Page 31 of Love Around the Corner

An unwelcome memory surfaced:No, Dee, I’m sorry but I require at a least basic level of literacy, even in a hookup.

This wasn’t the first time Leo had denied Alfie in front of Dee, was it?

Slipping into his house, Alfie dumped his snowy boots at the door and paced into the kitchen to fetch a screwdriver from the drawer. He avoided looking at the sofa where they’d made out, where they’d cuddled up together to watch TV, where he’d felt so ridiculously happy last night.

Last night…

He sighed. Last night he’d thought he’d found everything he was longing for—a companion of his heart and soul. But now he was second-guessing himself, wondering whether he’d imagined the emotion in Leo’s eyes, his tenderness when they’d made love. And making love is exactly what it had felt like to Alfie—not fucking, not hooking-up, but deeper and more profound. Christ, it had felt like falling in love.

He slumped down onto one of the bistro stalls at the breakfast bar, head in his hands. Two used mugs sat by the sink, and the sight brought a stupid lump to his throat. He’d thought they were starting a new story together, but now he was afraid he and Leo were on very different pages.

Suddenly he felt unbearably alone. Confused and lost. He needed to talk to someone, but who could he—?

LLB. Yes, of course.

He yanked out his phone as if grabbing for a lifeline and tapped out a message.

It might be weird to ask you about this, but I need some advice and you’re genuinely my best friend. Are you around?

He sent his words out into the ether, holding his breath as he prayed for a quick response.

A moment later the distinctive ping of a phone alert tinkled through the silence. Not his phone. It came from the other side of the room. Alfie looked up, surprised. Then his gaze arrowed in on Leo’s billfold and phone, sitting where he’d left them last night on the end table next to the sofa.

Alfie’s heart lurched, one step ahead of his floundering mind. On stiff legs he crossed the living room and picked up Leo’s phone, looking at it as if from a distance, observing from afar. Over the lock screen sat a message.

It might be weird to ask you about this, but I need some advice and you’re genuinely my best friend. Are you around?

For a moment, he didn’t understand. How had his message to LLB gotten onto Leo’s phone? He didn’t even have Leo’s number. But of course there was only one explanation. Improbable though it was, it remained the only possible answer.

LeowasLLB.

“Alfie?” He spun, startled to find Leo hovering in the doorway. “The front door wasn’t locked, and I wanted to…” His gaze fell on the two phones in Alfie’s hands and his face turned ashen. “Shit. Ohshit.”

Leo knew. Of course he knew; he must have known since the night he walked into the Whiskey Jack and saw Alfie sitting there with his copy ofPersuasion. In the fluorescent glare of that truth, everything else became clear: the ‘coincidence’ of Leo’s taste in books being so close to LLB’s, the inexplicable connection Alfie had felt they shared, the vagueness of LLB’s recent texts and his indifference to Alfie’s friendship with Leo. It all became blindingly obvious.

Leo was LLB, and Alfie was a fucking idiot not to have realized.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he said, embarrassed by the rasp in his voice. “Was it—? Was it ajoke?” Horror gripped him, closing his throat. “Has this all been a…a…game to you?”

“No!” Leo took half a step forward, hand outstretched. “God, no. Alfie, listen—”

“Why didn’t youtellme?” Anger started to build now, burning away his shock, leaving only the ugly bare-boned truth behind. “Were you—?” He had to swallow around a sharp knot of pain. “That night in the Whiskey Jack… You were disappointed, weren’t you?” His worst fear had been realized. “You couldn’t stand that…that you’d fallen for a dumbass like me. Could you?”

“I—”

“Don’t deny it. Don’t you fucking dare.”

Leo hung his head, shoulders slumping. “No,” he said, so quiet Alfie could barely hear. “I don’t deny it. You’re right. That’s what I thought.”

Alfie sucked in a breath, dismayed by how it trembled. “So you thought you’d have a laugh at my expense? Poor, dumb Alfie Carter, sitting in a bar waiting for a guy who’s never gonna show up.”

“No!” Leo’s head jerked up. “It wasn’t like that. I was upset. I didn’t know what to say or—”

“The truth! That’s what you should have said. You—” He shook his head, the ramifications pouring in too fast. “When you kept messaging me after you knew who I was, were youmockingme?”

“No, I swear.” Leo’s voice shook. “I just didn’t know what to do. I was afraid—”

“So you thought you’d pretend to be two fucking people and play me like a dumb puppet? Great choice.” He spun away, blinking through hot tears to stare out the window.

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