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If he had been given a choice, Dimitri would not have chosen this path for himself.
He ended up here not by choice, but by the corporate forces that exist within this company, shoving him along a line of carefully planned ascension that transitioned him from the help desk to project work over the past few years. And now here he is, a business analyst with too many projects on his plate, shoved in between two very different departments, struggling to make it from one project to the next without drowning in conference calls and emails.
If his father were alive, he would be proud, Dimitri knows. He tries his best to keep that in mind when he’s working late into the night, hunched in front of his computer, trying to squeeze in the last of his testing so he can get a few hours of sleep before he repeats the same struggles again the next day. His father had been the Chief Technology Officer of this very company prior to his death. Dimitri could feasibly get there in time, too. It’s what his father would have wanted.
But sometimes, knowing his father would be proud isn’t enough. Sometimes, Dimitri feels like he’s losing pieces of himself with each day that passes.
This is one of those times. Felix Fraldarius, a mid-level sales manager, is standing before him holding out a stack of papers and demanding, “What is this?”
Dimitri actually likes Felix, despite the fact that their jobs often put them in situations like this — Felix angry about something that the IT side either did or did not do, the IT side of the business blaming Felix, and Dimitri in the middle of it all, taking heat from both sides — but he doesn’t think that Felix cares for him very much. Dimitri has tried taking him to lunch a couple of times, but even those friendly exchanges usually devolve into dispute.
He tries not to hold it against Felix, though. He knows that Felix is under a lot of pressure, as they all are.
“Those are the requirements documents I emailed you,” Dimitri identifies, wondering why Felix printed them out when he could have brought over his laptop and saved the paper.
“I mean this.” Felix flips through the pages to show him one of the requirements that Dimitri had written into the documentation.
“That is the report you requested. It will run every Monday morning at —” Dimitri begins reciting the specifications, but Felix interrupts.
“It’s wrong. Where’s that developer of yours.” Felix looks around the office. “Sylvain!”
Unfortunately for Dimitri and Sylvain both, Sylvain is busy chatting with Lysithea, the new intern, instead of looking appropriately busy at his computer. He’s also dressed even more casually than usual today, as he was also up late working on bug fixes. When he hears his name, he looks over and frowns.
“What?”
“Will you come over here a moment?” Dimitri asks, keeping his tone polite. In actuality, this dispute has little to do with Sylvain. Felix is discussing requirements that Sylvain hasn’t even looked through yet; he doesn’t get pulled into the project until it’s actually time to program. But Dimitri would like some of Felix’s attention to be directed elsewhere for a while.
Sylvain walks over, giving Felix a smile and asking, “What can I do for you on this lovely day, Mr. Fraldarius?” with so much forced charm, even Dimitri feels the desire to roll his eyes.
“This report is wrong,” Felix states, brandishing the bundle of papers like it’s a weapon.
“What does that have to do with me?” Sylvain asks. He points at Dimitri. “He’s the requirements guy.”
“Yeah, but if you don’t keep a leash on him —”
As much as Dimitri enjoys being spoken about as though he isn’t standing right there, his attention is pulled elsewhere, to the entryway of their department, where someone he doesn’t recognize is having a discussion with his manager. The man exudes confidence on a level that Dimitri immediately finds enviable. He looks good in his business casual attire, that beard along his jawline making him seem more authoritative than unkempt somehow, despite facial hair being against company policy, and from what little Dimitri can hear, he seems to speak with a confident yet playful tone.
He must stare too long because the man suddenly looks in his direction and smiles. Dimitri feels as though he’s been caught in a spider’s web and he probably looks it, too, but he does his best to smile back.
“Are you even listening?” Felix asks.
“Why don’t you go back to your office and we’ll take a look at your notes,” Sylvain suggests, even though Felix has made no notes on the document. This is why Dimitri likes Sylvain — he’s good at placating when he wants to be.
“Fine. I expect to see a revision by end of day,” Felix demands, even though neither of them answer to Felix. But Dimitri will get him his revision, because they need to stay on good terms.
The newcomer walks in their direction as Felix turns to leave. He waves as they pass each other, which Felix pointedly does not return.
Then the newcomer walks up to Dimitri. “Are you Dimitri Blaiddyd?”
“I am,” Dimitri answers.
