Chapter Fifteen
Spencer
“Okay, what’s wrong?” Alex asked, dumping a tray of clean crockery onto the side behind the counter and starting to put cups and saucers away with more ferocity than necessary.
“You’ve had a face like a smacked arse all morning.
Is this something to do with yesterday? Are you sulking because you lost? ”
“I’m not sulking,” I said, trying very hard not to pout. It was late morning on Monday, and I still hadn’t forgiven my brother for interrupting me and Noah yesterday.
After we’d ended up being dragged back to join the rest of the group, we’d barely managed to have a moment alone together.
Any plans I’d had for suggesting Noah come back to mine had been squashed by Lane and Will suggesting we go to the pub after we left the Castle and then been stomped into the ground by Alex sitting between us.
My money was now definitely on Alex knowing. He was just trying to irritate me into saying something.
“Yeah, you fucking are. You’ve been right mardy all morning.”
“I’m not.”
“What are you, then?” Alex asked, his question like a pointy stick he was jabbing between my ribs.
“I’m just… frustrated.” I turned to look at the door, wishing I could magically summon a rush of customers to end this conversation. No such luck. The coffee shop was a little busier than usual because of half-term, but we were still half an hour off the lunchtime rush.
Which meant Alex had thirty minutes to prod, poke, and annoy me into talking to him. And my brother wasn’t one to give up when he’d fixed his mind on something.
“Why?” Alex asked. “What’s frustrating you?”
“Can you just not? Please.”
“Why not? Is it something serious?”
“Please, Alex, can you just drop it?” I asked, giving him my best pleading expression. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Is it about Noah?” Alex slotted the last of the saucers into place and gave me a pointed look. “You two didn’t just want to get some fresh air yesterday, did you? Which, by the way, is a bloody awful excuse when we’re literally standing outside.”
I didn’t say anything, deciding that if I did, I was more likely to put my foot in it. Instead, I just grabbed a cloth and started wiping down the sides and checking the coffee machine to make sure it was full of beans.
Alex growled. “Proper mature that is, just ignoring me.”
I opened my mouth to say… something when the bell above the door tinkled and a group of four mums pushed their way inside.
I knew them all pretty well since they came in regularly after one of their baby groups.
Their kids were all varying ages, but none of them had started walking yet.
One or two of them were starting to happily mush up whatever they could get their chubby hands on and drop it all over the floor, but it was always easy to clean up.
It made me realise we needed to get more kids books for the shelves.
Novel Tea had a whole wall covered in packed bookshelves for our patrons to peruse.
They could take a book to read while they had their drinks, and if they really wanted to, they could take it away as long as they left a donation for us to eventually refill the shelves.
People could bring books to leave too, and I always liked sorting through the donation boxes to check the quality and content.
Anything too battered or questionable was quietly removed.
We didn’t want anything racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or containing any other bigoted, nasty things. We also didn’t want a million copies of the same book either.
These days, we had a really great selection of every genre, but we probably needed a few more children’s books beyond the YA and picture books.
I’d have to put a notice in the window asking for donations and ask around for some recommendations to order.
I wanted everyone, young and old, to have something to read when they came in.
“Morning,” I called, happy to have a distraction. “Lovely day, isn’t it? What can I get for you?”
By the time we’d sorted them all out, another few people had joined the queue, and from then on, there was a steady trickle of people filing into the shop for lunch. I thanked every power, big and small, that had fulfilled my wish and allowed me to avoid Alex for a bit longer.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t as long as I wanted.
“You know,” Alex hissed as he brought out another tray of sandwiches from the kitchen to refill the counter.
“I don’t mind if there’s something going on between you and Noah.
And I don’t give a fuck if you’re bi or pan or still figuring shit out.
What I do care about is you hiding it from me.
You’re my brother, but he’s my best friend, and I love him. ”
“Does that mean you don’t love me?” I asked teasingly as I frothed some milk.
“Don’t be daft. Of course I do, but he’s Noah, and I’ll always have his back.
And he deserves to be with someone who’s going to treat him the way he’s always deserved—with love and respect.
Now I don’t know what the two of you are doing, or if you’re even doing anything, but if you’re not, then stop bloody faffing about and get on with it.
If you like him, then tell him or better yet, show him. ”
“Is this when I tell you that yesterday was supposed to be our first date,” I said, giving him a wry smile. Alex raised an eyebrow at me, tucking the now empty tray under his arm. “That’s why we wanted to be left alone.”
“You could’ve bloody well said something. If I’d have known, I’d have covered for you.”
I poured milk into the large mugs in front of me, making little leaves on the top with the milk. I wasn’t the best latte artist, but I could do the basics.
“Are you saying you didn’t know?” I asked as I put the cups onto a tray ready to take over to the table who’d ordered them.
Alex shrugged. “I had an inkling. I just wanted you to confirm it.”
I sighed. “I knew it. That’s why you’ve been so…” I threw my hands up in frustration and grabbed the tray.
“What else was I meant to do?” Alex asked with a note of amusement in his voice as I walked away. I wanted to tell him he could’ve just asked, then I remembered I’d been avoiding his questions, and if he’d just come out and asked if Noah and I were together, I’d probably have clammed up.
I glanced back over at the counter to see Alex pulling his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans, but I didn’t get the chance to think about what that might mean because I had to watch where I was going so I didn’t drop coffee and cake all over the floor.
As soon as I’d delivered the order, I realised a couple of the other tables needed clearing, which was easy for me to do while I was walking around.
I got so caught up in clearing tables and wiping them down that I didn’t pay any attention to who was coming in until a familiar voice said, “Hey, Spencer.”
