Apartment 4C

The next few days were a bit off for Alfie. He could tell that Jake was trying to remain cheerful, but it was clear that the incident at work was still bothering him. It didn’t help that Alfie had back-to-back long shifts this week that meant he couldn’t take the time to comfort him properly (especially after the best blow he’d ever had), but he was going to make up for it. Starting with heading to Jake’s college to meet him for lunch.

Jake liked surprises, right?

Unfortunately, Alfie hadn’t looked at a map of the college before heading on his lunch quest, so he spent 15 minutes wandering around the halls with no avail. Fuck, he really should’ve planned this. He thought he was good at being spontaneous.

“Alfie?”

Alfie froze briefly, wincing, before turning around to face the familiar voice. Jake’s friend, Elliot. Of course. Of course it was him.

“What are you doing here?” Elliot frowned.

“I, um, I wanted to meet Jake for lunch?” Alfie offered, shaking the bag of sandwiches he’d picked up on the way.

Elliot immediately grinned, perhaps a little too manically.

“Oh my God, you are the most adorable person ever,” Elliot cackled, “are you lost?”

“I only know his office number, it’s not my fault!” Alfie protested, blushing slightly.

Elliot just cackled again, clapping Alfie on the shoulder. That was a good sign, right?

“Come on, my office is a few doors down and I’m heading that way anyway,” Elliot mused.

Sometimes it was hard to think of Elliot being a teacher, being responsible for the education of young adults.

Alfie stayed silent as they walked, clutching at the sandwich-filled bag as Elliot rambled away, half-wincing at the older guy’s volume, but the other half thankful it wasn’t an awkward silence. That would’ve been way worse. And probably what he would’ve gotten if it had been Gabe who’d found him. Yeuch.

It turned out he hadn’t been going in too much of the wrong direction, and in no time at all Elliot was pointing to a door.

“There you go, loverboy. Save me leftovers, yeah?” Elliot grinned.

Alfie just blushed. Like there would be any leftovers.

But as they reached the door, Alfie frowned slightly. The door was slightly ajar – which was strange because he knew Jake hated leaving doors ajar. Closed or open, that was what he always said. So why had he left it ajar now?

Elliot frowned at Alfie’s expression and opened his mouth to say something, but Alfie held a finger to his lips. Something was wrong here. Something was very wrong.

Slowly and quietly, Alfie pushed the door fully open. What he saw made his blood boil. Jake was bracketed against the side of his desk, some random guy leering at him and leaning in far too close. This had to be the guy Jake was talking about, the creep who wouldn’t leave him alone!

What the fuck?! Jake said he could handle this!!

Clearly he couldn’t, which only made Alfie angrier. Fuck this.

“Hey!” Alfie barked.

Jake whipped his head to the side, surprise then relief filling his face. But that didn’t make Alfie feel any better. Not even slightly. Shoving the sandwiches against Elliot’s chest, Alfie stormed into the office, grabbed the guy leaning into Jake by the shirt and slammed him into the wall, earning a quiet yelp from his boyfriend.

“Hey, what’s your problem?” the guy sneered.

The nerve of him.

“What’s my problem? You, you are my problem. Jake told you to stay away from him and you haven’t, which I think is really fucking rude,”

“You must be the boyfriend,” the guy smirked.

Seriously, what was wrong with him?

“Yeah, I am. Let this be a warning, because if I ever hear of you near Jake again, let alone see you, I will rip you limb from fucking limb. Have I made myself clear?” Alfie growled.

He didn’t know where this aggression was coming from, to be honest. Normally he could be calm and chilled out and keep a cool head. But not with Jake. Something about Jake stirred up the fire inside of him.

No answer.

“I said, have I made myself clear?” Alfie repeated, even angrier, slamming the guy into the wall once more.

This was met with a wince and a head nod.

Good.

“Get out of here,” Alfie spat, shoving the man away from him.

The creep scrambled out of Jake’s office, leaving Alfie to clench his fists while he tried to control his fury. What the fuck. What the actual fuck.

“I’m, um, just going to leave this here,” Elliot said awkwardly.

He put down Alfie’s sandwich bag on Jake’s desk, squeezing Jake’s shoulder, before leaving, closing the door behind him.

“Thank you,” Jake murmured.

“What?” Alfie huffed, slightly incredulous.

“Thank you for having really perfect timing?” Jake frowned.

“You said you could handle him,” Alfie snapped.

“I…”

“Unless, you know, you have a long list of guys just creeping about your office,” Alfie interrupted.

Hurt flashed across Jake’s face, but Alfie couldn’t bring himself to care. He was still too angry.

“That isn’t fair,” Jake said quietly.

“Isn’t it? I distinctly remember you saying that he wouldn’t be a problem, that you could handle his advances. So unless this is another guy you’ve got sniffing around you, then you lied,” Alfie said angrily.

“Alfie, I…”

“What? What have you got to say that is going to make any of this better?” Alfie growled.

Jake swallowed heavily, hurt flooding his face properly.

“I didn’t invite him in here. And I was trying to get him to leave,” Jake insisted.

Alfie scoffed. Yeah, it looked like he was putting his full effort in.

“Alfie…”

Jake stepped towards him, but Alfie just stepped backwards, shaking his head. He couldn’t. Right now, he just couldn’t.

“I need to go,” Alfie muttered.

“Please don’t,” Jake blurted.

Alfie gritted his teeth.

“I don’t want to say anything I’ll regret. So yeah, I’m going. I’ll call you when I want to talk,” Alfie said firmly.

Tears filled Jake’s eyes but he nodded, his mouth pressing into a thin line. Good. Alfie really didn’t want to say something stupid, there was no way he would be able to resist if he stayed. The best thing to do was to go and calm down somewhere else. Until he was calm, he wouldn’t be able to look at Jake, or hear his voice, or even be in the same room as him. This was for the best.

Alfie stepped towards the door, glancing over his shoulder once more, only to see tears trickling down Jake’s cheeks. He immediately wanted to scoop Jake back into his arms, kiss him until he was smiling again, but that wouldn’t help either of them right now.

Fuck.

“Call Elliot. And email your boss. I want that guy gone, Jake,” Alfie said softly, “I’ll talk to you later,”

Jake swallowed heavily but nodded, managing a weak smile. Alfie sighed and shut the door behind him, clenching his fists again in frustration. He didn’t even care that he’d left his lunch in there, he just needed to clear his head. Otherwise they’d never be able to work this out.