Cheating in Love [Completed]

Chapter 3

The cool of the coffee shop washed over him the second the door opened. He breathed in the dark smell of coffee and the quiet ambiance replaced the honking din of traffic outside. His eyes wandered the faces of the patrons, lingering briefly on the tall blond boy in the corner.

Beckett shouldered his laptop bag and scooted into a table in the corner. His brother plopped down across from him, slinging his backpack awkwardly into the wall before letting it fall to the floor.

"Go order something," Beckett dug around in his pocket. He shoved a handful of bills and coins into his brother's hand. The younger boy shot up and disappeared behind the counter.

In the opposite corner, the blond boy turned his head, revealing a long, pointed nose. Beckett felt a pang of disappointment: it wasn't Sawyer. He shook it away and pushed his laptop to a comfortable distance.

He stuffed headphones into his ears, ignoring the ding as the door opened. Beckett cranked up the volume and blocked out everything that wasn't his computer screen. He paused the video long enough to see his brother slip back into the chair across from him and push an iced coffee towards him.

It was watery and bitter. He made a face and took another sip while the audio droned on in the background about something that still didn't make sense.

He replayed the last few minutes of audio. Then replayed it again.

Frustrated, he put his head on the table, pushing his laptop away. The virtual lesson droned on to deaf ears.

He felt a tap on his shin and kicked back, hoping that 'leave me alone' was clear enough. There was a kick this time, hard enough that he looked up. He made a face at his brother, who jabbed his thumb at the table next to them.

Sitting there was a girl with her dark hair blonde at the tips and a sharp, freckled nose. She looked like she was trying to suppress a laugh as Beckett turned pink.

"Uh, hi," he said, his voice cracking. He tried to pull the headphones from his ears and accidentally flung one across the table. He swore again. "I didn't see you there."

"I could tell," she said with a small giggle. "Long time no see. Whatcha been up to?"

"Oh, uh, I've been going to school," he ran a hand through his hair. Across the table, his brother was staring at him. "In, uh, England. Cambridge."

"Oh really?" she said. "I didn't know you were interested in that. My boyfriend goes to Cambridge too. Do you think you know him?" He felt his heart skip a beat.

"Hi, I'm Milton by the way," his brother cut in, holding out a hand for a handshake.

"Brother?" she asked. Milton nodded. "Sophie, it's nice to meet you. I didn't know Beckett had a brother." She glanced at Beckett, her eyes light and joyous, her eyebrows plucked too thin. Beckett shrugged.

"I thought you'd left New York," Beckett said. He paused his video lecture and half-closed his laptop.

"I was going to, but I found a job and-" she squealed with delight as a hand passed her a coffee. "Here's my boyfriend now." Beckett tried not to look. He begged his eyes not to follow the hand to the arm, to the shoulder. "Sawyer, this is Beckett. He's a friend from high school." Sophie looked between the two as they reluctantly made eye contact. Beckett could feel his cheeks start to flush. Even in the dim coffee shop lighting, he was attractive.

"Did I miss something?" Sophie asked.

"No, no," Beckett stammered to explain. "It's just-"

"We met in the airport," Sawyer cut him off.

"Same flight, you know?" Beckett offered awkwardly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Milton push a piece of paper towards him. He glanced at it. Milton had scribbled the image of a winking face. Beckett shot him a glare.

Sophie and Sawyer were sitting down now, focused on talking to one another. Milton turned a page and began scribbling furiously in his sketchbook. Beckett let out a small breath and tried to go back to his lecture. He kept his focus on the screen as best he could. Any time his eyes wandered, they fell on the occupants of the table next to them.

Beckett shook his head. He started to wrap his headphones into a bundle.

"Hey, Milton are you ready to head out?" He asked. Milton was frowning with his tongue stuck out as he glared at the page in front of him. He had it tilted so Beckett couldn't see what he was working on, but when he lifted his hand, Beckett could see smears of graphite on his fingers.

"What are you working on?" Beckett asked. Milton didn't answer, squinting at the page and adding more lines. He frowned deeper and leaned back. Apparently satisfied, he pushed the sketchbook towards Beckett.

Beckett looked at it for a moment. He made a startled choking noise.

"You okay?" Sophie looked over.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he tried to hide his embarrassment with a sip of coffee. He made eye contact with Sawyer and erupted in a fit of coughing as the drink went down the wrong way.

Sawyer blinked at him, not seeming outwardly concerned. Sophie stood awkwardly, mumbling something about calling 911.

"What happened?" he heard Sophie ask in between choking coughs.

"I don't know," he heard Milton answer. "All I did was show him this." Beckett lunged for the sketchbook but Milton was faster.

The water in his eyes distorted Sophie's expression as Milton showed her the image. She did her best to choke down a laugh but quickly gave up. Her laugh was high pitched and annoying, just as he remembered it from high school. Sawyer leaned over to look at the picture.

"Is that... me?" he sounded confused more than anything.

"It's really good though," Sophie managed between laughs. Sawyer raised an eyebrow at Beckett.

"He does this sometimes," Beckett tried to come up with something. "I keep telling him not to draw random people and he does it anyway." Sawyer raised his eyebrow more.

The blond Brit pulled a chair next to Milton, "So it's good compositionally, but you should pay a little closer attention to where your lighting source is coming from. If you look right here, you have the shadows on this side but they should be over here." Beckett and Sophie exchanged a shrug as Milton began erasing and shading to fix the problems Sawyer was pointing out.

"I didn't know you studied art," Beckett said. Sawyer looked up and shrugged one shoulder.

"He studies art history," Sophie put in, "and they do a lot of formal analysis, or whatever the term is." Beckett nodded. He stared awkwardly at the picture, shooting quick glances to the unwitting model. Sawyer was careful to be gentle with his criticisms but Milton frowned deeper with each change he made to the picture.

"Here, this one's better," Milon flipped a couple of pages and passed the sketchbook to Sawyer. Sawyer held it up. He squinted slightly and his eyes met Beckett's. Beckett felt a jolt of horror run through him as Sawyer looked back and forth. Sawyer gave a small smile and turned the picture around.

Beckett's face turned red. He was looking at a picture of himself staring intently at a computer screen, his face contorted as though he was in pain.

"He looks very handsome," Sawyer's eyes glinted with mirth. He passed the book back to Milton, who winked at his brother as he stuffed it back in his bag.

Beckett ushered Milton out of the coffee shop, trying to tell him in a low voice how bad that had been. Milton shrugged with a nefarious grin. Out of the corner of his eye, Beckett saw Sawyer lean in for a kiss with Sophie. The door couldn't close behind him quickly enough.

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