Russell looked over from where he was squinting at his computer screen when Cio strolled in. “I thought you took the day off?”

“Did. Changed my mind.”

Russell hummed and turned back to his computer. “All right. Want paperwork or need to work with your hands?”

Cio fell back into his office chair. He dug out a sucker, butterscotch, and barely held back from crunching it to bits. “Sure.”

Russell hummed again and ignored him. Cio dropped his head back and stared at the speckled white tiles of the ceiling. He spun in a circle and swirled the sweet candy around in his mouth. “I’m gay.”

“I know.”

Cio’s neck cricked with how quickly he lifted his head. He rubbed the back of his neck and stared at Russell. “You know?”

Russell huffed in irritation. “Yeah, am I not supposed to? You don’t exactly hide it.”

Cio sputtered. “I mean, I don’t hide it but I don’t flaunt it at work.”

Russell finally looked over again. Both brows were raised high on his forehead. “I may be old, but I’m not stupid. I’ve seen the way you look at Richard. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. Before he took notice of you, I hadn’t seen the man in months. Now I see him several times a day with some inane question just because he’s trying to get another peek at you.” 

Russell wasn’t even that old, but that wasn’t the important part of what he was saying. “And you’re not bothered with it?” He’d deal with the insinuation that Richard was interested in him as something more later. 

“It’s annoying as hell.”

Cio felt the all too familiar swoop of his stomach. The same feeling he had when he told his abuelo about his first boyfriend and his abuelo said nothing, just stared at him in disgust. He’s still never taken anyone home to meet the family.

Russell looked over when Cio said nothing then frowned. “Get that look off your face. Richard pestering me all the time is annoying as hell. I couldn’t care less who you sleep with, or want to sleep with it, as it may be.”

“Oh.” Embarrassment heated his cheeks. “Right. Sorry.”

Russell waved a dismissive hand. Cio’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He dug it out.

Ames: Go ask Natalie if she wants to meet for dinner tonight with me. She doesn’t text back fast enough when she’s at work.

Cio: Have you been on the receiving end of her death glare? I’m not going to interrupt her if she’s busy.

Ames: Don’t be a baby. Do it and I’ll stop smoking for a week.

Cio: Fine.

He heaved a sigh and made his way upstairs. Amelia had been trying to quit for years. Every time she got pregnant she could go the whole nine months without a cigarette, but then the craving would become too hard to ignore. She would at least keep to her word when she made little deals like this.

The elevator door slid open. Cio swirled the sucker to the other side of his mouth. Natalie was working on her computer, fingers flew across the keyboard as she typed out an angry response to something. Cio shoved his hands in his pockets and waited for her to turn her attention to him.

“Just go in. He’s working on paperwork. He’ll be happy for the break.” She said after several long moments of angry typing. She murmured something else under her breath but Cio couldn’t make it out.

“Actually, Ames wanted to know if you wanted to meet her for dinner tonight.”

That made her hands pause. Her eyes darted up from the computer screen. “Did you come into work just to ask me that?” A small smile played at her lips with the question.

“Haha. No.” There was no humor in his voice.

“You took the day off. Amelia said the final stages of wedding planning are going on today.”

Richard’s door opened. Cio watched his long, lean body rest against the door frame from the corner of his eye. “Yeah, I got my orders and left. Figured I’d be more useful here.” The urge to crunch the sucker overcame him again. “So, dinner? And may I just say the idea of you and Amelia buddying up is absolutely terrifying.”

“No, you may not. But yes, I’ll text her back now.”

“Did you come into work just to ask her out for your sister?” Richard asked with a laugh in his voice.

There was a slight flush on Natalie’s cheeks at the question. Cio shot her a grin. “No, I came into work because being around a family planning a wedding is a horrible, horrible experience.”

“They won’t be mad that you’re skipping out?” Richard asked.

“Nah, I know what my part to play is. Show up, dress up, hand over the rings, give a speech, get drunk and dance until I can’t move.”

Richard snorted. “I can’t imagine your kind of dancing.”

“For your information, I took more dance classes than I can count growing up.”

An appraising light lit up Richard’s eyes. “Yeah?”

“I’m happy the two of you click so well, but one of us here is actually trying to work you know.” Ah, there was the death glare he missed so much.

Richard stepped back and gestured for Cio to join him in his office. Cio brushed past him. Richard’s desk had some papers sprawled about. The frame Cio bought him had been moved from the flimsy side table to his desk. Cio hesitated then settled on the couch Richard had been sleeping on when he first came in. Richard’s eyes were dark, accusing, as he settled back in by his desk.

