N A T H A N
I PRESS THE button for the 35th floor, heading up in the metal box to our offices and groaning in my head with annoyance. I really don't want to be here right now, but like my Grandfather to use always say, "you can't put food on the table if you don't go to work and if you don't go to work you can't build the buildings to even buy the food in the first place." He had a point and it was true. As architect's, if we didn't help build the world around us, how would we put food on the table? How would we have a roof over our heads? Only, I wanted to be selfish and spend the day with Ryan instead. Even for just one day to play hooky.
If she didn't have plans with her sister and Sophie I would of sent a mass email, giving everyone the day off, but come to think of it, how many times would I be able to get away with that? Not many. I know already that I want my days and nights to be spent with her, and only her. I'm even happy to have Nic with us... on occasion.
"It's only a half day, stop huffing and puffing like a teenager. I know your annoyed," Nic says swatting at my shoulder.
"Alright. I'd just rather be at home with Ryan than here is all," I say, leaning back against the wall of the elevator. I title my head up looking into the bright panel lights above us and sigh heavily.
"You and me both brother," he chuckles. "Buuuut... you can't put food on the table if you-"
"Don't go to work and if you don't go to work you can't build the buildings to even buy the food in the first place," I say with a roll of my eyes then looking at him. "I know, I heard him in my head too," I say and Nic chuckles again.
When we reach our floor, the doors slide open and the big desk with our family name designed across the black shine welcomes us to our floor receptionist who greets us with a smile. "Afternoon," she says sweetly with a chirpy voice, eyeing my brother up and down with a lick of her lips like he's a meal, while I roll my eyes at her blatant obviousness.
She completely ignores me, doesn't even acknowledge my existence and if I'm honest, I prefer it that way. She's been after Nic since she first started here two months ago; always flirting with him and bringing him his messages when she knows full well that everything gets passed to Chris and Emma before us. She barges into his office unannounced when Chris and Emma are not there to stop her, and don't get me started on her clothes. The clothing she wears is completely inappropriate for a office space environment, I swear everyday her skirts are getting shorter and her tops are getting lower, just to catch Nic's eye. But if she knew the truth, that all her efforts to get my brothers attention is just a waste of time she'd stop her little game of cat and mouse.
We've always had the rule, "never mix business with pleasure," and our track record is clean. Every client we've ever had or employee we've hired, even when our Grandfather and Mother were in charge, we've never crossed that line. We like to keep things professional, especially Nic and very few at the office has seen his true self.
Molly isn't the first to try things with either of us, but she certainly is not understanding the hints we've thrown at her and quite frankly, even Nic says she is tiresome. I'm counting down the days till her probation period is up because we've already agreed we're not keeping her. She's only working for us still because of a clause in the probation contract. which was set in place by our Grandfather when he started the company. "All employees need to have a fair chance and contracts will not be terminated before their six month probation period. Their performance will be reviewed at three months and giving a further three to improve before a descision is made," we've been thinking to change the clause in the contract, but we always respect our Grandfathers decisions. Even if he's not with us anymore. If he was here, he would of given Molly a chance.
But she's definitely one of the worse receptionists we had so far, even when our Grandfather and Mother worked here, they never had anyone this bad. Molly is constantly leaving her desk unattended, which has caused us to miss important phone calls and even though she's been here a short period, she's been caught gossiping with others when she should be working. We already warned her after her first month if things didn't improve we would have to let her go
"Morning," I say deadpan, not even looking at her, Nic just nods in her direction and carries on walking pass her. She irks him just as much as she annoys me.
"May I get you some coffee Nicholas?" She says standing as we walk pass her, her white blouse particularly low cut today, not surprisingly. Nic ignores her and strides down the hallway to our offices, not even acknowledging the fact that he was being spoken to.
"You are the floor receptionist Miss Gale that is not your job and not what we pay you for," I can't help but huff out.
"I know Nath- Mr Greyson," she says quickly recovering herself to not call me by my first name like she did my Brother and she nervously chuckles when my brow arches. Neither Nic or myself mind if our employees call us by first names, but most of the people who do, have earned the right to do so. But this girl really does annoy me, she always has and I can't help but scowl towards her. "Sorry, Mr Greyson," she says with a nod, "I was just asking if you needed anything?"
