*   *   *

About a few minutes to mid-day, Alejandro walks into the waiting room of the hospital emergency ward. He finds Martha and Joe, along with some other staff of the law firm by the seats close to the counter. 

"The surgery is over." he proclaims.

"That's Alice's father." Martha quickly whispers to Joe, as they all look up in anticipation.

"The doctors will be here shortly." he adds. And then looking at Joe, he continues, "You must be Joseph King.. the newest partner at the firm."

'How is this even possible?' Joe wonders, becoming shocked that Alejandro actually knows who he is. To be honest, he is a bit afraid, especially after what transpired between Alice and him last night. Nevertheless, he concludes that there is no way Alejandro would be aware of it, at least for now. So he plays it cool. "Yes sir. I am." he replies, extending a hand.

Alejandro shakes him, "Wrestler wants to know if the other members of the board have been notified of the current situation."

"Yes, they have. And the firm will be taking full responsibility for the medical bills." Joe assures.

"Oh. Alright then.." Alejandro replies, but he is interrupted by the entrance of some doctors into the room. While they assemble, the lead surgeon adjusts the file in his hands and begins with some soothing words, "The surgery was successful. After some weeks, Mr. Wrestler is expected to make a healthy recovery. "

"..Oh, thank God!" Martha exclaims.

Thereafter, he continues, "However, he is going to experience walking challenges for quite some time. He still needs a lot of rest for now. Hopefully, he will be awake in a few hours."

"Thank you, doctor." Joe replies earnestly.

"Please, excuse us." the doctor responds wearing a warm yet professional smile, before finally exiting the room along with the other surgeons.

After hearing the good news, everyone begins to smile and hug each other in relief. 

"Great news." Joe reaffirms as he shakes one of the other Partners of the firm. Thereafter, he walks to the cafeteria to get some coffee. 

He gets a double espresso over the counter and then begins to head back into the hallway. Down the hall, he sights a young man whom he recognizes walking into the waiting room. Alice, who also seems to have arrived recently, excitedly runs towards this guy and gives him a warm embrace. Upon seeing this, Joe furrows his brow. Slowly, he begins to remember where exactly he last saw this guy—it was backstage at El Calor Caliente. It's Julian, Alice's co-singer at the bar and also apparently her friend. 

It is obvious that Alice just found out Wrestler made it out of surgery. She is smiling so radiantly with her eyes joyfully closed as she hugs Julian, who himself almost looks like his soul is leaping for joy. She looks so pleased and at home in his arms that the sight of it all starts to make Joe nearly sick. He stops in the hallway and keeps watching them from a distance with subtle disdain, clenching his molars very tightly. His jaws are pulsating intensely and like a true villain, he raises his arm to take yet another sip from his cup of coffee, with one eyebrow raised and a deadly gaze fixated on them. 

#RING

His cell phone interrupts his simmering thoughts. Stretching the other arm into his pocket whilst looking forward, he picks it up, "Hello. What's up?"

"Hello, what's up?.." Park replies, mimicking his baritone voice. 

"I am not in the fucking mood, Park." Joe responds, moving his stiffened jaw to the side.

"Woah! Okay, sheesh.. Who pushed YOUR buttons?"

".. Did you find Judge Davis?" Joe queries. 

"Yeah.. he agreed to adjourn the case to next week. But considering the situation, another prosecutor from the firm will have to handle it."

Upon hearing this, Joe takes a very deep breath, "Okay. That's true." He begins to scratch his forehead, as though experiencing a slight migraine. "Thank you, Park." he adds with calm earnestness. 

"Anytime, man. Take care of yourself." Park responds.

"I will, thanks." Joe adds and then the call ends. 

He takes in another deep breath. 

"They say a man's coffee can tell a lot about his personality." Alejandro opines, as he finds Joe standing in the hallway. 

In jittery shock, Joe responds although as cool as a cucumber, "Mr. Mendez.."

"Cappuccino says sociable and elegant," Alejandro adds, after taking a sip from his coffee cup, "Latte says people pleaser, and Espresso.. boss."

"Yeah.. so I have heard." Joe smiles in a pleased and humble manner. "You sure do know your coffee." He adds.  

"What can I say? I used to work in a coffee shop." 

They both burst into hushed laughter. 

Then Alejandro continues almost nostalgically, "More years ago than my grey hair can probably remember."

"Believe me.. Mr. Mendez, grey hair never looked better on a man." Joe assures. 

".. I don't think your boss would be too happy to hear that."

At these words, they both burst into fits of laughter. 

"Thank you." Alejandro adds. 

