With how thoughtful and gentle Nathan had been over the past few hours, Patrick wouldn’t really be surprised either way. He seemed like the kind of alpha to make a breakfast for his one night stand.
Soon Nathan put a heaping plate of eggs down in front of Patrick and slid into the barstool next to him.
Patrick took a bite. “Oh, these are really good.” He said, slightly shocked.
“You sound surprised. Should I be insulted?” Nathan chuckled, and Patrick snorted.
“Most alphas can’t cook. I guess you’re the exception.” Patrick teased, and he didn’t miss the way that a pleased flush spread across Nathan’s cheeks.
“My first roommate taught me when I went off to college.” Nathan grinned and ducked his head. “He was a beta and said the same thing. Apparently he’d never met an alpha that could cook and he was going to be damn well sure that I grew up to be the exception.” Nathan leaned in conspiratorially. “I’m pretty sure that he just didn’t want to keep eating either take out or eggs whenever it was my turn to make dinner, but…” Nathan just shrugged.
Patrick laughed. He had had his own fair share of roommates that didn’t want to pull their weight, and he couldn’t blame Nathan’s roommate one bit. “Well I know it’s just eggs, but it seems like he did a good job.”
They sat there in companionable silence until Patrick’s fork was scraping up the little bits of cheese that had melted to the plate.
That was another reason that Nathan’s casual confidence had been so soothing to Patrick. Nathan didn’t feel the need to fill the silence with constant chatter, he was content to just let it be.
Patrick took a deep breath and turned to the alpha. He hated confrontation but it was better to be up front rather than let Nathan think that this one night was more than it was. He opened his mouth to speak, right at the same time that Nathan began to talk.
“I had a good time, but I’m not looking for anything more than a hookup.”
“This was nice, but I’m not looking for a relationship right now, I hope we’re on the same page.”
They both blinked at each other in surprise and Patrick let out a snort. “Well I guess we’re on the same page then.”
Nathan laughed. “Good, I’m glad. I mean I didn’t think otherwise, but…” He shrugged. “It never hurts to clarify.”
Patrick nodded in agreement. “So then, I guess it wouldn’t be weird if I said that I should probably head home now?”
“Not at all.” Nathan smiled and shook his head. “Let me go get your clothes.”
After calling for a cab, Patrick was soon changed back into last night’s clothes and Nathan escorted him to the door.
Nathan leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Patrick’s cheek. “Have a safe ride home, I had a good time.”
“Me too, thank you.” Patrick grinned, then walked out the door to go to his cab.
That had been nice, easy, and uncomplicated, a perfect last night of easy fun to kick off Patrick’s transition to the work force. He had gotten lucky. If more alphas were like that, maybe Patrick would hook up more often.
The loose limbed, content, feeling followed Patrick around the rest of the day and distracted him from the anxious feeling that threatened to rise up in his stomach at the thought of starting his new job. Everything worked out, and everything would continue to work out, Patrick knew it.
—
Everything, as it so happened, was not working out.
Patrick was lucky that he had planned to leave twenty minutes early, just in case he misjudged his new commute. He had his briefcase packed and his bus route memorized. He had shown up to the stop five minutes early, and then the bus just hadn’t come.
The crowd waiting had grown anxious, and it took over fifteen minutes for the next scheduled bus to turn up.
Patrick had barely made it in to work on time, he had had to jog the last few blocks to get to the office.
It wasn’t exactly the best impression to have on his new boss, and Patrick grimaced.
Well, it could only go up from here, right?
Patrick smiled kindly at the receptionist, a black haired Omega named Emmett, who grinned back at Patrick. “It’s good to see you again.” Emmett said softly. “Let me take you upstairs, Mr. Morse just moved into his new office. You’ll have a desk right out front.” He turned to look at Patrick again. “I don’t think that he was on your interview panel, he was on vacation at the time I believe.”
Patrick nodded. He hadn’t actually met the alpha that he was going to be working for in person, although he had talked to him in the phone interview. He had seemed nice enough, a little bland, and like basically every lawyer or lawyer-in-training that he had ever come into contact with through Tyler.
Tyler himself kind of broke the mold as to how Patrick expected a lawyer would act.
Patrick followed Emmett up the flight of stairs and down an open, airy hallway, until Emmett knocked on a big pair of frosted glass doors.
“Mr. Morse.” Emmett’s gentle voice carried more than Patrick had expected it to. “Your new PA is here to see you.” He then turned to Patrick before pushing open the door. “Good luck.” He whispered.
“Thank you.” Patrick said softly and grinned back at him. If all of his coworkers were like Emmett, Patrick knew that he was going to enjoy his time here. He could easily see himself and Emmett becoming good friends.
Patrick walked through the doors clutching his briefcase. “Mr. Morse?” He said, as he saw a brown haired alpha bent over a stack of paperwork. “I’m Patrick Reilly. I’m your new PA.” He held out his hand, but his heart stopped when the alpha looked up, and Patrick let his hand drop.
“Patrick?” The alpha said. He didn’t gasp but it was a near thing.
“Nathan?” Patrick’s briefcase fell toppling to the ground.
Shit, oh shit. He had just slept with his new boss.
