Picture of Lindsey Sargent.

The chapter goes back to the moment Ollie meets Nelson in the shop.

I couldn't believe I was looking at Nelson Peterson standing in the doorway of my shop. What kind of stupid joke was this? Why the hell was he in Boston? Why, of all places, did he have to come to my shop? There were hundreds of Coffee shops in the city, and he had to choose this one. And if he had to come here, why couldn't he arrive half an hour later? I would be gone, and this situation would never happen. What a cruel twist of fate. The last thing I needed was someone from my dark past finding out where I worked. It was too dangerous for more than one reason. I groaned, turning away and hoping he would somehow miraculously overlook me. The last time we saw each other was a bit over five years ago. I prayed to God he wouldn't remember what I looked like, knowing it was impossible considering I recognized him the moment our eyes met.

"Oliver?" he asked, and I internally face-palmed. As I thought, it was only wishful thinking. I wasn't lucky enough to be spared this unpleasant walk down the memory lane.

Taking a deep breath, I plastered a somehow passable smile and turned back to face him. He never did anything bad to me, and I considered him a friend back then. I should probably greet him properly and talk to him a bit. He was a good guy, and I was surprised he managed to keep his easygoing character and good nature despite his involvement with Victor. They were friends for so many years it was surprising Victor's personality didn't influence him in any way. The only bad thing he had ever done to me was keeping quiet about Victor cheating on me. I understood they were best friends, but I still couldn't forgive him completely.

"Nelson! It's been forever. What brings you to Boston?" I asked, trying to sound as natural as possible, but was sure I didn't manage as well as I would like to. Knowing what I knew, it wasn't surprising.

I remembered enough to know nine out of ten times his business trips were co-joined with Victor. And considering that, together with my luck, I was almost one hundred percent sure Victor was in Boston too. And seeing as Nels visited my Café this early in the morning, their office had to be close by. Which made me scared shitless. Not because I didn't want to see him, which was on the top of my list of things I never wanted to experience. No. It was because, on some days, the caretaker that took care of Matty after his kindergarten brought him over to the shop so he could wait until I finished. It was my idea because I wanted to be with Matthias as much as I could. But with Nelson here, I would have to tell Tara to stop doing that for some time. I couldn't risk anyone close to Victor would spot Matty. He was, after all, a spitting image of him, and anyone who ever interacted with Vic for more than five minutes would immediately realize there had to be a blood connection between them. And I couldn't let that happen.

Ever.

"It's really you, Oli! It's been years! How have you been? You look great!" He walked over and hugged me, almost squeezing the life out of my smaller body. Remembering his touchy-feely persona all too late, I grumbled, trying to get away from him. I completely forgot he liked to get physical with his friends. It was one of the things that irritated me about him.

"Nelson, my personal space," I wheezed, and he finally let me go at once, smiling brightly.

"You haven't changed in this area. Still so cold towards me as ever." He chuckled and walked over to the refrigerators, looking at our freshly made products.

"Do you know this shop well? Are you a regular? Could you recommend me something?" he asked, grinning while looking at all the cakes and other sweet things we currently had.

"Regular? Dude, he owns this place!" said Lindsey, and I felt like smacking her. Good job, Linds!

Glaring at Lindsey, I sighed, shaking my head internally. Not only was I in deep shit, but my employee refused to work on her vocabulary. It was always so weird to hear her talk like that. She had two older brothers who took care of her for the majority of her life, and their way of speaking rubbed off on her. Hearing her speak was sometimes worse than hearing my brother, which was already bad enough.

"No way!" he said, looking at me with wide eyes. The way he looked at me, all surprised and shocked, actually pissed me off a bit. It was rude.

"Why do you look so shocked? It's not like me having my own business is unrealistic or something." Frowning at him, I crossed my arms and waited for his answer. I knew I wasn't some big bad businessman, and I never really talked about wanting to have a shop like this in the past, but he looked like he couldn't believe Lindsey's words. As if I didn't have what it took to manage my own business.

He laughed and raised his arms in a surrender-like gesture.

"No, no. I didn't mean it like that. I know what you are capable of. I'm just surprised you would risk like this. You could have easily gone bankrupt with a shop like this in this area. You are amazing, Oli. I think I'm going to visit here more often now, with you working here and all that." He gave me a cheeky grin and looked back at the cakes.

I had to suppress an urge to tell him to never come back. Even though he was harmless alone, and I actually liked him quite a bit, he had one big flaw. His best friend was Victor. I didn't want to walk to work one day and find Vitor there. This was my sanctuary, and if Victor decided to visit it together with Nels, I would never be able to see the shop in the same way.

"What would you recommend me?" he asked, looking deep in thoughts.

Nelson was never good with cakes. I remembered this one time he tasted a cake I bought for Victor's birthday. It was specially made so it would be sweet, creamy, and full of chocolate with a nut-butter filling. Nelson was sick after eating two bites of it.

"For who? It's certainly not for you, Nels. I know you hate cakes. The only things you eat are brownies, sweet bread, and cookies." I could hear the irritation and mistrust in my voice, and he definitely heard it as well because his expression changed. His smile dropped, and his eyes narrowed. He was aware of the fact I knew who it was for. I didn't spend over two years with my ex for nothing. I knew his daily rituals, and I knew he needed sweet things in the morning to get some sugar in the system to function normally. And cakes were one of his favorites.

"For Victor, huh?" I asked, not impressed at all. My eyes shot up when I heard a loud cracking sound, and I hurried towards the coffee counter when I saw what happened.

