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Greg hates having to be the bigger man. Obvious jokes aside, he's always been most comfortable playing childish and immature, threatening only when it's wrapped in a joke. Because it's far too easy for that to be something real. He can't stand that look people get, that half second of hesitation, that tension in the neck, setting of the shoulders, that awkward shuffled step back as they look up and up and up at him. He never, never, wants to cause any of that, but it happens anyway. So he shrugs off the burden of authority as much as he can, puts himself down and hides in characters that are bumbling idiots or well meaning oafs who get told what to do and do it wrong and get laughed at because it's safe to laugh at them.
Obviously one roll stands opposed to that status quo but he'll hide behind the fact that the taskmaster wasn't a character he wrote. It's a contained space of freedom to play, be “angry” without a real victim, bounce off other professionals knowing that there's the safety net of production and then building a reputation as someone who's not like that in real life to make himself feel safer to be around.
So it shouldn't come as a surprise that he's not very good at making the right choice when someone else can't, or rather, won't. Disappointment is easier to see plastered on their faces but still too close to fear, like they're expecting him to take a step further than “no.” Stumble instead to “what were you thinking?” Trip and fall headlong into screaming “how dare you?” in their cowering face. He's not had to do it much, he's far more likely to roll over and let someone make a fool of themself, or drag him into it, easier to dodge the moment of conflict and spin a story out of it five or ten years later when it doesn't matter anymore, when everyone involved is old and tired and forgiving.
Maybe that was the difference this time, he was too old to let it pass, there wasn't as much time for it all to smooth over. And there were more people's feelings at stake than a couple mid thirties dumbasses having a piss up in Edinburgh.
Maybe that's why just this once he had to be the one to drag logic and reason kicking and screaming into the room despite what his heart wanted.
He had to say no to Alex. There's no way that saying anything else would end in more than public scandal and a damaged family and Greg can't just ride that one out. Can't let Alex blow everything up for one tired old man.
He hugged Alex because he had to as well. Couldn't stand the look on the poor sod’s face so grabbed the back of his head and buried that pained grimace in his clavicle, spat out something resembling a joke because if one of them didn't cut the tension in the room he knew they'd choke on it, and wouldn't that be a bloody sight for the first responders when the neighbours start to complain about the smell.
And he begged quietly in the back of his mind that Alex was too drunk to remember that night, save the poor bugger the heartache. Simultaneously, of course, Greg knows that he can't forget, knows that his job now involves building a careful, thin, but decidedly defined wall, firmly placing anything romantic in boxes labelled “jokes, and nothing else”.
It's a terrible feeling, one he doesn't wish on his worst enemy. To know that the person your stubborn heart has finally fallen for despite swearing off romance decades ago, to know he wants you back in any capacity, and to have to shun him, push him away for some vision of the greater good. It's a wretched, awful thing, it claws and rends, and that bastard named Hope stands on the sidelines and tells you that it could be worth it, and you have to kick the fucker to the curb before his words get to you.
But he had let himself have that night, that moment, to hold the man who held his heart in his arms and pretend that it was real, that there wasn't a world outside full of consequences and people to be hurt.
Christ but he wants to be selfish, wants to be a fool, wants to let his baser nature take over. Every day now it takes everything in him not to pick up the phone and call the painfully obedient man over to make mistakes together.
But someone has to be the bigger man. Someone has to take care of his little Alex.