Ignite

It was with great struggle that Jack pulled himself out of bed for his second day at work. He honestly didn’t think he could face another day like yesterday. He was already alone enough in the big city – he didn’t want to be alone in an office full of people. In truth, Jack just want to crawl home and cry in his Mom’s arms, but he knew that he’d be ridiculed and humiliated by his Dad for the rest of his life if he did that. And as much as his Mom would welcome him home, he knew she’d be disappointed. So, for her, Jack got dressed into another new suit, dark blue this time with a cornflower blue shirt, tying a matching dark blue tie around his neck before he picked up his belongings and left for the day (triple locking his apartment door behind him, of course).

Jack took the time to grab himself a quick croissant and coffee on the way to his office, finishing the pastry and wiping the crumbs from his lips before he reached his floor. He didn’t want to make a bad impression in his first week, no matter how miserable his first day made him.

Alex was already at his desk when Jack reached his, and Jack offered him a smile.

“Oh thank fuck you’re here,” Alex groaned.

Shit. What’s happened?! Had he done something wrong? Had he filed those forms wrong before he left? Fuck, was he getting fired already?!

“W-Why?” Jack asked as calmly as possible.

“I acted like such a dick to you yesterday, and I shouldn’t have,” Alex frowned, “I wanted to apologise before the day started,”

Oh. Wow. That was unexpected. And nice.

“You were just busy, it’s fine,” Jack said, shaking his head.

“No, it’s not fine. Everything had gone so wrong that morning and Mr Dawson, who I’m the PA for, was in a bad mood and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. It was your first day and completely unfair of me. Hell, if someone had acted like that to me on my first day, abandoning me, then I probably wouldn’t have come back,” Alex said seriously.

Jack smiled weakly. He nearly hadn’t come back.

“I want to make it up to you, starting with a proper tour of the whole office,”

“Won’t Mr Merrick and Mr Dawson mind?” Jack frowned.

“Eh, they won’t be in until 10am today, big meeting across town. And besides, you need to know where the other departments are and who to talk to in them in case Mr Merrick wants you to run something to someone or to pick something up,” Alex shrugged.

Oh, well, fair enough.

“Can I quickly log in first? So the system shows that I’m here?” Jack asked.

Alex grinned. “You’re smart. That makes my life a lot easier,”

Jack blushed slightly, shrugging his coat off and hanging it up. It was only common sense.

Only a few minutes later, Jack had logged in, checked his emails (there were none, unsurprisingly) and finished his coffee, Alex standing patiently at his side.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Jack smiled.

“Awesome. Now, I’ll draw you up a chart later of who’s who in our office, as well as which other departments are where on the floor. The executives are on the floor above us, and as well as our department on this floor, there is the design team, who do all the artwork etc, the press and media marketers who make sure the work that our campaign teams do actually gets out there, the accounts in and out team who deal with invoicing etc, the HR team…”

*

It took nearly 45 minutes for Alex to give Jack a full tour, including where the small kitchen was so he could store his lunch and make coffees, where the store room was for stationary supplies, where the best phone signal was, and where to get the best view of the city. Not necessarily all work related, but Jack appreciated it all the same. This was how yesterday should’ve gone. This was the start he needed.

“Alright, both the teams should be in the office now, so I’ll introduce you to them. They don’t bite, even on a bad day, so don’t be nervous,”

“I’m not nervous,” Jack replied.

Alex raised an eyebrow, making Jack blush slightly. Okay, so he was a little nervous.

“Brace yourself,” Alex mused.

Before Jack could reply, Alex pushed open the doors to their office, and whistled sharply, making the noise simmer down.

“Listen up! It’s time to introduce the new meat now that yesterday’s Armageddon is over!” Alex announced.

Jack blushed as the 12 people in front of him cheered. 12 people putting all their attention on him – Jack couldn’t remember the last time that happened. Alex laughed at Jack’s expression, nudging him to move forward.

“Everyone, this hot piece of ass in the impeccable blue suit is Jack Barakat, recent Media Studies graduate, and fresh from Maryland,”

Jack blushed again at the chorus of hellos. Hot piece of ass? Impeccable suit? At least he wasn’t the only gay one in the office.

