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Leon set the glass of eggnog down. He needed some fresh air. He hated these office Christmas parties and Mariah Carrey’s “All I want for Christmas” booming over the speaker system really finished him off.
He knew what he wanted for Christmas – or any other time of the year; and he knew he could never have it – have him.
Nobody in the company even knew that he preferred blokes and he just couldn’t approach the boss’ son, it wasn’t right. And yet, the spoilt prat – with his golden blond hair, the piercing blue eyes and a Hollywood-worthy smile – had wormed his way into Leon’s heart.
Leon knew it could never be, no matter how friendly Arthur had been that time they’d run into each other at the racquet ball center; at that incident where he’d been so nervous in a meeting that he’d tossed some papers in front of Arthur and made his water topple over; and that other time when they were stuck in the elevator together when the power had gone down.
Standing on the roof terrace of the building, Leon took a deep breath. How could he be so foolish? To fall in love with someone who barely knew he existed was a childish thing to do. He was definitely too old for such foolery.
Leon pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled in a big sigh. He had to get the man out of his system. If only he knew how.
A thousand times he’d told himself that he was too old for Arthur and that the blond sure wouldn’t be interested in a simple employee. What did he have to offer?
He was so deep in thought that he didn’t hear the approaching footsteps.
“Leon?”
Spinning around, Leon knew that he was going crazy. His mind tried to make him believe that Arthur was standing in front of him.
“I saw you leaving. You didn’t come back for quite a while…” Arthur held another glass of eggnog out to him. “Here.”
A little surprised laugh escaped him as Leon reached for the glass. Their fingers touched for a moment and shivers ran down his spine. “Thank you. I just needed some air.”
“Are you okay?”
Maybe this was the moment he’d waited for. He should tell Arthur about his feelings, be rejected and then could start working on piecing himself back together. But Leon just nodded. “Yeah, it was just a bit too loud in there, too many people.”
“I know what you mean.” Arthur sipped from his own eggnog and all Leon wanted was to lick off the drop that stuck to Arthur’s upper lip.
“You know,” Arthur started again, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, “I wondered…”
Leon’s eyes snapped up to meet Arthur’s again. Damn, he’d caught him staring at his mouth. “About?”
“I wondered,” Arthur stepped closer and Leon’s heart started racing, “what else I’ll have to do for you to finally notice me.”
While he was busy trying to keep his body under control and not to reach out and just kiss Arthur - he could still claim being drunk later, couldn’t he? – Leon’s brain slowly caught up with what Arthur had said. “What do you…”
“Leon,” Arthur grinned, “I don’t even like racquet ball.”
“You don’t like…”
Arthur shook his head. “And that glass of water? Your papers never touched it.”
“They didn’t?…” Leon stared.
“And you should know that this building has emergency generators. Nobody has ever got stuck in an elevator.”
“Nobody?…” What was…did Arthur just tell him that he’d created all those incidents? To…to spend time with him? To…this couldn’t be!
“Nobody.” Arthur shook his head. “Just us.”
Us. That was something Leon could get used to. “You’re telling me that…?”
“Yes.” Arthur grinned. “How about, we get out of this boring party right now? The ice rink downtown should still be open and we could have a beer later?”
Leon chuckled nervously as he nodded. “I’d very much like that.”
As they stood at the railing of the ice rink after chasing each other over the ice, arms around each other and broke their very first kiss, Arthur looked up at him and asked “What do you want for Christmas?”
Leon touched foreheads with him and laughed. “I think I just got it.”