Picture of Kai Dawson above
Devin's POV
"What the hell did you do that for Ray!" I yelled at the club's bouncer who was now carrying the unconscious boy towards the exit.
"I warned him once already. You told me you didn't know him anyway."
"That didn't mean you were allowed to just knock him out. What am I going to do with him now?"
"I can give him a ride home," the dude that was sitting on the couch with Alex said.
"Oh fuck off, you just met him," I said glaring at the man. He just shrugged and trotted back down the stairs.
I followed Ray outside to find two more people that both looked like they were in a minor scuffle of their own. The bigger one jumped up hastily when he saw Alex getting carried out.
"What the fuck happened to him!" he yelled at me.
"He snuck inside and this dumbass punched him out," I said pointing towards Ray who was now sitting Alex down against the wall.
"You know the reason I'm here is that he needed a distraction so he could sneak in and get you out, right? If you weren't such an asshole maybe you would realize that nobody here would be in this situation if you didn't leave your new employee stranded in some back alley while he sat around wondering how he could keep himself from being fired."
I deserved that.
Alex POV
"You doing alright buddy?" I heard Kai's voice murmur.
I could feel myself slowly waking up, my head was pounding and I could feel that Kai was carrying me bridal style off to god knows where.
"Wait, I have to get Devin to his meeting," I can't get fired my first day, my Dad would probably disown me.
"He can find his own way there, Alex. Worry about your face first and that asshole second."
"Please?" I said giving him the puppy dog eyes that never fails to get me what I want.
After a few seconds of my stare, Kai finally caved.
"Hey, asshole! Get in the car, Alex says he needs to get you somewhere and he doesn't need to put up with any more of your shit today."
"Yeah sure whatever, let me just hop into this car with two people I've known for less than twenty-four hours combined. Yeah, that's a great idea," Devin said walking up closer to us.
"Please just get in the car, Devin," I said now shooting my puppy dog stare towards him.
"Fine whatever, but if you guys hold me ransom I'm going to be pissed," Devin said jogging up and getting in the backseat of the car.
Kai placed me down in the front seat of his car and reached over to get my seatbelt buckled.
"I may have gotten punched in the face, but I ain't dying Kai. I think I can buckle my own seatbelt," I said laughing a little as he jumped back and froze a moment before running around the car to get in the driver's side.
"How do you know Alex anyway?" Devin asked from the back seat after I told Kai the address of the building the meeting would be held in.
"Oh sorry, I would've introduced you all but I was unconscious," I chuckled mildly, still slightly agitated over the situation, "Devin, this is my best friend Kai, Kai this is my, uh, boss I guess?"
"Oh, that sort of explains how angry he was at me," Devin muttered, "How long you have two known each other?"
"Our whole life pretty much. My Mom used to say that if she didn't give birth to me personally she would think we were brothers," I smiled at the memory of my mom scolding Kai when he was throwing one of his infamous tantrums.
"Yeah, we're close enough that if he gets hurt because of you again, I will personally hunt you down and beat the ever-living shit out of you," Kai said staring Devin down through the rearview mirror.
"Thanks for the concern Kai, but it wasn't really his fau-,"
"No Alexander, he's right. I totally bailed on you outside the club. If I would've just let you come in that wouldn't have happened. So, sorry for that, I guess," Devin said looking everywhere except towards the front of the car. I was taken aback by the apology, but happy to receive one nonetheless.
"Apology accepted, we're going to drop you off at the label and I'm going to have Kai run me home to change out of this ripped suit, and then I'll be back to meet you and Allie afterward."
Devin just nodded as I turned on the radio to fill the silence.
A short while later we pulled up to the label to drop Devin off. He gave us a quick 'see ya' and ran inside.
"How's the head?" Kai asked, pulling back onto the busy road.
"It's not too bad, a little sore and I've got a bit of a headache but nothing unbearable."
Kai nodded, "So back to your place so you can change right?"
