Chapter 2

“This short one is David Lee, our IT Junior Manager.”

David snorted at Justin while waving at Blake. “I’m only one inch shorter than you, bitch.”

“It takes one to know one,” Justin responded with, ignoring the other men’s amused expressions. “Next to him, our resident rare species, a blue-eyed redhead, is Joshua Wallace. He’s the Social Media Specialist.”

Justin didn’t wait for Joshua and Blake to finish shaking each other’s hands. “On Dave’s other side is Vincent Yang, Finance Junior Manager, and one of the prettiest men inside the company. He’s second only to Dave.”

Vincent rolled his eyes. “You and Dave are the loveliest and most beautiful flowers in the company, Just.”

“Shut up, Vince.”

Vincent chuckled while nodding at Blake. “I’m in your department, Mr. Ingram.”

Blake grinned. “Just call me Blake, please.”

“Sure.”

“Anyway,” Justin interjected a little louder than he meant to. “That giant next to Vince is Keenan Underwood, Sales Manager extraordinaire, and the guy next to him is Javier Gisbert, Marketing Manager. He’s a sweetheart.”

Javier blushed. “Whatever, Just. Welcome to the company, Blake.”

Keenan raised his right hand in greeting to Blake. “Glad to finally see someone inside the company who is taller than me. These morons always have to mention my height whenever there’s someone new working at the company.”

Blake beamed. “All of us tall people should stick together then.”

“I agree, Blake. I’m Calvin Maxwell, Junior Manager in research and development,” Calvin said while beaming at Blake. “Nice to meet you.”

Blake grabbed onto Calvin’s hand while smiling widely. “Nice to meet you, too.”

“Blake, let me show you the most important machine in this pantry. Maybe even inside this whole building,” Justin reminded Blake before tugging the man away from his friends and ignoring their teasing smirks. “The all-powerful coffee maker. The source of life, andthe magical machine that prevents an outbreak of the zombie apocalypse within this company, especially in the mornings and afternoons.”

Blake now had a solemn expression on his face. “Should I bow down and pay my due respect to the coffee maker?”

Justin shrugged and whispered in a conspiratorial manner. “If you wish. That will probably prevent it from going cranky on you for the foreseeable future.”

Blake burst out laughing. “I’ll keep that in mind then.”

“Good,” Justin said, and then he ran out of steam because he didn’t know how he was supposed to keep the casual conversation going without appearing to blatantly monopolize Blake’s time and attention. “Uh, anyway, I’ll leave you to it. Let me know if you need help in the future. Or anything work-related. Or not. You know where my office is at.”

Blake shot Justin a brilliant smile. “Sure thing, Just. Thanks for bringing me here and introducing me to your friends. They seem like an awesome group of guys.”

Justin beamed in return. “They are, and you’re welcome. Anyway, go ahead and make your coffee. See you later, Blake.”

Blake nodded. “Later.”

After that, Justin made his way toward his friends. He groaned under his breath as he noticed the glint of amusement in their eyes. He thought he had concealed his attraction toward Blake well enough. However, his friends’ eyes were darting back and forth between him and Blake before they all gave him equally eerie, evil smirks. He prepared himself for his friends’ overly inquisitive and highly invasive questions. He had no doubt he was about to be grilled by his friends for all of the juicy pieces of information about Blake. If he didn’t love them all so much, he would have simply ignored them. He knew he wouldn’t be able to escape them indefinitely, so he might as well get everything over with.

* * * *

It was almost half past four in the afternoon, and in spite of it being his first day at the company, Blake felt that he had accomplished quite a lot. He had held a short meeting with everybody from the finance department earlier that morning because he needed to somehow familiarize himself with all the people he would be working with in the foreseeable future. Then he had studied the financial statements of the company from the recent years before talking to his personal assistant about setting up appointments for him. He needed to set everything up, from scheduling to data collection, and all the way to the timing for the regular departmental and interdepartmental meetings.

He even worked through his lunch hour, choosing to eat his sandwiches inside his office instead of going out for a nice, relaxing meal. By the time he was satisfied with his progress, it was nearing the end of his first working day at the company. He winced as he stretched his arms up high. His whole body was sore from sitting for far too long, but he was glad he was making a dent in the tasks he wanted to complete for the day. He stared at his empty coffee mug and decided it was time to visit the pantry for a refill. Now that he was about to take a short break, his mind inevitably wandered to Justin.