Apartment 4C

“Good morning everyone! As many of you know, Marnie went on maternity leave today, and as we send her our best wishes, I would like to introduce our new cover teacher for the rest of the semester. This is Simon Brentworth, everyone make nice and do your own introductions,”

Jake laughed quietly at his boss’ speech, Elliot laughing as well while Gabe just rolled his eyes. Marnie, the teacher who’d gone on maternity leave, was in the History department – it was highly unlikely that they’d even cross paths in the remaining two months of the college year.

“I need coffee,” Gabe groaned.

“That’s what you get for staying up to watch the Star Trek marathon,” Jake shrugged.

Sure, he’d joined his flatmate for most of said marathon, but he went to bed at a reasonable time. He wasn’t stupid.

“I don’t have any lessons until 10 – want me to grab you a coffee?” Elliot mused.

“I don’t know who you are or what you’ve done with the real Elliot, but yes please,” Gabe nodded, making Elliot and Jake laugh.

“I’ll grab you one too, Jake,” Elliot mused.

Jake just nodded. Another coffee couldn’t hurt.

*

Jake had only been in his office for half an hour when he got a knock on his door. Wow. That was fast. Elliot never got lucky at Starbucks.

But when he opened the door, he saw the new cover teacher standing there, smiling. Huh.

“Uh, hi?” Jake offered.

“Hi, I just wanted to introduce myself before the day started. I’m Simon,” he said cheerfully.

Okay…

“Jake,” he replied, nodding.

“So…what do you teach?”

“The same as my colleagues? English?” Jake frowned.

“I haven’t met your colleagues yet!” Simon mused.

But Jake’s office was in the middle of the English corridor? And he knew at least three others were in their offices too?

Something felt off here.

“Okay, fair enough. Um, I’ve got some papers to grade so maybe I’ll see you around?” Jake frowned.

“Can’t you spare some time to show me around?”

“Not really. I’ve got a lot of work to do,” Jake apologised.

Really, he had. That Star Trek marathon last night had eaten into his grading time.

“Come on, I’ll make it worth your while,” Simon smirked.

Woah. What was happening here? Who even said stuff like that?

“I have a boyfriend,” Jake said as politely as possible.

“So you are gay. I knew it,” he grinned.

“Seriously, I have a boyfriend,” Jake said firmly.

And he wasn’t comfortable with him talking like this.

“Your boyfriend doesn’t need to know,”

Okay, that’s enough.

“You know what? I’d like you to leave. And I really don’t want to see you near my office again, seeing as the History corridor is a good 20 minutes away. This is inappropriate and I don’t like it,” Jake said sharply.

No-one could ever accuse him of shying away from confrontation. Jake wouldn’t stand for it.

But the cover teacher just smirked.

“I’ll see you around, Jake,”

Jake didn’t bother to hide his shudder as the guy walked away. What a fucking creep! It was then that Jake noticed Elliot walking down the corridor, coffees in hand, frowning.

“What was he doing here?” Elliot asked, handing Jake a coffee.

“Being a complete and utter creep,” Jake muttered.

Elliot frowned even more, following Jake into his office.

“What did he say?” Elliot asked.

“He hit on me! And when I told him I have a boyfriend, he said my boyfriend didn’t need to know!”

“What the fuck?!” Elliot spluttered.

“Exactly! I just told him to leave and that I didn’t want to see him near my office, but fuck, he was so sleazy! Where does he get off thinking he can proposition people like that? And in the first half hour of being in the fucking building?” Jake ranted.

“You should report him,” Elliot said firmly.

“You know I can’t, he hasn’t actually done anything,” Jake frowned.

It was true. He’d made no physical advance on Jake so his boss couldn’t do anything.

“No, but he can be watched. And if you report it, then if or when he does try something, then you have that as back history,” Elliot pointed out.

Elliot had a point. Damn it.

“Yeah, I’ll email John,” Jake sighed.

Even if it just got someone aware of what happened. It couldn’t hurt, right?

“If he tries anything, or even walks by here, let me know, okay? That isn’t right,” Elliot said.

“Yeah, I will do. Thanks, El,” Jake said, forcing a smile.

“No problem. See you at lunch, yeah?” Elliot said, smiling back.

As soon as Elliot left, Jake sighed, dropping his head into his hands. This was not how he expected his day to start.

*

The rest of Jake's day really didn't get any better after that. He couldn't get the uncomfortable encounter out of his head, so by the time he got home after work, he wasn't in the best of moods. Gabe had work to do still, so he couldn't even rant to him, and he wasn't particularly in the mood to focus on any work himself.

