Blank Document

Alex sat staring at the white screen on his computer; he had been told by his boss to write a short piece of creative writing for a small article in the back of the paper he worked for, in other words he had been asked to write a short story and it had to be in by the end of the day. Now usually, Alex would jump at the opportunity to write anything, whether it be an article, song or story but he had to go where his imagination took him but that’s not something his boss wanted. The big guy wanted Alex to write about an unusual romance, he wanted something brilliant and out of the box and completely unusual, but it all had to be under the one topic of love, and if there was one topic Alex hated, it was romance. The courser continued to flash on the page and it slowly drove Alex to hiding his head in his hands. Not knowing what to do, he knew that the possibility of losing his job was large, it always was when it came to his boss, he was a hard, hard man and if he wanted something he wanted it to the absolute best ability of the writer and if it wasn’t; well the consequences aren’t worth thinking about.

Another hour passed and the screen in front of him was still blank; he knew he had to do something and he knew he had to do it soon, so with a reluctant sigh Alex stood up and made the walk of shame towards his bosses office, the walk was only a matter of seconds and Alex couldn’t help but to feel slightly panicked as he stood in front of the wooden door with the name ‘Mr. J. Barakat’ etched into a plaque. Alex took a deep breather before knocking on the door, he’s never had to do this before so he was hoping the guy wold go easy on him. It took a few seconds, but he eventually heard a disgruntled “Come in.” He slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside the office, it was exactly the same as how it was when he had his interview three years ago, there wasn’t a pen out of place, everything was in its place and scarily neat.

“What do you want?” The man muttered, not even bothering to look up to see who had entered the room. All Alex could see was the blonde and black of the man’s hair.

“I-I’m sorry to disturb you sir…” He wrung his hands nervously together and shifted from foot to foot. “B-but you see, I have stumbled across a problem. You’ve asked me to write a short story on romance, but I-I don’t know what to write about. Y-you want me to be outside the box, but the majority of romantic stories are in fact inside the box.” He waited for his bosses reply rather nervously, his palms were starting to sweat and he could feel his heart beating a mile a minute.

“What do you expect me to say, Mr Gaskarth?” Jack finally raised his head and looked to boy in front of him. “I can’t very well tell you how to write your story now, can I?” He placed the pen he was writing with down and took his glasses off at the same time, giving Alex a full view of the man’s brown orbs. “Just write about a past experience or something you want to happen. Write about you romantic fantasies, describe what you want.” He sighed slightly “I thought of all people, you could do this, Gaskarth” He shook his head “Give the readers what they want, but also give them what you think they want, it’s really not all that hard.” Alex only sighed and shook his head in a reply to this as he carefully thought about what his next words would be.

“With all due respect sir, I don’t know what the readers want and I don’t know what I think they want. And as for past experiences, I don’t really have a suitable experience to talk about, I have no fantasies and I don’t know what I want from life.” He bit his lip and looked down, he never had much luck when it came to romance, it was no wonder he hated that genre.

“You have no fantasies? You have nothing you dream of happening? You don’t dream of a beautiful woman, or man, walking into your life and changing it forever? You don’t dream of spending the rest of your life with that perfect person?” Jack now seemed like a completely different man, he seemed happy and wishful and hopeful. He made every word he just spoke sound magical.”
“I don’t know” Alex whined a little bit, “I’ve never had much luck with love or romance, my dream someone would probably hate me anyway!” He looked down to his feet. “Maybe you were wrong about me being the best person for this” He shrugged to himself. Jack only sighed and looked to the time.

“Look” He said with a sigh, “It’s your lunch hour now, maybe I could help you out a little bit.” He stood up and grabbed his jacket along with his keys and phone. “We’re going out for a bit, think of it as an educational field trip.” He smirked a little bit before looking up to Alex. “Go and get your jacket, Mr Gaskarth.” He mumbled before leaving his office. Alex only nodded and quickly followed after him, grabbing his jacket from his chair as he passed it.

“Where are we going?” He asked the taller man as they stepped out of the building and onto the street.

“Out” Jack replied curtly and grabbed Alex’s arm as he pulled him down the street to the little Italian restaurant on the corner. Alex followed obediently and looked around as they walked, a small confused look soon took over the features on his face when they entered the Italian.
“Sir” He mumbled “Why are we here?” He glanced around before looking back up to Jack.
“Because” Jack mumbled, in between telling the waiter that he wanted a table for two. “You need to learn about romance, and what better place to do that than a cute little Italian restaurant? And please, call me Jack” He smiled and pulled Alex’s chair out for him. Alex couldn’t help but to blush as he sat down and bit his lip softly.

