The Alpha's Pretend-Boyfriend

The New Kid

Day one.

Much to Louie’s surprise, no customers came in that day. As it turned out, Mondays were usually for general cleaning and meetings for the week. “You came at the right time,” Dane had said with a smile as he continued to orient Louie with how things worked, what his benefits would be, and how his schedule would look like. Dane had taken him around to “experience Hestia's” as if he were a customer. That meant Fig had to set a table for him and Gadreel and Germain had to cook for him—something that Gadreel obviously did not appreciate.

Throughout the orientation, and even while Louie was being made to try a bit of everything from the menu, he could still feel everyone's eyes on him. Louie couldn’t blame them; he was the newcomer after all, and not to mention, a human that’s rarely found in the city. Louie had gotten quite used to it and learnt to keep his head down amongst the staff on his first day, but what was most unsettling was his new boss—Dane, who was sitting across from him, watching him closely as he took every bite, and asking him if everything was alright every few seconds.

“How's the food?” Dane asked him for what seemed like the fifth time in a span of three minutes. “Do you need anything else? Water, maybe? Humans like water too, don’t they?”

Mental note #1: Dane is very friendly.

Louie coughed a little as the food went down the wrong pipe, and Dane was quick to sit on the chair beside him and start tapping at his back. “Louie! Are you alright? Do you need a doctor?” he asked with such genuine concern.

Louie quickly grabbed a glass of water and drank, which immediately made him feel better. “I’m alright, I’m alright,” he assured him.

“Phew,” Dane sighed in relief, ruffling Louie's hair. “Be more careful, buddy. Oh, you have something on your…” without warning, he wiped the sauce off Louie’s chin, much to his surprise.

Mental note #1: Dane is TOO friendly.

“Ah, I-I can…” Louie grabbed a napkin and wiped at his mouth, his cheeks reddening. He wasn’t too used to physical affection—especially if it came from a tall fine-looking werewolf his age.

“Oh, by the way, since I have you here alone,” Dane leaned in closer to whisper. “I’d like to thank you for what you did for me last night. I’m not usually like that, you know? I typically have a suppressant with me for cases like this, but I happened to lend it for an emergency and accidentally forgot to refill my stock. I’m so sorry for what happened, and also so thankful that you helped me out.”

“I-it's fine, really,” Louie nervously chuckled, trying not to think about how close the other man was. “It was no trouble at all. Besides, I should be the one thanking you for letting me work here. It’s not easy for a human to find a decent job in the city.”

Dane smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. “We're all very happy to have you here. In fact, I—”

“Dane,” Gadreel suddenly appeared in front of them, making Louie jump a little in his seat. Dane sat up straight and smiled up at the angel.

“Hey, Gadreel. Nice work with the food as usual. Louie says he likes everything.”

“Hmm,” Gadreel hummed as he glanced at Louie and the half-eaten plate before him. “You have a phone call. Your office.”

“Excuse me for a second,” Dane kindly said to Louie. He stood up and placed an arm around Gadreel's shoulders to steer him away, even though the man was a few inches taller than him. Dane really was too innocently friendly with everyone. “Who is it?” he asked.

“Your father,” Louie overheard Gadreel answer as they disappeared into the staff room.

Left alone, Louie decided to finish the meal before him when someone suddenly took a seat beside him. It was the vampire who seemed to have some beef with Gadreel. Germain, Louie remembered his name was, turned to face Louie with his elbow on the table and the side of his head on his hand.

‘You’re dying to know, right?” Germain asked, even though Louie hadn’t said a word. “Dane is scared of his father. I’ve met the man a few times, and he is just so old-fashioned.”

“Is he?” Louie asked out of politeness.

“You know, he's forcing Dane to get a partner? Just because he wants to secure the family business,” Germain continued. “You see, the Bennett’s own a crap ton of fancy restaurants, and this is just one of them, so he wants to protect their assets by keeping everything in the family. Dane's older sister, Sheila—she's a Beta and she's so amazing with all this business stuff—her marriage was arranged by their parents. Thankfully, they eventually fell in love, but still, can you imagine being arranged? I can’t. That’s why I left my family in the first place—but anyway, enough about me. Where was I?”

Louie blinked at him, still trying to absorb all of the unwanted information he just received. “Uh, Dane's sister.”

“Right,” Germain smiled, looking pleased at how Louie was attentively listening. “So as I was saying, his sister is great with handling most of the family business, but his father…”

Mental note #2: Germain loves to gossip.

