Chapter Fifteen
Alfie
It took a long time for me and Jonathan to move. We sat there for a while, mostly naked and covered in cum, with his head buried in my neck while his chest heaved and I stroked his hair.
I was worried he’d regret what we’d done and that I’d rushed him into something he wasn’t ready for, but when he finally sat back, the relaxed smile on his face eased the knot of tension that had been forming in my chest.
“Are you okay?” I asked, brushing another stray strand of hair out of his face and studying his expression for any hint of remorse or worry. I’d loathe myself forever if I found out I’d hurt him in some way. “Was that okay? Do you—”
“It was perfect,” Jonathan said, cutting off my worried rambling with a gentle kiss. “Thank you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very.” He kissed me again and smiled. “I wouldn’t have changed anything.”
“Okay,” I said as I tried not to sigh with relief. “Good. But if there is, if you think of anything, I want you to tell me. I want you to talk to me about what you want, okay? I don’t ever want you to be unhappy or unsatisfied with what we do.”
“I will, I promise.” He drew his finger across his chest in a quick X and smiled. “Communication is important. As I have been reminded constantly.”
“Theo?”
“Who else? But he has good intentions, and I think he knows I haven’t dated a lot… or done much of anything. I’m just grateful that, so far, he has tried to keep sex education to a minimum.”
I huffed out a laugh, trying to muffle the sound and failing. “I want to believe that he wouldn’t do that, but from what you’ve said…”
“Oh yes, if I’m not careful, I’m sure I shall find myself being cornered and educated.
And while I’m sure it would be helpful,”—his cheeks flushed as he spoke—“I don’t think I’d survive the encounter without wanting to die of embarrassment.
Especially because I’m ninety-nine percent sure there would be diagrams. And pictures. Maybe even video.”
I tried to imagine that and then decided it would be in my best interests not to.
Instead, I leant forward and kissed Jonathan again.
“Remember, we don’t have to rush and we don’t ever have to do anything you’re not ready for.
If you want to explore, we can do it together.
And if Theo does try to corner you, just excuse yourself and go to Laurie.
It might be a little underhanded but you said Laurie would sort him out.
And if it really doesn’t work, you could mention something about making the workplace uncomfortable. ”
“I could,” Jonathan said softly. “And Laurie would take that very seriously. Theo’s intentions are never bad though, he simply doesn’t always think things through in regard to other people’s boundaries. But sometimes, I’m grateful for that because he gives me the nudges I need in life.”
“He can do that without making you uncomfortable though.”
“True, and he’d be mortified if that was the case.” Jonathan kissed me again. “But, I don’t want to talk about Theo anymore.”
“What do you want?”
“I think we should probably clean up and get dressed,” he said, looking down at himself. “I did promise you dinner after all, and I don’t think cooking while naked is particularly sensible.”
“We can go out if that’s easier, or get a takeaway,” I said.
“It’s okay, I thought I might make something quick and easy. I bought some nice fresh pasta and some pesto, and I’ve got some salad too. Does that work for you? Oh, and there’s a couple of chicken breasts I can pan-fry if you’d like some protein.”
“That sounds perfect,” I said with a smile. I was starting to feel hungry now, and I hoped my stomach wouldn’t gurgle loudly because I didn’t want Jonathan to think he was starving me.
Jonathan beamed and kissed me before slowly sliding backwards off my lap, holding out his hand. “We can clean up upstairs if you want, and I have some spare towels if you’d like a shower.”
“I’ll shower later,” I said as I stood, using my spare hand to pull my jeans and boxers up before they fell down to my ankles and tripped me up. Because I was definitely the sort of man who’d fall over his own clothes… and knowing my luck, break something in the process.
Jonathan nodded, quickly bending down to scoop up his own discarded trousers before leading me towards the stairs, grabbing his shirt as he passed. We both knew he wasn’t ready for me to spend the night, and I wasn’t going to push it. Besides, I had to be up early and I didn’t want to disturb him.
His bathroom was small with more cream walls, but he’d put up some pictures of various moths and dark butterflies, and I chuckled when I realised his soap dispenser was shaped like a skull.
