Page 12 of Love Around the Corner

While Dee went back behind the counter, Leo’s gaze fixed on Carter. He was only visible in profile as he ordered his coffee but he looked tired, his shoulders slumped, hair hidden under a black woolen hat. Unshaven, Leo realized, admiring the dark scruff on Carter’s jaw. He was an attractive man, no doubt about it. Rugged. Handsome. Nothing like he’d imagined Camaro89.

As he watched, Carter pulled out his phone, looked at the screen, and shoved it back into his pocket. Leo’s heart skipped a beat or several, tense with the realization that Carter was waiting for him to reply.

That he was hurting.

With trembling fingers, Leo pulled out his phone and re-read the last messages from Camaro89. It was strange how his heart ached for his friend at the same time it sank when he remembered Carter’s belligerence last night. But the longer he stared at his phone, the more he understood that Dee was right about one thing.

He couldn’t leave it like this.

Swallowing hard, heart racing, he hit reply.

I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night. I’d intended to be, but when the time came I just couldn’t. His throat closed around rising emotion and, blinking back tears, he added,Your friendship means a lot to me. I’m sorry it ended the way it did.

That, at least, had the virtue of being true.

With his eyes fixed on Carter’s back, Leo hit send.

The result was instantaneous. Carter jumped, reaching for the phone in his back pocket, and yanking it out so fast he fumbled it. Leo had never understood the phrase ‘heart in your mouth’ until that moment, sitting there watching Carter’s tense shoulders as he read the message and started typing a response.

In his hand, Leo’s phone pinged and—panicking—he quickly turned it to silent. But Carter hadn’t heard, he was typing a second message on his phone. Leo closed his eyes, the sudden flood of adrenaline making him jittery.

He couldn’t bear to read Carter’s reply.

He couldn’t bear not to.

Holding his breath, he looked down. The message displayed over the lock screen.

Camaro89: Does it have to end?

Leo’s heart jolted in relief and dismay. His gaze flashed to Carter, still tapping at his phone, his expression serious and intent.

Oh God. OhGod, what should he do?

***

Alfie couldn’t breathe.

Around him he was distantly aware of sounds—people talking, Christmas music playing, the hiss and splutter of the coffee machine—but his world had narrowed to the screen in his hand and his last message.

No reply.

He felt nauseous. Partly, it was relief that LLB was okay, that he’d replied at all. Partly it was a desperate frustration. His only tenuous connection to the man he’d fallen in love with was this damned phone, the future of their friendship hung by a thread, and all Alfie could do to save it was type out words. He’d rather reach into the screen and grab LLB by his shoulders, hug him, make him understand how he felt. But words were all he had, so that’s what he’d have to use.

We never have to meet if you don’t want to. We can just keep talking like this. I don’t want it to end. I don’t have any other friends I can talk to like I talk to you.

He felt a lump in his throat when he hit send.Please, he begged silently.Please.

Three dots started dancing and Alfie’s heart jackknifed, eyes fixed on the screen. And then a message appeared. Alfie could hardly read it, his gaze skipping past words in his haste to understand their meaning.

LLB: I want to keep talking too. But let’s not meet. I’m sorry, but I can’t.

His knees gave way as he sank onto the closest empty chair, a bewildering mixture of relief and disappointment making him lightheaded. He wished he knew what had changed since yesterday, but at least this was something. He still had LLB’s friendship, and that was a lot.

While he tried to make sense of his feelings another message popped up on the screen.

LLB: I don’t exactly have friends in real life. People don’t tend to like me.

Alfie couldn’t believe that. LLB was so open and funny and cute.

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