There was only one thing he needed. He needed Alfie.

So without any further hesitation, Jake walked upstairs to Alfie’s apartment, and knocked on the door. Hopefully he wasn’t busy.

“Jake?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” Jake called back.

“Door’s open!”

Oh good. Jake walked into Alfie’s apartment, shutting the door behind him, forcing a smile onto his face as he saw Alfie sitting on the sofa. He wasted no time in kicking his shoes off and sitting down next to him.

“Hmpfh, it’s good to see you,” Jake muttered, snuggling into Alfie’s side.

Okay, so that was a little dramatic, but whatever.

“It’s good to see you too,” Alfie mused, “What’s up?”

“Just some asshole at work ruining my day,” Jake sighed.

The amusement on Alfie’s face faded to a frown, making Jake sigh again. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought it up.

“What happened?” Alfie asked.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it,” Jake shrugged.

“I’m serious, Jake. What happened?” Alfie repeated, moving away slightly to look at Jake properly.

Damn it. Should he lie? No, he couldn’t lie to Alfie.

“Fine. Uh, one of the women in the History department went on maternity leave today, and the guy covering her is a complete creep. He hit on me so brazenly, and when I told him I had a boyfriend, he said your boyfriend doesn’t need to know. It’s just…ugh, I can’t stand people like him!” Jake rambled.

“He hit on you?” Alfie asked.

Jake couldn’t place the tone in Alfie’s voice. It was a strange mixture of anger and calmness, like his boyfriend was fighting not to explode. And he didn’t like it.

“Yeah, he hit on me. But I told Elliot and my boss, so it’s not like I don’t have people at work to watch out for me,” Jake reassured him.

Elliot had his back, he would be fine.

“I don’t like it,” Alfie scowled.

Jake fought not to roll his eyes.

“You think I do?” he shot back.

“I should hope not, but…”

“No buts. I can handle this,” Jake interrupted, “He’s only going to be around for 2 months and I will report him officially if he actually tries anything. My boss said he’ll keep an eye on him, and he’s glad I told him about Simon making me uncomfortable. I’m not scared of him, Alfie. He’s just a creep trying his luck,”

“I don’t want you to have to be on your guard all day. It’s not right, and I don’t like the thought of this guy being around you at work,” Alfie said angrily.

“Nor do I. But it’s only two months, and I can deal with it,” Jake said firmly.

Jake stared his boyfriend down until Alfie unclenched his jaw and nodded. That’s better.

“Fine. But I still don’t like it. And you need to tell me if he tries anything,” Alfie insisted.

“Yeah, of course,” Jake nodded, “You just have to trust me, okay?”

“You know I trust you,” Alfie mumbled.

Good.

Jake smiled and leant up to kiss Alfie, pressing their lips together softly. Alfie kissed back, hand reaching to cup Jake’s face, but Jake could practically taste the unease in Alfie’s kiss. No, this wasn’t right. He needed to make this okay with Alfie.

So Jake broke the kiss, earning a pout from his boyfriend.

“You know you’re the only guy for me, right?” Jake asked softly.

Alfie’s pout turned to a smile and he nodded. Good.

“Yeah, I know. Can we go back to kissing now?” Alfie asked hopefully.

Jake shook his head, earning a frown. He ignored it though, taking a deep breath to settle his nerves. No, he had another plan.

“I think I need to reassure you that I only want you,” Jake said simply.

“You don’t need to do anything,” Alfie said, frowning even more.

Jake rolled his eyes and moved off the couch to kneel in front of Alfie, whose eyes went wide.

“You sure?” Jake asked, smirking slightly as he ran his hands up Alfie’s thighs.

“I-I don’t want you to feel like you have to d-do this,” Alfie stammered.

Jake could see how hard he was getting from here. Yeah, this had been a good idea.

“I want to do this,” Jake said softly, fingers toying with the button on Alfie’s jeans.

Alfie just bit his bottom lip before nodding, allowing Jake to slide down his jeans and boxers with no resistance. Fuck, his boyfriend was hot. All ready and raring to go, leaking at his tip. They hadn’t gone this far yet, nothing more than rushed jerking off, but this…this was something that Jake really wanted. He needed to show Alfie that he needed him. There was no way he wanted his boyfriend to think there was any attraction between him and that awful cover teacher. No way.

Alfie gasped quietly as Jake’s hand circled his base.

“Only you,” Jake said softly.

“Only me,” Alfie replied, smiling.