Wednesday, evening

Working in a restaurant had never seemed appealing to Noah, but he did it out of love for his parents, Birgitta and Olé Sahlberg. Just like his older brother Adrian, Noah agreed to work two evenings a week until they would be up on their feet with plenty of employees working for them. Adrian took Thursdays and Saturdays, whereas Noah would work mainly on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Which were the exact evenings Layne was right by his side to earn a bit of money that he would eventually throw right back out on Friday evenings while going out with his friends. They were the only two evenings he could work, since most of his days were spent on the ice, practicing ice hockey.

But Noah didn’t mind. He liked working with Layne, who had a great sense of humor and seemed to get along with everyone he met. He also already knew the chef, Patrick, a guy named Stephan who worked behind the bar, and three girls who worked as waitresses. They, just like Layne, had all decided to stay and work for the new owner.

Noah was minding his own business for the most part that evening, not really in the mood to joke around with Layne or Patrick—who had decided to leave him be after about an hour of trying to get him to loosen up a little.

He was just grumpy, and it all had to do with seeing Santino that day. His stomach had gone wild in the few seconds he had spent right in front of the boy, when Layne had approached him to ask about work. Looking into Santino’s eyes from up close had reminded him how it felt to have a crush. A secret one, he had to add.

It caused him to remember how his crush on Colin started, and how, for weeks on end, he couldn’t get enough of seeing him. In Colin’s case, it was from a distance until Noah was forcefully outed to the school. In this case, he knew he had a crush on Santino, and it was going to be difficult to keep him at a safe distance. After all, Lori and Layne were the only two people he knew in town, and Layne and Santino seemed glued to each other’s sides for the entire day.

And that wasn’t even the main issue Noah was struggling with. No, really, he missed Colin. He missed having a crush, and having his feelings returned. He missed the kind gestures, the sweet words whispered into his ears. He missed the undivided attention Colin gave him. He was still pissed at him for not even being willing to give a long-distance relationship a try. Two years had meant nothing  to Colin, and that hurt.

But being pissed alone wasn’t enough to completely get over the boy in a matter of weeks.

“Seriously,” Layne’s voice said close to him, “is everything alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Noah lied, wishing he had at least one good friend he could vent to about his broken heart. But Layne didn’t know, and Lori hated Colin and didn’t understand why he would even think about missing him.

“Right,” Layne said, though he didn’t sound convinced, “as much as I love to believe you, that plate hasn’t done anything wrong and if you scrub it for a second longer you might actually create a hole.”

Noah frowned, staring at the plate he had planned on simply rinsing before putting it through the dishwasher. But looking at the stack of plates still waiting to be rinsed, he had indeed scrubbed it for far too long. He sighed, placing the plate in a rack before he turned to Layne. “I’m tired.”

Layne cocked his head to the side, taking him in with a slight frown on his face, in complete silence. It made Noah nervous to have someone stare at him like that, and to distract himself, he grabbed the next plate.

“Well, if you wanna talk about anything, you know where to find me, right?”

Noah bit his lip and nodded his head without voicing a reply. He still appreciated the offer. Layne had plenty of friends and truly no need to befriend him. Which made Noah believe he genuinely wanted to listen.

“I know it’s hard, you know. Moving?” Layne continued, while he started helping him with the dishes. “I don’t know if I told you already, but I moved here a few years ago and I had no friends around here. I know it sucks not having anyone to talk to or have fun with. So, really, if you need a friend, don’t forget that I’m right here.”

“I really appreciate it, Layne,” Noah mumbled tiredly, “but this isn’t something you could help with, so really. I’m fine.”

“Sound like you’re really not, you just don’t want to talk about it with me,” Layne concluded, nodding his head, “which is fine. You don’t have to. Just know that you can.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“Good, because now that we’ve established that we’re friends, we need to start hanging out outside of work too. Why don’t you go out with me and my friends on Friday? You’ll get to know more people and you’ll get to know me a little better as well.”

Noah smiled, though Layne couldn’t see it from where he stood.

He was glad he met Layne, and that they had been able to get to know each other superficially at work. But making new friends, or more, wasn’t such a bad idea. The only issue was that Noah really didn’t trust himself when it came to Santino, who would inevitably be there as well. He really didn’t feel like crushing harder on a guy like him. Let alone on a guy like him with a girlfriend like Karen Tatcher.

“Wanna come?” Layne asked after a silence.

Still, why would Noah stop himself from making friends because he might crush on one guy? Stories—or rumors—about Santino were wild and not always positive. Maybe he’d turn out to be a jerk in real life.

“Is that a no?” Layne actually sounded disappointed, and Noah chuckled in response, before he turned around to look at him.

“I was contemplating pros and cons; I do that a lot. But yeah, that sounds good.”

“Great, I’ll wait here after work on Friday so you can get changed. We’ll go to my place and out from there.”

Noah nodded in agreement, still not entirely convinced that it was a good idea to befriend Santino. How could the guy possibly be a jerk if he was best friends with someone like Layne?