"Yeah, might take a minute to ice my face too. Don't want a big bruise tomorrow."
"A little late for that I'm afraid," Kai smiled looking over at me, "At least you wear a bruise well. It gives you a little bit of a dangerous aura. The ladies will love it."
A short while later we had pulled into the house and Kai had forced me to hold a bag of frozen peas to my face while I attempted to get into one of my other suits. We took another fifteen minutes to relax and flip through some channels before I told him we should probably head back.
"The next time something like that happens just leave his ass and call the hot lady," Kai said making me chuckle.
"That hot lady's name is Allie by the way," I said rolling my eyes.
Feeling my phone vibrate, I pulled it out a saw a text from an unknown number.
Unknown
Hey it's the platinum-blond
haired guy with a big ego.
Allie sent me your number
Unknown
Just left the meeting
I told Allie a little bit of
what happened. We're
supposed to meet her
back at my place.
Me
I'm pulling into the
parking lot now. I'll
meet you in a second.
"Thanks for the help today Kai, I might've bled out in that back alley if you weren't there," I joked, lightly tapping him on the arm.
"No problem, but before you go can we talk about somethi-,"
Tap tap tap
I turned to see Devin standing outside the passenger side door with his arms crossed and a small smile on his face.
"No worries, we can talk later. Give me a ring after you get off, yeah?" Kai said and I nodded back quickly.
I got out and brushed off the new suit I was wearing before facing back toward Devin.
"New suit eh? The dark color matches the purple bruise well. We'll be ready to go as soon as the meeting officially ends. I might've told them I needed to use the bathroom to get out of there for a few minutes."
I chuckled completely unsurprised, "First of all, rude. Second of all... no wait. Both of those things you just said were rude."
Devin shrugged as we watched what was probably a dozen men and women walk out of the tall office building. The meeting must've just ended.
A short and portly man wearing a suit waddled over to where we were standing. All he was missing was a top and a heavy eye shadow and his Danny Devito cosplay as the Penguin would've been complete.
"We've ultimately determined that removing the song 'Red Herring' from your upcoming album is the only way to proceed under our label. Take some time to ponder it over, but our decision is final," the man said before turning and waddling towards another car.
Devin didn't look surprised, they must've already brought up the subject while he was in the meeting.
"Let's go, Alexander, we've got places to go and people to see," Devin said once again throwing a posh accent on my name as he led the way to the car.
This time I made sure I was close enough to Devin to hear him tell the driver that we're going back to his house. I only had a few hours before I needed to pick the twins up from daycare and I don't trust that he won't try to get us to go on another one of his excursions.
The ride back was silent once again, yet this time it didn't have the same air of awkwardness that the previous ride did. Both Devin and I messed around on our phones and I wondered what Kai had wanted to talk about. He seemed fairly serious and, in the fifteen years I've known him I can count on one hand how many times I've seen him serious. The driver snapped me out of it when he announced that we had arrived back at Devin's house.
Pushing my thoughts aside I hopped out of the car and gave a quick thank you to the driver and we made our way inside.
Devin and I both went towards the office room, thankfully I could remember where it was this time. I knocked a few times when we got outside and waited only a few seconds before Allie opened the door.
She took a look at my face and her blank expression turned into one of concern and a slight bit of anger.
"How's the face, Alex?" she asked almost timidly, with clear concern laced in her eyes.
"It's better now, I iced it earlier so it shouldn't be too inflamed tomorrow. No need to worry about it."
"I'm sorry I left you alone on your first day, I should've known better," Allie said shooting Devin a nasty look, "Devin I'd like to talk to you for a moment."
Devin nodded slightly and followed her into the room, closing the door behind them.
I thought about not eavesdropping but I just couldn't help myself.
"Days like today cannot happen Devin. I don't just mean what happened with Alex, I mean the interview too. The agency is blaming me for that one. If they could punish you without losing so much revenue they probably would, but they can't so they punish me instead."