“Claude Riegan. I’m the new project manager.” He offers his hand. “We’ll be working together going forward.”
Dimitri takes his hand and gives it a shake. His father used to tell him that a man’s handshake is good indicator of the kind of person he is. If that is true, Claude must be a strong person who knows when to hold back; his handshake is firm but clipped.
“Nice to meet you,” Dimitri says.
Claude offers his hand to Sylvain, who introduces himself as “the brains” of the department.
“I'm glad you’re here,” Dimitri tells Claude. “We have not had a project manager on the team in months.”
Dimitri has been filling that role as best he can, alongside his usual business analyst duties. It has not been easy; his job is demanding enough without the extra responsibilities.
“I heard,” Claude says. “You had quite a scandal with your last one, huh?”
They did. Hubert Vestra was an exceptionally talented project manager, seemingly always on top of everything, no matter how many projects he was given to oversee. His interpersonal skills were somewhat lacking for someone in such a social role, but Dimitri hadn’t minded too much, because Hubert always delivered their projects on time and under budget, which made the entire project team look good.
Then it came out that Hubert was manipulating vendors behind the scenes to get better rates for software licenses and outsourced labor. It was a huge scandal that almost landed him in prison, but through a series of NDAs and closed office discussions, he was merely let go. Dimitri thought he would be unemployable after that, but last he heard, he was doing well at Black Eagles Inc., a multinational finance corporation.
“You could say that,” Dimitri replies, trying to stay neutral. The topic is difficult for him. Hubert's actions had been extremely reprehensible and put his team at risk, which deeply angered Dimitri, but Hubert did a lot of good at the company too. He had ushered some of Dimitri’s worst projects through to completion, when Dimitri was only starting in the role.
“Well, I can’t promise to be scheme-free,” Claude says, giving Dimitri a smile that can only be described as mischievous, “but I can promise that everything I do will be legal.”
“That’s good,” is Dimitri’s simple reply.
Claude laughs. “Alright, I have to go fix up my office. Why don’t you set up a meeting so you can get me up to speed with your projects?”
“Sure. I’ll send you an invite.”
“Great! Looking forward to it.” With a cheerful wave, Claude heads in the direction of his office.
“Ughhh,” Sylvain drones once he’s out of earshot. “He’s one of those.”
“One of what?” Dimitri asks, having no clue what Sylvain means, which is par for the course.
“You know, one of those really awesome corporate guys who come in and show everyone up with their skills. They save the day and everyone loves them, but they only stick around long enough to buffer their resume and then —” He waves a hand dramatically. “Poof! They move on to bigger and better things.” Sylvain sighs. “He isn’t a lifer like us.”
“A lifer,” Dimitri repeats, hating the way that sounds. But Sylvain is correct — they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, if ever. This company is all they have going for them.
“Don’t look so down,” Sylvain says, clapping him on the back. “We do good work. Speaking of which...” He glances at the clock on the wall. “Better get to it.”
They get to work.
When Dimitri meets with Claude, the first thing that Claude asks is, “Why didn’t you apply for this role?”
It’s a strange question, and definitely not what Dimitri is there to discuss. He’s busy connecting his laptop to the display in Claude’s office when Claude springs the question, and he nearly drops the dongle for his mouse as he’s plugging it in.
“What do you mean?” he asks carefully, focusing on the laptop instead of Claude.
“Well, from everything that Hanneman told me, you’ve been the acting project manager for months now.” Claude leans back in his chair, idlying spinning a pen in his fingers, which seems to be a talent of his.
“I don’t have my certification,” Dimitri states. He goes back and forth on whether he wants to pursue it. He often thinks if he has to do all of this work, he might as well be paid the proper amount, and the certification is the key to that. But whenever he thinks that way, he feels like an imposter, trying to achieve heights that don’t really belong to him in the first place.
“You should qualify for it by now.”
Having pulled up his presentation, Dimitri straightens and looks at Claude. “Do you...want me to go for your job?” he asks slowly, thinking about what Sylvain said about Claude being one of those.
“Not now,” Claude replies. “I was just curious.”
“Oh.” Dimitri falls silent at that, feeling oddly exposed under Claude’s stare.
Claude looks at him a moment longer, then suddenly slaps his desk. “Alright! Let’s do this. Show me what you got.”
