Chapter Four
The next day he was eating lunch in the arts building café with flatmate Tasha, who was an English student. Alex didn’t have any friends who studied history like Luke, but he knew where the department was. He didn’t want to wait until the next LGBT social to talk to Luke, and besides, he didn’t want to talk whilst his friends were there, staring and gossiping.
“Do you know what sort of history Luke studies?” Tasha asked.
“What do you mean?”
Tasha rolled her eyes, “I mean there’s a lot of history numbnuts! Did he tell what sort of, I dunno, period or…type he’s interested in?”
“No, I didn’t think to ask really.”
“Well then you have no chance just hanging around the history department waiting for him to have a seminar, he could be doing absolutely anything. You might be hanging around outside a lecture on the foreign policy of LBJ when he’s actually interested in the Roman Empire or history of art.”
“Alright so maybe my original plan of just hanging around wasn’t awe inspiring just gimme a break.” Alex looked up from his sandwich. “What’s LBJ?”
Tasha smiled, “I’ll ask some of my friends who do History.”
“What? I don’t really care…”
“Noo stupid not about Johnson about finding out where we might find this stud of yours!”
“Oh.” Alex blushed. “I’d appreciate that.”
Tasha scanned the room and spotted someone. “Bingo, I’ll be right back.”
Alex watched as his friend walked over to a table of girls and started talking. He sat twiddling his thumbs, nerves building up in his stomach. It wouldn’t matter when or how he would get the chance to talk to Luke if Luke wasn’t interested anymore and just walked away. He looked down at his half eaten lunch and picked at the lettuce. He didn’t feel hungry anymore. Just then he saw Mark walking past the café. His hands left the table, wanting him to run and catch up with Mark but he thought better of it. What the hell would he say to Mark anyway? ‘Hi I invited your ex-boyfriend back to mine the other day and he tried to kiss me but I moved away, where can I find him cos I really need to tell him I wanna take him on a date and then fuck his hot ass.’
“Got it!” Tasha exclaimed as she sat down, making Alex jump.
“What?!”
“I know when one of his seminars is.”
“Tasha I fucking love you!”
“It’s tomorrow, here I wrote down the place and time.” She said as she handed him an old receipt.
“So what does he study?”
“Not telling.”
“Err, why?”
“Because you can’t let on that you know, or he’ll know you’ve been stalking him!”
“It’s not stalking!” Alex smiled, “but good point.”
“Soo,” Tasha inquired, “what are you gonna do, take him out somewhere?”
Alex shrugged “I dunno, he might hate me.”
“Bullshit Alex nobody could hate you, just flash that lovely smile of yours and I'm sure after a blowjob he’ll forgive you.”
Alex rolled his eyes. “So which of your friends over there told you what I needed to know?”
“The blonde one with the red shirt on, Angharad.”
“Ann what?”
“No that’s her first name, Angharad, she’s Welsh.”
Alex sighed, “Callum’s Welsh.”
“No Alex, you can’t be like this.”
She saw that all too familiar sad expression on his face and put her hand on his arm. “I know you find it really hard not to think about him but this is a great opportunity. You’ve met someone new who you like and you think he’s sexy and he obviously wants you, that can only be a good thing right?”
Alex smiled. “Right.”
So the next day at 2pm as instructed by Tasha’s friend, Alex was loitering around the History department. There was a cabinet with a trophy in it on the wall, and Alex studied his reflection in the glass. He ruffled his hair trying to accomplish a sexy dishevelled look, but just ended up looking silly. He flattened it quickly and pressed his lips together, trying to make them look bigger. He sighed, he hadn’t worried this much about getting a guy since, well, since after that first night he’d spent with Callum and he was desperate for things to continue between them. Then a thought struck him, how desperate was he going to look? Luke knew he was a nursing student so why would he be hanging around here? It’d be obvious Alex had been waiting for him, and Alex didn’t like that. He wanted to be apologetic, but he wanted to play it a bit cooler than that. He didn’t want to seem desperate. Just then a familiar face walked towards him. She smiled and wrapped her bright red scarf around her neck before extending her hand to him.
“Hi, you’re Alex right? I'm Tasha’s friend who takes one of the same modules as Luke.”
Alex shook her hand. “Yeah I remember you. Thanks for helping me,” Alex blushed, “I need to speak to him.”
She smiled. “My name’s Angharad by the way but call me Angie.”