His towels and flannels were black, which didn’t surprise me, but I noticed on the side of the bath was some pink, bubblegum-scented shower gel.
It was half used and since Jonathan’s birthday was New Year’s Eve I doubted it was the remnants of a gift, and bubblegum wasn’t the sort of smell you picked up unless you liked it.
The realisation made me smile and I added it to the mental list of little things I was discovering about Jonathan.
Afterwards, I got dressed again and Jonathan went into his room to pull on a loose pair of black trousers and an old, oversized Black Sabbath T-shirt that he shyly admitted had been his dad’s. I’d never seen him in something so casual, and it looked good on him.
I couldn’t resist bringing him into my arms for a deep, slow kiss, languidly exploring his mouth with my tongue.
It took us a long time to go back downstairs again and make dinner.
But it didn’t matter, we weren’t in a rush, and I wanted to savour every second with Jonathan. Because in the back of my mind, I worried they were going to become few and far between as the summer ramped up.
Hiring extra staff was only going to get us so far, and all I could do was hope Jonathan would understand if Lick It! consumed my life.
It would be on me too though—relationships were a two-way street and I had to remember that. I couldn’t disappear on him if I was tired or stressed.
As Jonathan had said, communication was important. And ours was about to be put to the test.
“Knock knock,” Darcy said as he knocked on the edge of the desk we’d shoved in a corner of Lick It!
’s kitchen. It was Tuesday morning and I was using the temporary calm to get my regular financial work done.
After the chaos of another busy weekend, it was soothing to slip back into numbers.
Everything made sense there and nobody argued with me.
I looked up from my laptop and paused the music I’d been listening to, sliding my large headphones off. “I’m not sure that works if there’s no door.”
“It got your attention though,” Darcy said with a smile, stepping closer so he could lounge against the edge of the desk. It swayed under him and both of us froze, waiting to see if it would collapse.
It wasn’t exactly the sturdiest piece of furniture since we’d gotten it off Facebook Marketplace for a tenner and it was made of the cheapest chipboard in existence. Darcy stood slowly, and I could see him holding his breath. “Okay, I won’t be doing that again.”
“Please don’t,” I said. “We can’t afford another one.”
“I can find you another tenner.”
“So we can just replace that one in another six weeks when someone leans on it and it collapses? That’s not exactly fiscally responsible.”
Darcy nodded and pursed his lips. “Ah, I see you’re deep in finance mode.”
“What else did you think I was doing?” I asked with a chuckle as I saved what I’d been working on.
“I don’t know? Ordering? Checking local rules about feeding seagulls? Finding a training course on conflict resolution that we can send Milo on?” There was a pause and we both laughed. “You’re right, that would never work.”
“He’d come out of it armed with more ways to create conflict,” I said, and Darcy sighed. “Anyway, is everything okay? Did you need something?”
“I wanted to talk to you about maybe doing some advertising,” he said, looking around for a spare chair.
There wasn’t one, so instead he crouched down beside me, careful not to use the wobbling desk for balance.
“Maybe some social media ads? The local paper. And there’s a local magazine too—I think it’s every other month—but that has a lot of advertising space, plus it’s full-colour and we could include a coupon too.
Plus, it’s delivered for free to every house and business in the local area, so the audience reach is potentially huge.
Also how do you feel about loyalty cards? ”
I thought for a second, grabbing a pad of paper and a pen so I could jot down some ideas. “It might be a bit late for magazine ads, it’ll depend on their deadlines and cost. And we’d need someone to design it too.”
“Thought of that,” Darcy said. “Milo can do it. And he’s already mocked something up in a couple of sizes.
” He grinned. “I knew you’d ask me. And in terms of deadlines, I already checked that too and their deadline is this Friday for their summer issue which comes out during the second week of July. ”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you basically just asking me to sign off on this?”
“Pretty much,” he said. “I know it’s last minute, but they have some spare spaces they need to sell so we can get a full page for two hundred quid. I really think it would be worth it, especially since it’ll go to all the holiday lets. Think how many tourists will see it.”