As Sylvain predicted, Claude is very good at his job. So good, in fact, that Dimitri is able to breathe a little easier. He takes on some of Dimitri’s reports and responsibilities, as a project manager should, and Dimitri is able to focus on managing project requirements and improving relationships between the business side and IT.
He tries inviting everyone out for drinks one evening, thinking it would do the project team good to welcome Claude outside of the office environment, but Sylvain ends up getting called in for an emergency bug fix and Claude turns him down without providing an excuse. It ends up being just him and Felix, which isn’t entirely uncomfortable, even if Felix inevitably ends up talking about work.
Dimitri doesn’t think anything of it until after he’s turned down twice more. Then he begins to think that there must be a problem, a reason that Claude doesn’t want to socialize with them. He seems to get along with everyone just fine, so Dimitri comes to the conclusion that it must be him.
“I’m going to talk to him,” Dimitri suddenly announces to Felix and Sylvain. They did come out for drinks, but seem to be avoiding talking directly to each other at all costs, which bothers Dimitri, because he wants everyone to have a good time.
Dimitri is having a hard time keeping his spirits up.
“Who?” Felix asks.
“Claude,” Dimitri answers. “He must have a problem with me.”
“I don’t think he does,” Sylvain says. “You seem to get along fine in the office.”
“That is true.” He isn’t convinced, though. Claude is good at handling people; the fact that he won’t spend much time with Dimitri outside of formal meetings is telling.
“Maybe he’s tired of you making excuses for striking so much from the sales dashboard project,” Felix volunteers.
“Felix,” Sylvain warns.
“I already told you,” Dimitri says patiently, “adding in those extra features is scope creep.”
“Whatever,” Felix grumbles.
They finish their drinks in an uncomfortable, sullen silence.
It takes three days for Dimitri to approach Claude. Mostly because he’s incredibly busy with the approaching go-live date for the new Customer Relationship Management software, but also because he’s a little nervous over the prospect of questioning him. Eventually, though, he knocks on Claude’s office door.
“Do you have a moment?” he asks when Claude opens it.
“Sure, come on in.” Claude gestures to a chair, indicating that Dimitri should take a seat. Dimitri does, and Claude sits at his desk across from him.
“I was wondering...” Dimitri begins, looking into Claude’s piercing eyes. “Why don’t you ever come to the social functions after work?”
Claude picks up his pen and starts spinning it, as he does during informal conversations. “It’s been busy. You know the CRM project is taking up all of our time.”
“I know, but even Sylvain managed to come to the last one.” Arguably, Sylvain is the busiest among them right now, making the last minute changes to the program.
“It’s nothing personal,” Claude says.
“Is it...me?” Dimitri asks.
Claude stops spinning his pen. He sets it down on the desk. “What? No.”
“I know that I can be....” He tries to think of the various adjectives that Felix has used to describe his style of work and communication, but Claude speaks before he can volunteer any.
“I’m stopping you right there.” He sighs, and Dimitri realizes that it’s the first time he’s ever seen Claude look vaguely unhappy. “You haven’t done anything. It’s me. I’m not...” He pauses as he considers what to say. “I’m not good at mixing work and social stuff. I like to keep all my work relationships at work.”
“But...” Dimitri begins, then holds his tongue. He doesn’t want to outright scorn Claude’s approach to work relationships, but he thinks that it is a shortcoming.
“Say what’s on your mind,” Claude encourages him.
Dimitri takes a breath. “Spending time with your team will help you understand them. It will help us work better as a group.” By not spending time with them, Claude is infusing an artificial me versus them mentality. Sylvain has already written him off and nothing Claude has done nothing to change that. He hasn’t really established himself as part of them.
“You work fine as a group, and I’m fine with being the outsider,” Claude tells him, smiling in a way that makes Dimitri wonder if that’s really true.
“I'm not fine with it,” Dimitri tells him, voice firm. “You are part of this team, whether you want to be or not, and you should act like it matters.” As soon as he says it, he regrets it, backtracking as best he can. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say it like that.” He looks at his hands.
Claude is quiet for a long while after that. So long, Dimitri looks up to see what he’s doing, and finds that he’s being studied. Claude is watching him and frowning a little while he does so.
