the night shift meant he didn’t see the sun much, and the whole skulking in the shadows of the café didn’t help matters either. Tia smiled and sat down. She handed Alfie a fork.

“How much do I owe you?” he asked.

Tia flapped her hand. “Don’t worry about it, my treat. This is a congratulatory cheesecake.”

A frown tugged at Alfie’s face. “Why?”

“You getting promoted or whatever.”

“I didn’t get promoted.”

Tia took a bite of cheesecake. “You said in your text weeks ago they moved you to H-wing.”

“They did. H-wing night shift.”

“Oh,” Tia said. She popped her lips. “This is a commiserations cheesecake then…”

“Thanks.” Alfie shot her a small smile.

“What’s the difference between G and H?” she asked.

“Well, they’re different letters. G comes before H in the alphabet.”

Tia stuck her tongue out at him. “You’re so not funny…”

Alfie avoided her eyes. Instead he looked at the slice of cheesecake as he stabbed it with his fork. “The worst offenders are on H-wing.”

“Oh.”

They ate in silence for a few months, then Tia asked the question he’d been waiting for. “Are any of them hot?”

She was trying to whisper, Alfie knew she was, but she sucked at it. The customers at the neighbouring tables stared at them.

Rather than ignore their newly acquired audience, Tia stretched her red lips into a smile and fluttered her eyelashes. Her poor whispering skills didn’t matter when she fluttered her eyes and pouted, but it had got them in a few hairy situations.

Good looks only got you out of trouble in the light, not the dark of a cinema or in a nightclub.

Alfie’s first reaction to Tia’s question was Nate. Yes, there was a prisoner in Larkwood he found alluring and confusing, but he managed to push Nate from his mind, managed to block him out.

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