Christian

"W-What's going on?" Alex asked. His voice had returned to the unevenness it was the first time I met him.

It could have been because I had surprised him.

It also could have been because my face was now about a foot away from his and he had nowhere to look but at me. His breathing had seized completely from our proximity.

I said nothing as my hands went up to flip his shirt collar. Being this close, I noticed that the irritation around his eyes had subdued substantially, but he still looked miserable.

"Who goes out for drinks on a Wednesday night?" I asked him.

"Someone who works for you." He grumbled back. I couldn't help but crack a grin at that. This kid had balls. I made a mental note of the fact that this was now two days in a row that he had come in hungover during this week.

"What's that?" Alex asked, as I pulled something out of my pocket.

"You're acting like you've never seen a tie before. Well, considering you've made it in to my office both days without one, I'm guessing that's a pretty great possibility." I replied, as I slid the long piece of material around his neck but under the collar, and crossed them at the front.

"Ties are optional for my-"

"IT position, I know. How many times must I tell you that you're not just our IT guy anymore. You're Christian fucking Ivanov's assistant." I replied, using the words I had first overheard him say in my office.

The surface of his cheeks turned beet red at those words. I liked seeing him this flushed.

"I really didn't mean-" I cut him off by raising my hand, as I finished pulling the thin portion through and tightened the knot.

"We're past that now. I came here to speak with you about something else entirely. You mentioned that the people should be in the know about our business arrangements. That, while it's my employees jobs to build the company, it's my job to close the deals.

I've got a big one coming up in a few weeks with Mavericks Corp. I'm going to need your help with not only prepping me and us for this meeting, but putting together a deal so phenomenal, the company would have no choice but to say yes." I finished.

Alex's eyes grew wide.

"We're partnering with Mavericks? Holy fucking shit. They own some of the biggest surf and just workout gear in general! I was able to head over to one of their corporate buildings for a tour a few years back and their tech-"

"Stop geeking, start typing. I've got a spare laptop in my office you can use to help."

Alex nodded as his once lifeless hazel eyes had some warmth returned to those unique orbs. You couldn't see them well behind the reflection of his glasses, but being this close, gave you a front row seat.

-

Alex and I had almost lost ourselves in the paperwork, that neither of us heard the door open.

"Baby!" Bridget shrieked as she barged through my office. I was so startled, I ended up hitting my cup of coffee and it spilled all over our freshly printed paperwork.

"Shit!" I hissed. Alex was quick to remove all the electronics from the desk.

"Now I understand how that other laptop got doused in coffee." He mumbled as he began wiping the liquid down.

Bridget had given me a fucking heart attack.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Bridget?" I asked the once dirty blonde, now platinum blonde and one cup size bigger, bimbo. She must have gotten another operation done while she was out... but I thought she was supposed to be gone for a few more days?

"I thought I'd come surprise my babyyyyyy. I left Paris fashion week early cause of some bomb threat or something, so now I'm here!" She replied.

She was wearing too much makeup, and too little of everything else. When I glanced back at Alex, I could tell he was doing his best not to look amused.

This little fuck was really enjoying this.

"Bridget. We're busy. I don't have time to entertain you right now."

"Oh that's okay. Allison and I want to go see a movie. I was wondering if I could borrow something from you baby? I maxed out all the credit cards in Paris."

I almost choked on my own spit.

"You maxed out all the credit cards I gave you already? What the fuck did you do, buy everything that made it down the runway?"

"Well, duh babe. I was with Allison. I couldn't let her out-shop me."

I could swear Alex's face was growing red from all the restraint he was visibly showing. He was potentially another comment away from laughing his ass off.

"Jesus fucking Christ." I whispered to myself, before slipping my wallet out of my back pocket and handing her a couple hundred dollars.

"Thank you so much babe!" She beamed as she planted her lipstick covered lips all over my cheek, and snatched the bills from my hand.

Just as soon as she had bombarded into this office, she sprinted back on out.

That was when Alex lost all his shit.

I could barely make his words out between the laughter and wheezing. "First of all, is she going to see a movie or is she buying the whole damn movie theatre? You just gave her like $600!"

"Movie means shopping. Shopping means nails. Nails mean dinner. All in all, that warrants a couple hundred." Alex was looking at me like I was an entirely different species all together.

"She's really something." He added, wiping a tear away. A grin broke out on my lips.

A fucking migraine was what she was.

-

"What do you have for Gala figures?" I asked Alex.

He flipped his screen around to show me. My eyebrows raised slightly in suprise. Alex had created a column bar graph for previous Gala's hosted through Ivanov Corp. and a mekko chart for demographic based appealing content.

"This is some serious data entry."

Alex's eyes adverted mine. He looked visibly uncomfortable.

It was almost as if he wasn't used to being praised for his work. I guess it was a bit of a stereotype that the IT guy got overlooked. I mean... even I didn't know we had an IT guy.

We had been so consumed by work, I hadn't even noticed the time. It was coming on around almost five in the evening. The thought of food hadn't crossed my mind until I heard Alex's stomach growl.

"Did you eat lunch?" I asked him. He slowly shook his head. I had thought he went out to eat some lunch when I did, but apparently, he had continued to work. "Let's order something."

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