Monsieur had been right: a visit to the club was all a man needed to bring some enthusiasm back into his life.
Now all I needed to do was keep that enthusiasm alive.
4
Alex
“Steady,” I groaned, holding one end of the sofa as the man opposite me navigated his way past the doorway. “Steady, we’re almost there,” I continued, sweat trickling down my forehead as I took cautious steps. When we finally got to the other end of the lounge, we put the sofa down and breathed out with relief. Anderson was supposed to be running all the cleaning up but, since he had come down with the flu, I decided to take it upon myself to oversee things.
“And that’s it for the sofas,” Elliot muttered, sounding as exhausted as I was.
“Yeah,” I smiled, using all of my willpower not to throw myself on top of the sofa. “We’ll take care of the rest after lunch, all right? Tell the boys they can go for their break.”
“On it,” he grinned, joining the rest of the staff as they all marched out of the lounge, the sound of their voices slowly drifting away. Stretching my back, I finally surrendered to what my body needed and threw myself back on top of the sofa, propping my feet up on one of the armrests.
When I first had started working under Monsieur’s guidance, I had been under the impression that he did little beside bark orders from the comfort of his office. The more time passed, though, and the more my responsibilities grew, the more I realized that couldn’t be any farther from the truth.
Despite his stoic demeanor, Monsieur was always in a state of constant busyness…and the same could be said of myself, now that I was acting as his second-in-command. Sure, I didn’t need to go as far as helping with all the cleaning up, but I wanted to go the extra mile. To an extent, I saw the club as my home and, more than just want, I needed things to run smoothly.
Deep down, I knew my perfectionism was a problem. I had given up on making a real connection with someone and so, instead of opening myself up to others, I hid myself behind the perfect walls my performance at the club allowed me to build.
“Alex,” someone called me from outside the lounge, and I immediately recognized the voice as belonging to Elliot. I jumped to my feet right before he poked his head into the room. “There’s a man here to see you.”
“A man?” I echoed, feeling slightly confused as I did a mental inventory of everyone I was supposed to see before lunchtime. There were a few contractors Monsieur wanted me to check on, and he had also asked me to head a few interviews for the additional staff he wanted to hire…but that was all scheduled for the afternoon. “Did he say his name?”
“Dr. Neil Something-something,” he shrugged. “Long hair. Looks important.”
“Oh,” I merely said, not exactly sure on how to feel about it. “Tell him I’ll be right out.”
I ran one hand through my hair, hoping that I hadn’t sweated enough to make it look greasy, and smoothed down the front of my shirt with the palm of my hand. I didn’t need to look my best—the club wasn’t open this morning, after all—but I still wanted to be presentable enough. If Monsieur trusted me with the club’s operations, then I wanted to look the part at all times. Besides, there was something about Neil Macdonough that made my best instincts kick in: my back straightened out at the mere mention of his name, and I even tilted my chin up in what I hoped to be a display of confidence.
“Don’t be an idiot,” I chided myself, shaking my head as I crossed the length of the lounge. Why was I acting like a teenager just now? I wasn’t one of the club’s Consorts, so I didn’t need to worry about what a Patron thought of me. Been there, done that. Not an experience I wanted to repeat.
I just needed to do my job, and that was it.
“Alex,” Neil greeted me the moment I crossed the doorway. He closed the distance between the two of us fast and, before I even know how, he was shaking my hand. Once more, I felt a shiver run up my spine as I felt his fingers on mine. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Likewise, Neil,” I returned, catching myself before I called him Dr. Macdonough. He had asked me to drop the formality, after all. Still, I wasn’t sure if doing what he wanted was the right thing to do.
“I hope I didn’t come at a bad time,” he continued, casually glancing at the staff as they headed out the service doors. “It must be a busy morning for you.”
“It’s always busy around here.” Smiling as politely as I could, I resisted against the urge to ask him about the reason behind his visit. I had my suspicious, of course, but I didn’t want to linger on them for more than I needed to.
“How’s Anderson?”
“Home sick,” I sighed. “He’s started taking the antivirals you prescribed him, but I guess he’s going to be out for a week or so. I still can’t believe he came to work in the state he was in.”
“Some men grow even more stubborn when facing sickness, aye?” he mused. Then, running his tongue over his lips, he let a smile spread across his lips. “Well, I know you must be terribly busy this morning, so I don’t want to take much of your time.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I said, returning his smile. “If we don’t manage to find the time for the Patrons, then everyone would be better served if we closed our doors.”
“Glad to hear,” he grinned. “So, I was wondering if you could find some time in your schedule for me.”
“For you?” I asked, already knowing what he was going to ask. My suspicions were correct, then. It seemed that even after removing myself from the dating pool, my sixth sense remained as sharp as ever.
“Yes. I want to take you out, Alex.” This time, he didn’t offer me a question. No, it was a simple statement, almost as if he was supremely confident there was no possible way I would reply with a ‘no’. Yes, I always took notice whenever he walked into the club, and I always let my gaze linger on him more than I should...but I was pretty damn sure he had never noticed it. I even went out of my way to be cold toward him the night before, just to ensure I wouldn’t appear on his radar, so how could he possibly think I was interested?
But he isn’t that wrong, is he? I thought to myself, noticing the way my pulse seemed to speed up whenever his eyes caught mine. His confident posture and self-assured grin were enough to leave me slightly short of breath, that much I couldn’t deny, and to hear him state his interest in me…well, that made my body warm up in more ways than one.
Still, he was a Patron.
And I had promised myself I wouldn’t walk down that road again. Even if I risked it, I knew exactly what would happen at the end of the day: I’d be used and discarded, and I’d have to rebuild all the walls I had torn down.
“I’m sorry, Neil,” I said, doing my best to quash any hesitancy out of my voice. “I don’t date Patrons.”
He seemed taken aback at that. His eyebrows jumped up slightly, the change in his expression barely noticeable, but I saw it all the same...just as I noticed the way the corner of his lips twitched, his unwavering grin finally crumbling.
“Oh, I see. One of Monsieur’s rules?”