“I thought you quit smoking?”

Cio frowned and pulled up the neck of his shirt to sniff. “I did. Well, mostly. I didn’t tell you that though.”

“You didn’t have to. The constant presence of something in your mouth told me enough.” Cio grinned. He had a joke ready, but Richard continued speaking before Cio could make the obvious jokes. “How’d it go convincing them that we’re not dating?”

Cio’s stomach dropped at the reminder. His words failed him. Instead of responding he flopped back and kicked his feet up onto the couch.  Dr. Price chuckled.

“Not good, I take it?”

“Yeah. Not good. And by not good, I mean, I sort of confirmed that you’re coming to the wedding. Again. And that we’re super happy together.” He clacked the sucker against his back teeth.

Richard pushed back from the desk. He leaned back in his chair. A smirk played on his lips. “Oh yeah? And how’d that happen?”

“Oh… You know… Family.” Cio shrugged. “My aunt and mama thought the age difference was too large so I sort of… Got defensive?” He winced at the words. “Don’t worry. I’ll try again when the entire family isn’t around. It’s easier to take them one at a time. Hermano has just been stressed with the wedding coming up so he’s been near unbearable.”

Richard hummed. “Or, I could just go to the wedding with you.”

Cio shook his head. “No. I can’t ask you to do that.” His abuelo’s disgusted face flashed across his mind’s eye again. Richard definitely couldn’t do that.

“You didn’t. I’m offering to do it.” Cio stared at him. “What? Natalie really did clear my schedule for the entirety of that week. We might as well go. They’ll meet me and get off your back.”

Cio stared some more. Surely Richard was joking. “I don’t, I mean are you sure you’re ok with that? I have a very large family who won’t hesitate to pry into every part of your life. And all of abuelo’s family is coming from Mexico for the wedding. Do you speak Spanish? Their English is very limited but that won’t stop them from being just as invasive as the rest.”

Richard laughed. “I don’t speak Spanish, no. I can handle invasive questions.” His grin grew. “Plus, I’m a great dancer.”

Cio laughed. Was he really going to agree to this? He took Richard’s handsome face, and yeah. Yeah, he was going to agree to this. “Sold. But I wasn’t kidding about getting drunk and dancing until I can’t move.”

“I think I can keep up with you.” A rush of heat rolled through Cio as he remembered the different ways Richard could keep up with him. “Is there anything I should know before we agree to this?”

Cio sat up. “You’re really being serious?”

Richard shrugged. “Sure. This has been stressing you out, and I don’t want my employees stressed out after all.”

“Yeah, but this seems above the call of duty for you.”

Richard shrugged again and leaned forward to mess with his papers again. “All right, then. You can just keep trying to convince them we’re not dating.”

Dread trickled down Cio’s spine. “No!” He cleared his throat. “Um, no. I think that ship has sailed.” Richard’s grin twitched. “If you’re sure, then yeah. Yeah, thank you.” Cio nodded until Richard’s grin grew larger then forced himself to stop.

“So, anything I should know?”

“Probably.” Cio lay back again. “I mean you’ve already met my sister Amelia. She has three kids. Her husband is not in the picture but some of the family will talk about him as though he’ll be back from the store in just a couple minutes and others will just pretend he doesn’t exist. Best bet is to not bring him up at all.”

“Ok, three kids and no husband. What else?”

“My brother is a concert cellist. He’s usually in NYC, but comes back for a couple weeks every few months. We usually get along all right. Not so much when our parents are around as well.”

“What about your parents? Close to them?”

“Yeah, mamá and I are pretty close. Padre and I are… Well there’s no animosity. We just don’t talk.”

“Any reason why?”

“Ah…” Cio hesitated. He didn’t want Dr. Price going into this already disliking members of his family. “Well, I mean he grew up in a different time,” Cio hedged. “We’re just different people.”

Luckily, Richard let that drop. “You’re closest with your sister, Amelia?”

“Absolutely.”

Richard gave him a soft smile. “Then it’s a good thing I have her approval. I don’t really need anyone else’s, do I?”

Cio chuckled. “Yeah, I suppose that’s true.” Unable to believe his own luck, he asked one more time. “You’re really sure about this? I mean, this isn’t going to affect anything about work, right?”

“Right. I’ll have Natalie get some documents printed up. Your job will not be affected by any of this.”

