Alec hadn't exaggerated. We spent the entirety of Monday brainstorming the best campaigns for each task and whittling those ideas down to a collection of rather tentative points of action. The team members were eventually granted leave after we'd all gone down to the cafeteria for dinner, but Alec had me join him back up in the Pit where we continued to revise the plans we had set out for ourselves.

By the time I rolled out of bed the next day and made my way to the office, I could feel the dark bags bubbling up beneath my eyes. Two early mornings in a row and the future didn't promise for much better. Still, this was the opportunity handed to me and though I would have preferred a slower approach to my goal, this was what I had and I was going to make damn sure I did the best I could with it. So I went over to the kitchenette, made myself the largest cup of coffee I could manage and then went to my office with my head held high.

It took another three coffees to make it through the morning and past lunch. After I met with the team again to officially dole out tasks, Alec requested I pen him in for my afternoon. Since I was the only one working on the interview, Alec wanted to go over my prep for it, among other things.

"You'll need to go down to the show set on your own for the pre-interview. I've got to visit the advertising firm that morning."

With Emi doing some legwork for her team, Alec decided to move our talks from the Pit to my office. There he had notes and sketches for his print ads laid out, while we turned the conversation to my impending date with Mariska.

"Right, well I'll just make sure to review our notes over the next couple of days and then I'll be the absolute expert on the gala."

"I know I can count on you Alexis." A soft grin raised his defined cheekbones and brightened his light brown eyes, which gazed at me from over top of his glasses as they slipped down the bridge of his nose. A light tug pulled at some point just behind my ribcage and I found myself looking down at his rather creative designs for the ads instead of keeping hold of his warm, friendly eyes.

It's not like Alec was necessarily shy about offering praise where it was deserved, it was just that he never went out of his way very often to do it. Yet somehow, I managed to gain multiple compliments in two days. That in itself was enough to make anyone in the office blush with gratitude. However, I found myself more than appreciative before his smile. I felt special. Perhaps it was simply the knowledge that no one but me was there to hear his praise. Which in turn meant that smile was solely for my own benefit. That it was all just for me.

"You know, Mr. Radcliffe, you can call me Lex." I swiped a stray strand of hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear as I glanced up at him with a shy smile. "That's what my friends call me and if we're going to be working together then, maybe..." I paused and cleared my throat. What did I mean? We had been working close together over the past day, but he was still far above me in the hierarchy of the office. I felt my jaw clench as I strained to identify whether or not I just crossed a line I shouldn't have. He could resent the familiarity.

"I just mean that, should you feel like it, you can refer to me as Lex, but Alexis is also fine." I straightened out and gave him a stiff, professional smile. I thought I saw a shadow of amusement flick across his face, but he turned back to his work and the moment vanished.

"Duly noted," he said, scanning over our notes for my Q&A with Mariska. "This personable nature of yours is why I picked you for the interview. If I did it, it would surely end in a disaster."

"You're always so cool and calm," I said, watching the side of his head as he slid his finger down his tablet screen. "I'm sure even a little stage fright would be unable to shake you."

"A cool personality works great when we need to calm people's fears," he said, turning to look at me. "But for raising the public's excitement, I'd rather see a bright, engaging personality — like yours." Whether it was a shift in lighting, my active imagination, or an honest change in the curvature of his lips, I saw that smile again and I had to fight the urge to look over my shoulder and see if anyone else was around to notice it. Instead, I drank it in and bit my lower lip to stop myself from grinning too madly at my superior's warm compliments.

"Um, should we go over these questions? I imagine she'll probably ask these at some point and I want to be ready." I cleared my throat since my words had some difficulty finding their way out.

"Sure, let's give them a look." He rolled his chair over so that it bumped up against mine. From there he peered at my tablet where my hand had been poised over the share button so I could send him my notes. I held my breath, wondering if he'd stay that close for the remainder of the evening. "Looks like a good start, let's give it a go." He then took the tablet from my hands and rolled back over to his side of the office. "Let's start with this question about why Quinto chose this charity to support."