Then Claude stands. “Do you want to go lunch?” he asks.
Confused but feeling as though he made some progress, Dimitri stands, too. “I would love to.”
Claude and Dimitri start having lunch on a semi-regular basis, whenever their schedules allow. They mostly talk about work, but every once in a while, they fall into more personal discussions. At first, it’s just Dimitri who volunteers information. He mentions losing his parents, talks about his time in college, and confesses his passion for corny movies with terrible humor. Eventually, Claude tells him little bits and pieces of his story, too, like how his father runs a multinational manufacturing company, and how Claude is trying to get experience on his own to prove himself before he follows in his father’s footsteps. He learns, too, that Claude immigrated here as a young child, though Claude doesn’t go into great detail about his background.
That’s okay, though. Dimitri is happy that Claude says anything about himself at all. He’s glad that Claude seems to enjoy his company.
Somewhere in between the lunches and work meetings, though, Dimitri loses sight of his overall goal. He doesn’t realize that his motivations have changed until one dreary autumn morning.
He’s in a bad mood. He hates when he gets this way, but it’s the culmination of staying up too late on last-minute testing for too many days in a row, fighting the tail-end of a cold, and being berated by Felix, who will not take a hint and give him some peace.
“It has to be included in phase one,” Felix tells him for the third time that morning.
Dimitri sits down because he’s exhausted. He pinches the bridge of his nose, trying to ward off a headache. “It’s out of scope,” he says.
“It’s in scope. We talked about this at the beginning of the project.”
“It’s a phase 2 item. It was in the requirements document.” Dimitri can feel his control unraveling. He really should have called in, instead of trying to face an angry Felix when he can barely keep himself together.
“I reread the document,” Felix snaps. “You didn’t —”
“Felix!” Claude suddenly calls, stepping into the cubicle area with a bright smile, tray of coffee in hand. “Just the man I wanted to see. I picked up some coffee on my way in. You take yours black, right?”
“I do,” Felix replies, momentarily disarmed.
“Great! Here you go.” Claude sets the tray down and selects one of the cups, offering it to Felix. “Why don’t you bring that to my office? I want to talk to you about something.”
“Sure,” Felix replies, wary but calm, as the prospect of coffee has pacified him for the moment. He accepts the cup and heads to Claude’s office.
Claude selects another cup and places it in front of Dimitri with a wink. “I got this,” he says, before following after Felix.
Dimitri sips his drink. It’s chamomile tea. His favorite.
In that moment, he senses his emotions shift. His chest tightens and his stomach flip-flops as he looks over at Claude’s closed office door and realizes that his feelings for Claude are beginning to extend beyond mere friendship.
Later, when Felix emerges from the office looking at peace with the world for once, Claude gives a thumbs up to Dimitri, indicating that he’s calmed the fire and they can proceed without further scope creep.
Before going back to his own office, Felix stops by Dimitri’s desk.
“Did you know Claude’s interested in fencing?” he asks, almost accusatory.
“I had no idea,” Dimitri replies.
“He knows a lot about it.” Felix sounds admiring, which is strange to Dimitri’s ears. “Anyway, he said he’ll come to happy hour tonight. You're welcome.”
Dimitri finds himself surprised yet again.
Happy hour also becomes a semi-regular event among the four of them, and the social meetings go from being tense to enjoyable. Claude and Sylvain end up getting along far better than Dimitri would have guessed — they apparently have similar interests in gaming, which allows them to form a near-instant bond — and even Felix comes to grudgingly respect Claude.
One night, Felix and Sylvain leave early, but Claude and Dimitri linger to talk about little things, like movies they’ve seen recently and what their plans are for the weekend.
“You were right,” Claude says out of the blue once they finally move to leave.
“About what?” Dimitri asks, pulling on his jacket.
“This.” He gestures to the table, where four empty glasses still sit. “I’m glad you talked me into it.”
“Felix talked you into it,” Dimitri reminds him.
“Maybe,” Claude replies, moving to walk in step with Dimitri as they leave the bar. “But I came for you.”
Dimitri feels warm despite the chill in the air. As they walk, he finds himself unconsciously moving closer to Claude, their arms brushing against each other.
“I’m glad,” Dimitri says wonderingly, thinking about what that means — what he wants it to mean.