"Me or my Brother?" Her face goes red, her eyes widen as she looks between me and the empty corridor Nic went towards. I know, I know, I'm annoyed I'm at the office and not with Ryan right now, so I'm taking it out on Molly, but I really don't like this girl. I can't help it. "There's nothing and if we do need anything we will ask our PA's ourselves, now... back to work Miss Gale," I say, putting emphasis on her name.
"Yes sir," she says sheepishly.
"Oh and Miss Gale?"
"Yes Mr Greyson?"
"You've been warned in the past and I don't want to have to remind you that your treading on thin ice. Please don't leave the desk unmanned like you did yesterday, if you do, please let Emma know so calls can be transferred to her. I don't want important calls to be missed again," I say with a burning gaze. We have some very important calls coming today that will finalise some big projects and we really can't afford there to be a mix up.
"Yes Mr Greyson," she says deflated, her shoulders slumping and lowering herself on her chair.
I walk away while she mumbles under her breathe, I don't have the patience to ask her to repeat herself so I continue down the hall until I reach the foyer of our office. "Molly pissed you off again?" Emma says with a smile as I round the corner.
"Don't get me started on that woman, she just annoys me."
"So your the bad cop today huh?" Nic chuckles, sitting on the corner of Emma's desk.
"Thought I'd give you the day off," I shrug looking at Nic while he smirks at me, "any messages?"
"Erm... the Baxter project is ready to start construction next week. Larry has all the contractors he needs and signed everything off this morning so it's all good to go and Brody is finalising the legal documents for the Miller project."
"Good... and the Campbell account?" Nic asks.
Emma brings out a stack of paperwork, a smug smile on her face as she answers, "construction starts in three weeks, Larry has already sorted everything and handed it over to Paul, he asked to have a meeting with you both and Linda with the concept art. He's booked in for Monday morning first thing so there won't be any delays," her hands rest under her chin, looking between us like a puppy waiting for a treat and I have to admit, Emma is damn good as our PA. "And before you ask, the Hudson project is on track to being finished as early as Wednesday, Malcolm wants you down there Tuesday so I've booked out your morning already, I'll be in the office so Chris will be with you for experience. I know it's his first day back off vacation and I've already sent him the details of where to be that morning."
"Huh," Nic chuckles, looking down at all the paperwork. "You sure you don't want to work up here full time?"
"You can't afford me Mr Greyson, remember! That's why you have Chris and Ryan starting on Monday," she says rolling her eyes.
She was right. Emma was hired in the legal department before we even started here and as much as we both love her as our PA, she's too expensive to have her just be our assistant. When Laura left we were stuck with just Chris and unfortunately, because of school he only works part time so we needed someone ASAP - Emma being our first choice.
"Unfortunately you are too expensive," I chuckle, "and when are you going to start calling us by our first names?"
She rolls her eyes at us and slowly gets up out of her seat, "I'll train your girl good and you won't even miss me at all... and I'll start calling you Nathan when you give me a promotion," she chuckles, but I'm still grinning at the words 'your girl,'.
"Is that blackmail?" Nic asks sarcastically.
"Take it as you want... coffee Mr Greyson?" She smiles, looking at both of us.
"Please," I say and Nic nods with a small smile, both of us walking towards our own offices, ready to start the day.
"Oh and you both have a visitor, she's waiting in your office," Emma says pointing to Nic's door then walking towards the coffee maker on the far side of the room.
"Who?"
"Melanie, she's been here about twenty minutes or so," Emma says as she pulls out the black cup for Nic and my blue striped cup.
"Do you want to talk to her alone?" I say arching my brow at Nic, but he shakes his head, nodding for me to follow him into his office.
Since Ryan left the house just before us, Nic couldn't stop talking about the party and how Melanie flirting with him upset her. He said he didn't even notice Melanie was all over him and if he had known how badly Ryan was feeling about it or how inappropriate Melanie was being he would of put a stop to it straight away. She's always been naturally flirty with us, especially with Nic since we were in high school. He said this morning he was just as much to blame than Mel and it needs to stop. But I had to remind him that we have history with Melanie, especially Nic considering that they dated for a short period before the three of us ever became a thing. If you could call a purely physical relationship a "thing".
Before we enter I grab hold of Nic's arm, turning him to me with a puzzled look, "wanna be bad cop now?"
