I woke up tired, with lower back pain and swollen eyes. I kept holding Matt's jacket, still impregnated with the pheromones of the only alpha for me.

To soak in the pheromones of the jacket, I took a deep breath. Then I stood up and folded it, placing it in the second drawer of the nightstand.

I sighed.

I had done it with someone who was not Matt. And I had enjoyed it.

But the worst part was that I had pretended it was Matt who did it, when it clearly was not. I started to feel ashamed of my own weakness.

As I tortured myself with my own thoughts, I felt someone move beside me.

I turned around, and there was the dominant alpha I had slept with the night before, pretending to be my ex partner.

I had no idea he would spent the night here. I thought he had left after I fell asleep, but here he was, and when I woke up, it would be incredibly awkward.

My hand went directly to my face, as I frowned. Of all the existing alphas, it had to be the son of the owners of the place where I work. 

I grabbed my phone to check the time. It was six in the morning. We had less than thirty minutes to take a shower and go to the cafe. 

When I tried to get up, I felt an arm wrap around me.

"Mmm..." He muttered. 

I waited to check if he was awake, but since there was no reaction from him, I pushed his arm away and stood up. 

I went to shower, changed, and went back to the room.

He was still asleep.

I sighed. In a way, it was better that he was still sleeping, so we would not have to look at each other with obvious discomfort and have to talk about what happened.

We had to go to the same place, but I did not want to wake him or wait for him to wake up on his own, especially since it was getting late.

Although, in reality, I was just running away.

I left the room and headed to the cafeteria.

"Good morning." I greeted as I entered.

"Oh, good morning, darling," the omega replied, looking worried. 

"Is something wrong?" I already had an idea of why they were like that. 

"We haven't been able to contact our son, I hope nothing has happened to him," she said, looking at her phone and dialing the number again.

It occurred to me that maybe I should have woken him up.

"Wait a little longer, he might be back later. He may have overslept," I said, avoiding their gaze.

"Yes, honey. Don't worry," her husband reassured her.

"It's just that he's not like that. He doesn't usually just leave and spend the night somewhere else. Besides, he said he had some ideas for getting customers after seeing the other coffee shop, remember?" she said to her husband with concern.

Seeing them like that, I decided to intervene.

"Uh, that's why," I said, walking past them to get the cleaning supplies. "He's probably lost in thought or working on a presentation." I gave them a smile.

Even though I felt broken inside, I could still manage fake smiles that looked real.

Her husband nodded emphatically.

"Yes, honey, The boy's right! You know him, he often exaggerate." He tried to calm her, stroking her hair.

But his wife just stared at me. I dropped my smile and turned around, getting ready to start cleaning.

"Honey, can you give us a moment alone?" She said, catching me off guard. 

Did she already know?

"Sure thing, I'll go and make some tea then." He agreed, looking back and forth between his wife and me.

As soon as her husband entered the house, the omega approached me and took my hands in hers. She didn't say a word, she just held them there with a kind smile.

I tensed for a moment, thinking she was going to lecture me about not messing with her son or something like that.

"Everything will be alright," she said suddenly, making me open my eyes in surprise.

Had she seen right through me?

'Everything will be alright.'

She knew nothing, and yet, without knowing, she was telling me this. 

But would it really be like that? 

Would the pain ever stop? 

Would I ever truly heal?

I looked into her eyes. Her eyes were sincere and filled me with peace. I felt as if she were answering me with just that.

Before I knew it, a tear had fallen down my cheek. She raised her hand to my head and rested it on her shoulder, pulling me into a hug.

I had cried during the night, and now a tear had escaped me in front of someone I'd only known for a little over two months. But her hands around my back felt so comforting that I wanted to wrap myself in them and stay there forever.

I placed my hands on her back and gripped her clothes tightly.

I felt like I could break again like the night before, and that even if I broke a thousand more times, it would not be enough. I began to sob uncontrollably. The pain would not go away overnight, but I hoped that eventually it would stop hurting like this.