"Anytime." Joe replies, taking a deep breath in as he stares towards the waiting room. "I'm glad he's going to be okay," he says. 

"So am I. He.. He's a good man." Alejandro responds, "And he has been through quite a lot over the years."

Joe heaves another sigh. 

"I just hope that.. he can get through this." Alejandro adds very empathetically. 

"Me too." Joe responds. 

Afterwards, Alejandro's posture widens and he places one hand in the pocket of his brown outer jacket, "He talks a lot about you." 

Joe's eyes widen in shock. 

"He says you're like the son he never had. A versatile mind and one of the best young attorneys he's ever worked with.. since Broderick Floyd."

"Really?" Joe inquires. 

"Yeah." Alejandro responds. 

He adjusts his hand from the lid to grab the sleeve of his coffee cup and then tilts it toward the cup in Joe's hand saying, "So, I guess the coffee never lies."

Then he takes a sip from his own coffee and begins to walk away. 

Joe is speechless. 

But just before Alejandro gets too far, he echoes almost chummily, "Mr. Mendez!"

"What coffee do you drink?"

Alejandro turns his head slightly and responds very aloofly while taking yet another sip, "Black."

Then he enters the waiting room.

°               *               °                *               °

Several hours pass. And during this time, Joe and Alice do everything within their power to avoid each other. Despite interacting from time to time with friends and colleagues in the same room, at no point do they ever acknowledge each other. Right now, Julian and Alice seem to be quite engrossed in a low key intimate conversation, and Joe's blood is beginning to boil. He doesn't usually get this jealous, but the disarming mix of emotions pervading his mind is all of a sudden becoming quite intense and incredibly unsettling. As subtly as possible, he slowly stands up from the chair and leaves the waiting room. 

After about twenty minutes, Julian gets up to leave as well. He heads down the hallway in search of a restroom and finds one next to the general surgical ward. While gradually relieving himself by the urinal, coincidentally Joe who was on that same floor walks in to use the restroom. Upon sighting Julian, he scoffs slightly and begins to waltz towards the urinal right beside him and then assumes an invasive broadened posture. While Julian becomes slightly visibly uncomfortable, Joe opens up his zipper and begins to urinate, blatantly exposing his member and turning to give Julian a direct, oddly stern gaze.

Observing this awkward display, Julian begins to wonder whether this guy is insane or just a creep or may be possibly imagining things. He moves his eyeballs to the side away from Joe, in an attempt to ignore until his stream ends. But milliseconds later, after subtly observing again, he finds Joe still unflinchingly staring at him, as if to say 'yes, I'm looking at you!' He finds it beyond unsettling, but he resolves not to utter a word. 'What is wrong with this jerk?', he wonders. 

After finally finishing with the urinal, he adjusts his own zipper. However, becoming aware that Joe may be trying to send a childish message by excessively exposing himself, just before closing it up, he decides to indulge in the petty game and truly show him who is boss. Therefore, Julian unzips himself completely in a roguish attempt to adjust his trousers. Then he exposes his oddly humongous member and lets out a slight smirk in order to put Joe's misplaced ego to shame. Truly, the sight of Julian’s length and girth ends up running a number of chills down Joe's spine. 'What the hell! Well, who would've thought?' he wonders within himself. Little did he expect a nearly scrawny pretty boy like this to blatantly outweigh him. After giving himself a pat on the back for the failed intimidation, he reckons,  'You haven't won this battle yet, twat.' Joe visibly acts unimpressed and rapidly zips himself up. Afterwards, he walks past him to the sink and starts washing his hands.

Shortly after, Julian follows, but instead he heads to the other sink and applies soap from the dispenser. While rinsing his hands, he stares into the mirror before him, from which he can see Joe on the opposite side and they both stare into the large mirrors. Julian still keeps his victory smirk on and ignores his phone as it starts ringing, favouring instead an intense eye contact. Up until now, none of them has said a word to each other. Their eyes however keep throwing multiple daggers, as though expecting the other to yield first. 

Finally, Joe decides to break the silence, "So you and Alice are pretty close huh?"

There is a pause.

"What's it to you?" Julian responds in his usual sociable fashion but with a subtle hint of acridity. Slightly disarmed by his retort, Joe does not respond. 

Nevertheless, Julian continues with a half smirk slowly dimming into near cynical concern, ".. For an office colleague, you seem to care a lot about Alice's personal life."

"Nah.. I'm just a concerned Boss." Joe responds with a valiant swagger, as he wipes his hands clean with the paper towel.

"Well you sure know how to express concern, don't you?" Julian says with a scoffing tone.

Joe raises a brow, as though questioning what on earth he means. 