“Oh right” He mumbled “I see” He looked up and watched as Jack sat down opposite him and pick up a menu, “So, am I meant to be observing people or something?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that.” Jack mumbled and stifled a chuckle when he looked over the top of his menu to see Alex looking at some of the couples in the restaurant. “You could be a little less discrete” He put the menu down and shook his head a little bit.

“Sorry” He mumbled a little bit and looked back to Jack before looking down to his menu, soon choosing what he wanted to have. He sighed a little bit before looking up to Jack, only just looking at him and realising how attractive he really was. He soon blushed at his thoughts before looking down again.

“Y’know” Jack said casually, “You’re kind of cute when you blush.” He sat back and kept looking at Alex with a smile of adoration.

Alex’s blush only deepened as he looked down, glancing up to Jack through his eyelashes, “Thanks, I guess” He mumbled and bit his lip softly, the corners of his mouth tugging up a little bit.
Jack only smiled and sat up a little more before calling the waiter over and ordering his food, he smiled a little more when he saw Alex stutter out his order, the blush still prominent on his cheeks.

“So” He smiled as the waiter took away their menus. “Tell me about yourself” He leaned his elbows on the table and rested his head in his hands.

Alex blushed a little bit and sighed softly before imitating his boss’s position, “Well, my name is Alexander William Gaskarth, I originally from Essex and I work for this guy who can actually be a little strict, but is actually kind of cool.” He chuckled a little bit and sat back.

“Oh, right” Jack smirked and looked at him, smiling slightly when he saw Alex’s eyes light up just a little bit as he spoke. “Anything else? What about music or hobbies what do you like to do when you’re not working for this strict boss of yours?”

“Well” Alex smiled “I’m really into playing music and listening to it” He smiled shyly and bit his lip softly as he saw Jack looking at him, he wasn’t used to people paying him this much attention and make it intimate at the same time. He sighed softly and took a sip of the water that was placed in front of him. “I also spend a lot of time writing, it’s one of my favourite past times, writing always gives me some sort of relief, even after spending all day writing I still love to write. It’s just amazing” He sighed happily before looking down to his hands. “Sorry, I’m babbling a little bit, but I just wanted to get that out” He chuckled a little bit before looking up to Jack.

“That’s great” He mumbled softly with a smile, just loving the passionate look on his face. “You certainly have your dream job then, don’t you? So if you write so much, why do you have such a block when it comes to romance?” He raised an eyebrow.

“I guess it’s because I don’t have many good experiences, so I kind of hate the whole romance genre. I don’t understand how people just magically find the person who they want to love and who they want to spend the rest of their lives with.”

Jack nodded in understanding before looking up to Alex, “Maybe you just need to keep looking and not give up, I’m sure your perfect someone is out there somewhere.” He smiled softly as their food came. “I know that I hardly know you, but I think that you’re an amazing person, you really are.” He sighed softly and leaned across the table to squeeze Alex’s hand, “Just don’t give up on romance.” He winked before he started to eat, leaving Alex to look at him speechless for a short while before he also began to eat.

Alex smiled to himself as he processed Jacks words and started to eat, humming softly at the taste. He looked up to Jack every so often and he couldn’t help but to smile a little bit at the look of his boss. His mind wouldn’t divert from the way his eyelashes would touch his face whenever he looked down, or the way he would smile a little bit at each mouthful of food he took. He was starting to see the perfection of the man in front of him.

Both men eventually finished their food and sat back with a sigh, “That was amazing” He smiled softly and looked up to Jack.

“It was” The taller man nodded before pulling his wallet out of his pocket and took out his card, causing Alex to shake his head in protest.

“No, Jack. This is too much, you can’t pay for that” He shook his head again.

“No, it’s fine Alex, really” He smiled softly. “Think of it as me helping you to write your story” He called the waiter over to pay for their meals.

“Thank you Jack, but really that’s too much” Alex bit his lip softly.

“It’s fine Alex” He chuckled, “You can pay me back another time if you really want to” He winked before standing up and holding his hand out for Alex to take, and the other boy did so obediently, pushing his chair out and standing up to leave. They walked out of the restaurant hand in hand, their fingers linked together tightly.

As they got back to the office building, Alex looked up to Jack with a shy expression and bit his lip softly before he spoke. “Jack” He spoke softly, “Was that a date?

Jack only smiled and kissed Alex’s cheek gently. “It’s whatever you want it to be.” He pressed a kiss to the boys head before dropping Alex’s hand and walking into the building.

Alex was soon sat at his desk and looking at the screen in front of him, and suddenly the document wasn’t looking so blank any more.