"Oh, darling,"  the sweetness of her voice was comforting, caressing my back and head, bringing me closer to her.

We stayed like that for a few minutes, until I decided it was time to stop. I took a deep breath and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to calm myself. I stepped back with my head down, and the omega let her hands fall.

She raised one up and brought it to my head, stirring it lovingly.

"That's it." She simply said. She lowered her hand to my face and wiped away my tears.

"You're not going to… Ask me anything?" I asked weakly.

"Of course not. But if you want to talk, I'd listen." She replied calmly.

I gave her a smile. A real one. 

"Thank you."

Just then, my gaze shifted to the entrance, where her son was looking at me. I was not sure if it was a look of surprise or concern, but it did not matter. I turned away immediately and finished washing my face.

"I'll go to the bathroom. I can't attend like this," I excused with the omega.

"Of course, go ahead," she agreed with her affectionate smile.

As soon as I started to walk, the doorbell rang. 

"Oh, god. You-! I was so worried!" Her mother said, walking towards him, while I went into the bathroom and locked the door.

I sighed, tired. 

Too much had happened overnight, and I needed time to process it.

And above all, I wanted to avoid being alone with the owners' son, mostly out of embarrassment and discomfort.

I had used him and had sex with him using the excuse that I was thinking about Matt.

I felt awful. He was the second person I had sex with in my life, and it had been at the worst possible time.

I sat on the toilet lid and took several deep breaths. Then I stood up and looked at my face in the mirror. My eyes were still swollen, but at least they were a little better.

I washed my face, took another deep breath, and opened the door.

"Ah, so good to see you out of there, boy!" The owner said. "Here, our son is going to give us the details to get more people in the cafeteria," his excitement was pretty obvious.

"No, I don't think I should... Hear that, I'm not part of the café itself, I just... work here," I said, walking behind the counter.

"You've been part of the family since you started working here, darling," the omega insisted, making me smile slightly.

"You can Listen," the son intervened, staring at me with a toothless grin.

I looked away and felt a slight blush rise to my face.

I took my elbow with my other hand and stood still.

"... I'll clean the tables." I stated, heading towards the drawer where the cleaning supplies were.

"This boy." The owner sighed.

Both parents turned their attention back to their son, who was beginning to explain his ideas for attracting more customers to the café.

Meanwhile, I tried to listen as little as possible while cleaning the counter and tables. When I finished, they were still in their meeting.

I checked the time.

Five minutes until the shop opened.

I decided to intervene for a second.

"Excuse me," I spoke, making everyone turn their attention to me. "It's almost time to open, so... I think you could continue your conversation about it inside... Perhaps?" I said, feeling a little embarrassed. 

It was their shop, and what I had just said sounded like a command, as if I were the owner.

I glanced to the side and nervously gripped the broom handle.

"Sorry about that..." I apologized quietly.

Instead of hearing shouts or angry voices, they started laughing.

"You're even more responsible than the owners themselves!" the owner said with a laugh. "I think we found an heir who actually wants this place!" he added. 

Who actually wants the place? 

I glanced at the son, who was just shaking his head from side to side.

"Hey, I never said I didn't want it," he defended as he arranged his sheets of paper to take them inside.

"You didn't say you want it either," the omega replied. 

"And you shouldn't have opened that company there," his father added.

I had more and more questions, but at the same time I felt that I had no right to interfere in their affairs, since I was just an employee.

I headed to the entrance and turned the sign from 'closed' to 'open' as the three of them entered their house. 

A few minutes later, the son appeared and sat down on a chair that he had taken as his chair for a few days now, which he had placed behind the counter and near me.

I tensed up. The last thing I wanted was to be alone with him, and that was the first thing that happened. I thought I should apologize, but I didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry," I suddenly heard.

I turned back to look at him, surprised. 