“I want to help you, too,” Claude tells him, voice quiet, like it’s a confession.
Dimitri stops walking to look at Claude, who also stops and turns to face him. “You don’t need to do anything for me.”
Claude raises a hand, like he intends to reach for Dimitri, or maybe touch his face, but seems to think better of it and drops it. “I want to,” he settles on saying.
“Okay,” Dimitri replies, his words lacking. He’s too distracted by the fact that Claude is close, that he’s looking at Dimitri, that nothing around them seems to matter except this moment, right here, between them.
“Dimitri —” Claude begins. His tone wavers a little, his guard dropping. He’s wearing an expression that Dimitri has never seen on him before.
He looks unsure.
“Can I kiss you?” Dimitri whispers in a rush. Maybe in a perfect world, he could throw caution to the wind and just act, sweeping Claude off his feet, but Claude is too important for such risks. Dimitri doesn’t want to mess this up — he doesn’t want to push him too far.
“Okay,” Claude breathes. Then: “Yes.”
Dimitri leans in. Claude looks up at him.
Dimitri kisses him.
He starts slow, savoring the way Claude parts his lips just enough to accept his, soft and inviting, if still a little hesitant. Claude raises his hand again, but this time, he follows through, his fingers touching Dimitri’s cheek and resting there. When Claude parts his lips even more, Dimitri takes it as permission to use tongue, and he finds Claude’s with his own.
Claude is gentle in the way he responds to Dimitri’s tongue, as though he’s holding back, or maybe still unsure. Dimitri doesn’t mind — he has a sense that this is a side of Claude that not many people have seen, and it makes him feel protective, as though he needs to shield Claude from the world.
When it’s time for them to part, Dimitri ends the kiss by transitioning once more to lip-only contact, an unspoken reassurance.
After they pull away from each other, Claude shivers in the wind. “You’re so warm,” he remarks as he straightens his jacket and collects himself.
They say little after that, but remain close as they walk, their arms touching until they part ways.
Claude’s help comes in the form of preparing Dimitri to take the project management certification exam. “You don’t have to apply for the role until you’re ready,” Claude tells him, “but you should take the test so you’ll have the certification when you need it.”
It’s logical, and there are a lot of benefits to having the certification, so Dimitri works hard to fill out the extensive application. Claude looks over it for him, and then they submit it together.
When Dimitri receives his approval to sit for the exam, Claude invites him over to study, as he has a lot of books and flashcards from when he earned his certification.
When he arrives, Claude is on a conference call but motions him inside. Dimitri enters, surprised to find that Claude’s house is a disaster. At work, he’s so collected and organized; Dimitri expected to find that his home in a similar condition. Instead, there are dishes in the sink, laundry is tossed about in various locations, and there are books everywhere.
Dimitri can’t help the small laugh that escapes as he takes it all in.
“I know, it’s a mess,” Claude says as he ends his call. “Every time I try to straighten up —”
Before he can finish, his cell phone rings again. “That happens,” he mutters. “Sorry, one minute.”
He answers the call and goes into the other room, leaving Dimitri alone to survey his home once more. But one minute becomes five, which then becomes ten, and it’s clear that the phone call must be important, so Dimitri decides to keep himself busy.
He washes Claude’s dishes.
When Claude finally emerges from the room, he finds Dimitri in the kitchen, drying the last of them.
“Did you do my dishes?” he asks.
“I hope that’s alright,” Dimitri replies.
“Alright? It’s great!” Claude exclaims. “Better watch out or I’ll have you over to do my chores all the time.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” Dimitri tells him.
Claude laughs. “I’m kidding, you’re not here to do my chores.” He clicks his tongue. “But it is nice to have an empty sink.” He points to the table, where the study materials are waiting for them. “Now come on, it’s time to work.”
They study for a couple of hours, until Dimitri thinks he’ll never be able to learn anything again and Claude can no longer hold back his yawns. “I didn’t sleep much last night,” he explains.
“Me either.” Sleep has always been a hit or miss with Dimitri. “Why don’t we take a break?”
They decide to watch a movie and sit together on the couch, close but not quite touching. That is, until Claude’s head droops against Dimitri’s shoulder as he falls into a quiet slumber, movie quickly forgotten in favor of a nap.
