I Think I Wanna Marry You

Alex stopped at the end of the road, his breath was heavy and he was panting like a dog. He was bent over with his hands on his knees, too exhausted to stand up properly. It was only about 6:30am, but it was his morning routine to go on a jog before he went to work. It woke him up properly and got him ready for the day ahead; it also helped to calm him down before he started his day, and Lord only knows that he worked with enough idiots that he needed the relaxation and exercises to calm him down before he so much as looked at them.

He knew that he was hated at work, he came across as arrogant and annoying and he showed off a lot. He was young - only 23, his dad had handed him the business when he retired last year, making Alex the new manager. The older people who had been working there for longer were probably the most pissed off at him, they had been working their asses off for years just for Alex to waltz in and take all of the chances that they had of a promotion away. When Alex had been the manager for a week - everybody hated him. He knew he gave everybody too much work to do, but if he did that, then he got more vacation days, meaning more free time. It was a dickish thing to do and he knew it, but for him it was a win win situation. They got more work done - making the company owners happy at him - and he got more time off.

He even got himself an assistant on his third week - he didn’t even need one, he just got fed up of getting his own coffee and having to go all the way up to the 4 th floor to the accountants to give them some flimsy sheets of paper with far too many numbers on if you asked him. Plus, their floor had money left over every week as they didn’t use as many supplies as the other floors - mainly because Alex had a rule that if you so much as misplace a pen then you have to buy your own to use. He was sick and tired of all of their money going towards pens and pencils because his workers didn’t know where they put them down.

As his assistant ran around after him and did what he was told at the drop of a hat, everyone in the office hated him too, they thought of him as Alex’s little puppy and Alex had him on a leash and took him everywhere with him. That and the fact that he was getting more money than them just because he knew how Alex liked his coffee.

Rumours had even spread around the offices that the two had begun dating, but Alex quickly dismissed them by standing up on a desk and yelling at them until his throat felt raw and he could see tears in a woman’s eyes.

He had been the manager for about a year now and he still had the same assistant, but there was no way that he would be able to tell you his name, though he was pretty certain that it began with a G or J. John? Jim? Gary? Gordon? It was one of them.

If Alex was being honest with himself, he didn’t see himself as that bad, just because he was younger and better at his job that people who had ten years more experience than him, doesn’t mean that they should hate him for it, right? It wasn’t his fault, he just got lucky to get a well paying job and the way he was acting now ensured that he wasn’t going to get fired or shut off any time soon. Even his superiors seemed frightened of him at times, and that was saying something.

Alex jogged a block back to his house once he had caught his breath. Once he got into his house, he ran straight up to the bathroom, already wanting to shower and get rid of the quickly growing cold sweat that had coated his body and was making his clothes stick to his skin.

It was 7:00am when he got out of the shower and decided to put his work clothes straight on, a pair of dressy pants and a shirt with a matching tie, he slipped his jacket on and ruffled his hair, making sure that it was just right. Not that anybody but him actually cared - the fact that he spent so long checking out his appearance made his fellow work peers think of him as that much more arrogant and cocky. He tried not to care too much about them; after all, he was earning more money than them.

He got out to his car and started the 20 minute drive to his office, he pulled up after he finished listening to the song that was playing on the radio. He saw all of his colleagues that were stood outside, either talking with one another and spreading gossip or trying to fit a smoke in before the work day started.

The second they saw Alex step out of the car and walk up, they separated and their mumbles died down as Alex just smirked, walking past them all, he took a quick glance at his watch and turned around. “If I don’t see you all upstairs within the next 5 minutes then I’m going to have to start firing some people.” The look on people’s faces expressed just how much they disliked him and his attitude towards them, though it was Monday morning, so he couldn’t really bring himself to care.

He shrugged off their dirty looks and walked into the building, hearing everyone move around behind him and mumbles of a few or more insults that were more than likely directed at him. However, he kept the smile that was on his face, enlarging it when it faltered a bit after hearing someone mutter “selfish bastard.” His head was held up high still when he got to his department’s floor. His personal assistant was leaning against a desk, scrolling through his phone and slowly sipping a cup of coffee, when he took it away from his mouth, Alex walked past him and picked it from his hands. “Thanks Jordan,” he said, carrying on walking, completely missing the look of shock on the boy’s face.

“It’s Jack. My name is Jack.” The boy said, sounding both tired and agitated.
“Well, I can try and remember that. Don’t blame me if I don’t.” Alex replied, not looking behind him to talk to the younger. “And put that away,” Alex said, referring to the phone in Jack’s hand, “your shift starts now.” He finished.
“It actually doesn’t start for another half an ho-”
“It starts now. You’re my assistant, when I work, you work.”
“I-....Okay.” Jack sighed, he saw the few people that witnessed the conversation tut and roll his eyes at him, but he wasn’t going to talk back to his boss, he didn’t want to get fired so it was better for him if he just went along with everything that Alex said.

