Extra Sweet: A Gay Love Story (Elliot Extra, #2) / Elliot Extra (ePub)

It took Ben a while, but he is finally doing what he wants to do, far away from his controlling and disapproving mother. He's studying music, and working in a coffeeshop, as well as completely failing to ever get a second date. Not that he wants second dates: at least that's what he has been telling himself. His life is busy enough as it is, between his upcoming performance exam and his adversarial relationship with Tom, the coffeeshop's most annoying regular customer.

"Good morning" said Tom, sounding as cheerful as Ben had felt a few minutes earlier.
"Morning to you too. What'll it be?"
"Only a friendly conversation with my favourite barista, thanks", Tom smiled. It showed his teeth but didn't reach his eyes.
"No coffee?" asked Ben, "Not that there's a lot of coffee in your usual orders", he added, unable to resist the dig.
"No friendly conversation?" Tom, and to his credit, he made the disappointment sound genuine.
Ben was pretty sure the emotion coursing through his veins right now was hatred. "Off the menu today, I'm afraid. Someone forgot to put it on the last stock order and we're fresh out."
"That's a shame. A frappe then, half mocha, half chai, two pumps of vanilla, one of caramel, cream on top, chocolate and cinnamon dusting."
"In this weather?" Ben said, knowing already he was going to end up making an iced drink in freezing temperatures just to let Tom indulge his bizarre sweet tooth.
"The heart wants what it wants" said Tom, serenely.
"Five fifty" ground out Ben between his teeth, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the edge of the counter.

Ben's friend and co-worker Jodie is intent on matchmaking, but after a string of failed first dates he begs her to stop trying to set him up. He's avoiding his phone anyway, because his mother keeps ringing him: Ben's little brother has ideas about moving to Elliot and somehow this is all his fault. Luckily, music is the one thing which comes pretty naturally, and Ben has been invited to be in some kind of portfolio for the college. He's pretty sure Tom works for the music school, but it's a big place and surely they won't bump into each other, right? How bad can Ben's luck possibly be?

Extra Sweet is the second in the Elliot Extra series by Erin Bilton-Hayes. It can be read as a standalone novel, and shares some characters and a location which will be familiar from Extra Credit.