"Why... Are you apologizing?"

He looked at me for a moment and lowered his gaze. 

"Cause' I took advantage of your state. I knew you were feeling down cause of an alpha, but I still forced you to... do it."

His hands were clasped together, and he was moving his fingers nervously.

I took a moment before answering. 

"How did you...?" I trailed off.

"How did I know?" he finished my sentence. "That jacket you were wearing was soaked in alpha pheromones. And you huddled with it without letting go for a second, remember?"

"Oh," was all I could manage to say.

"Anyway, I'm really sorry I took advantage of you," he repeated.

"It wasn't like that," I replied, and he looked up at me. "I spread the pheromones, I provoked it, and I also... used you. I'm sorry about that."

I saw a flicker of surprise in his eyes, though I could not quite tell why.

"What? No, no, that's not it..." He opened his mouth and closed it again. He took a breath and tightened his grip.

"And I... I left you alone this morning, I should have woken you up, sorry," I added. I felt like I had interrupted something he wanted to say, but I had to apologize for that too. It had not been mature of me; I had just run away from an awkward conversation.

He chuckled.

"Okay, I'll accept that one." He had a sweet smile. I swallowed and turned my face away.

We were silent for a moment. I could still feel the awkwardness filling the air.

Suddenly, he cleared his throat.

"Please, l-let me..."

 Right in that moment, the bell at the entrance rang and I turned around to greet the customers.

There were two girls. As soon as they approached, I knew they were omegas.

I greeted them with a smile.

"So it was true," one of them said suddenly.

I looked at her for a minute, intrigued. 

"Oh, t's just that this coffee shop appeared on a website, and it said there was a pretty handsome omega working there." She smiled as she looked at me. "I see it was true."

"Thanks," I replied with a smile, blushing slightly.

Her friend glanced behind me for a second and blushed.

"It didn't say anything about a handsome alpha," she whispered to her friend, though I could hear her clearly through the surrounding silence.

"Oh," said the owners' son, standing up and smiling at the girls.

I glanced at him.

"Hello," he crooned. "I'm sort of this guy's guardian," he said, gesturing casually.

I frowned.

"It's not just betas and cute omegas like you who come to this place," he added.

The girls blushed and giggled nervously.

I shook off my frown and returned to my business smile.

"What would you like to order?" I asked.

The owner's son sat back down in his chair, watching as always what I was doing.

I took the order, collected the payment, and told them to wait. As soon as I finished washing my hands and making the drinks, I called them over.

"Number one,  your order it's ready," I said loudly.

"Oh, were we the first ones?" One of them asked, somewhat surprised as she stood up.

"Yeah." I replied bluntly.

They grabbed their drinks and waved goodbye.

I gave them my usual smile until they walked out the door.

I heard the owner's son sigh and glanced at him again.

"Okay, we'll practice that later," he said suddenly, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Practice what? I wondered, but decided to say nothing in the end.

I waited for him to continue with the previous topic, before the omegas came in, but when I saw he was not saying anything, I decided not to ask any more questions and just forget about it.

The rest of the day passed normally, with the owners' son becoming alert every time an alpha entered, even though that should have been me.

When I finished work, the son stopped me, grabbing my arm. I was already at the door and he almost ran to catch me.

"About what happened..." I saw a hint of a blush creep across his face.

So now he wanted to continue the conversation. I looked at him intently. I did not want him to get the wrong idea, so I had to be clear.

"Yes, as I said before, I apologize for that. It definitely won't happen again." I emphasized the last part and gave him a forced, almost businesslike smile.

He looked me in the eyes, and I did not look away. I wanted to crush any hope he might have had, if he even had any in the first place.

He was silent for a while.

"Oh, right. I understand," he finally replied. He put a hand to his head and looked away. "Good work today, see you tomorrow." He smiled, giving me a quick glance.

"See you tomorrow," I said simply. I turned around and headed back to the hotel.