Alex

Much like Christian had threatened to do, he had everyone's asses back in the office by 8:15am sharp. Well, not the whole gang per say...

I had woken up to an empty bed with a little note from Christian that let me know he had already left for some prior engagements. He also reminded me again of the perpetual amount of meetings I was going to need to prepare for on my own, until he could meet me in office.

I had headed down to the kitchen of Brad'a home to see if anyone else was still around. The first person I ran into was Joan. She had looked... different. I peered over at her from her position at the kitchen island. She hadn't noticed my yet, but as I walked further into the room, Brad suddenly sprung up and appeared from behind the kitchen island with a pan in hand.

He was shirtless.

Before I could stop myself, the phone I had once tightly secured around my fingers, fell effortlessly to the ground. One of these days I was going to break this damn thing, I thought to myself.

Joan and Brad jumped from the sound of it hitting the tile, as they whipped their heads over in my direction. Both their eyes widened at the sight of me.

"Alex!" Joan blurted out. Brad quickly snagged a shirt that was laying on the windowsill bench, and rushed to put it on.

"Alex, good morning." He nodded to me. "My apologies, you gave me a freight. When Christian left this morning, I just assumed you might have as well. I believe workers from that rehabilitation facility came for your mother not too long ago. Derek must have also gone somewhere because I didn't see him-"

"Oh I'm right here." Derek replied, sitting up quietly and revealing himself from behind Brad's bar. We all fucking jumped at that one. What the hell was going on?

"What the hell are you still doing here?" Joan snapped.

"Well what the hell are either of you still doing here?" Derek countered. I glanced from Derek to Joan, and her eyes met mine.

Derek wasn't necessarily wrong.

Those words sounded so foreign to even say, but there was a first for everything.

"Touché." Joan grumbled.

"Did you... did you sleep there? On the floor behind my bar?" Brad asked. Derek shrugged.

"So I had initially gone to bed upstairs last night, but out of all the guest rooms you have in this mansion, I just couldn't find the bed that was calling to me. I felt like Goldilocks in that bitch. One bed was too firm. One bed was too soft."

"So... you fell asleep on the floor?" Joan cut in.

"The story isn't over yet. Let me get to that, jOaN." Derek shot back. "Anyways, so I decided maybe a good strong drink would give some relieve to my discomfort, and I could try going back to bed. When I made it to the bar, however, there was a shit ton of liquor I had never fucking heard of before in my life. And this is coming from an expert drinker here, may I remind you. I cracked open this bottle of- what was it? Gandhi Spirituality or something like that?"

Joan and I looked absolutely lost. Gandhi what now?

What startled us was Brad's laughter that pierced through the confused silence. That was what, the second time I had now heard Brad laugh? I glanced around me. Did I enter The Twilight Zone for real this time?

"Oh god, you must mean Gdański Spirytus. No wonder you didn't even make it to bed, how many shots did you have?" Brad asked.

"Well a few." Derek replied. "I also tried its sister, Gandhi Rekajhcnanzbhd."

He had completely butchered the name of that second drink, I was sure of it.

"You mean Gdański Rektyfikowany." Brad corrected. Your liver must be made out of pure fucking vibranium. That alcohol is usually reserved for my father, whenever he can visit. I hadn't had it stocked in a few years, but upon hearing of his arrival, I thought it would be best to buy again. I believe it's one of the top strongest liquor in the world."

"Jesus fucking Christ, Derek. You can't just help yourself to someone's bar like that." Joan chastised him.

"Well technically, the first few words Brad had told us when we got here, was that we could help ourselves to anything at the bar. And the bottles weren't even open yet, I decided it would best to try something full."

If I had seen an unopened bottle of liquor, my first thought would be that maybe someone had been saving it... but Derek's mind clearing hadn't gone there.

"Technically, I guess I did say that." Brad chimed in. "How's the head this morning? You seemed to be doing alarmingly okay for how much you consumed."

"Oh, I woke up with a migraine so strong, I thought I was going to fucking die. I'm talking this was some skull splitting stuff."

"Jesus, Derek. Should we get you to the hospital?" I asked. His hand reached forward to steady himself on the bar rail, before he slowly started to stumble towards the windowsill bench. He was starting to look increasingly more... drunk?

"No need, I took a hangover shot. If it wasn't for how juicy Joan and Brad's conversation was this morning, I would've have gotten up earlier." Derek replied. All our eyes widened.

"A shot of what?" Brad asked in all seriousness. I noticed how he had completely disregarded the latter information about the juicy conversation he and Joan had had this morning.

"Of the Reknajchancjha." Derek mumbled before he collapsed on the bench mattress. "You and Joan sounded like you enjoyed yourselves last night. Did you do the old Devils Tango?" He was starting to slur.

"First off: no we did not do the Devil's Tango, and frankly, I don't see how that's any of your business dErEk." Joan snapped. "Second off: you don't look so good. Brad- he really doesn't look so good."

"Yeah another shot of that stuff definitely isn't going to sit well. I'll give my father a ring and see if I should maybe take him to the hospital." Brad replied.

"No no I'm really okay. I'm just going to sleep this off..." Derek mumbled before completely passing out.

Brad was already pulling out his phone to make that call.

Speaking of calls! I reached down to pick up the phone I had clumsily dropped, and glanced at the time on the screen. It was literal minutes away from right now. "Shit okay sorry to leave you with... this." My thumb jerked over at the now completely passed out Derek. "But I've really gotta run. My car is still at work so I'm just going to request an Uber."

I tried to explain all this to Brad and Joan in one breath as I was slipping on my shoes.

"Oh don't worry about it, two of Christian's drivers are at the front entrance." Brad replied. "He had sent cars for the lot of you, so you could make it to work this morning. I did find it a little funny there were still two company cars here, because I was fully expecting to take Joan to work myself... and until now, we couldn't find Derek. I guess it all made sense seeing that the both of you haven't left yet. Feel free to use the resources."

I gave Brad a nod. "Okay, thank you! And uh Joan? Keep me posted... on everything." I wiggled my eyebrows at her.

She immediately picked up a knife, threatening to test out her target practice on me.

I bolted, before giving her the chance to. Joan rarely ever missed.

••

Hey Lovelies! I swear I haven't forgot about y'all! Work got a little wild this week, but we're back in business.
Hope you enjoyed!
And thank you so much for reading.
Xoxo