3-3
406 Words
IT TURNS OUT THAT CARLY and Liam are not the worst roommates in the world because they sound like a herd of elephants when they come home at some ungodly hour. Rather, they are the worst roommates in the world because they didn’t come home alone.
Alex isn’t pissed, exactly. But he is not prepared to see the bartender from the other night emerging from Carly and Liam’s room while he’s standing in his kitchen making coffee before he has to go to set.
“Oh my god, Bjarki,” Alex says, way too loudly for the hour. There is no way he can reasonably be expected to process any of this.
“Hey, Alex.”
Liam comes out after Bjarki, shirtless though, thank god, wearing pajama bottoms. Before Alex can even grouse at Liam about the mess he could have made in light of the fact Bjarki works at the only bar in town, Paul comes stumbling out of his and Alex’s room, rubbing a hand over his eyes. He’s at least thrown on a pair of boxers and a t-shirt, although the latter is inside out.
“Are you okay?” he asks Alex, a worried, sleepy frown on his face.
“Yeah, I’m fine, why?”
“You said there was a Bja — oh.” Paul stops in the doorway, taking in the situation.
Apparently whatever Paul thought a Bjarki was, he did not think it was a person. Especially not a person who is now standing in their kitchen, wearing whatever he’d had on last night, having presumably just had s*x with Liam and Carly.
“Paul, meet Bjarki. Bjarki, Paul.” Alex’s life is surreal.
Paul looks like he’s struggling to take any of this in, so Alex hisses bartender at him in hopes of providing sufficient clarity in limited words. That at least seems to make it click, though Paul clearly still doesn’t know what to do about it.
They’re saved only by Liam, whose fault this all remains in the first place. Somehow, thanks to his preternatural ability to be charming in any and all circumstances, the whole thing turns into reasonably cheerful and unawkward small talk.
“It’s going to be weird every time I go to your bar now,” Alex complains to Bjarki while Liam makes orange juice for them all.
“It’ll be fine,” Bjarki says easily. “You think this is the weirdest thing that’s happened here?”
Alex wonders what other strange stories he has about tourists and film crews who have come through the town, and decides he doesn’t want to know.
“I can only hope,” he says. Then he points at Liam. “By the way, I don’t even know how to make pancakes.”
Liam’s eyes go huge.
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- Writer
