A Slice of Life

Personal pizza delivery guy

When people ordered food, they'd usually get a different delivery guy each time. Having the same guy twice in a row was already exceptional. But having the same guy three times? That was the moment people could be starting to ask questions. Like: is the pizza boy secretly gay and crushing on me?

Okay, that question was too oddly specific, but still.

On his way to Sam's house with a batch of pizzas, Aleksei came up with a perfectly reasonable explanation: I happen to live nearby this pizzeria you always order from so it's easy money for me.

It wasn't a total lie, but a ten minute bike ride wasn't necessarily as close as the explanation made it sound. Sam didn't need to know that, however. If the guy knew how obsessed Aleksei was with making sure he'd get the order to his house, it'd probably freak him out.

Almost as badly as Aleksei made himself freak out, walking up to Sam's doorstep with the pizzas and dreading an accusative 'you again?' question. Aleksei breathed in deeply and pressed the doorbell.

It made no sense at all for Sam to order a pizza, and then opening the door in his working outfit; while he worked in a restaurant that offered one of the finest selections in pizza in town. If they'd do deliveries, he'd definitely order there.

Still, it made no sense. And Sam was pretty sure Aleksei was going to notice. And then he would probably wonder why Sam ordered in pizza right before work. What if Aleksei was smart enough to figure out that he only ordered pizzas because he wanted to see Aleksei again? What if it would freak Aleksei out? Was Sam being a creeper? Was it going to be too obvious to Aleksei that he was gay, and crushing on him hard?

Then again, how big were the odds that Aleksei was delivering his pizza for the third time in a row? Not to mention the fact Aleksei had delivered the sushi too. It was probably easily explained in some way, but Sam couldn't stop himself from wondering anyway.

Sam jumped at the sound of the doorbell, and scrambled up from the couch to open the door with a bit of a dry throat. He was way too nervous about all of this. He couldn't fight a smile though, as soon as he saw Aleksei holding his pizzas.

"Hey," he greeted Aleksei.

"Hi," Aleksei replied with his heart in his throat. "I've got your regular. It's like a tradition now, the third delivery."

Aleksei immediately wanted to smack himself. What the hell was he doing? Sam didn't ask any questions and now he was stupidly focusing attention on things himself. Idiot.

Sam awkwardly bit his lip. See? Aleksei noticed he was ordering in way too many times. "Yeah, eh," Sam racked his brain for a logical answer. But all he could come up with was: "Third time's the charm, huh?"

"Yup," Aleksei said, the corners of his lips curling up at Sam's joke. Damage control. He needed damage control. "You'll often see me if you order from that pizzeria. I live close to it."

Sam shifted his weight onto his other foot, thinking if Aleksei lived close to that pizza place, he lived close to him too. Maybe he should go outside more often, in the hopes of walking into Aleksei whenever he played Pokemon Go. Rex wouldn't mind extra walks, and Sam didn't either if it meant more meetings with Aleksei. But he needed to answer without coming across as a stalker. "Well then, maybe you can be my personal pizza delivery guy from now on." He joked, forcing out a chuckle.

Yeah, like that didn't sound stalkerish at all, Sam.

Aleksei didn't know how to respond. He didn't know how to keep his cheeks from flushing beet-red, and he certainly didn't know how to keep eye contact. His eyes darted down from Sam's face to his shirt.

"Yeah, definitely," he murmured awkwardly. Great, go make it weird Aleksei, he was obviously just kidding.

With his gaze still trained on Sam's shirt, Aleksei suddenly realised he recognised the logo on it. Time for a swift topic switch, before he'd make matters even worse. "Hey, you work at Pizza Palace"' he asked. "Cool. I heard it gets good ratings."

Sam quickly looked down to his own shirt, before he shrugged and smiled. "Yeah, eh, I'm a waiter there."

He might look cool on the outside, but internally Sam was screaming. He knew this had been too obvious. He should've waited to get dressed for work after this. "I need to work soon and I'm in a bit of a hurry. Most of the pizza will probably go to Rex." He quickly added to keep the conversation going.

Aleksei hadn't passed Sam the pizzas yet. He was in a hurry and Aleksei was standing there like a dumb potato and not handing him his food. "Oh, sorry, I'm holding you up," he quickly apologised. "Here you go. That'll be twelve dollars please."

No, no, no. Sam screamed internally. You scared him away by saying you're in a hurry, idiot. "Oh, eh, not that much of a hurry." Sam replied sheepishly. "You should check Pizza Palace out sometime though. They have the best pizza in town."

"The best pizza, huh? That sounds great," Aleksei replied. Actually, he didn't like pizza that much. The waiter, on the other hand, was much more to his liking. And Sam had invited him now. It would be okay if he showed up, right? Maybe even tonight, since he knew Sam would be working.

...Wait a second. If he worked at this amazing pizza place, why was he ordering takeout?

"You're ordering pizza right before going to work at a pizzeria?" Aleksei's eyebrows raised. "I mean, not that that's not fine."

Sam internally slapped himself in the face. Idiot. It really was too obvious to Aleksei. "Carajo." Sam cursed under his breath. "Oh eh, right. I eh—my dad is dropping me off but then I'm not in time to eat anything before work starts." He quickly lied. Pfft, as if his dad would ever drive him to his work.

"Oh, I see." Aleksei nodded, not catching what Sam was muttering but deciding not to ask. Last time he had the feeling Sam and his dad didn't get along that well, but maybe he was wrong. He hoped he was wrong. Perhaps the man was simply strict on Sam.

"Then I'm looking forward to testing which pizzeria is better."

Sam sighed in relief over the fact that Aleksei bought his lie. Thank God he managed to come up with a lie right on the spot. He smiled at Aleksei, hoping he'd really stop by his work. "Great, I'm looking forward to delivering you a pizza for once."

"Great," Aleksei echoed. His cheeks grew hot again as Sam smiled at him. Damn, Sam had no idea what he was doing to him when he smiled like that, did he?

What should he say next? Looking forward to it? No, he'd already covered that. He'd really come across as slow if he endlessly looped the same words.

Slowly, the seconds ticked by and the silence was growing more and more awkward. Aleksei scratched his elbow. "Well..."

Sam felt awkward now that Aleksei didn't really reply. Was he really looking forward to eat at Pizza Palace? Or was he just saying things to be nice? Sam had no time to keep wondering, since he was running late for work. "I eh, I should eat... You know... since I have to get to work." Sam drawled awkwardly, rather staying in this moment for the rest of the night.

Aleksei blinked. "Right. Right. Same here." He glanced at his watch. "I should actually get moving. Enjoy your pizza."

"Thanks, I'm sure I will. And I'll be waiting for you to come and eat pizza." Sam replied with a bit of a cheeky smile. Then, he went all out, winked at Aleksei and closed the door before he could act even more gay.

Did Sam just wink at him? Aleksei's jaw had literally dropped as he tried to process what just happened. He stared at the door long after Sam had already closed it with wide eyes.

Sam was a much more outgoing guy. He likely winked at people all the time and it didn't mean anything. But... they always talked. Way more and way longer than Aleksei talked to any of the other customers. That wasn't possible if Sam wasn't somehow stretching the conversation, too.

But again, that could just mean he was outgoing. Or he was flirting. No, he shouldn't make up stuff that isn't there. Or was he?

With a groan, Aleksei buried his hands in his hair. If things went on like this, Sam was going to drive him crazy.