Apartment 4C

“So are you seeing Alfie tomorrow tonight?” Elliot asked through a mouthful of sandwich.

Jake grimaced slightly, making Elliot laugh. His friend really did have such terrible eating manners. The two of them were eating lunch in Jake’s office, as they usually did on a Thursday (the canteen food specials weren’t worth looking at), but Gabe was supervising the Chemistry Society so he wouldn’t be joining them. Jake wasn’t seeing Alfie tonight because Alfie had to work, but Friday hadn’t been discussed.

“Uh, no, I don’t think so. It’s Friday night tradition to have film night anyway, and I like that tradition,” Jake shrugged.

Seriously, it was a good tradition. Every Friday night, the three of them had take-out and movies, and Jake didn’t want to change that because he was seeing someone. His friends would always come first.

“Well why don’t you invite him?” Elliot suggested.

Huh. He hadn’t thought of that.

“Maybe. Gabe wouldn’t like it though,” Jake pointed out.

Gabe liked strict order and tradition even more so than Jake did.

“Screw Gabe. Well, not literally, he’s all skinny and ginger and probably has freckles in places we don’t want to know about, but you get my point,” Elliot grinned.

“You are disgusting. I hate you,” Jake whined.

That was the worst mental image ever.

“I kinda hate me too right now, to be honest. Never ever want to think about Gabe naked again,” Elliot snickered.

“Anyway, back to what we were talking about…you think Alfie would want to come?” Jake asked, frowning slightly.

“Sure, I don’t see why not. Now that we know about him whisking you out and romancing you, it’s only fair that he gets to meet us properly,” Elliot shrugged.

Well that was true. And he didn’t want Alfie thinking that he didn’t want him to meet his friends…

“Okay. I’ll text him,” Jake nodded.

What harm could it do?

*

By the time it reached the following evening, Friday evening, Jake was a little nervous. Alfie had happily agreed to come over and would be arriving any minute, but Gabe and Elliot just lounging on the sofa, not easing Jake’s nerves at all. Instead of doing his usual Friday afternoon run, Jake had skipped it and instead chose to clean the apartment top to toe. Like, super cleaned it, way more than he usually would. He even went as far as cleaning out the fridge and throwing away any suspicious-looking food (Gabe always claimed that some of them were serious experiments, but Jake wasn’t going to risk it). He cared about Alfie’s opinion of him, okay? There wasn’t anything wrong with that.

So after Elliot arrived at the apartment and flopped down on the sofa, Gabe arriving home too after making his weekly visit to the comic book store, it was just Alfie’s turn to arrive.

“Relax, Jake. The guy already likes you enough to go on dates with you,” Elliot mused.

“I just don’t want him to be scared off by meeting you two,” Jake muttered.

“Hey, we wouldn’t do that would we, Gabe?” Elliot frowned.

Jake looked at Gabe, who stayed silent. Elliot elbowed him sharply in the ribs, earning a yelp, and then Gabe sighed.

“No, we wouldn’t scare him off. Not when he makes you so happy,” Gabe said monotonously.

“Please stop being so grumpy?” Jake pleaded.

Seriously. This was a little ridiculous now.

“Yeah, try smiling. It might reassure Alfie that you don’t eat human flesh,” Elliot grinned.

Gabe rolled his eyes but couldn’t help smiling slightly. That was more like it.

Right on time, Alfie knocked on the front door. Jake inhaled sharply and wiped his clammy hands on his jeans, before walking over to let him in, ignoring his friends snickering at his nerves. As soon as Jake opened the door, all his nerves fizzled away. Alfie stood there, looking gorgeous as always, wearing a simple black polo shirt and form-fitting jeans, a wide smile on his face.

“Hey,” Jake said softly, happily.

“Hey yourself,” Alfie beamed back.

“Come in, Elliot and Gabe are both here,” Jake said, stepping aside.

He didn’t fail to notice how Alfie swallowed heavily. Wow, he was just as nervous as Jake was. But Alfie hid it well, smiling widely as he walked into Jake’s apartment, lifting a hand in greeting to the guys on the sofa.

“Hi, I’m Alfie,” he introduced.

Confidence. That was good.