Richard gave a satisfied hum and the gentle scratching of pen on paper filled the room. Cio let his eyes close as he imagined what the upcoming wedding was going to be like. He was sort of looking forward to it now. At the very least, he was promised some good conversation with Richard there. He didn’t mean to, but one moment he was picturing Dr. Price and him at the wedding, and the next his daydream had slipped into a regular dream.

When he opened his eyes, the sky outside Richard’s windows were darkened, with pinks and purples fading into the dark blue. Richard was leaning back in his office chair. The papers on his desk had all been cleared away. “You fell asleep with a sucker in your mouth.”

Cio cleared the sleep from his throat and stretched. “Sorry.”

“That’s a choking hazard, Cio.”

Cio grinned at the stern look on Richard’s face. “Won’t happen again, boss.”

Richard’s eyes rolled heavenward. “Are you ready to go home?”

“Have you been waiting for me to wake up?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I was working on paperwork.” Cio cast an accusing eye at the empty desk. “I finished moments before you woke up.”

It dawned on Cio that he should probably feel awkward taking a nap on his boss’ couch and making the man stay late, but he didn’t. Richard was a comforting presence. He always had been. Cio sat up. “I’m sorry to fall asleep on you.”

“It’s fine. Need to get anything from your lab?”

“Russell’s lab and no.” Russell. His words in the lab. Cio glanced up at Richard and wondered how true Russell’s words were. Richard had obviously found him attractive before, when he was a little thinner and more in shape and not his employee. Now Richard was clearly offering to be Cio’s date to the wedding. Cio would be a fool to not assume that meant Richard could be interested in more.

“I’ll walk you out then.” They walked in a comfortable silence until the elevator where Richard spoke up again. “You should probably send me a list of things I need to be aware of with your family and the details for the wedding.”

“Ah, yeah, I can email you tomorrow.”

“You’ll be in tomorrow?”

“No. Final tux fitting for the reception is tomorrow and the maid of honor is flying in.”

“Just do it next time you’re in.” Cio startled when Richard’s fingers laced between his once they were out of the office building. “Perhaps I’m wrong, but I assume your family would expect to see us touch at least occasionally.”

Heat rushed down Cio’s body at the chaste touch. “Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Yeah, good idea.” 

‘ “You’re picking up the maid of honor?”

“Hm? Yeah. I haven’t seen her in months so we’re spending most of the day together.” Cio realized he hadn’t answered the real question. “She’s been my best friend for years, that’s the only reason she’s flying in so early. This way we have time to catch up before Clara steals her away for whatever brides and bridesmaids do.” They came to a stop next to Richard’s car. “I’m parked farther down, so…” He didn’t want to release Richard’s grip.

“I’ll walk you to your car.”

Cio grinned and felt awkward. A part of him didn’t want Richard to see the hunk of junk he drove, not when Richard drove sleek and shiny himself. A different part wanted Richard to push him up against the car and kiss him until he went lightheaded from lack of oxygen.

“What about pet names?” Richards voice was low in the darkened lot.

“What about them?”

“Do we use them?”

Cio swallowed. “Ah, maybe?” He slowed to a stop by the driver’s side of his van. He felt a little self-conscious of the rust visible and beginning to creep up his driver’s side door. To his relief Richard didn’t say a thing about the car.

His heart stopped though as Richard lifted their intertwined hands, brushed a kiss across the knuckles while staring at him. “Mi amor?”

His heart tripped over itself then lodged itself up in his throat. A squeaky noise escaped him while he tried to find words to respond. Richard’s lip twitched in amusement and Cio thought death of embarrassment might actually be imminent. “Ah, no. I told them we weren’t… we were taking it slow. So yeah, amor might be a bit much.”

He probably shouldn’t mention that he’d never had someone call him that before and he thought his heart was going to explode from Richard saying it. Even if Richard was just playing a role. It was too much right now.

Richard released his hand with a final squeeze. “Of course.”

It was easier to relax without Richard’s hands on him. “Thought you didn’t know Spanish?” he teased.

“Just a couple words I’ve picked up here and there.” They were silent for a moment. Richard was smiling down at Cio, and Cio was still half hoping for a kiss somewhere that wasn’t his knuckles. Instead, Richard backed up a step. “Drive safe, Cio.”

Cio cleared his throat. “Yeah, see you.” He did a lame wave thing and climbed into the drivers seat. He let his head drop onto the steering wheel as soon as Richard turned around. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”