"Punishing you how? I don't understand," I heard Devin say even though it was slightly muffled through the door.
"I was given a new assignment, at least for the time being. Starting tomorrow I will be the assistant to some up-and-coming social media influencer. I don't know how long it will last or even if they will let me come back, but that's what I was informed of earlier."
"No, no way. That can't even do that, can they? You're my assistant, you have been for years now. How can the agency decide that?"
"Who do you think pays me? The agency oversees all new hires in regards to you. That's how we discovered how mutually beneficial Alex could be. You better hope his father never finds out about what you did to his son today, by the way. That man can get you blacklisted from every talent agency in the western hemisphere."
"What did you mean Alex could be mutually beneficial?" Devin asked Allie.
"You know you're like my little brother, Devin. I've sat around a let you get spoiled without giving you the chance to mature on your own. Alex is exactly the type of person you could learn from. I say that being as non-condescending as possible. When his father had mentioned that he wanted to find a summer job for Alex I jumped at the opportunity. It's obvious by now that I don't know how to help you mature, but maybe someone else can. Unfortunately, we'll be tossing him directly into the deep end. He'll be expected to competently fill my role until they find someone who can fill it. He'll be going in blind, so I expect you to go easy on him."
Without waiting for Devin's response the door popped open and Allie was ushering me in.
"Come in Alex, we need to talk."
Allie repeated pretty much everything I overheard her tell Devin while I was eavesdropping. I tried my best to act surprised but I'm fairly certain Allie knew that I was listening in.
"I can't do it," I told them shaking my head violently, "The most logical reason why is because I wouldn't have a clue what I would need to do. That's not the only reason though, the hours don't work for me. I have twin brothers who rely on me to get them breakfast and dinner as well as take them to and from daycare every day. I can't do that if I'm working all the time."
"What if I have a solution?" Devin said suddenly, "We already offer on-site daycare for the in-house staff, you could just bring them here in the morning."
"They trust Janet too much. She's irreplaceable. Hell, I trust her too. I'm sure you have top-of-the-line staff here, but you can't just uproot kids from their daily routine and expect them to be fine."
"Janet is the babysitter I'm guessing?" Devin asked and I nodded, "Do you have her number?"
"Are you seriously asking for the number of my brothers' babysitter?"
"Just give me the number and you'll understand."
Reluctantly I agreed to give him Janet's number. He told us he would be back in a bit and left the room.
"Ya know I think he likes having you around Alex," Allie said, "That makes me hopeful that he's at least trying to mature."
Allie used the rest of the time spent waiting on Devin to return by giving me a rundown of exactly what her day-to-day job consisted of. About halfway through her explanation of her first hour at work, I realized I needed to be writing this all down. I was amazed at how much one person could micromanage, but by the time Devin walked back in I did feel slightly more confident in my capabilities.
"You can bring them here starting tomorrow. Janet happened to just get a job offer from the ever-charming Mr. Waters that she just couldn't refuse," Devin said grinning at me cheekily.
I sat there a moment staring at him, shocked beyond words. He must've noticed because he started fidgeting under my gaze.
"Is there something in my teeth or something?" he asked picking at them with his fingernail.
"No uh sorry, I'm just lost on what to say. Thank you, I think? That should make it a little easier for the twins to transition into another environment."
"I'm not great at apologies so take this as my way of saying sorry about the face."
Allie stood up after it seemed like the conversation had lulled.
"It seems like we have everything ironed out. In some weird masochistic way, I might just miss working for you, Devin," Allie said to Devin before turning toward me, "You need to be heading out to pick up your brothers, don't you? Sitting them down and explaining to them the changes that are going to be happening may help ease the transition for them tomorrow too."
"Yeah, I really should get going. Thank you for all the advice you've given me Allie, and I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Devin," I waved to them both as I began walking out the door.
"Bye, Alexander."