Straight From the Heart

by Sam Burns

  Alex still looked stunned when Keegan left. He turned to stare at Liam. “You’re, like, magic or something, aren’t you?” He reached over and stole another onion ring from Liam’s plate. “Also, these are amazing. I’m gonna get fat working at a place like this.”

  Liam didn’t know how to answer that. “What would make you say that? Not the onion rings, you’re right about those.” He snatched the last one off his plate before Alex could go back for it, then reconsidered and held it out much as he had the first.

  Alex looked at Liam like he was a puppy who had just performed an especially impressive trick, took the onion ring, tore it in half, and handed half back to him. “You’re officially the best boyfriend ever,” he told Liam.

  Liam couldn’t help but smile. Alex hadn’t even considered any other option, he just went from zero to boyfriend in two days. Everything with him seemed to work that way—he didn’t even consider ignoring what his heart said.

  “I’m the first boyfriend you’ve ever had,” Liam decided to point out.

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen other boyfriends in action,” Alex argued, “and you’re already way ahead of anyone Jenna or Elsi ever dated. None of those guys would have given up their onion rings.” He turned his plate so the side was closer to Liam. “The fries are pretty good, too.”

  “I feel like we’re in a kids’ flick right now,” Liam said before taking a fry off Alex’s plate. “Or one of those cheesy romantic movies you suggested when you were drunk.”

  Even in the dim lighting, Alex’s blush was obvious. “I did what now?”

  Liam leaned forward and took another fry. “I’m just saying that I fully expect flowers and a cheesy romance movie at some point. You suggested it.”

  “I am never drinking again,” Alex declared, putting his hand over his eyes. “I am so sorry for everything I did and said that night.”

  “I’m not,” Liam answered back. “Most of it was cute for a drunk guy, and if you hadn’t done it I might not have taken you home. Then where would we be?”

  Alex smiled down at his plate. “Less ashamed, for sure. But maybe not quite as happy. So wait, does this mean we’re not having dinner?”

  Liam bumped his foot against Alex’s under the table. “Of course we’re having dinner. But tomorrow, maybe. And like I said, I expect all the romancing.”

  5

  Alex Tries New Things

  Alexander Jonas Austin IV was officially employed for the first time in his life, and he was so happy about it that he was walking around with a big goofy smile on his face.

  The moment he’d arrived, Brigit had taken him back to Keegan’s office, where the man had been waiting for him with a pile of paperwork.

  “Austin?” he asked when Alex handed him his ID and Social Security card. “I thought it was Sage?”

  “Stage name,” Alex answered. “The real thing sounds kind of stuffy, don’t you think?”

  Keegan seemed to consider that for a moment, then agreed. “Fair enough. Just Alex Austin isn’t that bad. Sounds a little like a stripper, though.”

  The pen in Alex’s hand skidded across the page, leaving a black gash in the W-4 he’d been filling out. He couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled out of him. He was sure that wherever she was, a shudder had just run up his mother’s spine, and she didn’t know why.

  “Sorry, didn’t think about that before it came out.” Keegan finished making copies and handed the cards back. “I do that. Is that Alexander Austin like the lawyer?”

  “Yeah. He was my dad.” It was funny, how even years after his father’s death, it still made him proud to say it.

  Keegan took the ruined W-4 and gave him a new one. “Sounds nice. Wish I sounded like that talking about my dad.” Checking his watch, Keegan frowned and glanced toward the office door. “I gotta go make a call. Be back in a while to see how you’re doing.”

  The idea of not being proud of his father was something foreign to Alex, and it made him sad for Keegan. That felt rude, though, so he kept his mouth shut.

  His hand was aching by the time he was done with all the paperwork, and he felt like he’d already started working. He didn’t think he’d signed his name so many times in his life.

  Keegan didn’t return, but Brigit came in to check on him just about the time he was finishing up. After dumping the paperwork in Keegan’s inbox, she offered him a tour of the place.