“That’s assuming the owner leaves the magazine out for visitors.”
“Okay but that plus a couple of Instagram ads to cover all our bases.” He looked at me imploringly. “Please?”
“You know you’re technically my boss, you could just do this,” I said, trying not to be irritated that Darcy was already charging ahead with everything.
But he made some good points and we both knew advertising was going to be key in making sure the business was sustainable long-term, because people had to know we were here otherwise they’d default to the ice cream shack on the front or one of the vans that popped up.
The only reason our marketing had been limited so far was budget and a lack of time to sit down and plan.
We’d done a little bit with flyers in the run-up to the shop opening but we didn’t have anything further in place, which in hindsight had been a massive oversight on our part.
But it had been yet another thing on a very long list, and one that hadn’t felt important when we were chasing our tails trying to make more product and serve customers.
“No, I’m not doing it without your say,” he said. “This is our business and we need the numbers to work. Otherwise, we’re fucked.”
I looked back at my laptop and clicked through a few things, looking at our recent earnings, outgoings, spending projections and doing some quick maths in my head.
In an ideal world, I’d have had a lot more time to think this through but until then, mental maths would have to be enough.
Luckily, I trusted my brain to get it right.
“Okay, book the advert with a coupon—either a small discount or a free single scoop, single use only and one per person—and then we can look at boosting some social media posts. Including the print ad, I think I can give you… four hundred pounds for marketing, but that has to last until August at least. And we need to see returns, or I can’t give you any more.
Also, I think we need to make sure we’re being more active on socials, because building organic reach and engagement is going to be important during the quieter months. ”
“Agreed,” Darcy said with a nod. “But hopefully now we’ve got Owen and Ellie it’ll help give me more time to do things.
Plus, I can drag Milo in too, he’s got a good head for creative things and I think he’d be happy on camera.
Also,”—he tapped the desk like he’d forgotten something and my stomach sank—“I wanted to ask, how’re things going with you and Jonathan? ”
“Why do you ask?” I asked as I scrawled a note to myself about the adverts.
Darcy frowned. “No reason, except that you’re my friend and I care about you. Is that wrong?”
“No, I just… It’s good, very good. I really like him and everything is great.” I smiled but Darcy was still frowning and it concerned me. “Is that bad?”
He shook his head and went to stand up. “No, I’m glad it’s good. I just… ignore me.”
“What?”
He paused and glanced around, checking to see who else was listening but Milo and Owen were in the front of the store doing some tasting.
“I guess, with us being so busy and summer coming up, I don’t want you to struggle with everything.
This place is going to get busier and while I’m going to look at giving each of us a day off, it’s not going to be at the weekend and he has a day job…
Fuck, I guess I’m just worried about you. ”
He looked so guilty. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to be the reason you lose this relationship, because it’s clear you both really like each other but… I don’t know, these things are hard and if you don’t get time together… I mean, it’s not like he’s helping out here anymore so…”
“Firstly, it’s not your job to manage my relationship,” I said softly, hoping I could assuage some of his guilt even if it was everything I’d been thinking.
It had been in the back of my mind ever since Friday but no solutions had been forthcoming.
All I kept thinking was how hard the next few months were going to be.
“Secondly, Jonathan and I are adults, so it’s up to us to talk to each other and figure this out.
Yeah, it’s going to be tough but I’m hopeful. I have to be.”
“You know I’m always here for you, right?” Darcy asked, putting his hand on my shoulder and squeezing. He looked tired and tense, and while I knew he wanted to be there for me, I couldn’t ask that of him. Not when he already had so much weight on his shoulders.
“I know, and if there’s a problem, I’ll tell you.” I wouldn’t but it made Darcy smile and nod. I hated lying to him, but it was for his own good.
“Good… good. Okay, I’ll get that advert sorted then! And get them to send you an invoice.” He walked away to find Owen and Milo, leaving me to my work.
But all I could think about were my new fears for my blooming relationship.
And the sudden worry it might be doomed before it really started.