4. Chapter 4

4

A lfie didn't work weekends.

He spent Saturday catching up on sleep and readjusting from night shift, leaving Sunday as his only full day to do what he wanted.

That Sunday, he wanted to see his best friend.

Alfie dragged himself out of bed, got dressed, made himself look semi-human, then got the bus into town. Tia was his bright spark in an otherwise dreary existence. She always had a beaming smile for him, always bubbled over with excitement and pulled him along for the ride.

No matter how hard he found work or how sluggish he felt after sleeping most of his Saturday, she was always happy to see him.

He stepped off the bus, strolled past the bank and clothes shops, and then he was there, staring up at the café Tia worked in. Mr Cuppa . She spotted him through the window, waving frantically. The customer she served grimaced when it looked like she dropped something from his tray. Thankfully it was only napkins.

Alfie stepped inside and sat down in his preferred corner near the back, away from the window, and where the blinding lights dangling from the ceiling barely reached. Mr Cuppa had a minimalist look to the place. The tables were small, and the chairs were back-breaking. Tia had told him it was deliberate to make sure customers didn't get too comfortable, and the small tables were so their portion sizes looked bigger.

Tia held her finger towards him, gesturing he should wait and not order. He nodded, removing his jacket and throwing it over the back of his chair. Tia had her black hair up in a high ponytail that swished when she walked.

Tia went behind the counter and hung up her apron. She made two coffees, adding straws, then grabbed a cheesecake slice with two forks so they could share.

"For the vampire," she announced, placing Alfie's coffee on the table.

"Vampire? Oh…right."

Working the night shift meant he didn't see the sun much, and the whole skulking in the shadows of the café didn't help matters either. Tia smiled and sat down. She handed Alfie a fork.

"How much do I owe you?" he asked.

Tia flapped her hand. "Don't worry about it, my treat. This is a congratulatory cheesecake."

A frown tugged at Alfie's face. "Why?"

"You getting promoted or whatever."

"I didn't get promoted."

Tia took a bite of cheesecake. "You said in your text weeks ago they moved you to H-wing."

"They did. H-wing night shift."

"Oh," Tia said. She popped her lips. "This is a commiserations cheesecake then…"

"Thanks." Alfie shot her a small smile.

"What's the difference between G and H?" she asked.

"Well, they're different letters. G comes before H in the alphabet."

Tia stuck her tongue out at him. "You're so not funny…"

Alfie avoided her eyes. Instead he looked at the slice of cheesecake as he stabbed it with his fork. "The worst offenders are on H-wing."

"Oh."

They ate in silence for a few months, then Tia asked the question he'd been waiting for. "Are any of them hot?"

She was trying to whisper, Alfie knew she was, but she sucked at it. The customers at the neighbouring tables stared at them.

Rather than ignore their newly acquired audience, Tia stretched her red lips into a smile and fluttered her eyelashes. Her poor whispering skills didn't matter when she fluttered her eyes and pouted, but it had got them in a few hairy situations.

Good looks only got you out of trouble in the light, not the dark of a cinema or in a nightclub.

Alfie's first reaction to Tia's question was Nate. Yes, there was a prisoner in Larkwood he found alluring and confusing, but he managed to push Nate from his mind, managed to block him out.

Alfie sighed slowly, stirred his straw in his coffee, then leaned over the table and showed Tia how a whisper should be done. "They're rapists, murders, and violent criminals."

Tia shrugged. "Doesn't immediately mean they're ugly, you know, physically. Their ugliness might just be on the inside. Their faces might be nice, and what else is there to do inside but work out… Some of them must be buff as hell."

"I work the night shift, so I don't actually see them."

Tia smacked her lips together and slumped in her chair. "Voices then, do any of them have voices that make you go all tingly?"

As soon as the word tingly left her lips, Alfie dropped his gaze to the table and fought to contain the red pigment in his face. He couldn't keep his reaction to Nate secret this time.

"Knew it," Tia chirped before sucking on her straw. "You wouldn't turn beetroot red unless one of them was hot."

"Beetroot?" Alfie asked. "More purple than red, the kind of purple my face would go if one of them got out and strangled me like they say they will."

"You might like a little breath play."

"Tia!"

She sucked on her straw while giving him innocent eyes. Tia leaned back. "Sorry, I guess it must be kind of scary being around people like that. Do they…"

"They?"

"Shout out threats?"

In the space of a second, her voice had changed from joyous and energised to worried. Alfie hated having that effect, especially when he was lying. No one had threatened him since the first roll call.

He sighed and rubbed at his head. "No, they're not so bad. But none of them are hot, so if you're hoping for some prison pen pal, think again."

Tia waved her hand. "No need, some really cute guy came in earlier and gave me his name."

Alfie rolled his eyes. "It's your job to take his name. You write it on the cups."

Tia smiled, and her bright blue eyes sparkled. The complete opposite to Nate's. She pushed herself back into her chair and dug her hand into her pocket. The crumped cup she retrieved had obviously been used. She wrestled to unfold it, then showed Alfie the scrawled letters and numbers.

"Chris, you have Chris's number?"

She nodded. "You should have seen him. You would've thought he was attractive too, a pretty guy. I know guys don't usually like being called pretty, but he was."

