Page 12 of Decorated

“Doing some shopping for a Christmas party being held at Hawthorne House,” Blaine said, squirming with discomfort.

Charlie blinked and tilted his head, looking at Blaine strangely. “Didn’t I hear that you did something that caused your business with Dave to be sued? A fire or something? Are you certain you should be spending money right now?”

Alfie found it interesting that some random guy they’d just happened upon while shopping would not only know what he seemed to know about Blaine but that he thought he had a right to an opinion about it, too. More than that, he didn’t like the way Blaine blanched at everything he’d asked.

“And you are?” he asked, standing straight so that he could look down on the man.

Charlie took in a small breath as he seemed to realize Blaine and Alfie were together and that Alfie wasn’t some random guy who had gone shopping at Harrod’s and randomly stood near Blaine.

“Oh. I’m Charlie,” Charlie said, holding out his hand with a smile. He pulled his hand back when he realized there was no way Alfie would be able to shake it. “Blaine and I used to date. Well, if dating is what you’d call it.” He winked at Blaine.

Blaine looked embarrassed to have everything he’d just said about his disastrous dating life proven seconds after he’d confessed to being a hot mess.

Alfie didn’t like the way Charlie was subtly putting Blaine down with his comments and his wink. He didn’t like the way Blaine appeared to feel bad about something he shouldn’t have been ashamed of. The whole thing made him want to step in and protect someone he liked.

“I’m Alfie,” he said, no humor in his voice. And because he couldn’t resist the urge to stir up a little trouble, he added, “I’m Blaine’s boyfriend.”

FOUR

Blaine nearly chokedon his own tongue at Alfie’s declaration of boyfriendhood. He’d been on the verge of spontaneously combusting with embarrassment, especially since Charlie was the definition of everything he’d done wrong in his dating life.

He jumped on the ruse immediately, of course. How could he not when he remembered how Charlie had laughed at him in bed that one time, then ghosted him as soon as he wasn’t fun anymore?

“Yeah, Alfie and I have been together for ages,” he said with exaggerated sweetness. Even though Alfie’s arms were loaded with Harrod’s bags, he stepped closer and hugged one of them.

He nearly broke character at the thick, solid muscle he squeezed with the action. Good lord, Alfie was built! What he wouldn’t give to wrap himself around a firm, muscled soldier and ride him into battle like?—

He cleared his throat and forced himself to focus.

“We met when my car broke down by the side of the road and Alfie stopped to help me with it,” he went on, lying with a smile.

“Sure you did,” Charlie said in a smarmy voice, glancing between the two of them. “Wasn’t that the meet-cute in that movie we watched that one time?”

Blaine heated. He’d forgotten Charlie had watched that one with him. The memory came back to him now. He’d tried to get Charlie interested in the story, but all Charlie had wanted to do was get him undressed and splayed face-down in his bed. Not that Blaine had a problem with that, but he’d liked Charlie. He’d really hoped the two of them could have something more, that he could be more than a fuck-boy.

He hadn’t realized his smile had dropped and he’d sagged against Alfie in defeat until Alfie said, “That’s how we met,” like he was taking up some sort of challenge Charlie had issued. “I changed his tire.”

“And then youchanged his tire, ammiright?” Charlie teased. Now he was trying to get on Alfie’s good side by belittling Blaine. Which made sense, considering Alfie was Charlie’s type, too.

“I accompanied him to the garage then gave him a ride home,” Alfie said, no humor in his voice at all. In fact, he seemed to grow in size and intimidation as he stared unrelentingly at Charlie. “Not that it’s any of your business.”

Charlie took a step back. “No, no, of course. You two make a cute couple.” He laughed nervously.

“We do,” Alfie said in the least cute voice possible.

If Blaine didn’t know any better, he would have thought Alfie would growl and bare his teeth at Charlie, like he was protecting him.

It was really nice, actually.

“Anyhow, we have to go,” he said, tugging on Alfie’s arm slightly. “We’re decorating for the Christmas party today and we still have a ton of errands left to do. Bye, Charlie. It was so nice running into you. We should catch up sometime.”

He spouted all the usual pleasantries in as fake a voice as he could manage as he moved on, his hands still wrapped around Alfie’s incredibly thick arm.

“Merry Christmas,” Alfie said in the deadliest, most threatening tone Blaine had ever heard those words spoken in.

As soon as Charlie had turned the corner and gone on his way, Blaine burst into laughter. “That was amazing,” he said, beaming up at Alfie, his hero.

“You used to date him?” Alfie asked, still intimidating.

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