  “We’ve got a changing room in the back, and you can keep some work clothes on premises if you want,” she said as she handed him a black apron to go over his clothes. He was glad he’d paid attention to what the staff had been wearing the day before, and had gone with a similar all-black look.

  The waitstaff was preparing for lunch by that time, and they seemed nice, if distracted. They all took a moment to say hello when Brigit and Alex came by, so he decided that he was going to get along well with everyone.

  She took him around the corner into the kitchen proper. It was even busier than the area where the waitstaff were prepping. She navigated the chaos with ease, taking him through to the back, straight up to the guy in the biggest hat. He was tall and tanned, with gold hair and brown eyes. He looked like an extra from a surfing movie, but when he spoke, it was all “O Canada.” Okay, maybe he was from Minnesota or Wisconsin.

  “You allergic to anything?” were the first words out of the man’s mouth.

  Alex stopped to think about that. “Um, penicillin?”

  The chef laughed. “Don’t worry about that, I promise not to feed you any.”

  “Deal,” Alex agreed, sticking his hand out. “I’m Alex.”

  “Drew West,” the chef returned, tucking his ladle over the lip of a pot and then shaking Alex’s hand. “Nice to meet you. You stay out of my kitchen during rushes, get those plates into the dining room before they get cool or my counter space fills, and I promise you’ll never work a day without at least one good meal. We cool?”

  “Heck yeah!” Alex nodded, his head practically bouncing with the speed of the reaction. “You guys make the best onion rings ever.”

  Drew grinned. “Yeah we do. You keep up that kind of talk, you’re gonna do okay around here, eh?”

  “No problem.” Alex looked around at the other cooks, rushing around like there was an emergency near the refrigerator. He looked at Brigit. “We should get out of their hair. They seem busy.”

  She looked at the people congregating. “If they’re not, they seem to need attention anyway. Thanks, Drew, see you later!”

  The chef waved and headed off to find the source of the drama, while Brigit led Alex out. “Drew’s a good guy. He’s not like the TV chef stereotype. He’s hard to rile unless you really screw up.”

  “That’s good, since I’m only planning on kinda screwing up,” Alex told her.

  “Good plan. Everybody gets a few things wrong in their first few days. As long as you don’t do anything unfixable, no one’s going to hold it against you.” She stopped just outside the kitchen and surveyed the dining area. “We’re gonna open in a minute. You’ll shadow me today, and I’ll shadow you tomorrow. After that, we’ll see where we stand. Sound good?”

  “Excellent.” He followed her up to the front, listening as she pointed out the sections of tables and their numbers.

  Four hours later, Alex was afraid his feet were planning a revolt. He’d never stood up for so long in his life, and it was insanely painful. His face hurt from smiling, and he’d greeted so many people with the same phrase that he was afraid he was going to say, “Welcome to Wilde’s,” to the next stranger he saw outside of work.

  Brigit smiled brightly at him. “You did great! How do you feel?”

  He looked down at his feet, then back up at her. “How do I feel honestly, or smile and fake it?”

  She laughed, reaching to untie her apron and motioning him to follow her back toward the office. “You can be honest. Hurts, right? I remember my first few years on my feet all the time.”

 
; “Years?” That was a distressing thought. He had figured he’d get over it in a few days.

  “Sure.” She leaned in close and whispered. “Wanna hear a secret?”

  He looked at her face, full of mischief, and grew even more concerned. “I doubt it?”

  She shoved open a door and went in, him following right after. “Hey guys,” she said aloud. They were in the staff dressing room, with benches down the middle and lockers against each wall. The room was half full of members of the waitstaff who were changing into their street clothes. “When do your feet stop hurting?”

  “When you’re dead?” one girl asked, looking like she thought it was a riddle.

  A guy leaning up against the far row of lockers gave a snort. “That’s a nice thought. Maybe when you lose all feeling in them.”

  There were nods around the room.

  Alex gaped at them. “Seriously?”

  The nods came again. The first girl gave him a sympathetic look. “First job on your feet?” When he nodded, she came over and patted him on the shoulder. “It gets better.”

