(This is an unofficial chapter from 'Maybe Next Time' and in case you know the original story and don't like this chapter, don't worry. It's not exactly part of the story.)

Mitch looked up from his computer screen, the important work he had to do since he got promoted was just mind-numbingly boring. He sighed and tilted his head to one side, spying out of the half-opened door of his office, but nobody was there.

With a long groan, Mitch pushed himself away from his desk. He was about to stand up when his gaze fell upon a tiny notepad with hundreds of  carefully placed lines counting the number of times Avi had already asked Mitch out.

But some time ago, Avi had stopped pestering Mitch for a date. And although Mitch would never admit it, he missed the man with the pretty green eyes and the voice so deep it would never fail to make him shiver with all sort of pleasant ideas in his head.

As if one cue, somebody knocked on his door, but Mitch was still too preoccupied with his little notepad and the memories attached to it, to even look up.

"Are you alright?" the deep, deep voice Mitch had just dreamed about asked him and for a moment, Mitch thought this was all a dream. But it wasn't and therefore, he let the little notepad drop like he had burned himself on it.

"Yes, sure," He muttered and looked up to Avi whose face was only slightly illuminated by the light in the hallway since Mitch preferred to sit all alone in the darkness of his office when he worked. "Do you need something?"

"No, I mean yes. Uhm... I don't need something, but Scott asked me to ask you about this new system? I think he doesn't get how that works just yet," Avi smiled and let go of the doorknob as he entered the room and leaned on the wall closest to the door. "I remember there was a similar problem when he started working here."

"Yeah, although he didn't need my help at all back then," Mitch sighed and pressed himself further into the cushion of his chair. "I think he just wanted an excuse to ask me out."

He side eyed the man that had just invaded his office and waited for his reaction, but instead all Avi did was let out a chuckle and it made Mitch weirdly mad.

Out of all the reactions Mitch had anticipated, out of every single way the other man could respond to Mitch's statement, he had to laugh? Jealousy or something would've been nice, maybe even another try at asking him out, but Avi didn't meet Mitch's expectations.

For a moment, the room was completely silent again.

Avi, obviously uncomfortable, scratched his beard and made a plopping sound as if to announce he was still there, but when he turned to leave, Mitch suddenly shot up from his place behind his desk.

"Wait," Mitch demanded, already on his way to the door. "So unless Scott asks me out, I'm free this weekend."

Mitch lifted his hand to his chin and looked up at Avi through his thick eyelashes like he hoped to seduce him like that.

"Will you go out with me?" Mitch asked and the question hung eerily in the air. Something was wrong and it was not just the fact that the wrong person had just asked the wrong guy out.

But Avi laughed once again and clapped Mitch on the shoulder.

"I guessed you wouldn't want to risk our friendship," Avi admitted and then seemed a tiny bit embarrassed. "So I met this guy from management and he is really nice."

"After all this time when I really want to go out with you, you reject me?" Mitch stared at Avi, mouth hanging wide open and it took him all he got not to snap at the other one. "I thought you liked me?"

"I do like you but you always rejected me, so I figured it shouldn't be," Avi lifted his hands in a defensive stance and slowly put more distance between Mitch and himself. "Tim really likes me just the way I am and I think I like him too. Like, really like him."

Mitch hugged himself as the whole world came crashing down on him and oh god, he was too slow, he had lost the only person that genuinely liked him and it was all because he played hard to get for so long.

With a bitter smile and tears threatening to spill out of his eyes, Mitch fled the room. It wasn't until later when Kirstie told him "I told you so" that he realized whose fault the whole affair was.   

°^°

Please vote and/or review if you like this story and THANK YOU for being here!