-Avery-

I stood in front of the mirror and studied my clothes. I was wearing the dark tan pants that Devin and I both liked, and I had paired them with a light blue button down. We were going to leave for the office soon, and I was a bundle of nerves.

Devin seemed to sense this. He appeared behind me, wrapping his arms around me and smiling. "You look amazing. That shirt makes your eyes even bluer."

"As long as I'm dressed right. I don't want to look out of place."

"Sorry to say, but you're going to look out of place no matter what you wear. No one else is as hot as you," he said, moving his hands down to the front of my pants.

I turned, forcing his hands to my hips instead. "We don't have time for that. I can't be late on my first day."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. But when we get home, you're mine."

The ride to the office was a blur. We drove one of the company SUVs that Devin's dad had let me borrow while I was still wrapping up at the camp. I told him I'd return it once I got my own car.

I was grateful to have Devin with me. Already knowing someone on my first day helped a lot, and that someone being the owner's son was probably the best situation I could be in. But even though I'd gotten the job because of Devin, that didn't mean I should take it for granted. I needed to work hard and prove myself.

We took the elevator from the parking garage, and I stared as the doors opened. The office was beautiful. It was all glass and dark wood. Huge windows allowed me to see the surrounding buildings and the mountains in the distance.

People waved and said hello to Devin as we walked through the building, and I began to notice something as I looked at the employees. I didn't consider myself an expert in guessing someone's sexuality, but a few of the men were obviously gay and a couple of the women gave me the vibe they were lesbians.

"Devin," I began. "I don't really know how to ask this, but it seems like quite a few people here are gay?"

He snorted. "Yeah, Avery, good observation." Then his smirk faded a little. "Ever since I came out, my dad has tried to be supportive however he can. He's made it a personal mission to hire LGBTQ+ employees whenever possible. I think he went to an LGBTQ+ student association meeting at the university a couple years ago and advertised that we had job openings at the firm. Obviously anyone who works here still has to be qualified and do a good job, so it's not like he's just handing out jobs to anyone who's gay, but it's nice that he's gone out of his way to be inclusive."

"That's really sweet," I said, blinking back a few unexpected tears. "He obviously loves you a lot and cares about the community."

We reached Logan's office and Devin barged right in without knocking. When Logan saw who it was, I could tell he was exasperated, but he smiled when he saw me. "Avery! Welcome to the firm." He got up and came around his desk, offering his hand to me. "I'm glad you're here. We'd like to get the first culvert installed next week, so there will be plenty to do before then. I'll take you to meet Mike, who -"

"Dad, chill. It's his first day. Give him a minute to get settled in before you dump a ton of work on him," Devin said, rolling his eyes.

"It's okay," I said. "I'd rather get started right away. The sooner we can get this done, the better off the salmon will be."

As Logan walked me over to my desk, we talked, Devin trailing behind us. We stopped in front of a small office.

"This is you," Logan said.

I glanced around. Most employees were in cubicles.

"Why does he get an office?" Devin asked, a confrontational tone to his voice. "I've been working here for four years and I'm still in a cube."

"Avery gets an office because he's managing the culvert replacement project. When you become a project manager, you'll get an office. You've had four years to show me you're responsible enough to manage a project, and you haven't done that yet."

I could tell Devin was not happy, and it had nothing to do with me. I could only imagine the longstanding issues he and Logan had.

"Sir," I began, turning to Logan.

He held up a hand. "Call me Logan, remember?"

I nodded. "Logan, I'm grateful that you've given me an office to work in, and I mean this with respect, but I think it'd be better for morale if I sat in a cube. I'm brand new here and even though I'm a project manager, I'm still young. I don't want to cause any resentment, and I'd rather sit with my team so we can collaborate easily. I'd rather be in the thick of things than off by myself. Is everyone I'll be working with in this area?"

Logan was quiet for a few seconds, and then he smiled. "Yes, mostly everyone on the project is sitting in this section. If you'd prefer a cube, there is an empty one." He turned to Devin. "This is exactly why I offered Avery an office and why you don't have one. Avery understands workplace dynamics and thinks about what's best for his team. He's humble enough to give up an office rather than demanding one when he hasn't earned it."

I could see the muscle in Devin's jaw flexing, and his eyes were full of rage. I felt bad for him. Logan was rather harsh with him, even though I'm sure Devin's past actions warranted it. I shouldn't have been surprised by the audacity of Devin's next words.

"But if Avery doesn't want the office, can I have it? I'm going to be working on this project too, and I don't sit over here."

Logan sighed. "No, Devin. Did you hear anything I just said?"

"But my desk is all the way on the other side of this floor. I thought Avery and I would be sitting together."

"That would be highly unproductive."

Devin glared. "Well how am I supposed to collaborate with everyone like Avery said? I think you're just trying to punish me and I don't even know what for because I've been good since the end of camp."

