Christian

"Alex." I gave this gorgeous man a warm smile. His face immediately started to heat up when he realized I had caught him very openly and very blatantly been checking me out.

My outfit for tonight was meant to be a surprise for Alex. It was actually a gift given to me by my father. Slav mentioned he had picked up the suit during his short travels around Europe a few months ago. It all made sense now as to why mother had asked for my measurements then. I thought she might have been planning another one of her infamous family photo shoots. The shoots she loved to drag Brad and I to, only to digitally add father in after.

Mother insisted that the company's investors loved receiving our Christmas cards and New Years well wishes. I was quite certain none of them gave a shit.

The suit was folded perfectly inside a nicely packaged box that Slav left with Nathaniel. I had been so swamped with work and my personal life, I hadn't really given the package much thought until the morning of the launch. Had I known my father had gifted me a suit, I wouldn't have wasted my money and time on buying yet another one for the launch. The suit I had bought wasn't anywhere near as nice as the one Slav gifted, so I decided to go with this one.

Judging by Alex's lingering gaze, I think I made the right decision. Odds were, I would need another suit for the Hawaii trip anyways, so I packed it in with my luggage this morning.

"H-Hi. Sorry, I was just heading up to the fifth floor to grab something from my office." Alex explained. My hand reached up to stop the elevator doors from starting to close on us.

"Oh. I just came from there. Do you have your access card? I don't think anyone else is there right now." I replied.

Alex gave me a quick nod. "Yeah, luckily I brought it with me."

My hand reached up once again to hold the elevator doors. Were these things always so goddamn impatient? Alex chuckled lightly at my aggravation. "Would you like some company?" I asked him.

There was a bit of a suggestive tone to my voice. Having seven minutes in heaven with Alex sounded like a nice pocket of bliss before I had to go deal with human beings who were absolutely guaranteed going to bore me. Right now, the only people on that floor were the janitors. It would be almost too easy to have some alone time in our offices.

"Sure." Alex gave me a smile as he entered the elevator. I couldn't tell if he had picked up on my provocative eyebrow wiggles.

Alex shifted something, and that's when I realized he was holding something between his fingers that was wrapped in a fabric napkin. When he reached over to press the button for the fifth floor, I couldn't stop my curiosity from getting the better of me.

"What's in there?" I asked Alex, pointing to the little parcel. He had fixed it together by tieing all the edges of the napkin. His eyes glanced down at the napkin in his hands, then they looked back up at me. He looked as if he was going to say something, but then he noticed a thing of his own. His eyes fell from mine, to the brown envelope I still had wedged tight between my arm and side.

"What's in the envelope?" Alex asked me. I couldn't stop the grin that quickly spread across my face. Great deflection on his part.

"Just some paperwork for the launch." I lied.

I decided it wouldn't be in anyone's best interest to talk about the real contents of the envelope at this moment. I owed it to Brad to speak with him about the documents before I even considered bringing it up with Alex. Alex gave me a slow nod, but I got the feeling that he wasn't really buying my lie.

"What's in the napkin?" I asked him again.

He gave me a funny look- one of this goofy grins, before he replied with a one worded answer. "Cheese."

I glanced at Alex, then down at the small parcel, then back up at Alex.

Cheese? Why would he be carrying cheese around?

I was about to dive straight into an interrogation, but that all too familiar ding cut through our conversation, and the elevator doors opened up. The floor looked just like I had left it mere minutes ago. I glanced over at the shred bin I witnessed the janitor cleaning earlier. It looked like the papers that had fallen all over the floor, were already completely cleaned up.

"That was fast." I murmured to myself. Or was I just slow?

"Hmm?" Alex asked, leading the way towards his office.

"Sorry, just talking to myself." I replied. He slid his card into the key insert of the locked door and pushed it open. One hand kept the door open for me as I followed him in.

Alex's office looked the same as it always did. I was quite surprised by the state of his desk when we walked around behind it. The best way to describe it would be... an organized mess. There were papers shoved into folders and binders that were lazily stacked on the credenza behind him. Post-it notes lined the edges of his work computer and his laptop. He even had some post-it notes on the edge of the desk and on his pen holders.

I got a good look at a few of them, and most of the information jotted down had to do with IT tickets. I had thought about hiring a second IT guy, but just hadn't gotten around to speaking with Alex about it. I wanted him working with me full time. I didn't like him juggling both positions.

Alex pulled out a key from his pocket, and unlocked the drawer located at the very bottom of his desk.

"What do you keep in there?" I asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" He replied with a grin. I wasn't really expecting much, but when Alex stood up from behind his desk, he was holding a laptop.

An ultra familiar laptop.

An ultra familiar no longer in pieces laptop.

"Holy shit, did you... when did you..." I asked, staring at the hardware in his delicate hands.

I mean, if I was being completely honest here... I had forgotten all about the damn thing. Brad had only nagged me about it for the first few weeks as he did his best to recreate the developing projects I had kept on there for the following year. With everything going on, I couldn't even wrap my head around when Alex had the time for this.

"Yeah I've been working on it during my lunches, and any free time I find here and there. It's not finished, I'm still working on redownloading a few more files but it should be done soon." Alex explained. My hard exterior softened at his words.

"You really didn't have to." I spoke softly as I approached him.

"That's not what you told me the night you ordered me to fix this." Alex contoured. His words had bark, but the way in which he was trying to force back that grin, gave me every indication that he knew what I meant.

"Touché." I countered, drawing nearer. My hand moved to take the laptop out from Alex's grasp.

"Careful!" He hissed at me, momentarily breaking the sexual tension I was working on building up here. "You and your big ass hands and feet just Donkey Konging anything you can get your paws on." I glanced down at this lovable asshat with an eyebrow raised.

"I'm just setting it on the desk, it'll be fine." I shushed him. All I got was an eye roll in return. "Are you excited for Hawaii?" I asked, getting close enough for me to push away a loose strand of hair that had fallen away from his perfectly slicked back style. Alex seemed to lean in, almost asking for more. My fingered ran through his soft locks before settling at the nape of his neck.

"I'm excited for some vitamin D-" he started to say, but caught himself quickly. "Not that kind of vitamin D... I mean I'm also excited for that... but you know the weather's been shit here lately and some sunlight could really brighten the mood-" Alex started. I shushed him before he could continue.

"I know what you meant." That final small step I took, put me and Alex at mere inches apart. My hand continued to massage the nape of his neck, but also assisted in tilting his head up slightly towards me. He looked like he was on the verge of saying something stupid to avoid the silence (like he usually did) so instead, I dipped my head down to capture his lips with mine.

His lips were rough. I could tell he had been biting them again. It annoyed me that things were stressful for him right now... but I'd seen Alex work. He and I were more alike than he would most likely ever care to admit. He thrived under pressure.
I knew Alex had taken a step back from alcohol. I could tell almost immediately. He started coming in earlier... well... on time really. In comparison to his previous attendance track record however, this was early.

I also noticed how much harder he had started to throw himself into his work.

This launch was proof of that.

I appreciated how much he had put into this, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me.

Was he giving up one addiction for another?

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