He chuckles with a eye roll, opening the door where Melanie is standing near the floor to ceiling window, looking over the view of the city. She turns smiling, dressed in a deep purple dress, the neck low cut and the length short as it sits on her upper thigh, if the woman coughed I would see everything. The purple goes well with her caramel skin and her hair is down in its natural curly form, but her face is covered in heavy make-up, making me appreciate how breathtakingly beautiful Ryan is naturally. Most women think they need to make themselves look beautiful, but our girl was already gorgeous the way she is and I'm glad she never covers her beauty in heavy make-up.
"Morning my boys," she beams. She walks swiftly over to Nic to give him a kiss and hug, but he brushes her off, walking round his black desk, sitting in his custom black leather chair with red rim. Mel blinks at him twice, confused and looks towards me for answers.
"So Nic is bad cop and I'm the good cop huh?" I think.
"Morning," I nod respectfully and take a seat on the chair in front of Nic's desk.
"Melanie, to what do we owe this pleasure?" He says forcing a smile in his work voice.
"Everything alright?" She asks wearily as she walks over to the chair next to me and takes a seat slowly.
"Not really, no."
"Oh... is there a problem? Because I actually stopped by to talk about Shawn and Kate's wedding in a few weeks, you two are still going right?"
Shawn and his twin brother Stefan had been Nic's best friends for as long as I could remember. When I started middle school I knew no one so they let me hang out with them until I made my own friends, only when I made friends with Aaron and Cole - who were in my class, our group got bigger and the six of us were inseparable. Even in high school, the six of us were still glued to the hip.
When Shawn starting dating Kate sophomore year, her friends became our friends and six turned to nine in our group with Melanie and Julia. We were all close, especially me and the boys. And even though some of us live out of state, we still like to meet up occasionally - Shawn and Kate's wedding being the next big meet up.
"Of course," I answer and when I look over to Nic I see him look at Mel, but for once I can't read his expression like I normally can.
"We still flying up together?" She asks and as I open my mouth to speak, but the words that follow aren't mine.
"Actually no," Nic says with a smug smile on his face and my gaze turns to him confused, as he leans his hands on his desk, lacing his fingers together. The plan for the wedding was simple - go up to San Francisco the day before the wedding, spend two nights there and come back home. The plan also involved Melanie travelling with us, but when did these plans change?
"No?" She says, her brows furrowed and Mel looks between the two of us, looking for answers.
The door to the office clicks open, Emma strides in with a tray and a soft smile as she places my cup of coffee in front of me, doing the same with Nic while placing the sugar and cream in front of him, "I didn't know how you wanted to take it today," she says to Nic. Depending on his mood you didn't know what kind of coffee he was going to have, Chris and Emma always just bring in the sugar and cream for him.
"Thank you Emma, black is fine," he smiles at her and takes the cup in his hand. If he takes sugar and cream it's a good day, but if he takes the coffee black, that means he's in one of his moods. Melanie probably being the reason.
Emma nods and takes back the small jar of cream and bowl of sugar cubes, before turning to Mel, "can I get you anything?"
"No, I'm good," she answers coldly not looking at Emma, still has her eyes fixated to Nic and myself.
"Okay... umm, Mr Greyson? Just to remind you, you have a video conference in thirty minutes, I'll be sitting in to take notes for the report so I'll wait for you in your office?"
"Sure, thank you Emma," she nods with a smile at me, walking out of Nic's office and closing the door behind her.
"You were saying?" Melanie says, a slight sign of attitude in her voice and from the click of Nic's tongue he doesn't like the tone of her voice.
"Nat and I spoke this morning," he says looking at me with his intense blue orbs and I know instantly what he's going to say. "We're going to head up a day early and spend an extra night there, make a long weekend of it."
"Well I could take a extra few days off if I just rearran-"
"That won't be necessary," he says looking back to her with a smile as he leans back in his chair, bringing his cup to his lips and takes a sip, "Ryan's going to be our plus one at the wedding and we think we want to spend the weekend with her alone. Your good to make your own way there, right?"
"I-I ummm... I guess?" She says still looking between us. "Have I done something? Because you seem off with me for some reason."
Again I go to speak, reassure her in some way even though I noticed what she was doing last night at the party to. Every time she flirted with Nic she looked in Ryan's direction, almost like she was looking to see if she was watching and Ryan never disappointed her because she watched Melanie all night. She knew what she was doing, just like Ryan said, but it was too late by the time I noticed. "Mel, the thing is-"
"You need to take a step back from us," Nic finishes for me, being blunt. There was no merry go round with Nic, he was always straight and to the point. Not caring whose feelings he hurt along the way unless it was someone he truly cared about which wasn't very many people.
