Chapter 17

Flirting?

They joined his second in command, who sat at their usual table next to the lift, Luke asked, “How was your first day in the enemies territory? Your back, so that’s an excellent start.”

Mathew smiled and said, “It was oddly like normal.”

William’s brows furrowed, “they have been bullying him. But you will be happy to know I only scared the shit out of a couple of them.”

Mathew laughed lightly, “William got them to frisk me normally, it was awesome.”

His frown matching William’s, Luke asked, “frisk you normally? How the hell were they frisking you before?”

His voice icy, William replied, “Like they were trying to tenderise a piece of meat! And don’t even get me started with what they did to his office and his mug.”

Luke’s voice got low making Mathew’s skin crawled, “what did they do to his mug?”

Trying to laugh it off, Mathew interrupted the pairs angry conversation, “it’s nothing, they just messed around. It was probably just some toilet water or something like that, nothing a bit of anti bac spray and a good scrub can’t sort out.”

“A bit of what!” yelled Luke revolted, making most of the room turn and stare at them, “tell me where they live! I can do one last job.”

Panicked Mathew said hastily, “no honestly it’s fine, I’m fine, I only have to deal with them for two more months. Please they aren’t worth your goodness.”

The fight instantly drained out of Luke and he looked at the smaller man with wide shining eyes, “you want to preserve my goodness?”

Blinking at the quick change, Mathew said, “yes, I really appreciate everything you have done for me. Plus the struggle all of you must have made to get this far, leaving the life must have been incredibly difficult.”

William’s heart melted, then got shot through when Luke lunged forwards and hugged Mathew tight, saying over his shoulder, “thank you that is wonderful to hear. I’m so glad you are staying with us.”

Trying to restrain his urge to roughly pull Luke away, William watched with a sinking heart, as Mathew hugged Luke and patted him on the back.

Looking up Mathew locked eyes with William for a moment, while he said, “I’m glad I’m staying too.” Then he turned away with a soft smile on his lips.

Shock took William’s voice, and his mind was at war. One side was excitedly yelling, ‘he wants to stay with me!’ And was having a loud party. While the other side was telling him, ‘keep the noise down, he just wants to be safe and I’m his only option.’

“Do you want a pint? Earth to William? Do you want a pint?... Pint?”

His eyes refocusing William heard on Luke’s third try, “ah yes, Guinness would be great.”

As Luke walked off to the bar, William saw Mathew glancing at him.

Thinking now was his chance, he tried to make conversation, like Mathew had told him he should if he wanted to flirt, William said the first thing that came into his head, “you like football?”

With a mass of bravado Mathew smiled, “what red blooded English man doesn’t like football?”

Slightly shyly William said, “I’m not sure I get it.” Worried he had said the wrong thing he hurriedly added, “I get the skill and the excitement of the game, but why does everyone lose their minds about it?”

Letting out a huge sigh Mathew said, “oh thank God for that, I don’t get that either, OK you like your team, great, but why does that result in you trashing the pub and streets outside?”

William smiled to find they have more in common, “fans seem to be either thugs or statisticians! It’s bonkers.”

“That’s because all the normal fans like us get drowned out by the bonkers ones. I mean I’ll happily watch a game, but do I have to know every score of every club in the country? I’m an accountant I do numbers all day, I don’t want to do numbers in my leisure time too, and I definitely don’t feel the need to hit someone because their team did better than mine!”

Laughing happily William said slightly teasingly, “Do you support anyone?”

Mathew looked round in a conspiratorial way, then leaned in and beckoned William to do the same, with their heads now together, Matthew said in a low whisper, “I have a habit of supporting Bournemouth FC. It was great till a couple of years ago. No one knew who they are, they would just say, “oh I used to go there for my holidays.” Now though the bastards are doing well and everyone is a bloody expert except me.”

William laughed at Mathew’s exasperation, “I know what you mean, I got caught by my friends pretending to support two teams. Now I just say I support Benfica FC.” To Mathew’s blank stare William said, “Portuguese football team.”

Slapping the table with laughter Mathew replied, “That is genius, I love that idea, maybe I should join you and ‘support’ them too.”

Seeing Mathew laugh made William’s heart race, he thought, ‘I would be happy if I could just see this every day.’

When Luke returned with the pints, he gave William a questioning look for a moment, then shaking his head with a smile, passed him a drink.