Chapter 47 (reuploaded)

When Gin let himself into Henry's apartment the evening before the party, he was met with an odd sight: Henry Reyes sat on the floor, rhythmically hitting his forehead on the edge of his coffee table. It was safe for anyone to assume that the young man had lost his mind.

Not even realising someone had come in, he eventually stopped with his head against the table, not moving for a second. Eventually he let out a groan and then continued to hit his head.

Gin could only close the door and shake his head at his friend's weird behaviour.

Why Henry was acting like an escapee from a psychiatrics' ward? He was reliving the horrors of Wednesday morning for the millionth time. And with each replay, it got more and more embarrassing.

At this stage, the man could not even confidently say what exactly happened, he was starting to think he was making half of it up. There was no way he could have really suggested to through Joshua under the bus if axing the three men who had slander him backfired. And Joshua was definitely not as cool as he remembered when taking charge and deciding to fire the men; that had to be exaggerated.

And there was definitely no way he though the man was cute when half asleep… definitely not! Not in a million years! He was definitely remembering wrong there.

Remembering this, Henry started bashing his head a little harder, thinking he was definitely going insane from overthinking.

Seeing the force was becoming a little dangerous, Gin finally intervened, pulling at the collar of Henry's shirt as he went to slam his head down again. He let out a choked sound as the front of his shirt pressed against his neck.

The unexpected choking was enough for the blond man to snap out of it.

Gin sighed again, letting go and sitting on the couch. "How long were you gonna keep that up?"

"Until I regain my sanity."

"Lol, why? Things are only gonna get madder. Your engagement is tomorrow. With Joshua Lore! What sanity?"

Henry could not help but feel a little aggrieved, what Gin was saying was the cold, hard truth.

"Talking 'bout the other one, where's he? Thought this was some strategy meeting. Wasn't he working at your building today?"

"His work was backed up, so he had to go back because of an emergency with it. He said he'll come around half 7, when things are sorted out."

"That workaholic fell behind? Fuck me, is the world really ending."

Henry did feel like it was a possibility with all the craziness his life had slowly become.

Since everything had finally been given a greenlight by the shareholders and directors, the two families were having the departments that would completely merge meet up to work out technicalities. Essentially, they were long, informal forums where anyone from temporary freelancers to the senior management of the department could all discuss changes, concerns and brainstorm provisional solutions. Everyone seemed to like this approach, the only issue was that it blocked off almost the entire day and that at least one senior representative from each family had to be present.

On a normal occasion, Joshua would be one to have his work completed at least two days earlier unless it was a sudden task. However he had ended up taking a whole three days off the previous week; as amazing as his teams were, there was only so much they could do without their leader.

Of course, the man did finish his work the day before, however he had no chance to double check the work and ensure the budgets for the few projects he was currently helping with were flexible enough for any sudden changes. As luck would have it, the biggest of those projects had a sudden change in specification, rendering the budget almost useless. As soon as the meeting was over, he took five of his best people and rushed back to the office, only just remembering to inform Henry.

"Anyways, got any food?" Gin walked over to the kitchenette, opening the fridge to find it incredibly empty. He took that as a no.

"I didn't get a chance to shop so I ordered some pizza for 8."

"Useful, what do for the next hour then?"

"There's a fruit and nut mix somewhere in the cupboards. And coffee." Hearing a scoff, the blond man turned to the redhead, he was met with an unamused glare.

"Yay, dried fruit and nuts," sarcasm physically dripping from the monotonous cheer. Nonetheless, Gin still looked for them, he had been busy coding all day with a few hacking breaks, all he had eaten was the breakfast his girlfriend had forced on him. That and unhealthy quantity of coffee. It was safe to say the man was famished.

"I thought you said there wasn't as much to do for accounting since you're still in training. Why're you so busy?"

"I got loaned to the secretarial department since I've finished their training. I've been taking the minutes for the joint meetings. To do that I have to look over all the details the night before and then after I have to collaborate with the other two to make sure we have everything perfectly before emailing copies to my parents, the Lore's and everyone in the departments. And we also have to print three copies for safekeeping, getting them signed by at least one of the senior staff. I've been on non-stop since Thursday. This is the first time I'm not eating all three meals at the canteen since then."

Hearing Henry ramble on about his job, Gin found himself extremely grateful he was not working within the corporate world. Even as the incredibly doted young masters from two of the most influential families in the country, Henry and Joshua worked like dogs for their job. Henry was essentially just interning too, even if he received frequent bonuses on top of his competitive wage, his pay rate was still that of an intern.

Gin did not make enough money to spare, but he at least felt he was payed enough for what jobs he did. As long as he and his girlfriend could make their ends meet and live trouble-free lives, nothing else mattered. Of course, now the man had been pulled into the most troublesome job there was known to man: going up against the Q Group. And he was working with his two genius but idiotic friends, neither of which had the feasible plans or means to go up against the tyrannical group.

Suddenly Gin felt like working a 9-to-5 job was not the worst thing, at least then he would have a good reason to bail on this suicide mission.

Not that he would have been able to bring himself to go ahead with. All jokes aside, he really did worry about how Henry and Joshua would go about this without some voice of reason there to keep them in check. And he had every right to worry; the two trapped themselves in a marriage, with each other. Gin had his work cut out for him if he wanted to prevent anymore rash plans, there was no guarantee that the next time it would be just a funny outcome.

"So, that what you were doing before your head-bashing?" Gin asked, taking note of the closed laptop in front of Henry.

"No, I have the day off tomorrow, but I wanted to make sure there was no issues with the prep tomorrow. I don't want to get married, but after the amount of work I put into the party tomorrow, like hell I'm letting things be any less than perfect." Henry was only met with a tired sigh. His friends question reminded him of his laptop, the man reaching forward and opening it up, once again met with the various windows that had driven him insane not long ago. "But maybe I should stop looking at it, my head's starting to hurt."

"You were slamming your head on the corner of the coffee table, no shit it hurts." He walked back with the bag of fruit and nuts, sitting behind Henry and getting a look at the screen. "God, you two weren't kidding about the plan. Hand that over."

With a sigh, Henry picked up the laptop and handed it to his friend before sliding back and resting his throbbing head on the couch, eyes closed.

Gin was right, the head bashing probably played a part of his headache, as well as his constantly conflicting thoughts, however neither was the cause. Being as self-aware as he was, Henry could tell it was most likely the fact he hadn't eaten since yesterday lunch, surviving off caffeine and nicotine in whatever forms he could find. In fact, now that he had finally stopped for a moment, he realised his body felt quite weak too, his knees a little numb.

What the man should have done was ask his friend to pick out some of the dried fruit for him, but instead he was too tired to bother, Gin not realising anything was wrong being so accustomed to silence as he browsed the in-depth plan.

It was not until the apartment lock chimed and the door was opened, Henry barely responsive, did Gin and the newly arrived Joshua realised something was not right.