"A step back? I don't understand," she laughs nervously, crossing her leg over the other and sitting up straight.
"We're with Ryan now Mel and last night you was being inappropriate, you can't do that anymore."
"Inappropriate?" She scoffs, a small chuckle passing her lips, "how exactly?"
"You can't flirt with us or be all over us anymore, it needs to stop."
"You didn't mind last night? And besides, we always flirt with each other, we're friends. What's the big deal now?" She says, shrugging as she copies Nic and sits back in her chair.
"The big deal is you made Ryan feel uncomfortable and as much as I'm at fault for not realising sooner, it can't happen again, do you understand? Ryan is ours and I'm not gonna let anyone fuck it up for me," Nic says pointing at her.
Melanie stands up abruptly, her eyes glared at Nic, "are you serious?" She scoffs, looking at me for some sort of reasoning, to help her in some way. But I can't, I'm with Nic on this one.
For years we've admired her from afar, never crossing that line beyond a friendship, not only because we thought she'd run a mile if she ever found out we both liked her, but because Ryan wasn't ready. And, yes, Nic may have thought she wasn't ready now and yes, I was selfish to ask her to be with us, but I'm glad I made that decision because we wouldn't have her now. I know Nic feels the same as me and now that we have her, no one will take her from us. She's ours, even before she knew the truth she was ours... only now, she really is ours.
"Mel, you need to understand from Ryan's point of view. All the flirting, the touching-"
"Again Nat, Nic had no problem with it last night and now there's a issue?" She shrugs her shoulders, leaning over the desk, her hands laying flat so she's close to Nic. "What does she have that I don't... huh?"
"Us," he says, not moving a muscle, his stare stone cold.
"You guys were serious about us?" She asks confused and I look over to Nic with my own confusion. We already spoke to her about Ryan, she's known for years how we've felt about her and when Ryan said she wanted to try we told Melanie straight, "us can't happen again."
"We were serious Mel," Nic answers her, "we can't happen again."
"Your dumping me?"
"Dumping you? We were never in a relationship Mel, we'd have to be together to dump you in the first place. It has been nothing but physical between us and you know that."
"So we can't be friends anymore?" She says to Nic, her tone angry.
"After last night do you really think you could just be friends with us?"
"Nicky, we've been friends for years, are you really picking her over me?" Mel says and I just sit and watch as they exchange looks with each other, one with determination from Nic while Melanie's is laced with hurt and anger.
"Always."
"You're really saying this is over? Both of you," she says looking over to me. I nod then look at Nic who is staring at the side of her head. I feel her death glare on me, but I don't dare look towards her. "You guys are telling me to back off because of a child? A little girl who probably hasn't even seen a cock in real life, let alone be able to handle the two of you?" She laughs.
"She's not a child, she's six years younger than you Melanie, you're the one acting like a child," Nic says, deadpan but she just laughs harder.
"I know you... both of you," she looks between us, standing up straight, picking up her her black bag to draped it over her forearm. "You may love her, but she'll never satisfy the both of you," she looks towards Nic, a look of disgust on his face and I've never seen him look that way at Mel before, "and especially you. Do you really think she's going to be able to handle the pain? The pain you mix with pleasure just to feel like your in control? I know you Nic, I know what haunts you. I know what you crave and I'm telling you right now, you'll scare her away because your broken. You've always been broken and nothing will ever change that. You have no future with a little girl who can't even make up her mind about what career she wants let alone make the two of you happy."
"I think you should leave now Melanie," I say standing up and tugging on her arm. This conversation has gone from zero to fifty and by the look on Nic's face, it's not far off from hitting a hundred. His nose is flared and I see him clenching his right hand into a fist, he'll never hit a women violently, but I can see he's about to erupt.
"Call me when your girl runs away or when she can't quite satisfy you... I'll be waiting... for the both of you," she winks and walks to the door, a sway in her hips as she does. We both watch her, not saying a word and it's probably for the best. She leaves, closing the door behind her and Nic's fist bangs against his desk.