"Those changes clearly haven't stuck since you've already reverted back to your normal behavior," Logan said, his voice stern.

"You haven't even given me a chance!" Devin said, his voice raised.

I was starting to feel awkward being in the middle of this. "Devin," I said, placing a hand gently on his arm.

His expression softened as he looked at me. "I'll see you later," he grumbled, before turning and walking away.

"Amazing," a female voice said.

I turned to see a middle-aged blonde woman standing next to Logan. She smiled at me. "Normally that would have turned into a ten minute argument that we'd all have to tune out, but one word from you and Devin backed down. I've never seen that happen. You need to tell us your secrets."

I smiled back, trying to make light of the situation. "One of my coworkers at camp called me the Devin whisperer."

She laughed loudly, and then offered her hand. "I'm Jess."

"Avery."

Logan clapped me on the shoulder. "I'll leave you two to get acquainted. Jess can show you where the empty cube is."

"It's right next to my desk," she said. "Follow me."

As the two of us moved my computer and office supplies from the office to the cube, I found out that Jess had been with the firm for eleven years and had a husband, James, and a twelve year old daughter named Kaylee. She spent most of her weekends bowling or in a pottery studio.

"I'm looking forward to working with you," she said. "I've heard good things from Logan, and I know this project will go a lot smoother with you leading it rather than Devin. Logan was going to give this project to Devin to see if he could prove himself, but we were all nervous about that."

"If I'm out of line by asking this, please tell me, but do Logan and Devin argue often?"

"Yes, and half the time it's in front of everyone. It's a pretty volatile situation," Jess admitted. "Logan knows how unprofessional it is, but he doesn't have the heart to fire Devin. It's clear he loves his son more than life itself, but Devin hasn't made things easy."

I nodded. The more I discovered about Devin, the more I realized this wasn't going to be a normal, carefree relationship.

-

Once I was set up, I talked with Jess and Mike, the man Logan had mentioned earlier. They filled me in on what had been done so far on the project, and I went over my blueprints with them. When they insisted it was time for a lunch break, I wandered over to the other side of the building, looking for Devin. I felt guilty for not checking on him earlier.

I finally found him in a cube near the corner. He was staring at a spreadsheet and bouncing a stress ball off the wall of his cube.

"Hey, Dev," I said, leaning against his desk.

He smiled when he saw me, but his smile didn't reach his eyes. "How is everything going so far?"

"Good. I met Jess and Mike." I reached out my hand. "Are you okay?"

He took my hand and squeezed. "Yeah. It's just more crap with my dad. It's nothing new."

"I'm sorry if I'm making things worse."

"This has nothing to do with you. If it wasn't you, it'd be someone else. I wanted you to have this job, and if anyone deserves an office and praise from my dad, it's you."

I gave him a hug. Not because of what he said about me, but because he looked like he needed one. He pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me.

"As much as I like this, we shouldn't," I said gently. "I want to keep things professional, and I want everyone to respect me. I know I got this job because of you, but I want to prove I could have got it on my own."

Devin kissed me on the cheek and let me get back up. "We both know you could get this job without me."

-

On the way back from lunch, Devin suddenly pulled me into a room and shut the door. He pushed me up against the wall and kissed me. I kissed him back, but my attention was divided as I glanced around us, trying to see where we were.

"It's fine," Devin murmured. "Just an empty boardroom."

He kissed me again and his hands moved down to my ass. As much as I hated to, I pulled away. "We can't."

"Says who?" he complained. "No one will know."

"I have work to do," I reminded him. "And it's my first day. If we got caught, it would look bad for me."

He sighed. "Fine, Saint Avery."

I couldn't help but smile at the nickname. "Hey, if you're good the rest of the day, we can spend the whole evening in bed."

Devin perked up at that. "Deal." He gave my ass one more squeeze. "I'll see you later."

-

The rest of the day flew by. After meeting more of the team, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on a schedule for the project. Once I had that in place, I'd have to start calling contractors. Jess had promised to help me with that, as she'd been dealing with them for years and knew which ones we had a good relationship with.

I had a lot to learn, but I was excited for what lay ahead. Seeing the first culvert go into the ground would be an incredible moment. Even though it wasn't part of my job, I was going to be monitoring the numbers that came in regarding salmon populations and spawning distribution. These new culverts were supposed to make a difference, and I wanted to make sure they ended up helping.

Devin was hovering in the area, talking to a few members of my team who hadn't gone home yet, so I turned off my computer and grabbed my jacket. I walked up to Devin and slid my hand into his, smiling up at him. "Ready to go home?"

He squeezed my hand. "Yep. How was the rest of your first day?"

"It was good. I'm happy to be here."

He leaned down and kissed me. "And I'm happy you're happy."