“Alright, on the right, in line with my desk, is Mr Dawson’s team. Evan Kirkendall, Jeff Maker, William Beckett, Tay Jardine, Patrick Stump and Alex Grieco. Grieco is the senior team member,” Alex introduced, pointing to the people to coincide with their names.

Jack nodded, smiling at them all. They looked friendly enough, even the guy with the impressive beard.

“And on the left, in line with your desk, is Mr Merrick’s team. Jenna McDougall, Danny Kurily, Vinny Petrocelli, Brendon Urie, Ryan Ross, and John O’Callaghan. John is the senior team member for this team,”

Jack nodded again. Those six were the ones he really needed to know.

“It’s good to meet you. Sorry about yesterday,” John said, smiling apologetically.

“Nice to meet you too. And don’t worry about it, I know you all were busy,” Jack said smiling back.

“I like you more than the last PA already,” Jenna grinned, Tay agreeing.

Two girls? There were only two girls? Well, at least they had each other. At least they weren’t alone in an office full of men. That would suck.

“All holiday request forms, sickness forms, general requests to Mr Merrick from his team will go in the tray on top of this filing cabinet, okay?” Alex explained, “it’s best to wait until the last half hour of the day to collect them and take them into Mr Merrick, so it gives your team time to get them in,”

“Okay, that sounds easy enough,” Jack said.

Alex grinned and clapped him on the back. “That’s the spirit,”

*

The rest of Jack’s morning went fairly smoothly. Alex had sent him over the seating charts for the entire office so he spent a little time learning that, and John had come over to show him where and how to log the staff sickness and holiday calendar, which was nice of him. Then Zack had come in and given Jack more filing to do, so that kept him busy.

But now it was 2pm. Jack still wasn’t sure what to do about lunch. He’d eaten quickly and in silence at his desk yesterday, but would today be different?

“Well I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” Alex said suddenly.

What?

“We technically shouldn’t really take lunch at the same time, because one of us should really be answering the phones, but Rian and…Mr Dawson and Mr Merrick are pretty lenient as long as it’s not too busy a day,” Alex explained.

Rian? Oh, Rian must be Mr Dawson (he knew Mr Merrick was called Zachary)…why did Alex slip up like that? Huh.

“Oh, that’s nice of them,” Jack said, smiling.

“They’re pretty nice on the eyes too, huh?” Alex grinned.

W-What? Was he allowed to say things like that?!

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t met them,” Jack mumbled.

Technically, he hadn’t met Mr Merrick. And he definitely hadn’t met Mr Dawson.

“Mr Merrick gave you filing last night,” Alex retorted, smirking slightly.

Damn it.

Jack blushed slightly as he thought back to last night, when his boss has talked to him briefly at the end of the day. He really had fit Jack’s description of a perfect guy, but he was Jack’s boss! He couldn’t think of him like that!

“Knew it,” Alex said, winking.

“Shut up!” Jack whined.

Alex just laughed. “Come on, let’s go to lunch,”

Jack bit his bottom lip but locked his computer and followed Alex. He needed a friend. And he wasn’t going to be fussy, not if Alex was willingly spending time with him.

After a 10 minute walk, Alex led Jack into a small deli, ushering him to a small table.

“This place has the best sandwiches in town, I swear,” Alex told him, shrugging off his suit jacket, “is there anything you don’t eat?”

“Um, not really, but I’m not a fan of tuna? Or liver?” Jack offered.

“Great, I’ll be right back,”

Jack frowned as Alex went up to the counter, not understanding, but his eyes went wide when Alex returned with a bottle of sparkling water each, tucking his wallet back into his pocket.

“Did you just pay for both of us?” Jack asked, confused.

“Yeah, I did. I meant it when I said I was going to make it up to you,” Alex shrugged.

“Thanks,” he murmured.

“No problem, Jack. And welcome to New York,” Alex mused.

Jack smiled genuinely for the first time in weeks.