  He’d known he was spoiled, he supposed, but he hadn’t realized how much.

  Brigit gave him a wide smile and looked at the rest of them. “We’ve all been there. You’re gonna be fine.”

  There were nods all around, and understanding looks. It made Alex feel more at home already.

  It wasn’t going to be an easy change, but he could handle it. Having a job was simple and straightforward, at least. He showed up, they told him what to do, he did it. Rinse, repeat daily, or as needed for rent money.

  The hard part of being an adult was yet to come. There was no script for dating, and Brigit couldn’t tell him what to say to impress Liam. He doubted that, “Welcome to Wilde’s, table for two?” was going to do the trick.

  Still, he was on a roll. He could totally handle it.

  He was so not handling it. It wasn’t that Liam was hard to talk to—Alex hadn’t even arrived at his apartment yet. He was still on his way in, shaking in his sneakers and trying to decide what his escape plan was if it all went wrong.

  The building was one of the older ones on the block, but it was in a decent neighborhood. The stairs were in good shape, and Liam only lived on the second floor, so it was easy to get to even though his feet were still killing him.

  Alex felt a little silly about his plan, but the lunch conversation at Wilde’s had given him an idea on what to do for their first real date. He wasn’t sure it would go over well, but he could always play it off as a joke if Liam acted like it was stupid.

  He held a tiny bouquet of brightly colored daisies in one hand, and knocked on the door with the other.

  Liam was still shoeless when he answered the door, and his eyes shot down to the flowers, growing wide and then flitting back up to meet Alex’s. “You, uh, brought me flowers?”

  “You said I promised you flowers and a sappy romantic movie,” Alex answered with his best goofy grin. He held the flowers out. “Stage one, flowers. Play your cards right and there might even be dinner after the movie.”

  “Good thing, too. I don’t put out till after three dates, and a date doesn’t count without dinner.” Liam returned the silly smile and then opened the door wide to let Alex in.

  As Alex wandered after him into the kitchen, Liam went to search through his cupboards for a second before shrugging to himself and grabbing a drinking glass to put the flowers in. “Not exactly a vase kind of apartment,” he explained as he filled it with water.

  Alex moved the flowers around in their cup until they were facing in every direction. “Looks fine to me. Who needs a vase?” He had to keep himself from laughing at the idea of what his mother’s response to that would be.

  Liam put his elbows on the counter of the kitchen island and propped his head on his hands. “So, sappy movie?”

  “Sadly, I couldn’t find anything sappy at the closest theaters,” Alex confessed, leaning toward Liam. “I found a ridiculous sounding rom-com, though, if that’s close enough?”

  “Will there be a terrible misunderstanding, a near-breakup, and a happy ending?” Liam asked, looking hopeful.

  Alex shook his head sadly. “Nope. I think this one is really going to end with them broken up.”

  Clasping his hands over his heart, Liam gasped. “No! But they belonged together!”

  “I know,” Alex agreed. “But sometimes it’s just not enough.”

  “We better get going, then, before we miss the comedy part of the evening.” Liam went over to the entry and picked up his shoes, then back to sit on a corner of the coffee table to put them on. “This the theater just down the street?”

  “Yeah. Movie starts in,” Alex pulled his phone out to check the time. “Half an hour. We’ve got plenty of time. I already got the tickets reserved.”

  Liam paused in pulling on his second shoe, and looked at Alex. “You were counting on me to be cool with it, huh?”

  Alex shrugged with nonchalance that he didn’t feel. “I’m counting on you to be the kind of guy I want to date.” He paused for a moment, then shook his head. “That’s a total lie. I half-expected you to roll your eyes and say no, but I hoped you’d say yes, and didn’t want to get there and have the theater be full.”

  Liam grabbed his jacket with one hand and held the other out to Alex. Alex took his hand and let himself be led out the door, ducking his head to hide his blush.

