Loving You (ManxMan)

Chapter Six

Alfie is so tired. His head is pressed against the window and he's tempted to break the window and make a jump for it. And this was minutes after he thought if he could hold his breath long enough he could turn to a cat and sleep the day away. He had read once on the internet that it works.

The Uber driver has been giving him weird looks ever since he had almost passed out for holding his breath for less than a few seconds.

"Do you need me to take you to a hospital rather than the venue you requested for?"

"No." Alfie says with a shake of the head. "I just haven't had my coffee yet."

"There's a really good coffee place around here. I can stop for a few minutes?"

Alfie perks up at that. He nods vigorously to the man who gives him a nod. He could already smell the coffee, could already taste it on his tongue. He sighs dramatically as he stares out the window, The 1975's Give Yourself a Try playing through the speaker. Once the car was parked into the driveway of the coffee shop, Alfie flies into the café without looking at the name. Thankfully, there was no queue.

He walked as fast as he could toward the till.

"Hi? How may I help you today?" The girl standing behind it asks. Her name tag read Sandra.

"Coffee to go, black, no milk, no sugar and just extra hot?"

"Would you like a small, medium or large size to go?"

While Sandra made his drink Alfie looked around. That's when he finally noticed it. This Café was a three storey building and was still packed full, there was glass everywhere so he could see up the stairs and at the other people drinking and eating their pastries.

"Can I get a large cookie too? And maybe a strawberry coated donut with sprinkles?" Alfie adds when he sees the pastries through the glass display cases. Sandra nods, as she placed his pastries in a paper bag, Alfie checks the time and just shrugged. He can be fashionably late. It's a thing.

"Here you go. That would be 5.99."

"Here." Alfie says as he pulls out a tenner. "Keep the change." He smiles at her as he grabs his large paper bag. Why did she give him a big one? He's about to leave when Sandra stops him. There's a light blush on her cheeks now and she's biting her bottom lip.

"Do you mind if I get a picture with you?" she asked. "I'm a big fan."

Alfie smiles at her and nods. She quickly walks around the till until she was standing close to him. She pulled off her apron and rests it on the table. Alfie takes her phone from her and huddled closer.

"Say sunshine."

The girl laughs but does as she is told. A few pictures later, Alfie walked out of the café and got back into his Uber. Thankfully only the girl recognized him as Curly from BlackBourne. Not many people know he was actually the one and half of them think he's actually a girl.

"I'm ready to go now."

The man nods again and within a few minutes they were back on the road. Since Sandra said she was a fan maybe she added more pastries to what he had already ordered and that's why the paper bag was huge and heavy. Oh how wrong he was. He pulls open the paper bag and his eyes widened, sitting in it was a to-go cup the size of his forearm. There's a silent what in the sweet name of J.K Rowling is going on here??? ringing in his mind.

"This is huge."

"You asked for the large?" The Uber driver asks and Alfie nods. He looked at the cup again and then takes a sip. Sandra had done as she was told. The bitter-sweet taste of coffee burning his tongue and slamming him awake. He takes another gulp and then looks at the logo on the coffee.

"Eight?"

"Yup! It's a very popular café with branches everywhere."

Alfie nods and takes another sip of his coffee. By the time he gets to the venue of the campaign shoot, Alfie was done with his ridiculously large coffee and pastries. He paid the driver and promised to give him a five star rating before walking into the venue. He's stopped at the door by the security.

"Name?"

"Alfie Allred from BlackBourne Circus." Alfie says. He pulls out his wallet and showed it to the security. They brought out a pen and clicked on it, red light brushing over his ID Card to check if it was fake.

"You may go in."

Immediately he walks in he's greeted by a friendly woman in a dark suit, she leads him further into the bungalow. The outside might not have looked like much but the inside was glorious. People were bustling about, pushing carts of clothes, cans of PepC and various other things that Alfie couldn't see from where he was standing.

"Lisa!" The woman beside him yelled, her voice so loud it left his ear ringing. Before he could complain through, another woman runs up to them and smiles. "Get Alfie ready for his shoot with Mendez in fifteen."

Alfie's eyes widened at that. There's no way she meant Crisanto right? There were many people with Mendez for last names, heck and some with Mendez for first names. So no, nope, nuh uh. It couldn't be Crisanto. He's lead into a dressing room by Lisa.

"Hi, I'm Lisa and I'm going to be taking care of your make up and costume during the campaign shoot."

"Hi, Lisa. I'm Alfie. Nice to meet you."

"Oh I know who you are! I love your shows! You all are so amazing, especially you with your hoops and silk scarves." Lisa says. Alfie takes a seat and stared at his reflection in the mirror. Lisa doesn't stop gushing about him and his troupe but stops mid-way to tell him Precious and Tutu were here and almost ready.

Alfie puts on the dark blue off shoulder midi dress and choker set. Lisa helps him slide on a pair of ballet flats and then starts on his face.

"Many people remember your signature mermaid blue hair that you wore in 2017 and that's what PepC wants for the ads. So I'm going to put it on, style the edges and weave a French braid to the side, so it falls unto your shoulder, down to your bust."

"Do you mind making it a little shorter? Not many people out there have long hair. Why not just make mine something a little relatable?"

Lisa smiles at him and nods. Before putting on the wig, she applies make up on his face. A little foundation, a little powder, eyeliner and a bright red lipstick. When she done, she helps him put on the wig and styled it to perfection before she says.

"Tada!"

Alfie could only stare at his reflection in the mirror. He looked beautiful. The make-up was light, just like the ones he got at the Circus before a show and he knew Andrew must have said something and he's eternally grateful. He gets up from his seat and smiles at Lisa.

"I look beautiful."

Lisa grinned at the compliment. She led him out of the dressing room a few seconds later. Once he spots Precious and Tutu, he makes a beeline to them. They both cheered and hugged him when they saw him.

"Boo, you look amazing!"

"Like more than usual." Tutu adds.

Alfie blushed and thanked them. Alfie takes a seat on one of the wooden chairs beside his friends. Since Alfie wasn't a big fan of sports, he didn't know majority about teams and their captains, not to talk of what they looked like and how many medals they had won.

"Mendez is done with his make up." Alfie hears someone say behind him and he goes still again. He shakes his head as he tries to push the thought of Crisanto actually being here out of his mind. He's called up a few minutes later. It's a separate room, lit up by bright standing lights. There was a green screen in the background with a thin grey X marked on the floor beside it.

"I'm going to need you to stand on the X." the photographer says to him before turning back to yell. SOMEONE GET THIS MAN A CAN OF PEPC SO I CAN START MY WORK! Within a few seconds a can was handed to Alfie by who he thinks is still an intern, judging by the way the boy was jittery and running helter skelter.

The photographer directs him on what pose he wants to see and his posture. Yes, yes, hold the can out like that. Brilliant! Okay, this time, place a hand on your hips -yes! Now look at me like I'm the one celebrity you want to me. That's it! gorgeous!

"Okay, bring him in!" the photographer yells.

Alfie uses the opportunity to relax his pose. He's half tempted to drink the cola drink in his hand. He's tempted to scratch his eyebrow but he's partially scared that he would ruin Lisa' hard work. He's still looking at his can of cola when he walks in.

"My, oh, my. You two would look gorgeous next to each other." The photographer gushed and Alfie looks up to see who the man was talking to.

His breath hitched in his throat and his eyes widened when he sees him. Dressed in his blue and red jersey, with his hair styled in what looked like the sexier version of the I just rolled out of bed look and a football tucked between his forearm and waist was none other than Crisanto Mendez.