Amidst the vampire’s long monologue, Louie felt a chill run down his spine. He looked around and saw Gadreel standing by the entrance to the kitchen, glaring at them. Germain, noticing his sudden lack of eye contact, followed where his looking and suddenly stopped midsentence. He sat up and raised an eyebrow in a hostile manner towards the angel.

“What?” he asked, sounding pissed off.

Gadreel narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “Don’t you have work to do? Stop gossiping.”

Germain rolled his eyes; an action that didn’t suit his gentle—and what Louie would describe as beautiful—features. If Louie only saw a picture of Germain and hadn’t heard him talk or seen him move, he would have thought that he was a rich sophisticated vampire coming from an old noble family.

“That stupid, bossy angel,” Germain grumbled under his breath, shattering the image of his that Louie had in mind.

“I heard that!” Gadreel exclaimed, gesturing for him to hurry up.

With a groan, Germain stood up. “Talk to you next time, Louie. Welcome to the family,” he said with a smile before stomping away and following Gadreel into the kitchen.

It hadn’t even been five seconds after Louie was left alone, when someone suddenly occupied the seat next to him once again. This time, it was the demon with red eyes and perfectly-styled hair, overflowing with confidence that he seemed to be shining brightly next to Louie.

“Okay, time for our one-on-one!” Fig excitedly said, pushing the plates away even when Louie wasn’t finished with them. “So today you’re going to learn how to fix tables, where to put things, and what to do when someone comes in without a schedule. You with me, newbie?”

Louie attentively nodded. Fig smiled at him and stood up, then gestured for Louie to follow him to the laptop at the reception area. “So, Dane does the register, arranges the reservations and greets people. If he's not here, whoever is free between you and I should do it. Here's how the system works.”

Fig continued to show him how to operate the laptop and their website. Thankfully, Louie was able to understand all of it even though he wasn’t too attuned to modern technology. The demon was clearly bored with all of the tech-talk he was spouting, and once he was done, he stretched his arms and yawned.

“Mentoring isn’t my strong suit,” he sighed. “I really do all the work around here.”

“It’s because you made our last employee quit,” Dane interrupted as he joined the two, “that’s why you have extra work now.”

“He did?” Louie asked in shock before he could stop himself. He was about to retract his question and apologize for overstepping his boundaries when Dane disapprovingly shook his head at Fig and said, “He broke his heart.”

“Hey!” Fig defensively exclaimed. “Louie, don’t believe this guy. I did not break his heart!” He glared at Dane.

“Tell Louie what you did, then,” Dane challenged him.

“I… I slept with him then turned him down when he asked me out the next day,” Fig said. “But in my defense, I turned him down because that girl Denise asked me out, and I didn’t want to get his hopes up. I was upfront with him and told him I didn’t like him romantically.”

“Just sexually?” Dane snickered.

“Yes,” Fig answered, sounding indignant. “I know you think s****l and romantic attraction are the same, but they’re not, Dane.”

“Agree to disagree,” Dane offered his hand, which Fig shook before turning towards Louie and mouthing, “They’re the same.”

Dane, seeing that, jokingly rolled his eyes. “Anyway,” he told Louie, “I found the extra uniforms, so let’s see if you fit in them. You two, come on.”

They went to the staff room, which had an entrance adjacent to that of the kitchen's, where Dane handed Louie a bunch of clothes and a key.

“Try on the different sizes and let me know which one fits you best,” Dane said. “The key is for this,” he knocked at the locker beside him.

“I have my own locker?” Louie smiled and asked with such amazement in his widened eyes that it caught Dane off-guard.

“Uh, yeah, of course,” Dane nodded, finding the human’s smile to be infectious. “Now, go try on the clothes.”

Louie excitedly nodded and walked in front of the full-length mirror.

“He's kind of simple, isn’t he?” Fig whispered with an amused look on his face, making Dane chuckle and nod in agreement. “Also kind of cute, don’t you think?” Fig continued.

Dane watched as he put on the vest and tie with a huge smile, like he was a kid who had just been given a Christmas present. “Yeah, he’s got a nice smile,” he found himself saying without thinking. When he turned to Fig, he saw a mischievous look creep up on the demon’s face.

“Fig,” Dane sternly called. “What in hell’s name are you up to? I know that look.”

“Nothing!” Fig defensively raised his hands up, but the look in his eyes remained the same.

“I don’t want to hire another person again just because you couldn’t keep it in your pants, you hear me?” Dane warned.

“I know, I know,” Fig said with a smile that Dane still deemed untrustworthy.

“Don’t you dare try anything with the new kid, okay?”

Fig placed a hand on Dane’s shoulder and winked. “Trust a demon, won’t you? I promise I won’t try anything with the new kid.”