“Well thanks a lot Angie.”
“Oh it’s no problem. Tasha told me you wanted to ask him out, I can totally see why you’d go for him though, he’s not really my type.”
“What, you mean gay?” Alex joked.
She laughed, “well yeah there is that but he wouldn’t be my type anyway since I'm gay too.”
“Oh right I didn’t know you’re a lesbian.”
Angie nodded, “just another reason I guess why Tasha didn’t think I’d have any problems with me helping you get your man.”
“So do you have a girlfriend?”
She shook her head. “No, unfortunately. There was a girl but she decided maybe the whole lesbian thing wasn’t for her,” Angie rolled her eyes, “so now she’s totally ‘in love’ with some tosser man who’s twice her age and is going nowhere but hey,” she laughed, “I guess he’s one up on me cos I can’t produce sperm!”
“Oh god don’t you just hate the ones who go off with other people?”
“Definitely, but hey, I guess we’ve all been there at some point.”
“Yeah.”
Angie looked at her watch. “Luke should be out in a minute there’s only three of us and the other guy already left. But I’ll stay here and chat with you if you want, that way it’ll look like you came to talk to me.”
Alex grinned, “you know it took me ages to realise I’d look stupid standing here by myself, you’re obviously a lot quicker than me.”
“Well you know I do politics and political history, I know a lot about spin!” She joked.
“So political history, that’s what Luke does?”
“I'm not sure about all his essay subjects but the seminar we were just in was on social security, the setting up of the National Health Service and stuff.”
Alex raised an eyebrow, “well that’ll give us something to talk about over dinner.” He joked.
“Oh right yeah Tasha said you’re training to be a nurse. I won’t pretend to know anything about that but is it all going well?”
“Yeah I spend a lot of time in hospitals now actually working and training at the same time so I'm starting to feel more confident about what is and what will be my job.”
Angie spotted Luke out of the corner of her eye. “He’s coming, good luck.”
He smiled as she wrapped the conversation up, making it look totally natural.
“Anyway I really have to rush off now but thanks for coming to see me, I’ll be fine I swear but it was really great of you to check I'm ok.”
She hugged him, “We’ve got to meet up soon”
“Yeah of course, thanks Angie. Bye.”
As Angie walked away Luke walked past him, glancing at Alex briefly before looking at the floor.
“Luke wait…”
Luke turned around and smiled weakly at him.
“Hey Alex. How’s it going?”
“I'm ok thanks. Are you busy?”
Luke shrugged, “not really. Why?”
“I err, I wanted to apologise, for what happened the other night.”
He looked around.
“I thought maybe we could talk.”
Luke smiled, “I don’t see any problem with that, talking. Come on let’s walk and talk I’ve gotta get this book back to the library.”
They walked out of the tall building together into the sunlight. Alex tried not to stare at Luke but he couldn’t help looking him up and down. He looked so effortlessly handsome. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and looked incredibly sexy in them. His hair looked really soft, it was brown, but the sun revealed many different shades. Alex smiled and looked away, worried that Luke would catch him looking.
“What I really wanted to say Luke, was, that I'm sorry because, actually I am attracted to you even if I didn’t make it seem that way at all.”
A man walking past looked at them then sharply looked away and sped up, red in the face.
Luke laughed, “maybe he thinks you’re too hot to handle.”
He looked at Alex, “listen when I said I wasn’t busy, I lied, I just didn’t want you to feel like I didn’t wanna talk to you. Maybe we could talk later, say about 8 in the pub opposite the psychology building?”
Alex glowed inside, he wanted to grab Luke and squeeze him tight, he was so incredibly relieved.
“Yeah, that would be great.”
Luke stopped walking and turned to Alex. “But let me just get one thing clear. You, do, like me?”
“Yeah Luke, I do.”
Alex blushed as usual, and Luke smiled, it was one of the cutest things he’d seen in a long time.
“So, you do want to kiss me?” He continued, taking a step closer to Alex.
Alex felt heat over his body, he knew he wanted this man. All he could do was nod.
“Good.”
Luke leaned in and Alex started to move his head down a little, Luke being a couple of inches smaller than him. Just as Alex closed his eyes, anticipating the kiss and butterflies took over his stomach, Luke put his finger over Alex’s lips.
“I want to do so much more than kiss you Alex.”
He brushed Alex’s lips as he turned and walked away.
“I’ll see you at 8.”