Dimitri forgets the movie, too. He focuses on staying still so as not to wake Claude. Before he knows it, he, too, begins to doze, feeling at ease with Claude at his side.
Dimitri takes his exam right before the holidays. He thinks that means he’ll be able to relax for Christmas, because project work usually slows down between the holidays and the new year, but their new Customer Relationship Management tool ends up having a major production issue that lands him, Sylvain, and Claude in the office on Christmas Eve, trying to fix it before the company loses any money.
Dimitri doesn’t mind so much, considering he usually spends holidays alone. He knows that Sylvain doesn’t mind the excuse to spend the holiday away from his family, either, and Claude doesn’t even celebrate Christmas. Overall, they aren’t the worst group to be stuck in the office on the holiday.
But Felix shows up, too, which is a little inappropriate. The business side shouldn’t be breathing down their necks while they try to fix a problem.
Dimitri considers asking Claude if they should send Felix home, but then Felix does something that makes Dimitri realize that he’s missed a very important piece of information about both him and Sylvain.
Felix goes to the break room, returns with a cup of water, and sets it in front of Sylvain. “Drink.”
“In a minute,” Sylvain says distractedly, eyes on his computer screen.
“Sylvain.” Felix touches his shoulder. “Drink.”
Sylvain finally tears his attention away. “Sorry,” he mumbles, giving Felix a small, affectionate smile. He downs the water.
Felix pulls a chair up next to him and sits beside him as Sylvain buries himself in his work again.
Claude looks up from his own computer. “I think they were supposed to spend Christmas together,” he explains.
“How long has this been going on?” Dimitri asks, completely caught off guard by this revelation.
“I’m not sure, but a while. Long before I started coming to happy hour.”
“But they’re always arguing,” Dimitri says. To be fair, Felix usually does the arguing for them both, but still.
“They’re good at keeping their home life and work life separate,” Claude says.
Dimitri watches as Felix rests a hand on Sylvain’s leg. Sylvain briefly drops his hand to his, then returns to coding.
“Really good,” Dimitri agrees. Or maybe he’s just bad at understanding people — Felix, in particular.
“I’m here!” someone suddenly calls from the entryway.
“Hilda! You’re a lifesaver!” Claude calls back.
“Come help me with all this stuff!” she exclaims, shuffling into the office with arms full of bags.
Claude gets up to do just that and Dimitri follows. It turns out that Hilda has brought an assortment of snacks, a bunch of eggnog, and even a few Christmas decorations.
“Dimitri, this is my friend Hilda, here to save Christmas,” Claude introduces as he takes some bags and brings them to the cubicle area.
"Hi," Dimitri greets her. "It's very nice to meet you."
“Oh so you’re Dimitri,” Hilda says, looking him up and down. “You’re bigger than I imagined.”
Dimitri doesn’t know what to say to that, so he laughs, a little self-consciously.
“I mean that in a good way! Promise.” She lowers her voice. “I knew Claude would snag a looker.”
That makes him flush, so he distracts himself by grabbing some bags and following Claude to the cubicles.
They lay out all of the snacks and drinks, put up the Christmas decals, and even set up a small tree. Sylvain and Felix take a break to join them, so the spread is set up in no time.
“That’s that! Now I need to get back to my girlfriend.” Hilda hugs Claude and then she hugs Dimitri, too, even though they just met. “You kids have fun.”
“Thank you, Hilda,” Claude says, his tone fond.
“Anytime, you know that. Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas,” Dimitri and Sylvain call as she leaves.
“I thought you didn’t celebrate Christmas,” Felix says to Claude once Hilda is gone.
“I figured this would be a good time to start,” Claude replies with a shrug. “I mean, we’re stuck here, might as well have a little fun, right?”
“Right,” Sylvain agrees emphatically, pouring himself some eggnog. “This is great.”
Felix turns away and folds his arms. Dimitri moves to stand next to him.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“Fine,” Felix snaps, then thinks better of himself. “I haven’t...done this in a while.”
“Me either,” Dimitri confesses.
Felix looks at him, surprised, but then quickly looks away.
Claude hands them both a cup of eggnog, then pours one for himself. “To new traditions!” He raises his cup.