Alfie bowed at the word and studied the last slosh of coffee in his cup. Pretty. He would've scoffed and grimaced at someone calling him pretty weeks ago, but when Nate said it, he blushed and shuffled about like a twelve-year-old.

"Red hair, freckles, a nose ring." She sighed dreamily. "Do you think he has piercings anywhere else?"

"I don't even know the guy."

"I hope he does," Tia said, ignoring him. "It's a shame it would never work out between us."

"Why wouldn't it?"

She winced. "He is shorter than me."

"So?"

"You wouldn't understand," she said, stirring her straw.

"Then explain it to me."

"Heels, Alfie. I like to wear my heels, and I can't wear them if I tower over him."

Tia pouted.

"You'd say no to the perfect guy if he was shorter than you?"

She nodded. "I'd have to. If it's a choice between my killer shoe collection and the man of my dream, I'll have to pick shoes."

"Wow."

"Speaking of shoes…" Tia threw herself towards the table. The plate on top rattled. "My birthday…"

"Your birthday?"

"It's coming up."

"In four months time, and what's that got to do with shoes."

"I've already picked a pair." She nodded. "Promise me you'll come out on the town with us."

Alfie widened his eyes. "Us?"

"Yes, us, my besties. Maybe I'll even invite Chris."

"Chris? The guy who scribbled his name on a cup? The one you've already decided you're too tall for?"

"Did I mention he's cute?" Her smile grew. "He might be into guys too…"

"You're trying to match me up with a guy you've not formally rejected yet?"

Tia shrugged. "Is that so bad?"

"Yes. And he's not even my type."

"I know someone who is…"

"Tia…"

"Max is coming, and who knows, on my birthday he might end up coming too." She winked at him.

"You're not subtle."

"Maybe you two can come together…again."

"We kissed, once."

"But he's your type, right?"

Alfie looked away. He tried not to think of Nate, but he popped into his head and Alfie shivered.

"I don't know."

She sighed. "Promise me you'll come out for my birthday."

"It's four months away."

"On a Saturday." She pressed her hands together in a prayer pose. "I'm asking you now, well in advance. Please, Alfie."

"Okay…"

"Yes!" She punched the air. "We'll have fun, I promise."

"Tia?"

Alfie turned in the direction of the counter. Tia's boss waited, lip wobbling like he was terrified to interrupt them. He was a big man but always struck Alfie as too nervous, too tentative for his size. His brown eyes were glued to Tia, and he stroked a hand over his head to flatten his frizzy blond hair.

Tia plastered a smile on her face. "What's wrong, Paul?"

"You…you had your break earlier."

"Did I?" She chuckled before slapping her hand to her mouth. "I did, didn't I?"

"Yes."

Alfie scrunched his face and gritted his teeth, expecting Tia's boss to go crazy, but he just wagged his finger and tutted like Tia was a naughty child.

"You forgot yesterday too," Paul said, shaking his head.

"I'd forget my own head if it wasn't attached to my neck," Tia said, then she walked back to the counter, swaying her hips as she went.

Alfie raised an eyebrow at her once she was behind the counter and Paul had retreated to the back. "What the fuck was that?"

Tia grinned. "The perks of having a boss who fancies you."

"If only…" Alfie mumbled.

He might've progressed to day shift had Ryan been interested, but instead the only interest came from a triple murderer who purred suggestively into his cell door.

Alfie finished the rest of his coffee, then waved to Tia from the window. He strolled along the pavement, tracking the people that passed. He closed his eyes briefly at the touch of sun on his skin. It didn't last. The clouds moved in and hid it from view.

Despite working in a prison at such a young age, Alfie still fit the eighteen-year-old, male stereotype. Tia invited him on nights out, which usually ended with him trading saliva and hands with some guy in a bar. The hook-ups never went anywhere. On rare occasions, it ended with someone in Alfie's bed or him in someone else's, but he set clear boundaries.

It was a one-night thing that would never lead to more. The encounters were brief, like a valve being released every once in a while to keep Alfie from going crazy.

The thought of trusting someone with more than one night left a bitter taste in his mouth.

If you never let anyone in, they couldn't let you down.

Tia hated the motto, but Alfie stuck to it.

He'd been let down before.

Not in a romantic way, but it had put him off love.

When he was a kid waiting in the foster home, he readied himself to be loved and cherished, he craved it, but it never came. They were told to behave, be polite, engaging, and they'd been picked, they'd be taken home.

Alfie did all those things, but he was never chosen, and for years hope lingered in his heart that the right person was coming, he just had to have faith, but when hope faded, sadness grew.

The care system made good kids sad, and bad kids worse.

Alfie promised himself never to trust someone with his heart, never to hope someone would one day hold it in their hands and take care of it, because those were the dreams of a child. One who was na?ve and hadn't yet felt the bitter sting of rejection.

His heart had been broken long ago by his parents not wanting him and reinforced by no one else wanting him either, so the one-night stands of fun were ideal, and failing that, he had his hand.

Except, he'd not touched himself since he'd first spoken to Nate that night, knowing his mind would wander there when it shouldn't.

Nate was off-limits, both physically and mentally, and he had to make sure it stayed that way.