The next day he was eating lunch in the arts building café with flatmate Tasha, who was an English student. Alex didn’t have any friends who studied history like Luke, but he knew where the department was. He didn’t want to wait until the next LGBT social to talk to Luke, and besides, he didn’t want to talk whilst his friends were there, staring and gossiping.
“Do you know what sort of history Luke studies?” Tasha asked.
“What do you mean?”
Tasha rolled her eyes, “I mean there’s a lot of history numbnuts! Did he tell what sort of, I dunno, period or…type he’s interested in?”
“No, I didn’t think to ask really.”
“Well then you have no chance just hanging around the history department waiting for him to have a seminar, he could be doing absolutely anything. You might be hanging around outside a lecture on the foreign policy of LBJ when he’s actually interested in the Roman Empire or history of art.”
“Alright so maybe my original plan of just hanging around wasn’t awe inspiring just gimme a break.” Alex looked up from his sandwich. “What’s LBJ?”
Tasha smiled, “I’ll ask some of my friends who do History.”
“What? I don’t really care…”
“Noo stupid not about Johnson about finding out where we might find this stud of yours!”
“Oh.” Alex blushed. “I’d appreciate that.”
Tasha scanned the room and spotted someone. “Bingo, I’ll be right back.”
Alex watched as his friend walked over to a table of girls and started talking. He sat twiddling his thumbs, nerves building up in his stomach. It wouldn’t matter when or how he would get the chance to talk to Luke if Luke wasn’t interested anymore and just walked away. He looked down at his half eaten lunch and picked at the lettuce. He didn’t feel hungry anymore. Just then he saw Mark walking past the café. His hands left the table, wanting him to run and catch up with Mark but he thought better of it. What the hell would he say to Mark anyway? ‘Hi I invited your ex-boyfriend back to mine the other day and he tried to kiss me but I moved away, where can I find him cos I really need to tell him I wanna take him on a date and then fuck his hot ass.’
“Got it!” Tasha exclaimed as she sat down, making Alex jump.
“What?!”
“I know when one of his seminars is.”
“Tasha I fucking love you!”
“It’s tomorrow, here I wrote down the place and time.” She said as she handed him an old receipt.
“So what does he study?”
“Not telling.”
“Err, why?”
“Because you can’t let on that you know, or he’ll know you’ve been stalking him!”
“It’s not stalking!” Alex smiled, “but good point.”
“Soo,” Tasha inquired, “what are you gonna do, take him out somewhere?”
Alex shrugged “I dunno, he might hate me.”
“Bullshit Alex nobody could hate you, just flash that lovely smile of yours and I'm sure after a blowjob he’ll forgive you.”
Alex rolled his eyes. “So which of your friends over there told you what I needed to know?”
“The blonde one with the red shirt on, Angharad.”
“Ann what?”
“No that’s her first name, Angharad, she’s Welsh.”
Alex sighed, “Callum’s Welsh.”
“No Alex, you can’t be like this.”
She saw that all too familiar sad expression on his face and put her hand on his arm. “I know you find it really hard not to think about him but this is a great opportunity. You’ve met someone new who you like and you think he’s sexy and he obviously wants you, that can only be a good thing right?”
Alex smiled. “Right.”
So the next day at 2pm as instructed by Tasha’s friend, Alex was loitering around the History department. There was a cabinet with a trophy in it on the wall, and Alex studied his reflection in the glass. He ruffled his hair trying to accomplish a sexy dishevelled look, but just ended up looking silly. He flattened it quickly and pressed his lips together, trying to make them look bigger. He sighed, he hadn’t worried this much about getting a guy since, well, since after that first night he’d spent with Callum and he was desperate for things to continue between them. Then a thought struck him, how desperate was he going to look? Luke knew he was a nursing student so why would he be hanging around here? It’d be obvious Alex had been waiting for him, and Alex didn’t like that. He wanted to be apologetic, but he wanted to play it a bit cooler than that. He didn’t want to seem desperate. Just then a familiar face walked towards him. She smiled and wrapped her bright red scarf around her neck before extending her hand to him.
“Hi, you’re Alex right? I'm Tasha’s friend who takes one of the same modules as Luke.”
Alex shook her hand. “Yeah I remember you. Thanks for helping me,” Alex blushed, “I need to speak to him.”
She smiled. “My name’s Angharad by the way but call me Angie.”