  It was only a few minutes’ walk down to the theater, and their tickets were reserved, so they made it in plenty of time. After buying popcorn and soda for even more than Alex had spent on the tickets, they found seats in the theater and spent their time discussing how the movie could end.

  “Zombie apocalypse?” Alex asked. “I hear that’s popular these days.”

  “I could get behind that,” Liam agreed. He set the giant drink in the cup holder between them and leaned over, to kiss Alex on the cheek. “As long as the zombies interrupt the wedding, and the bride turns out to be some kind of zombie-killing badass.”

  Alex reached over and grabbed a handful of popcorn from the container in Liam’s lap. “Now that would be an awesome movie. Honeymooning in Hawaii, killing zombies on the beach.”

  “Maybe she could change her mind at the last minute, decide that a man so bad at communicating couldn’t possibly be good enough for her.” The suggestion almost made Alex choke on the popcorn in his mouth, but Liam wasn’t finished. “Then she’d marry her maid of honor, ‘cause she’s always secretly been in love with her.”

  A couple of girls sitting behind them burst into laughter, and Liam shot them a sheepish smile over his shoulder.

  When he turned back, Alex was laughing silently. He pretended to take offense. “You laughing at me?”

  “Why?” Alex asked, pretending suspicion. “Are you bothered? Planning on dumping me at dinner?”

  After shaking his head, Liam leaned in to drop another kiss on Alex’s cheek. “After dinner. Free meal and all that.”

  The girls were still laughing, so Alex turned to look at them. “You hear this? The things I put up with to date a hot guy.”

  Liam poked him gently with his elbow, pretending irritation. “Don’t call me hot. I’m a person, not a pretty face.”

  The laughter rose again, followed by someone to the side shushing them, despite the fact that the trailers hadn’t even started yet.

  Liam looked over his other shoulder in that direction, then pasted a lazy smile on his face as he looked back at Alex. “Some people have to suck the fun out of everything.”

  “You’re saying he’s a fun-sucker?” Alex asked.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Liam agreed.

  Still, they both turned toward the screen. Liam didn’t bother with any awkward pretense of yawning, he just put his arm around Alex and leaned his head against Alex’s.

  As they came out of the theater two hours later, Liam dumped the remaining popcorn into the nearby trash, along with the empty soda. “How c
ome they always have to give you more popcorn than four people could eat?”

  After thinking about it for a moment, Alex offered, “They expect people to drop it all over the theater floor?”

  “I just hope they don’t expect people to eat it all,” Liam said, hand to stomach. “I had to save room for dinner, after all.”

  Alex sighed and shook his head sadly. “First, I have to take you to a chick flick,” he said, putting air quotes around the words ‘chick flick’. “Which, I might add, had no zombies in it. And now you want me to pay for your dinner? What do I get out of this?”

  “My undying gratitude?” Liam asked. “I know, it’s not a great deal for you. Still, you might also get the grand prize, which is the chance to do it again.”

  “That’s fair,” Alex agreed. “As long as next time, it can be dinner before the movie. That way I won’t have to spring for popcorn at all.”

  Liam scowled at him. “Hey now, I paid for that popcorn.”

  “Complain, complain, complain. No wonder the boys all said you were high maintenance.” Alex sighed and shook his head. “Next you’ll be asking me if your butt looks fat in those jeans.”

  Liam craned around, pretending to try to get a look at his butt. “Oh no, does it?”

  “Don’t know, I’ve never seen it out of them.” Alex’s eyes widened after the words left his mouth, and he slapped his hand over it. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

  Liam didn’t stop laughing until they were outside the theater. Even then, he was still trying to get his breathing under control, so he just pointed at a nearby storefront. It turned out to be a reasonably priced restaurant, for which Alex was grateful. Liam was still paying for most everything until Alex got his first paycheck, but he didn’t want Liam to spend a fortune on it.

  The waitress seemed concerned about Liam’s continuing giggle-wheeze, but she showed them to a table. They both ordered tea when she asked for a drink order, and then she left them alone so they could look at the menu. And so Liam could catch his breath.