Chapter Text
Alex threw a quick glance across the office to the conference room where the new crop of interns was slowly trickling in. Through the glass walls he could see the head of HR seated at the far end of the table, something written behind him on the white board, no doubt a phrase of welcome and the wifi credentials. He remembered his own orientation at the beginning of the year, recalled the nervous energy. He suppressed a sigh as he looked back at his screen, wishing for some of that excitement at the moment. Anything other than the busywork he was currently handling. After fifteen minutes of typing, his focus was broken by the sound of the glass door sliding shut, the last intern taking his seat at the table, and the head of HR clapping his hands together before launching into an introduction. The intern seated closest to the door, the one who had just arrived, was pulling his notebook out of his bag still, hurrying to catch up to everyone else. As he twisted in his seat to zip his bag back up, his curls falling in his face, they accidentally made eye contact. As Alex hurriedly turned back to his screen, feeling his face heat up at the prospect of getting caught staring, he saw the other man smile briefly before turning back to face the front of the room, his head tilted slightly to the side as he listened.
Alex made his fourth trip to the kitchen for coffee a little after noon, glancing down at his phone as he walked to check the status of his food delivery, watching the little dot on the map move closer to his office. He was distracted enough that he nearly collided with someone else walking the other direction. He would have if they hadn’t jumped out of the way at the last second, tripping a bit and falling against the wall. “Shit,” Alex said, shoving his phone in his pocket and glancing up to see the intern from that morning, laughing as he straightened. “I’m sorry, I should have been looking where I was going.” It was an empty apology. He had a habit of walking places with his eyes glued to his phone, constantly multitasking, and he didn’t plan to change that now. But this new guy didn’t know that.
“It’s fine,” he said with a grin, laughter still touching the corners of his lips. “No harm done.”
“You just started today, right? With the new class of interns?” He knew the answer, but it was more polite to phrase it as a question than a statement.
“Yeah. I’m John.” He stuck out his hand. “John Laurens.”
“Nice to meet you, John,” Alex said, accepting his handshake and suddenly realizing how dry his own hands were. “I’m Alexander Hamilton. Uh, Alex is fine though.” He berated himself silently for the stumble. “I’m an intern too. Started in March. How’s orientation going so far?”
“As well as orientations can ever go, I guess. A lot of information about company policies, insurance, setting up direct deposit. Exhilarating stuff,” he said with a short laugh.
“Ha, yeah. First day stuff always drags a little I guess. Prime example of things that could have been an email.” Before John could respond, the phone in Alex’s pocket started vibrating. “Oh shit, that’s probably my food delivery.” He pulled it out, glancing at the New York area code.
“No worries. I’ll see you around, Alex.” As he picked up the call, John gave a quick wave before walking back towards the lunch tables, pulling over another chair to sit with the rest of the new interns. Alex’s mind went blank as he watched him laugh at something with the rest of the group, his head thrown back a little and eyes squeezed shut. As he snapped back to the moment, he had to ask the delivery guy to repeat himself.
The office administrator sent a calendar invite out towards the end of the day for a happy hour to welcome the new hires. Alex accepted all work invites on the principle that any event was a networking opportunity. He never wanted to exclude the possibility of meeting someone who could help him out in the future. Or the possibility of showing off. If this invite came with free drinks and the opportunity to talk more with the cute new intern, who was he to decline?
Five o’clock rolled around, and Alex was busier than he anticipated. Of course the request to help put together a last minute letter for one of their clients would come at 4:30 instead of at a reasonable time. He was aware of the calendar notification in the top corner of his screen, warning him that their new hire happy hour was starting. He sighed in frustration as he mistyped a word, backspacing and fixing the mistake with more aggression than necessary. He could hear people gathering in the kitchen, the desks around him conspicuously empty. The clock in the corner of his screen switched from 5:04 to 5:05 as he forced his focus back onto his work. Just a closing paragraph. That was all he needed.
