Work was busy. Natalie had him doing twice as much paperwork as before and she’d moved up three meetings. She claimed it needed to be done in order to have the days off for the wedding. He knew for a fact, though, that most of what he was signing off on was the stuff she normally handled. Granted, it wasn’t possible for Natalie to handle the phone calls, but did he really need to sign another invoice for parts ordered?

Cio’s wide eyed look floated to the front of his mind again. The soft skin of his knuckles when he brushed his lips across them. The stupid fucking squeak he made. God it was hard not to laugh at that. Cio was… refreshing. He was fumbling and unsure and – Richard needed to stop. Fumbling and unsure? That’s what was attracting him?

No. He found that endearing. What was attracting him was the way Cio was addicted to the candy stashed in his desk. The way his face, so expressive, openly checked him out then darkened in the flush that Richard was starting to become addicted to. The way he focused so hard on his work. The way he danced while working when he thought he was alone.

Richard smiled at the endless paperwork as an image of Lucille, his wife, dancing in the kitchen as she cooked in much the same way as Cio did while messing with parts floated to the forefront of his mind. The image didn’t cause the pain it used to. In fact, for the first time in a long time, he felt like calling her parents. Catching up with them wouldn’t be so bad. Seeing the same smile that had graced her lips smile at him from her mother used to kill him on the inside. It had hurt too much after her passing to go and see them as often as he should have and over the years they’d just… stopped.

His hand froze over what had to be the fiftieth signature he’d done that day. Cio hadn’t been the first person he’d found attractive since losing Lucille. Cio was just the first person he couldn’t get out of his mind. Cio was the first person to have him acting absolutely ridiculous, and Richard didn’t realize how much he’d missed having a reason to be ridiculous.

A ding from his computer alerted him to a new email. He glanced over, then turned his entire attention to it as he saw Cio’s work email in the sender line.

Dr. Price,

Thought I’d send a quick rundown on the wedding.

My brother Daniel is getting married on the beach. It’s a small ceremony. Dress code is beach casual according to the invitations. After the ceremony there’s a black tie reception so we’ll have to change into tuxes before we head to the reception. The reception is massive. Our entire family came up from Mexico for it and it will be a very not fun time. I suggest having a minor emergency prepared so you can leave early.

My brother has rented out all three of the bungalows at Lunar Bay for two days before the wedding until the day after. You, Amelia and I are sharing a two bedroom. Check in is at noon on Thursday. We’ll have the day to ourselves. Friday I’ll have the rehearsal around noon and that evening the hotel has a fire on the beach planned for us. If you’d rather wait and arrive just for the wedding then that’s fine. Don’t feel as though you need to be here for the entire four days if you don’t want to.

I can’t even begin to touch on my family and things you might need to know. For the most part, you should be fine. As I said before padre and abuelo might not be the most welcoming, but they’ll likely just ignore you. Mamá will ask probing questions. Answer how you see fit. They’ll all hopefully be too busy with the wedding to bother us much. I’ve been using the excuse of a boyfriend for about three months now. I’ve also told them we’re taking it really slow. 

Is there anything I should know about you? I know it’s my family so information about me is more helpful, but I’d rather not slip up and give you something you’re allergic to..

Thanks again for doing this,

Cio

Richard should have reminded him that the work emails were monitored. Of course it didn’t matter since Richard owned the IT guys who monitored them, but still. If Cio was sending personal matters to others on the work servers, he should know they could check them at any time.

He scanned through the details again. Another beep sounded and he opened up the interwork instant messaging system to see Natalie scolding him for slacking off. He told her she was fired and logged off the system.

He had about a week to get ready for this. He hadn’t been to the beach in years. A little over a decade. He picked up the picture in the new frame Cio had bought and ran a finger over Lucille’s carefree smile. The ocean glistened behind them. Her eyes were squinting at the camera. He was watching her with a stupidly happy smile on his face. He hadn’t felt like he’d felt with her with anyone. 

He sighed and sat back in the chair. He missed her. He always missed her smile and laugh. The way the sun darkened her skin and lightened her hair. The way she’d force him to leave the office early in order to laze about in the sand with her on her days off. His boss had been close to firing him, until she got sick. Then his boss was too sympathetic and Richard had started resisting leaving early. The sympathy had been too hard to handle. He regretted that now. He should have left early every single day.

Melancholy gripped him tight. The paperwork felt like too much to deal with. He shoved it all to the side. He kept a bottle of whiskey and a couple glasses in the bottle drawer of his desk. His excuse for it, when Natalia expressed her displeasure at it, was for when he held meetings in his office. It was only polite to offer a drink. He poured some in a glass and went to lounge on the couch. The picture frame was still firmly in his grip. It was too early for a nap. Natalie would kill him if he went out to pester her. He turned his eyes back to the picture.

“What do you think? Am I being an idiot?” He chuckled to himself as he heard her response as clear as if she were sitting right beside him. “Of course you’d say I am. Then you’d tell me to stop being stupid and turn this shit into something real.” He took a drink from the glass and welcomed the burning trail of whiskey.

“And I would say your wife was pretty damn intelligent and you should take her advice.” Natalie’s voice spoke softly from the doorway.

“I’m going to tell Cio to put the squeak back in your chair.”

Natalie snorted. “Not my fault you don’t pay attention to your surroundings. Now what advice are you getting from your wife and can I help?”

Richard sat up and put the frame back on the wobbly table. “It’s been ten years, but a part of me still feels like I’m betraying her.”

“Even though your advice through her was to stop being an idiot?”

“Yes.” Richard finally looked over to her. She had her hair down in a long braid and pulled over her shoulder. A file sat in her lap. “Is that for me?”

“No.” He stared at her. “Ok, yeah. But that was before I found you being all mopey over the fact that you have a date with a guy you’ve been crushing on for weeks. I’ll just take care of it.”

“I’m not moping. Just… thinking things out.”

“Mhmm. Well, for the record, his sister really likes you. She thinks you’re handsome and apparently Cio hasn’t really showed interest in anyone since he graduated with his bachelors.”

“That’s good news?”

“Sure it is! It means you’re not just another, uh, notch in his belt.” She shrugged when he kept staring. “Amelia used that phrasing.”

“You’re forgetting how long he tried to get out of taking me to this wedding.”

Natalie scoffed. “Since when are you insecure? You know damn well it’s because you’re his boss and it’s incredibly inappropriate for him to ask you to do any of this.”

He held out his hand. Natalie moved forward to hand over the file. “How much have you and his sister talked about?”

Her grin turned devious. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dr. Price. For the record, you’re being stupid by trying to hold back. Enjoy the wedding, then after, tell him you want to keep dating. It’s that easy.”

Except it couldn’t really be that easy. He couldn’t be the one to ask Cio and tell Cio that he wanted more. He was the boss. It put him in a position of power over Cio and he didn’t want to ever feel the way he’d felt two years ago, again. If they were to do anything, he didn’t want to be the initiator again. Not when it set him back off into the bottle in a way he hadn’t been in years.

“Want me to make an appointment with your therapist?” Natalie was matter of fact with the question. “This is the second time this month you’ve pulled that out and I know damn well before this all started you hadn’t touched it in almost a year.”

He swirled the little bit remaining in his glass. “Yeah, go ahead.” It would help him get his thoughts in order at the very least.