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“Alex, will you make me a coffee, love?”
“Of course, Greg.” Alex got up and left the room, head down and shuffling awkwardly.
Greg looked up to find that everyone in the room was staring at him with their mouths open. He and Alex were in a meeting at the start of the new series. He didn’t normally have to attend these but Alex wanted to trial a different format for the live studio task and thought that he should have an input. He had bitched and moaned about it of course, the whole point of being the face of Taskmaster was that he didn’t have to attend these kinds of tedious meetings. Alex had aimed those baby blues at him though and he’d reluctantly agreed to attend. A room full of production people most of who he recognised and a few men in suits that he definitely didn’t.
Andy Devonshire was looking at him like he’d just bitten the head off a bat. “What… and I say this with the greatest of respect… the actual fuck was that?”
Greg had no idea what he’d done but it was obviously something massive and terrible. Just as he was about to question what was going on, Alex came back into the room, putting a mug of coffee in front of Greg and a little plate of biscuits next to the mug. He sat back down in his place and carried on the meeting.
Just as Greg was about to escape, Andy pulled him to one side, noticing Alex hovering by his elbow and saying pointedly, “are you going to take minutes for him?”
“What… oh, no, of course not. I’ll wait for you outside, Greg.”
Alex left and only when he was completely out of earshot did Andy continue. “Greg, I don’t know what’s going on between you two and frankly I don’t want to know but you can’t order your boss to make you a cup of coffee in the middle of a meeting and call him love like he’s your secretary in the 1950s. You especially can’t do those things in front of executives from Channel 4 who are making sure we spend their money professionally.”
“Oh, did I call him love?”
Andy sighed. “Yes, you did, out loud.”
“Ah, I wasn’t aware. I apologise,” Greg said, through partly gritted teeth, seething at being told off like a little child but also concerned that he might have embarrassed Alex without intending to.
When he left the building, Alex was waiting for him on the pavement looking concerned, his body language awkward. “I got you a car,” he said, reaching for the back door as it pulled up to the kerb before realising what he was doing and pulling his arm back, leaving it hovering in mid-air, his fingers curling around nothing.
Greg went to get into the vehicle, grabbing Alex by the arm and pulling him into the backseat with him.
“Greg, I can’t, I have to…” Alex tailed off, acquiescing before Greg had even said anything.
Now he was thinking about it, Alex had been doing this a lot more lately, gradually doing more and more things for Greg outside of the studio until Greg just didn’t notice he was doing it.
Alex sat passively in the leather seat, looking at the London buildings crawl past, not seeming anxious or nervous that he was being taken to Greg’s flat presumably against his will.
“Andy was really pissed off at me back there,” Greg said after a few minutes of silence.
Alex turned to look at Greg. “Oh yes, I got that impression from him.”
“Alex, why did you make me coffee in the meeting?”
“You asked me to,” Alex said simply like it was the most normal thing in the world.
“You could have just told me no.” Greg drew out the words like he was talking to a toddler.
“Why would I do that?”
Alex went back to looking out of the window and Greg gave up on the conversation, waiting until they got back to Greg’s place before they continued.
Getting out of the vehicle, Alex walked ever-so-slightly behind Greg, waiting for him to unlock the door and walk through first. Thinking about it, that was normally what Alex did, Alex wasn’t acting any differently than he did any other day.
Greg stopped in the middle of the hallway. “Alex are we dating?”
“Yes, Greg,” Alex said, like it was obvious.
“Why do you do everything I ask you to?”
Alex looked at him and beamed, his eyes crinkling, his little gap-tooth fully on show. “Because I want to. I like doing things to make you happy. You make me happy.”
“It’s customary when you’re dating someone to let them know,” Greg said, looking across the hallway at Alex’s coat hung up next to his where it always was, a spare pair of Alex’s trainers laying neatly by the front door.
Greg realised if he went into his bathroom he’d see Alex’s toothbrush next to his own in the holder and he dropped his head to his chest, taking a big fortifying breath.
“Were you ever going to tell me?” Greg asked, pulling Alex in and hugging him tightly.
“I was letting you get used to it,” Alex explained, offering to make a cup of tea with an alarming amount of glee.
“I called you love in that meeting.” Greg huffed an embarrassed laugh and beamed at Alex.
“I noticed. I thought Andy might strangle you.”
“Do you want to have sex?” Greg asked, wanting to make sure that he hadn’t got the wrong end of the stick.
“That would be lovely,” Alex replied with a dreamy look on his face.
“Right, okay then. Are you going to make the tea?”
“Of course, Greg,” Alex replied and scurried off with a delighted bounce.
Greg smiled and turned on the television.