Gus whistled. “Nice. All right, let’s drop Gina’s order off, and then take me to the man.”
Jacob insisted on Rasul taking a twenty-minute break to eat, which caused a minor ruckus, but he whisked Rasul and Gus up the stairs to his apartment before anyone could complain too loudly.
“I’m August Taylor, nice to meet you,” Gus said to Rasul as they went up the stairs. “You can call me Gus. I own Café Sól up the street.”
“Oh yeah, I saw that shop on my way by yesterday. Looks like a nice place.”
“Thank you. Feel free to stop in anytime.”
They sat at the kitchen table, which had three chairs because a lot of the Mini Main Street Meetings were held here. For now it was Gus, Rasul, and Jacob, and Gus and Rasul immediately bonded when Rasul fell in love with his food and exclaimed loudly over the coffee.
“My God, this magical brew….” He took another sip and rolled his eyes back in his head. “Are you kidding? Is this vacuum coffee?”
Gus beamed, chin in hand. “It is. I’m impressed you can tell by the taste.”
“A friend took me into a shop in San Francisco that made it, and I wanted to live there.” He shook his head. “First a great bookstore, then culinary-level coffee. This town is full of surprises.”
Gus and Rasul chatted amicably all through the break, further bonding over coffee brewing techniques and international travel, since both of them had been a few places in their time. Jacob mostly listened, using the time to craft an exit strategy for Rasul and plotting what he wanted to say to Matt and Gus alone later. Thankfully Rasul gave Jacob the space he needed, and once they returned to the main floor, he went along with Jacob’s announcement that the impromptu signing would be over at three.
“I assure you, we’ll have Mr. Youssef back here again,” he told the disappointed hangers-on.
“And I intend to be here a lot, so feel free to say hello if we bump into one another,” Rasul added. This went over very well with the crowd.
Jacob arranged for Gina to give Rasul a ride back to his apartment so he wasn’t mobbed, since she got off at the same time, but he did speak to his fake boyfriend alone in the office briefly before he departed. “We can talk on the phone later to strategize some public dates.”
Rasul nodded. “I’ll leave you alone through the rest of the weekend. I should go get settled in my campus office anyway.” He ran a hand nervously through his hair. “I would love it, though, if I could try to work in your apartment during the day sometimes. I promise not to get in your way.”
“That’s fine. I assume you have a laptop? I can get you the Wi-Fi password, but I warn you, my connection isn’t the fastest.”
“Not an issue. I’ll work better if social media doesn’t load very well. Mostly I need to be able to look up research things on the fly.”
Jacob couldn’t hide an amused smile. “You do understand you could walk out of the apartment and into more research notes than you could possibly need? The library is also across the street.”
Rasul grinned back. “I did think of that, yes. I can order books through you too. Who needs Amazon Prime?”
Jacob sobered completely. “While we’re fake dating, I forbid you to utilize that site unless absolutely necessary, for anything.”
He held up his hands. “Understood.”
It was wonderful to watch the shop empty after Rasul left with Gina, though Jacob didn’t mind the influx of cash at all. He often operated at a razor’s edge, buoyed by the money his parents left him and some shrewd investments, and days like this translated into much-needed breathing room. He spent the remainder of the store’s open hours straightening the first-floor shelves and making notes on what needed reordering. Once he closed shop at five, he did the same thing to the upstairs. He had a shower and a change of clothes, then a cup of tea as he indexed his online newspapers again once that was finished.
At a quarter to seven, he stuck a bit of cash in his wallet and started up the street to Café Sól.
Several people waved hello to him on his short journey, perhaps a few more than usual and with a bit more interest, but that was it. Inside the coffee shop itself, the patrons were a mix of students and local residents, and all of them tracked his progress through the main area to the small door that read STAFF ONLY beside the order pickup area.
The barista waved him through, used to seeing him there. Mini Main Street met a lot.
Gus and Matt were already established in the small staff room adjacent to Gus’s office at the back of the shop, cups of coffee and a pizza between them. Gus rose and waved at Jacob as he entered. “Excellent. I’ll go ask Lisa to start your order.”
Jacob acknowledged this with a nod and murmur of thanks, then sank into his usual chair.
Threading his fingers together and resting his elbows on the table, Matt leaned forward. “I don’t want to get ahead of things before Gus comes back, but holy cow, Jake.”
Matt and Gus were absolutely the only people allowed to refer to Jacob as Jake, and only in private. He slumped forward, then gave up and all but collapsed onto the table, his hand brushing the edge of the pizza box. “I feel like I’ve been run over by a fleet of tanks but had to pretend nothing was happening.”
Gus was already back and waving his hand impatiently. “How dare you start without me. Rewind and do it all again.”
“He’s exhausted,” Matt said to Gus, pulling out his chair for him without getting up. “Let the poor boy be.”
Gus wasn’t much for empathy, though. “Is it true? Are you actually dating the guy you’ve been fantasizing about for ten years?”
Jacob rolled his body to the side on the table and poked at the cardboard box. It was takeout from the Italian restaurant, not the chain store out in the strip mall. Mini Main Street had a code. “I’m not dating him, but you two are the only ones who get to know that. If anyone else asks, the answer is yes.”
“You’re fake dating?” Gus pursed his lips before sipping his double espresso. “I don’t like this.”
“You mean he’s just using you?” Matt looked displeased. “I don’t like it either.”
Jacob held up a hand. “No, this was my idea. He wanted to actually date, but I can’t handle that.”
Gus settled into his chair and propped his feet on one across the table from him. “So he legitimately asked you out, and you said no?”
“Well… it’s a little more complicated than that.” Jacob told them the story of the gala and the horde on his doorstep the next morning, plus Rasul’s confession of his lie to his agent.
Matt shook his head. “I don’t like this. It sounds like a bad deal for you.”
“He did sell a lot of books today,” Gus pointed out.
“It’s not a bad deal for me. A little dangerous, maybe, but not awful. And I’m not doing it to sell books.”
Gus waved this away. “Obviously not, but perks is perks.”
“Clark is going to have a fit,” Matt pointed out. “He’s already going to be upset about the article in the paper.”
Yes, Jacob was sure he would be. “Do you think I shouldn’t have agreed to the fake dating because it’ll upset our plans for getting on the leadership of the chamber?”