And just like that the air returned to my lungs and I hoped the cool autumn light filtering in through my office window did an admirable job washing out the confused red coloring on my face. I pushed my schoolgirl infatuation away, feeling foolish for letting a few nice words and a couple warm smiles fluster me so easily. It'd been awhile since any man had given me this much individual attention and apparently I was more starved for it than I thought.

With that in mind, I was able to ignore my neediness and remember I was in a place of business and that I had a plan to execute. One that would not succeed if I started flirting with my boss.

"Okay," I said shaking my hair off my shoulders and straightening up in my chair. "Fire away."

We blew through my questions, adding on a few more as we went along, before shifting our focus to the ad mockups. The world outside my door began to empty and the light that drifted in through my small window shifted from blue to orange. I felt myself going cross-eyed in the dimming light. The words and lines began to blur together, so I leaned back and sent my gaze towards the window, hoping the distant cityscape would grant my eyes some reprieve. However, there was a sharp glare of the golden sun reflecting off the glass clad buildings and I was forced to send my sights elsewhere. I finally landed on my clock, it's tick the only noise in the room with most of the department gone and Alec silently perusing through some emails that the other team members had sent along with their status updates. To my dismay, I saw how well past dinner we allowed ourselves to go and even worse, my stomach decided to growl with discontent. A growl made all the more audible in such a silent space.

"Hungry?" Alec asked, glancing up at me from his laptop with an amused tilt to his lips.

"Hard to deny something that loud..." I said with a smile that only stayed on my face out of sheer will power to not show just how panicked and embarrassed I was.

"I'm pretty hungry too," he said with a light laugh. "I'm not sure either of us really got much of a lunch in either. We need to make sure we pay more attention to these things. We won't be good to anyone if we both pass out from hunger."

The laugh lingering on his lips melted away the pitiful tension grasping my chest. I managed a nod and a grateful smile.

"I'll be better at making time for food, if you do too."

"Agreed."

In that moment, we both shared a small smile that somehow seemed magnified in the peaceful quiet of the office. With all the work and all the anxiety of the past two days, I wanted to relish in that peace and contemplate the kindness in Alec's eyes. However, my stomach couldn't have cared less about my interests and decided to remind me that the clear and present problem was lack of food.

Alec did his best to conceal his laugh while I turned away with a blush on my cheeks and a curse on my lips.

"Well," he said without too much amusement in his voice, "we should call some food up from the cafeteria. I think they keep someone on until around eight for any poor souls pulling a late night."

With a sigh, I looked over my office and wondered just where exactly we'd be eating considering both Emi's and my desk were covered in notes. We had our laps, but that posed a potentially messy challenge. Despite my best efforts, my exhaustion, coupled with lingering feelings of embarrassment and the pressing pain of hunger, forced a low groan to curl out of my throat.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, with concerned curiosity.

"I could really use a change of scenery. I was thinking maybe we could go to a restaurant instead and continue work there."

I turned to him with a wide, hopeful smile as if that would somehow seal the deal, but I found Alec resembling the tired, distracted boss I was used to.

"You want to go out with me to a restaurant?"

"Well, there's this place, not far from here, that Emily and I go to..."

"You know it is really late," he said, rising up from his seat and gathering his portion of the clutter into his bag. "We should just call it a night so that we can both get a proper meal and some rest."

"Oh, okay." I mumbled the words, uncertain if I just missed something in the throes of my hunger.

"It's just, you're right, we really should get some air to get our heads straight. And some proper rest. Our project will suffer otherwise." He finished gathering his things and started to head for the door while I was still trying to grasp the sudden change in the air. "Will you be okay on the subway this late? Do you need me to walk you to the station?"

"I'll be fine," I finally managed to say. "It's not far from here or my apartment and it's not that dark yet."

"Okay then." He gave me a sort of nod goodbye before leaving me alone to wallow in my deepening confusion.

***

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