wed.

Wedding rings and first dates

...

The knock on his office door startled Alex. Thomas stepped in. "Hey, loser. Here." He tossed something to Alex. "You owe me big time."

Alex turned the ring box in his hand and then opened it. "You did good," he nodded. He set the ring to the side. "I wanna know how much it was."

"Too much." Thomas chipped his chin, referring to the ring. "You better drop that off before he comes storming in here again." He leaned in the doorway, crossing his arms. "Has he showed up to your house again?"

Alex shook his head. "No, but he calls all the time. If I don't pick up the first time, he'll call three or four more times. And then he'll stop for an hour or so and then do the same thing again."

"He's fucking crazy," Thomas chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm sure you could argue that in a court case, right? I mean, pull out a restraining order and say he's crazy or something. Then he'd have to leave you alone, right?"

"I don't need that stress right now."

"You also don't need the stress of a wedding a faking a healthy marriage." Thomas pointed out.

"You're absolutely correct." Alex agreed. He stood up and closed his laptop with some papers tucked into it. "I just like making things complicated, right? It's what I do best." Alex smiled sarcastically, having quoted what Thomas said to him once.

"I apologized and you know you were being an ass," Thomas defended.

"I'm gonna get this ring to Laurens and then probably finish these forms up at home. I'll call you or something later probably. Or not. I dunno." Alex slung his bag over his shoulder and pushed his rolling chair in. He walked to the door and stood on his tip toes to kiss Thomas's cheek. "I owe you. Thanks again." And he walked out of the office, bid adieu to Maria, and left. He got into his car, starting it.

Once arriving at John's apartment address, Alex got out of the car, and walked into the building. It didn't have an elevator and Alex had to carefully inspect the scribbled red pen on the inside of John's messenger bag, since Alex had called John twice with no answer, to find what floor John was on. Upon finally finding the apartment, he knocked. 

John opened the door and blinked. "What're you doing here?"

"What happened to your face?" Alex asked. John's eye was black and blue and swollen. "You should put some ice on that."

"Nothing. I'm fine." John carefully touched his eye. "How'd you know where I lived?"

"Hey, I didn't get to know how you figured out how I lived, so that's classified information." Alex chuckled a bit, but stopped when he saw John was unamused. "You left your bag at my house." He held up the bag.

John took it. "You went through my bag?"

"I did call," Alex pointed out. "You didn't answer." He reached up to touch John's eye. "Seriously, Laurens, you should put some ice on that. What happened?"

"Nothing. I ran into a pole." John pulled back. "Why are you--"

"Yo! Johnny! Who's at the damn door?" Someone called from inside the apartment. John whipped around. He stepped outside and pulled the door closed.

"Your roommate sounds like a dick," Alex said. He pulled out the ring box. "Anyway, I brought you your ring. I figured I be a decent person and give it to you in person." Alex shifted his weight and put the box in John's hand. "I'm not gonna do that proposal shit, though, so don't get your hopes up..." John just nodded along. "Also," Alex continued, "you don't have to call me like twenty eight times. If I don't answer the first time, I'm probably busy--"