He was so, so screwed.
CHAPTER 4 - NATHAN
NATHAN STARED AT Patrick in total shock. He couldn’t believe that this was happening.
Out of all the omegas in Middleton he could have met at the club, he had had to take home his new PA. He really had shit luck.
After one particularly bad breakup, Nathan had developed a ‘no sleeping with coworkers’ rule and it kept things easy. There were no awkward meetings when they inevitably broke up, no risks of inappropriate workplace conduct or special treatment. Coworkers were coworkers. They could be friends, sure, but never anything more.
This though, this was out of Nathan’s control. If he had known just who Patrick was, Nathan would have never taken him home but he had no way of knowing and no time machine to go back and change things.
His first thought was to tell Patrick to go home, that he couldn’t work for Nathan, but such an abrupt change of plans wouldn’t be fair to Patrick, not to mention that Nathan was fairly certain that their one mistaken night of passion was not an acceptable reason to fire someone.
Patrick’s briefcase had toppled to the ground the moment they had made eye contact, and its meager contents were spread all across the floor.
If Patrick was going to work for him, he was going to need a new bag, this just wouldn’t so if they were meeting with clients, Nathan thought absently.
He immediately jumped up to help, but when Patrick met his eyes, he cleared his throat and sat back down.
“Come sit when you have that cleaned up.” Nathan tried to sound indifferent, uncaring, but it was hard. He felt bad for Patrick, he really did.
The omega had the same adorable red flush as he had the night before. It dusted his cheeks, accenting his freckles, and dipped just beneath his collar line.
Nathan knew just how far that flush went, and it made him shiver involuntarily. He didn’t need to be thinking about Patrick, naked and splayed out on Nathan’s bed, but Nathan just knew that he wouldn’t be able to think of anything else when Patrick blushed so vibrantly. Nathan wanted to trace the brightly colored skin down whe
re he knew that Patrick’s cock would be leaking and a similar share of red, and…
No.
Nathan shook his head. He would have to have better control of himself than this. It wouldn’t do to be having these sort of thoughts about his coworker, yet Nathan didn’t know how he would be able to stop.
That night had been the best sex that he had had in years and now he was going to have to stare at the omega every day in a work related context.
Frankly, the best way to play this was probably going to be to pretend like he had never met Patrick. His resume was impressive and the partners in the firm had been impressed by his interview. It wasn’t like Nathan had to constantly talk to him the entire time.
There was always the inevitable worker turnover. In a few months when someone else’s PA moved or was promoted, Nathan could just transfer Patrick over to them and get a new PA. One that Nathan didn’t know what they looked like naked and begging.
Nathan looked up from the desk to see Patrick sitting across from him with a worried look on his expression and his eyes wide. Nathan felt a pang of regret to be the person to have caused that pain, but the feeling quickly passed. This was going to be uncomfortable for both of them, but Nathan was going to have to make it as easy as possible.
He may not be particularly thrilled that Patrick was here, but he had to suck it up. No one deserved to be treated poorly just because of Nathan’s own shortcomings.
He slid a stack of paperwork across the desk. “Here.” He said softly. “You have some paperwork that you need to fill out to complete the on-boarding process. You can fill it out in here, or,” Nathan gestured to the door, “you can go sit at your desk. It’s the L-shaped one right outside of my office.”
Patrick looked at him in mild confusion, but Nathan forced his face to stay impassive. Not talking about the elephant in the room was going to be for the best.
Still, Patrick looked frozen, like he was afraid that Nathan was going to send him away immediately, or yell at him or something. The thought made the nagging guilty feeling resurface, and Nathan leaned forward with a sigh.
“Okay, so this is how it’s going to go. Saturday night never happened. Sunday morning never happened. This is the first time we’ve ever met, and from now on we will both behave as such.” Patrick’s deer-in-the-headlights look still hadn’t faded, so Nathan continued on. “You seem like a nice guy, I’m not going to fire you just because we made a mistake, neither one of us could have known so…” Nathan shrugged. “Are we clear?”
“We’re clear.” Patrick croaked, his voice sounding strangled. The flush of his cheeks was even brighter now, but Nathan had to force himself to ignore it. Nothing good would come of any further acknowledgement that they had met previously in a rather unconventional setting.
“Good.” Nathan tried to keep his voice level. “How about you go finish up your paperwork at your new desk, then go talk to Emmett? He can help you get settled in before you start your real tasks.”
Patrick nodded then jumped upright as if he had been shocked.
Nathan raised an eyebrow quizzically but didn’t say anything.
“Right. Um, will do. See you later?” Patrick stuttered. “I mean, see you later sir?”
With that, Patrick scooped up his reassembled briefcase and slipped out of the room.
Nathan allowed his head to fall against his hand with a sigh. This was going to be interesting.
—
Nathan should have expected this. Johnathan was a nosey asshole and Nathan should have known better than to expect that he would mind his own business, but he had been hoping that Patrick wouldn’t have any contact with the other layer for at least a day or so, so that Nathan could have a chance to talk to Johnathan first.
Unfortunately Nathan had not been so lucky.