The pair walked into Alex’s fancy office. It was big, that much could be said. Jack had a small desk on the opposite side of the room to Alex’s large desk. The room was bright, white walls, a soft white carpet, 3 of the same red and black painting hung up on separate walls and a very large window overlooking Baltimore, it was a pretty beautiful view, if Jack said so himself, and one of the only good things about working for Alex was that he got to sit in front of it and look at it every day.

“Any messages?” Alex asked, putting his - Jack’s - coffee cup down on his desk and sitting down, breathing out a sigh of relief, now he could relax.
“Uhm,” Jack started, filing through some of the top papers that had been flung on his desk, he swore that people in this office didn’t know what the word organisation meant. He found 2 papers that had been left today, all of the others were from yesterday and had been dealt with so he made a mental note to shred them. One of the papers had an orange sticky note on, so he read that first.

Needs to be seen to immediately, my office, third floor. he read the post it note out loud so that Alex could hear.

"Who's that from?" The older boy asked, loudly biting into an apple that he found at his desk.
Jack took the post it note off the A4 sheet an skimmed over it, finding the 2 names at the bottom.

"Tommy Goulding and Paul Cotton." He said, trailing off at the end once the names registered. It was the owners of the company and in his year here, Jack had never seen someone go up there and come back with a smile on their face. They always went up and came back down with tears in their eyes and a box in their arms to pack all of their stuff in.

"Hm, okay, I'll go up in a minute. You can stay down here and fax these to reception." Alex said, handing Jack 5 sheets of paper covered in Alex's messy handwriting. Jack handed him the sheet off the owners in return, watching as he read over it quickly and rolled his eyes once he finished. He scrunched the piece of paper up and threw it into the bin, continued to bite at his apple.

"I should only be a few minutes." He said through mouthfuls of food, Jack grimacing at the sight.
"Take as long as you need," he muttered as Alex walked out, he walked out himself and over to the fax machine, beginning the long process. He could always photocopy the sheets and go down to reception himself, but that would take even longer, and he didn't want to have to walk through the office and have everyone glare daggers in the back of his head just because he was doing yet another thing for Alex.

He started faxing the first page over, before he moved onto the second and then the third, soon enough he had reached the last page, but on the back he noticed more of Alex's rushed handwriting. Page 5/6

It didn't take him long to decide to just go up and knock on the office door and ask Alex where the other one was. He'd probably get fired if he went through the elders desk and reception could get more faxes and it could get lost. So that was that, he still had to walk through the office to the elevator that led him up to the floor above, gritting his teeth at the feeling of everyone staring at him as he walked past. One of these days, they would be the death of him.

--

"Alex, your Visa has expired, you can't stay here." Paul stated, they'd gone through this about 3 times now but Alex was still having none of it.
"I'll just apply for a new Visa then." He shrugged, getting ready to stand up and leave.
"And that will take time." Tommy started, "You need to go back to England before you apply for another one. Alex, we have perfectly fine companies over there in Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds. Take your pick if you like." He said.
"Why can't I just do it now? Why do I have to leave Baltimore if I'll be coming straight back?" Alex argued.
"Alex we don't handle stuff like this and you know it. Some things just have to be done." Paul said, rubbing his temples.

Alex don't know what was going through his mind, he didn't think he even wanted to know what was going through his mind, but he blamed his next words on the movie that he stayed up late last night to watch.

"Aha! But I don't need to go back to England, because I'm engaged. I'm getting married." He said, smiling to himself at his idea. Though he knew he hadn't thought it through, it was an on the spot decision, really.

Tommy and Paul stared at him for a few moments and Alex knew that they didn't believe him. They knew that Alex would do anything to stay in Baltimore, but Alex had said it, and they had it on record, so they went with it.

"Who to?" Paul asked, closing his eyes and sighing through his nose.
"Why does that matter?" Alex said, crossing his arms defensively over his chest.
"Because we have to send a letter off to the immigration office that both of our signatures will be on and saying you're getting married isn't enough. We need to say who to otherwise they might think that we're buying you time and then all three of us will get the sack. They need a name and a file of the person." Tommy stated.

"Oh, right then." Alex said, leaning forward in his seat, his brain coming up an absolute blank, and he couldn't just go back on his statement, then he'd risk being fired and he couldn't afford that.

"Well, I'm engaged to...I'm getting married to..." Alex stuttered, his cool calm facade dropping momentarily.

A knock at the door interrupted all three men and they snapped their heads towards it. It opened slowly and Alex's assistants head popped through it, "uhm Alex, you gave me these sheets-"

"Jack," Alex said in shock, what was he doing here? His brain was too busy combusting for him to give himself a mental applause for remembering the youngers name.

"Jack." He said again, turning towards his superiors. He looked back and forth between the three of them and saw as the colour on Jack's face drained as he said his next sentence. It was all a situation of wrong place, wrong time for the youngest boy and he really wished he had just used that damn photocopier.

"I'm getting married to Jack."

Notes

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