Alex

"Why are you here, Derek?" I asked, doing my best to compose myself after having him catch Chtistiand and I in such an inappropriate position.

"I work here?" Derek answered all matter-of-factly. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Not like that. I meant what are you doing here still? You never work this late." I replied. And I was right. Generally, Derek was one of the first people out of this building as soon as we were given the okay to head home. Whenever asked to stay and help out, Derek always found a riveting excuse not to.

Last month's excuse was that he needed to leave so that he could make it to his Aunt Candice's home in hopes of assisting her around the house. He told the department she was recovering post spine alignment surgery.

Something Joan and I knew that no one else did, was that Aunt Candice didn't actually exist.

Joan and I reached the conclusion that we really didn't give a fuck to ask questions. It wasn't like Derek really did much of anything while he was here anyways. Overtime would have done nothing but be an unnecessary expense for the company. This was why I found it difficult to see this guy here any time after five.

"Have you been downstairs? Damn near half of every department is still working." Derek replied, pulling out one of the guest seats at my desk, and plopping himself down besides Christian... who wasn't paying Derek too much attention because he was doing his best to rearrange his erection inside his tight suit pants. Irritation was blatant on Christian's face, but that's just how he was with Derek. Christian complained Derek gave him migraines.

My eyebrows raised at Derek's words.

Was he serious? That many people were still here?

I glanced at Christian nervously. Some doubts had started to fill my mind on whether launching both partnership brands at the same time was a good idea. Seeing the work all the departments had put in on Saturday, then seeing more long hours worked today... it just made me feel like we should have waited.

Maybe it was too much on everyone's shoulders, to pull together... Had I jumped the gun on this one?

"Bullshit." Christian announced, startling me out of my thoughts as he pushed himself to his feet. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion because I wasn't sure who he was talking to. I hadn't even said anything yet. "This launch will go on as scheduled for tomorrow. I'll inform HR that we will be paying extra out to our employees for the overtime." He straightened the suit that I had most definitely messed up by falling into him earlier. "Alex, your projections look good. I trust tomorrow will go well. Stop doubting yourself." He glanced down at me, and offered me one of those toothy grins. The ones that made my stomach think it was on a high beam in the Olympics gymnastic finals.

I couldn't help but give him a heated shy smile in return. He was too good at reading me.

Before I could say something, there was another sound at the entrance to my office.

"Well, damn. The whole crew's staying late, huh?" Joan asked from the doorway. I glanced past Christian to offer her a smile.

Joan definitely looked more overworked today than usual. Her neat everyday bun had since slipped out of its scrunchie from this morning. It looked like she ended up holding most of the loose strands back with a hair clip. Her eyes were also red with irritation. She had a tendency to rub the lids vigorously whenever something stressed her out, or if she had been staring at the computer monitor for too long. I warned her that it wasn't good for her eyes, and even got her those UV Blue Light glasses... but she was just too stubborn to wear them.

"Hey Joan." I welcomed her. "You're here late as well?" I was really starting to hope that tomorrow would make all this extra work people were putting in, worth it.

"Yes, sugar. All the departments are finalizing the last few details for the launch. I just made sure our open venues on the first floor are decorated and ready for presentation. Derek promised the guys he would return with a new pitcher of coffee... but that was a whole goddamn twenty minutes ago. I came up to track his ass down. Looks like he's been here bothering you two." Joan stated, shooting her arm out to grab Derek before he could try shimmying past her.

"On your way out, could you let HR know that everyone has been cleared to leave once the essentials are completed? The event won't be until afternoon tomorrow so they do have the option of putting in some last minute touches during the morning hours as well." Christian called to Joan, who had since started to drag Derek out by his ear she had twisted between her fingers. She gave Christian a nod before her and Derek disappeared from my office.

I rested my hands on my desk at each side of me as I leant back. From this position, all I could stare at were the ugly ceiling tiles. The color was a light tan shade separated by the silver metal dividers. It surprised me how weighted those ceiling tiles actually were. I hadn't known that until one managed to fall on Derek's head while we were in the supply closet. We were getting more ink cartridges for the printer on the third floor, when out of nowhere, a ceiling tile came crashing down on him.

Derek wasn't terribly injured, but definitely experienced some brief disassociation shortly after the incident. Turns out we had maintenance working on the electric wiring. When they put the tile back in place, one had a large split and wasn't replaced. That's the one that caved in and collapsed.

I continued to stare at the ceiling tile, completely lost in thought.

Today has been a long day, I thought to myself.

Tomorrow was going to be an even longer one.

"You should go home." Christian whispered low. From the sound of his footsteps, I could tell he was approaching my position on the desk. "You look... spent."

I pushed myself forward, and my eyes slowly wandered away from the ceiling to face his. The look he was giving me made my body hot all over. He was much closer than I expected him to be. So close, I could reach out and touch him... pull him close between my legs. Before I could, Christian beat me to it. His hands reached out to spread my legs that were dangling off the side of the desk, apart.

With him standing, he was still taller than I was while I remained seated. His hand stayed on my knees.

"There's just one more conversation we haven't had." I replied, before I could stop my own words. What the fuck are you doing, Alex? I thought to myself. Christian's eyes were dark with lust, but they softened from my statement.

"And what might that be?" He asked. His hands drew circles on my knee caps, as they massaged the hard joints.

"Bridget." I replied. "Well you mentioned Bridge so I'm guessing that's referencing Bridget."

If inner me could pimp smack the fuck out outta myself, I would. Christian visibly stilled as he processed my words. I really knew how to ruin the mood.

"Right." Christian nodded. I expected him to pull away, but he just continued on with his massage. "I had broken it off with her a little while ago. I knew our relationship was already crashing at impeccable speed, so it didn't take much for me to end it with her. I'm sure you noticed she just sort of disappeared from my life."

I had. I assumed Christian broke it off, but with everything else that transpired, we never really talked about it. Y'all about what that relationship was. Hell, we barely had the time to talk about us.

"Well I hadn't seen her since. She came to visit me a few days ago... she was talking about getting back together which is hilarious in itself. While I have no interest in ever hearing that high pitched irritating voice again, odds are she's going to do something bitchy to try and get her way. I just wanted to fill you in on everything because we haven't had the time to talk about that... or us."

My lips twitched up into a half smile at his words.

Us.

Christian hadn't officially asked me to be his boyfriend.

This was a thought that was lingering in the back of my mind to discuss, but the situation was never ideal for it. I was either dealing with my drunk mother, or Christian was dealing with Brad's biological father.

I continuously forced myself to comprehend that this wasn't junior high anymore, and I wasn't living out some fantasized crush. Being an adult now, I understood that relationships weren't just black and white like they were in high school, or on tv. There was often a grey area where connections were given space to grow, and feelings began to solidify.

Christian and I were in that grey area... but I wanted so badly for him to choose me.

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