Page 1 of Perfect Matcha
Chapter One
Camden was late.He knocked the dirty, slushy snow off his work boots outside the door of Bold Brew. The bottoms of his pantlegs were soaked and heavy, and his fingers hurt from the cold. The warmth of the coffee shop would be nice after a long day outside, as would the calm that came from spending a few hours with Theo.
Goofy, nerdy, perfect Theodore Punch.
His best friend. The most important person in his life.
The man of his dreams, but Camden didn’t have the guts to tell Theo that.
Maybe today would be the day. Maybe he would open that coffee shop door, stride over to their table, grab Theo’s baffled face, and lay one on him.
Or maybe not.
Spoiler alert—Camden Ray was a chickenshit.
The scent of espresso and hearty food snapped Camden out of his daydreaming, and the door jangled closed behind him. Theo looked up at the sound of the door, a crooked smile blooming on his face.
Yeah, Camden was in love with that man, but he’d seen firsthand the pain a failed romantic relationship with your best friend could wreak. And so had Theo.
“Whatcha got for me today?” Camden asked. There were two steaming mugs on the table.
Theo grinned and snapped his laptop shut. “Taste it and find out.”
Before sitting down, Camden tousled Theo’s hair for long enough to tighten his own chest but not so long that it seemed romantic. Camden had these small, platonic gestures down. They fed his pathetic heart, and Theo, who’d grown up in a family that exemplified the definition ofcold, ate up any show of demonstrative friendship.
When they were children, Theo had always been down for hugging or wrestling as their little pack, the Three Mountaineers—a play on the Three Musketeers because they lived on a ridge—ran roughshod through the neighborhood’s forest and hills. Camden, and their other best friend, Freddie, had been happy to oblige.
Camden was still happy to oblige.
Camden lifted the large mug to his face and sniffed. “Hot chocolate.”
It was common for Theo to get him drinks that were too sugary because Theo liked to steal sips of them, but hot chocolate didn’t sound half-bad.
“With a kick.” Theo took a sip of his own drink, which was his usual matcha with honey. He’d probably already had three that day. He drank so much of it that if Camden got close enough, he swore he could smell the tea’s grassy earthiness on Theo’s skin.
The chocolate slipped over Camden’s tongue and something spicy, maybe cayenne, hit him in the back of the throat after he swallowed. It wasn’t the plain black coffee he would have chosen for himself, but it tasted pretty amazing on a cold, dreary day.
“Theodore, here’s your food order,” the pink-haired barista called from the counter. The guy gave Theo a wink as he retrieved his food.
Camden couldn’t hold in his smile. Theo was a regular here. He supposed they both were, but Theo finding community at this funky coffee shop made Camden’s heart abnormally happy since Theo was such an introvert. Bold Brew was a good place. It was a bit of a hub for Laurelsburg’s queer and kink communities, but it was also just a great strong-brew coffee shop.
Theo returned to the table with a plate of ham and cheese sliders on buttery Hawaiian sweet rolls. Camden’s mouth watered.
“How was work?” Theo asked after they’d both devoured one slider apiece. “You’re all coveralled up today. Very manly.”
“I wear this to work every day.” Camden had started working thirty hours a week as a groundskeeper for Laurelsburg University at the beginning of the winter. It was hard work, but Camden enjoyed being outside.
He was hoping they’d want to keep him on through the spring and summer. He liked the idea of mowing the green, green grass in front of the library and planting flowers near the student union. Laurelsburg had a beautiful campus, and helping create some of that beauty appealed to him. He’d had a shit-ton of crappy jobs, but groundskeeper wasn’t one of them.
“You don’t wear those coveralls to First-Rate Finishes, do you?” Theo’s voice was full of an ornery quality that made Camden’s heart race.
“No.”
“I bet you’d sell more vibrators if you did.”
Camden concealed his laughter by taking a sip of his hot chocolate and fishing a slider off the plate.
“Whatdoyou wear at the sex-toy shop?” Theo asked with not-so-feigned innocence.