Seeking to clarify, Julian follows up, "Do you make out in dressing rooms with all of your employees?"

"I don't know what you mean." Joe responds innocently. 

Julian replies, "You know I saw you the other night right?"almost sneering at him now.

"What night??" Joe queries, with a half confused look on his face. At this point, Julian begins to get pissed by the way Joe is attempting to play dumb. Thereafter, he violently shakes off the water on his hands, turns back to face him and walks forward until they're almost standing eye-to-eye. 

Joe on the other hand, still appears quite calm and collected, almost as though intentionally making sure to appear unruffled by Julian's visibly triggered state, and waiting for him to do something stupid.

".. I don't know what the hell Alice sees in you.. Joe.." Julian says.

".. That's Mr. King to you." he whispers sinisterly in response, with eyebrows gradually beginning to furrow.

"But know this..” Julian continues, “Alice is a very smart girl. Eventually, she'll realize how much of a shallow asshole you really are. And she will never let you take advantage of her."

Joe clenches his jaw hard after hearing this. He is tempted to break this dude's nose with his fist, kick his flank and smash his face very hard against the mirror. However, exercising sound judgment, he does not. Instead, he tilts his head slightly, in visible shock and then begins to chuckle for a good number of seconds. Afterwards, he says to Julian almost in a whisper while properly adjusting the sleeves of his jacket, "Well, I'm afraid.. she really does seem to love my shallow asshole, because last night, we made love in ways I doubt you could imagine. We fucked on the table, on the couch, the floor, everywhere. She wanted me to do things to her that I didn't know she was capable of asking. But that's our Alice. She's full of surprises. I apologize if in the sexual parts, you can't relate." 

He starts to chuckle, looking up and biting his lower lip in visible pleasure from residual memories. He then adds with a smile,  "And her body is phenomenal in every way. I knew she was sexy with her clothes on, but damn. I need her to bare it all for me several times again. She's a lot wilder than she looks, yet at the same time, so soft." 

“You son of a bitch.” Julian replies.

"She can light a fire, yet at the same time quench every bit of thirst.” he continues, with the smirk on his face remaining vibrant as he backs away from Julian and spreads his arms wider to properly describe his vision. "But don't you worry..” he expresses while turning back and walking towards the door.

“Next time, I'll send you an invite..” he places his hand against the door knob and opens it.

“So that you can come by my window and hear her screaming my name.”

"You fucking bastard!!" Julian yells.

After skillfully venting his distaste through words without a need for a physical altercation, Joe scoffs audibly as he finally exits, "Fucking friend-zoned twat!”

He closes the door.

Upon hearing this, a chain reaction of fury continually explodes within Julian's brain. His pretty face becomes macabre like that of an ogre, strained, reddened and sweaty. His forehead begins to wrinkle, as though his inflamed pores were about to spit out blood. "Fuck You!!!" he screams at the door, even if no one is around to hear.

The memory of Joe's words becomes branded on his heart, so badly that he can nearly feel it burn. 'Could there be truth to his words?' Julian wonders. Alice has actually kept him in the friend-zone for quite a while, despite knowing how much he loves her, how willing he is to do anything for her and how much he desires to make her happy. But even if she did not want anything more than a friendship, even if she did not feel the same way, he wonders, 'Did she really sleep with Joe?'
He did catch them kissing the other day at El Calor. But Alice told him later that it was a one time thing. As far as Julian believes, definitely, she would never stoop so low as to sleep with this; this artless fool; this miserable playboy who does not even give a damn about her feelings. Or would she? 

'Damn it! After all I've done for her?' he exclaims within himself. After always being there when no one else was. After being her most dedicated cheerleader and her shoulder to cry on; he feels so betrayed.
All of a sudden, Julian’s head begins to bang in pain. He feels like a fool. 'Why on earth did this have to happen to me? Why can't I stop loving Alice? Why can't I just stay away?', he wonders.

Apparently, Julian has tried everything to get Alice out of his heart; to just be a friend and nothing more, but to no avail. He has even tried sleeping with other girls. However, all he sees is Alice's face whenever he tries to fuck them. While being intimate with some of these ladies, he has found himself calling out Alice's name more than once. It is quite frustrating. Julian seems to be aware that Alice has the right to be with whomever she chooses, but the thought of her sleeping with someone like Joe is what makes it even more difficult for him to stomach. After this interaction, he feels like he has never hated a person as much, and justifiably so. 

‘I need to go. I need to get out of here right now, before I do something stupid.' he nearly mutters from the depth of his consciousness before taking steps to quickly leave the General Hospital without saying goodbye to Alice.

°               *               °                *               °