“Well thanks a lot Angie.”
“Oh it’s no problem. Tasha told me you wanted to ask him out, I can totally see why you’d go for him though, he’s not really my type.”
“What, you mean gay?” Alex joked.
She laughed, “well yeah there is that but he wouldn’t be my type anyway since I'm gay too.”
“Oh right I didn’t know you’re a lesbian.”
Angie nodded, “just another reason I guess why Tasha didn’t think I’d have any problems with me helping you get your man.”
“So do you have a girlfriend?”
She shook her head. “No, unfortunately. There was a girl but she decided maybe the whole lesbian thing wasn’t for her,” Angie rolled her eyes, “so now she’s totally ‘in love’ with some tosser man who’s twice her age and is going nowhere but hey,” she laughed, “I guess he’s one up on me cos I can’t produce sperm!”
“Oh god don’t you just hate the ones who go off with other people?”
“Definitely, but hey, I guess we’ve all been there at some point.”
“Yeah.”
Angie looked at her watch. “Luke should be out in a minute there’s only three of us and the other guy already left. But I’ll stay here and chat with you if you want, that way it’ll look like you came to talk to me.”
Alex grinned, “you know it took me ages to realise I’d look stupid standing here by myself, you’re obviously a lot quicker than me.”
“Well you know I do politics and political history, I know a lot about spin!” She joked.
“So political history, that’s what Luke does?”
“I'm not sure about all his essay subjects but the seminar we were just in was on social security, the setting up of the National Health Service and stuff.”
Alex raised an eyebrow, “well that’ll give us something to talk about over dinner.” He joked.
“Oh right yeah Tasha said you’re training to be a nurse. I won’t pretend to know anything about that but is it all going well?”
“Yeah I spend a lot of time in hospitals now actually working and training at the same time so I'm starting to feel more confident about what is and what will be my job.”
Angie spotted Luke out of the corner of her eye. “He’s coming, good luck.”
He smiled as she wrapped the conversation up, making it look totally natural.
“Anyway I really have to rush off now but thanks for coming to see me, I’ll be fine I swear but it was really great of you to check I'm ok.”
She hugged him, “We’ve got to meet up soon”
“Yeah of course, thanks Angie. Bye.”
As Angie walked away Luke walked past him, glancing at Alex briefly before looking at the floor.
“Luke wait…”
Luke turned around and smiled weakly at him.
“Hey Alex. How’s it going?”
“I'm ok thanks. Are you busy?”
Luke shrugged, “not really. Why?”
“I err, I wanted to apologise, for what happened the other night.”
He looked around.
“I thought maybe we could talk.”
Luke smiled, “I don’t see any problem with that, talking. Come on let’s walk and talk I’ve gotta get this book back to the library.”
They walked out of the tall building together into the sunlight. Alex tried not to stare at Luke but he couldn’t help looking him up and down. He looked so effortlessly handsome. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and looked incredibly sexy in them. His hair looked really soft, it was brown, but the sun revealed many different shades. Alex smiled and looked away, worried that Luke would catch him looking.
“What I really wanted to say Luke, was, that I'm sorry because, actually I am attracted to you even if I didn’t make it seem that way at all.”
A man walking past looked at them then sharply looked away and sped up, red in the face.
Luke laughed, “maybe he thinks you’re too hot to handle.”
He looked at Alex, “listen when I said I wasn’t busy, I lied, I just didn’t want you to feel like I didn’t wanna talk to you. Maybe we could talk later, say about 8 in the pub opposite the psychology building?”
Alex glowed inside, he wanted to grab Luke and squeeze him tight, he was so incredibly relieved.
“Yeah, that would be great.”
Luke stopped walking and turned to Alex. “But let me just get one thing clear. You, do, like me?”
“Yeah Luke, I do.”
Alex blushed as usual, and Luke smiled, it was one of the cutest things he’d seen in a long time.
“So, you do want to kiss me?” He continued, taking a step closer to Alex.
Alex felt heat over his body, he knew he wanted this man. All he could do was nod.
“Good.”
Luke leaned in and Alex started to move his head down a little, Luke being a couple of inches smaller than him. Just as Alex closed his eyes, anticipating the kiss and butterflies took over his stomach, Luke put his finger over Alex’s lips.
“I want to do so much more than kiss you Alex.”
He brushed Alex’s lips as he turned and walked away.
“I’ll see you at 8.”