"Nic don't," I whine, hoping he'll calm down - we're expecting a call from a new client soon and he needs to take the call, but he can't if he's this angry.
"She has no right to talk about Ryan like that," he points at me, raising his voice.
"You think I liked her talking about her in that way? No... I didn't," I yell leaning over his desk., but me yelling isn't going to help this situation right now and it certainly won't calm him down.
Her words hurt me too, no one gets to speak about our girl like that, but one of us has to stay calm. His blue eyes stare at me with anger, but the anger is not pointed at me, it's at Mel and I'm the poor asshole who is getting the brunt of it. A soft knock echos in the room and without a answer the door to my office that joins ours together creaks open, Emma soft voice appears.
"Everything alright in here boss?"
"We're fine Emma, thank you," I say standing up and straightening out my suit. Nic does the same, standing to his feet and backing the entire cup filled with his black coffee.
"Emma, call security, inform Leon that Melanie is not to be allowed in the building unless both Nat and I are notified first."
"Yes Mr Greyson," Emma says and nods before leaving us alone again.
"Do you really think that's necessary?"
"I don't care Nat, as far as I'm concerned she no longer exists to me. No one bad mouths my girl and expects me to still speak to them," he says and takes his black pinstripe suit jacket off, already undoing his grey tie and the first top buttons of his shirt.
"I'm just saying-"
"Nothing Nat, your saying nothing. It's done and that's it," he waves his hand at me and sits down at his desk, logging on to his computer for the day.
I can't help but sigh deeply, not because I'm pissed off with everything she said about Ryan because I was, but because we have history with her. Not only that, but she was suppose to be helping Noah with the restaurant and with it being his dream I don't want things to be awkward for him.
*BUZZ*
"Yes Emma," Nic says, answering the intercom in front of him.
"You have Peter Blake on line one, I know you both have meetings soon, but he said it was urgent."
Nic looks at me confused and our first thought is that something happened to Ryan, "put him through."
"Yes sir."
Emma voices disappears and Nic's desk phone rings. Taking a deep breath, I watch as Nic's brows furrow together as he looks down at the phone for a few rings, bracing himself before pressing the loudspeaker. This morning started off great with our girl, but slowly the day is turning bad and I can sense Nic feels it too. "Hello?"
"Nicholas?"
"Yes, you're on loudspeaker and Nathan's here too."
"Hey Peter," I say gruffly, the worry lacing my voice as I speak.
"Is everything alright?"
"Well actually, I was wondering if the two of you could pop over after work? It's about Ryan and I would like to speak to you both in person," he sounds tired, like he's had no sleep at all, but my concern right now is Ryan.
"Is everything okay? Is Ryan okay?" I can't help but blurt out.
"She's out right now with Tori and Sophie, but I would rather have this conversation with you both in person, it's really important. Can you come by after work?"
Nic clears his throat, straightening himself even though we can't be seen, "of course Peter, we'll be there around six," he answers, masking his concern like a pro as always. Nic really should of been a lawyer.
"Thank you, I'll see you both later," and he hangs up.
"What do you think he wants?" I ask Nic and he shrugs, taking out his phone then typing a message. "What are you doing?"
"Messaging Ryan, I need to know she's okay."
"Do you think they know? About the three of us?"
"For our sake and Ryan's I hope not, have you seen the cricket bat he keeps under the stairs?" Nic says with a smirk, as he types away on his phone.
"Do you really think her parents wouldn't like us being with her? I mean we've known them a long time and they've always said how much they love us," I say hopefully.
Both our families love each other and have for years. Carrie and our Mom have practically been in each other's pockets since they moved here seven years ago and as for Peter, he treats Noah like his own son not to mention myself and Nic as well. We've always spent major holidays together and birthdays apart from those years Ryan was on the other side of the country, but even without Ryan, we still always came together.
"Honestly Nat, how would you feel if your little girl had not one, but two grown men as boyfriends?" He says raising his brow.
"Shit! We're in trouble," I think.
*word count - 4521*
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Sorry for the super long chapter... but are you really mad about it?
☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️
This chapter came out of nowhere & honestly, Melanie was never going to be a
villain in this story but you guys changed my mind a little.
Hopefully she'll back off like she's needs to!!
What do you think Ryan's dad want to talk to them about?
Do you think someone told him?
Let me know in the comments, as always don't for get to vote.
Stay safe,
CeeCee
xoxo
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