“I’m Elliot. It’s good to finally meet you,”

“Gabe,”

Well, at least he spoke. Sort of.

“We’re just about to order take-out. Is Indian food okay?” Jake asked.

“Yeah, that’s fine with me. I love Indian food,” Alfie nodded.

So far, so good.

Because Gabe was sitting in the armchair by himself, and Elliot had sat on one end of the sofa, Jake sat down in the middle, letting Alfie sit down on the furthest end.

“We always order the same thing, so we don’t need to look at the menu,” Elliot said, passing over the leaflet to Alfie.

But strangely enough, Alfie closed his eyes as he opened the menu, waving his finger around for three seconds before stopping it, and then looked down to see where it landed. What the fuck?

“Sweet, prawn curry. Haven’t had that in a while,”

“Dude, what the fuck?” Elliot snickered.

Alfie blushed slightly. “I like trying new things. Sorta got into the habit of just picking things at random while I travelled, and I haven’t kicked the habit yet. I only do it for take-out now though,”

Wow.

“So you don’t care?” Gabe frowned.

Damn it Gabe! Jake tensed slightly, clenching his fists at his friend’s rudeness, but Alfie just patted his thigh.

“I’m pretty easy going. As long as it’s edible, then I’ll eat it,” Alfie shrugged.

He probably had people criticising him all the time for his eating choices. Damn it Gabe!

“You’re strange,” was all Gabe replied.

“Coming from the Chemistry geek,” Elliot teased.

Oh thank you Elliot.

“At least I’m not a literature geek, or a linguistics geek,” Gabe shot back, although he had a smile on his lips.

“There isn’t anything wrong with wanting to speak and write correctly,” Elliot said simply.

“Or anything wrong with reading a new book every week,” Jake added.

What? There wasn’t. It wasn’t exactly a hard task when he put his mind to it, and it kept his literary brain alert.

“Is this a bad time to say the only thing I read is Men’s Health Magazine?” Alfie offered sheepishly.

Oh bless him. Jake just smiled up at Alfie, earning a wink back, making Elliot smile too.

“You’re not so bad, Alfie,” Elliot grinned.

“That remains to be debated,” Gabe said dryly.

Jake didn’t even feel remotely bad about throwing a cushion at Gabe’s face.

*

It wasn’t until about 1am that Alfie decided to leave. Jake would’ve felt bad about it if he wasn’t only one floor above them. Tonight had gone well though. Gabe had loosened up quite quickly, although to the effect of him and Elliot ganging up on Jake to tease him, and Alfie hadn’t run away. So that was nice.

Gabe and Elliot had even moved over to the kitchen, to give Alfie and Jake a little privacy as Jake said goodnight to him at the door.

“Thanks for inviting me over. I had a really good time,” Alfie said sweetly.

“I’m just glad my friends didn’t scare you off,” Jake admitted, making Alfie laugh.

“That would never have happened. I like you too much for that,” Alfie grinned.

Jake just blushed. Alfie really was so blunt sometimes. In a good way obviously, but still.

“Um, I wanted to ask you something before I left,” Alfie said softly.

Why does he look so nervous?

“Okay?” Jake frowned.

“Would you…would you be my boyfriend? Officially?” Alfie asked.

Jake inhaled sharply. Wow. Oh wow. He hadn’t expected that at all.

“YES HE WILL!” Elliot shouted from across the room.

Jake blushed again, laughing nervously, Alfie laughing too. So much for privacy.

“I’d like that,” Jake eventually replied.

Alfie smiled even wider, if that was even possible, and leant down to press a soft kiss to Jake’s lips, making him sigh happily. This couldn’t be real life. He never got Prince Charming in real life.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?” Alfie said, still smiling.

Jake just nodded, unable to say anything back without sounding like an idiot, waving as Alfie left to walk upstairs. As soon as the door was closed, Jake squealed in happiness (a manly squeal, obviously), thrusting his fist in the air as he jumped up and down, making his friends laugh. But Jake didn’t care. Nothing could bring him down from how happy he was. Nothing.

Alfie, the most beautiful man he’d ever met, was now his boyfriend. Why shouldn’t he celebrate?