Poor Charlie was looking at me with horror in his eyes, his empty hands shaking. Hearing Victor's name was probably too much of a shock, and he dropped whatever he was holding out of the shock.

"Charlie," I said, trying to sound as apologetic as I could at the moment. He was not the only one shaken by the fact Victor was in the city, but he hasn't coped with the situation around him as well as I did, so he was still extremely uncomfortable with everything concerning him.

"If you need a few minutes to calm down, you can go to the kitchen and send Fin in here. I think he would appreciate some socializing." Smiling at him, I sat down on one of the bar stools, Nelson following me. Charlie looked like he was ready to bolt, but he shook his head and clenched his fists so hard his knuckles were white. I almost expected there to be some blood as he pressed his nails into his palms, but it wasn't that bad.

"Charlie? As in that Charlie? You mean the guy he cheated with? How the hell did you two get together like this?" Nelson's eyes were wide, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Nelson, you are being a dick. We were both victims, and even though I really couldn't stand being near him at the beginning, I got over it, and we became great friends. So shut up and deal with it. The only ones who have the right to be angry are me and Charlie, so don't you dare pull this face on me again. He used us like some dirty rags and thought he could get away with it. I know he is your best friend, but what he did was disgusting, and you should realize it before you do something similar." I know I was probably hyper-sensitive and over-the-top, but I really couldn't deal with people defending cheaters. They were all scum to me. If someone wanted to sleep with another person, they should first break up with their current lover. There was nothing hard to understand about this.

"Now, now, calm down, Ollie. I didn't mean it in a bad way. I was just surprised is all. It's good to see you got over something so bad. I'm not trying to excuse his actions. Trust me, I yelled at him enough to damage my vocal cords. You were the best thing that ever happened to him, and he gave it up just like that. I have no sympathy towards him, so don't be mad, okay?" he asked with a cheeky grin.

I sighed. He was always like this. Carefree and immature. He definitely shared those traits with his best friends.

"Whatever, let's not talk about it anymore. Charlie, if you are not going to go to the kitchen, wrap two pieces of today's specialty, prepare one Caramel secret to go, and whatever this child wants as well, please. I'm going to grab something for myself." I slipped behind the counter and carefully chose some sweets for our afternoon plans. Adding some more nutritious food, three simple ham-and-cheese sandwiches, and three with chicken. Both of those were Matt's favorites, and I and Josh liked them as well, so it was a win-win. Putting all of the food into a big brown paper bag, together with a freshly made orange juice, I took out my wallet and gave Charlie money.

"Keep the change, you need to treat yourself to something disgustingly sweet after this experience." I smiled, looked inside the kitchen to yell greetings at Fin, and left the employee area. Nelson was still sitting behind the counter, slowly sipping his coffee, the things for Victor placed in front of him. He looked at me with calculating eyes.

"That's one hella lot of food. Are you going somewhere?" he asked, never taking his eyes off of me.

"Yep, we are going on a family picnic, so I needed to get something to eat. We have an empty fridge." I knew it was extremely risky to talk about personal things around Nels, but if I didn't mention Matty, there shouldn't be any problem even if he told Victor everything.

"Family picnic? With whom?" he looked so serious all of a sudden I felt kind of uneasy. Nelson could act like a child and stupid hormonal teenager, but he was smart. I always hated that about him because thanks to his child-like nature, I always let my guard down around him.

"My boyfriend." I smiled at my thoughts about Josh. I couldn't wait to get home.

"Boyfriend, huh. Do you usually call two lovers a family? That's quite weird isn't it?" He was staring straight into my eyes, and I felt my body freeze. It didn't sound weird when I said it, but when he put it that way...damn him and his calculative brain.

I sighed. Whatever.

"Not really, we want to have a child soon, so there's nothing weird about it. Moreover, we've lived together for over two years and don't plan on parting. You should see our house, it's beautiful! I would take you there or send you a photo or something, but I don't really trust you to keep it to yourself, so I won't, sorry." Having Victor turn up on our doorstep wasn't an idea I wanted to turn into reality, so I had to make sure Nelson knew as little as possible.

"Child? Like adoption?" he asked, completely ignoring my talk about the house. I could understand his surprise and curiosity, and I cursed myself for it for a moment. It was broadly known that there were experiments in the field of male pregnancy, and a few of the experimented subjects ended up being successful and could get pregnant. If Nelson figured this out, then I was screwed.

"Yeah, something like that. But I don't really feel comfortable talking about it just yet. I don't want to jinx it. You know how the system works." I smiled again, but this time it was extremely forced, and he would have to be completely blind not to notice it. I shouldn't have started with this talk. Any other explanation for why I bought so much food would be less harmful than this. I was going to be in deep shit if he got suspicious of my evasive answers.

"Really? Well then, we should probably talk about something else. How about you tell me how exactly did you two end up becoming friends? I'm sure it's a great story!" He chuckled and sipped his coffee while looking at me and Charlie with his brown twinkling eyes. At that moment, he reminded me of Matt when he got excited over the smallest things. As I said, he was just like a child.

This talk was going to take me more than a few minutes. Taking out my mobile phone I messaged Josh.

>Going to take longer than I expected. Go buy the rest of the food with Matt alone, I'll meet you in the park at our place at 12. Love.<

He didn't take long to respond.

>Got it. Nothing unexpected with your crazy group. See you in two hours, baby. Love x2<

Smile formed on my lips as I put the phone back into my pocket. I couldn't wait.