“Noah?” I turned, still holding a cleaning cloth and a bottle of D10. I hadn’t expected to see him today. We’d mentioned meeting up during the week but hadn’t gotten any further than that.
Noah smiled at me, looking gorgeous as fuck in his cute knitted jumper and jeans. “Hey, I hope you don’t mind me dropping in like this.”
“No. Why would I mind?” I frowned. Behind Noah, I saw Alex pretending not to watch us from behind the counter. “Did Alex message you or something?”
“Yeah,” Noah said. “He said I needed to get my butt down here as soon as possible. He didn’t say why, though.”
I sighed, trying not to be exasperated with my interfering baby brother. “He sort of knows about us. That yesterday was supposed to be our first date. I think he’s trying to get us to figure our shit out or something.”
As if on cue, Alex appeared between us, an unimpressed expression on his face as he beckoned us to follow him towards an empty table in the corner. “Sit down, the pair of you.”
We sat.
Alex crouched down between us. “Let’s be reight about it.
There’s obviously something going on between you two, and it’s about bloody time if you ask me.
Apparently, I fucked up your first date, so to compensate for that, you can have one now.
It’s not going to be the fanciest date in the world, but it’ll be something.
And then Spencer can stop moping around for his last hour. ”
Noah grinned, and it was clear he was trying to bite back his laughter.
“Don’t you fucking laugh,” Alex said with a grin. “You haven’t had to put up with his mardy arse all morning. It’s like walking around next to a gigantic kicked puppy.”
“I haven’t been that bad,” I said, folding my arms across my chest, then unfolding them when I realised it made me look sulky.
“Whatever. I’ll get you two some food. Any preferences, or are you happy for me to get you whatever’s left?”
“I’m happy with anything,” Noah said. He looked over at me and smiled again. “Unless there’s a cake you’d recommend?”
“There’s a couple of pieces of the toffee apple cake left.
That’s pretty lush! Oh, and you’ve gotta try another of the hot chocolates too.
Maybe the salted caramel one.” The toffee apple cake was one of my favourite seasonal ones that we’d done, and I already knew I was going to be bringing it back every year.
It was sweet and sticky with a delicious brown sugar apple sponge and caramel buttercream with hand dipped tiny toffee apples nestled into the icing on top.
They’d been a pain in the butt to make, but I’d only broken two and burnt my fingers once, so I considered that a win.
“Then I’ll have those, please,” Noah said. “And whatever sandwiches you’ve got left are fine. You know what I like.”
“And can I have one of the smoked salmon bagels, please?” I asked.
They were my absolute favourite, but there were never any going spare because they usually sold out ridiculously quickly.
I was surprised we still had some left, but when I’d glanced at the counter over Noah’s shoulder, I’d seen a couple lurking.
“And then can I have hot chocolate and toffee apple cake too?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll be back in a second.” Alex stood and strolled off towards the counter, talking to Stephen, who’d just arrived for his afternoon shift.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “My brother doesn’t know how to be subtle.”
“No, he doesn’t.” Noah smiled fondly and chuckled. “But that’s okay. He’s just doing what he thinks is best. And at least now we don’t have to work out how to tell him. I was quite nervous about that. I wasn’t sure how he’d take it.”
“Me either. I didn’t think it would be like a punch-up or anything, but I was worried.
” I thought for a second, suddenly realising why I’d been so reluctant to talk to Alex.
“I thought it was because he’s so nosy, but you’re his best friend, and I didn’t want him to think I was trying to steal you. I didn’t want him to hate me.”
Noah put his hand on the table, stretching his fingers out to meet mine. “First, it was never going to end in a punch-up. Who does that? Secondly, I understand your fears. I felt the same but the opposite—like I didn’t want him to accuse me of stealing his brother or trying to seduce you.”
“Did you seduce me?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Did I?” Noah smirked and raised an eyebrow, and I knew there was a lot more to him than people usually saw. Noah might have been the quiet, sensible one of our group, but he had layers to him. I just didn’t think he let many people see them.
“Definitely,” I said. “I think my whole sexual awakening can be summed up by you, plus buttercream, plus a stand-mixer beater. My life will never be the same.”
Noah laughed, the sound filling my chest with butterflies. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously. It, er, made me feel things.”
Noah hummed like he was storing the information away for later, then said, “So Alex knows. Do you think anyone else does? I get the feeling Laurie and Theo know something just because of the way Laurie swooped in to drag Alex away yesterday.”
I coughed and glanced at the shelves to my left, noticing they needed dusting. “They might.”
“It’s okay. You can tell me. I don’t mind if they do.”
“Yeah, they do. At least, they know I fancy you. After you came round to mine to make buttercream, I kinda had a bit of a crisis, so I went round to theirs for advice. Laurie made me a cuppa, and we talked about it. They were pretty helpful.”
“That’s good,” Noah said. “I’m glad. It’s always good to have people to talk to when you’re figuring things out.”
“You don’t mind?” I’d been nervous to admit it to him in case he’d be mad at me for telling someone else. I wasn’t sure why I felt like that, but my family had always been the keep-things-to-yourself type, and maybe that had rubbed off on me.
“Why would I? That’s what friends are for.
And I’ll never mind you talking to your friends if you can’t talk to me.
” He smiled again, and it soothed some of the worry in my stomach.
“And you can always talk to me too. I really like you, Spencer, and I know this is new, but I want to see where it goes.”
“I do too,” I said, squeezing his hand. All the feelings inside me felt so new and overwhelming but in a good way. There was just something about Noah that made everything make sense. I didn’t know how to explain it.
But I wanted to know where these feelings led because I had a sneaking suspicion they were going to take me places I’d never been before.
And that was pretty fucking amazing.