Nathan was eating lunch then the other lawyer blew through the double doors that led to his office, and Nathan regarded him impassively. “Yes Johnathan? I’m a little busy/“ He gestured at the takeout container before him, but Johnathan just rolled his eyes as he slid into the chair before Nathan, his own takeout container in front of him.
“So.” Johnathan leaned in conspiratorially. “Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that the omega you took home the other night?”
“His name is Patrick,” Nathan said cooly, “and he’s my new PA.”
Johnathan paused for a moment, then raised an eyebrow. “You still haven’t answered my question.” He prodded, then waggled his eyebrows.
Nathan sighed and leaned back in his chair. It really wasn’t any use trying to keep something from Johnathan. The other alpha would find out somehow, one way or another. Nathan would much rather tell Johnathan himself rather than have his friend start interrogating poor Patrick. “Okay, yes, he is.” Nathan sighed. Johnathan opened his mouth to speak, but Nathan continued. “And you are going to leave him alone.”
Johnathan sighed and leaned back in his chair. “You wound me.” He said dramatically, and Nathan snorted. “I’d never harass the newbie.”
“You would if you thought you would get something out of it.” Nathan muttered and rolled his eyes.
Johnathan huffed and crossed his arms. “So,” he continued, “you are in a bit of a pickle.” He leaned forward. “He’s cute, are you going to keep it up?”
“No.” Nathan said almost immediately. When Johnathan raised an eyebrow Nathan just sighed. “You know I’m not looking for anything, not to mention he’s a coworker.”
“That’s never stopped you before.” Johnathan deadpanned and Nathan couldn’t help the face he made.
“You’re using Ivan as an example as a successful workplace romance? We almost got each other fired in the resulting breakup, I’m pretty sure I’m only still here because he had to move back home to take care of his mother.”
The other alpha just rolled his eyes. “What’s life without a little risk?” He teased.
“Yeah yeah, I’ll leave the dating coworkers to you. Oh wait, I think I mean pining over coworkers.” Nathan snarked back, letting a little humor color his tone.
“I don’t know what you mean.” Johnathan turned his head away and scoffed.
Nathan didn’t say anything, he just raised and eyebrow at Johnathan. He had been watching his best friend pine over the omega for well over a year now, but he knew that nothing was ever going to come of it other than Johnathan making himself miserable.
Emmett may have been unhappily engaged but Nathan knew that he would never cheat, and Johnathan, for all his brashness, was a gentlemanly alpha and would never think of pursuing a married man. Unless some miracle happened and Emmett got up the guts to dump his good-for-nothing fiancé, nothing would ever come of it and Nathan would be forever stuck watching his best friend pine.
There was a knock on the door and Isabell, Johnathan’s PA, stuck her head in the door. She looked a little sheepish to have interrupted, but she fixed Johnathan with a serious look.
“George called, there’s a problem with the Finchman account. He needs you on the phone right away.”
Johnathan sighed and pushed his chair away from the desk. He fixed Nathan with a mournful stare and Nathan had to bite back a laugh. “Law waits for no man.” Johnathan muttered as he gathered his takeout containers and followed Isabell from the room.
Nathan sighed and went back to his lunch. Thank goodness he didn’t have any major clients, or at least not yet. As a newly promoted senior associate, he would slowly get more and more responsibility over the next few months. Johnathan though, as the son of one of the two founders, was actually a partner in the firm and got infinitely more responsibility. Nathan didn’t know if he would ever want to be in Johnathan’s shoes even if he got offered the position.
Sure, the money was good, but he had little desire to really schmooze with the big-wigs of important companies. He also felt like he had more ability to help the underdogs, the little mom-and-pop stores down in the trenches than he would at the top of the food chain. With his promo
tion, Nathan would have less time for that than he previously had, but with the increase in salary he could afford to take on more pro-bono cases, even if he had to deal with company executives in his daily work more than he would prefer.
In the end it evened out, at least in Nathan’s opinion.
There was another knock at the door, and Nathan looked up from his lo-mein.
The door creaked open and Patrick hesitantly stuck his head in. “Um, hi.” He said hesitantly, and Nathan gestured for him to come in. “I finished all my on boarding paperwork and stuff. Emmett told me to go ahead and come up here, and you’d tell me what to do?” He said the last sentence like a question and Nathan had to exhale deeply.
He really hoped that he didn’t intimidate Patrick. Sure he wasn’t exactly thrilled that his one-night-stand had turned up the next Monday at his place of work, but Nathan didn’t actually feel any ill will towards the omega, and he certainly didn’t want Patrick to be afraid of him.
The one thing that he had been excited about was he had hoped that some of Patrick’s spark would cary over into the workplace. All of the yes-men and dull compliance really drove Nathan crazy after a while. He needed someone that would keep him on his feet and push him to do better. If Patrick kept the same personality at work as he had had in bed, he would have been that person, but so far, as far as Nathan could tell, there was not a hint of the bold omega that Nathan had seen just over twenty four hours ago.
Well, if this kept things from getting too awkward between them, Nathan was just going to have to live with it for now and maybe he could get Patrick transferred to one of his more mellow coworkers if it really wasn’t working out.
A Chance at Love Page 3