He finally closed his laptop at 5:12, the letter finished and quickly skimmed through before sending it out. It was unusual for him, leaving his desk this early. Alex usually stayed at the office until at least 6:30, preferring to get through as much work as possible before the day was done. Today was a special occasion though. One day of leaving on time couldn’t hurt. At least that’s what he kept telling himself as he hurried over to the kitchen, grabbing a beer from the fridge just in time to hear their boss, Washington, attempt to quiet everyone down. He took a seat at the table with the other interns who started with him, returning a few quick greetings. The new interns sat at the table next to them, clutching their beers, their eyes shifting around the room at all the unfamiliar faces. As Washington stood up the room finally fell silent. “Hello, everyone! I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome all of our new hires today. I hear you’re a great group, and I’m excited to see the work you’re all going to do here.” He smiled in the general direction of the new interns. “Now, first thing’s first. How about all of our new coworkers go ahead and introduce yourselves. Tell us all your name, school you went to, and your favorite flavor of ice cream.” He smiled, most likely with the knowledge that he had just put each and every one of them on the spot with a ridiculous ice breaker question.
Alex listened with split attention to the first few, mind still on others matters from his work day. He found his focus snap back to the group when he realized a familiar voice was speaking. “... and my favorite flavor of ice cream is probably Phish Food from Ben and Jerry’s.” He watched as the next intern began to speak, listing off their own answers. When they finally finished their introductions, Washington released them all to drink and mingle. As a few of the interns at his table started talking about the latest episode of some TV show he hadn’t watched, Alex glanced around the room. As he turned in his chair he came face to face with John Laurens.
“Hey,” he said, still only half turned in his chair. “So, Phish Food, huh?”
“Yeah, you ever had it? It’s really good.”
“Nope. Don’t tend to buy a lot of unnecessarily overpriced ice cream. I’d rather just go to a normal ice cream stand.”
John snorted a quiet laugh. “Okay, so what’s your favorite flavor?”
“Cookie dough. It’s a classic, but still amazing. Not too simple, not too complex. Good no matter what brand you buy it from.”
“Cookie dough is good, I’ll give you that. Phish Food is better though.”
Alex finally shifted his chair around so he could face John properly. “As long as you’re okay with the fact that you’re wrong,” he said with a shrug. As the group behind him laughed at something he leaned a little closer so he could hear John better, their arms accidentally brushing together as he did so. “So, how was the rest of your first day? Any highlights?”
“We had free bagels this morning.”
“From?”
“Best Bagel?” He phrased it as a question, as if unsure of the name.
“Oh, nice! They’re actually good!”
“Glad to have your approval on something,” he replied with a roll of his eyes. He leaned back in his chair, taking a sip of his beer. His sleeves were rolled up, and Alex eyed the muscles along his forearm as he moved.
He lost his concentration for a moment and accidentally let the conversation pause for a beat too long. He fumbled for words for a second, watching John put his beer back down on the table, tilting his head to the side a bit as he looked back at Alex. “Uh, yeah. Well,” he said, pausing again and growing frustrated with himself. He never usually had a problem finding words. “How are the other interns?” Easy topic. He figured it couldn’t hurt to change the subject.
“They’re good.” He took another sip, glancing back at his own table for a quick moment. “Haven’t had too much time to get to know people yet. Only had about half an hour at lunch, and besides that we’ve been in meetings all day.” He punctuated the sentence with a shrug.
Alex became aware that he was monopolizing John’s time. He should probably be connecting with the other new hires. Learning about the rest of the people he’d be going through orientation with. He considered, briefly, allowing John to go back to the conversation at his table, but something stopped him. A voice inside his head? No. More of a magnetic pull. A force. Some inexplicable desire to keep this going as long as he possibly could. He grabbed his own beer from the table and took a long drink before asking, “Are you doing anything after this?”
It was only a short moment, only the time it took to take a deep breath. But it felt like an eternity. It felt as if the whole world stopped turning, and everything and everyone was just waiting for John to answer. “Did you have something in mind?”