Sylvain raises his immediately. Dimitri is slower. Felix is last, but when he finally raises his, he allows a small, barely noticeable smile.
“To new traditions,” he echoes.
Later, after the fixes have been migrated into the production environment and Dimitri has validated that everything is working properly, they linger for a while longer. Sylvain and Felix sit on the floor in front of the small tree, cuddling and whispering to each other. When he thinks no one is looking, Felix kisses Sylvain, who looks momentarily shocked to be kissed with co-workers around, but then quickly responds with enough passion that Felix pulls back to fuss at him.
Meanwhile, Claude and Dimitri move to Claude’s office, where Claude has tied a small, severed branch of their Christmas tree above the threshold of his doorway. “Mistletoe,” he explains.
“That’s the best mistletoe I’ve ever seen,” Dimitri tells him, completely earnest, because even though it isn’t actually mistletoe, it’s there for him — Claude is there for him — and that’s all that matters.
“Merry Christmas,” Claude whispers.
They kiss.
It’s the first time Dimitri has enjoyed Christmas in years.
After the new year, things change. Dimitri receives his project management certification in the mail and their team closes most of their big projects. Felix is promoted to another department, and Sylvain contemplates leaving the company so he and Felix can date openly without involving HR. Claude and Dimitri deepen their relationship — they spend more time together, even opting to stay the night with each other a couple times a week.
The biggest change, however, is that Claude decides to leave the company. He’s decides to go to his father’s company to work on climbing up the ranks now that he feels ready.
He tells Dimitri over dinner one evening, and Dimitri finds he loses his appetite entirely in response to the news. He sets his fork down and pushes his plate back, which makes Claude frown.
“I’ll only be across the city,” Claude reassures him.
“Sylvain said you would do this,” Dimitri says, trying to stay conversational, but now Sylvain’s words seem more like a curse than a mere guess at the future.
“Leave the company?”
Dimitri nods. “Yes. That you would stick around long enough to save our projects and buffer your resume. Then leave us lifers behind.”
“Dimitri. You’re not a lifer.” Claude stands and walks over to him, leaning against the table as he touches Dimitri’s face, encouraging him to look up. “That’s what I’ve been trying to show you. You’re smart, you’re good at what you do, and now you have your certification.” He brushes his thumb along Dimitri’s cheek. “You can do anything you want to do. And whatever you decide to do, you’ll succeed.”
“You truly believe that?” Dimitri asks him, wanting to believe it himself. But if Claude can have so much faith in him, maybe he can learn to have faith in himself, too.
“Of course I do. I have from the first moment I met you.”
Dimitri remembers their first meeting, when Claude had asked him why he didn’t go for the project manager role.
Claude leans in to kiss him — slow, steady, confident, without holding back — and then murmurs, “Our future is bright.”
“Our future?” Dimitri repeats, not sure if Claude means it that way.
“Yours and mine, together,” Claude says. “If you’ll have me, that is.”
“Of course,” Dimitri replies quickly.
Claude laughs. “You’re a big softie, you know that?”
“I know,” Dimitri replies with a smile.
Things may change, but that’s okay. Change allows for new beginnings.
Claude leaves and shortly thereafter, Sylvain joins him at his father’s company. With them gone, Felix and Dimitri begin having lunch together on a regular basis. Though Felix is still sharp-tongued, he and Dimitri become good friends. When Dimitri begins looking for a new job, somewhere away from this company to which he’s been bound most of his adult life, Felix gives him the contact information of a friend of his who runs a start-up.
Upon the very first moment he meets Annette, who is cheerful and positive despite being an extremely busy small-business owner, Dimitri knows he wants to work for her. She seems to have the same feeling about him, because she offers him the project manager role immediately after his interview concludes.
“I know you’re perfect for this job!” she tells him as they shake hands. “I can tell! I think you’ll do great things here.”
Leaving the company means he’ll see Felix less on a day-to-day basis, but they have happy hours and Sylvain’s game nights to look forward to. And even more importantly, they have the holidays.
Not long after Christmas, the four of them vowed to spend holidays together thereafter — their own celebrations with their own traditions.
When Dimitri thinks about that — when he considers how much he has grown and changed over the last year, and when he thinks about how his relationships have changed, too — he realizes that he’s truly happy.
He feels whole.