Chicago Love ✔️

Chapter 34: A Trip to the Office

Kyle makes his way through the door to the Hendrick Motorsports shop first, before glancing back with a bit of a smirk in seeing the pair follow him behind. 

Alex was ready to skip the meeting in its entirety. What was there to talk about after a disastrous weekend? It was just a way of being able to spend less time with Hailey, and that's what these 24 hours should be about. Instead, though, he found himself within the walls with her. Her curiosity about what the shop looked like, and other details had led him to bring her for an official tour. Call it a welcome to my world as part of officially entering boyfriend / girlfriend territory.

Kyle heads down the row of offices, purposely knocking on William's door as he walked on by to get his attention. The fellow driver looked up with a smirk of his own as he saw Alex and Hailey following behind him together. 

"I told you it would happen sooner than you thought," William comments as he gets out from behind his desk and makes his way to the doorway. He simply holds out his hand, and watches as Kyle places a crisp $20 down. Lunch was certainly going to taste better today.

"You were both making bets about our relationship?" Hailey looks between the teammates with surprise. Though she began chuckling, wondering if the same thing was happening at the district. She could imagine Kevin and Adam arguing over it together, perhaps Jay getting himself involved. She wondered what they could be betting on and the guesses they had. 

"I am surprised Kyle said longer considering all the teasing he has been offering," Alex offers with a bit of surprise in the results. "But guys, promise to keep it quiet, please?" William and Kyle trade a glance of curiosity, as Kyle couldn't help but wonder about the possible reasons as to why. She was normally back in Chicago. Was there a special reason she was hiding in North Carolina beyond wanting to spend time with Alex? 

"We'll just let them keep pondering Chase's love life," Kyle comments, as Alex just rolls his eyes. Even not being on google search engines and social media a lot himself, it seemed there were always girls gossiping about every single person that Chase was around, wondering if that was his next fling. If only they knew the boy wished to keep everything private and absolutely hated it. "I should've let William win the bet by sending a photo from your house earlier." 

"You said you weren't going to mention that," Hailey states as she crosses her arms. It only brought a smirk on Kyle's face as he was going to get it mentioned without having to do so himself - just as he planned.

"I didn't say anything about the details, now did I?" Alex was used to Kyle having fun and playing games. He actually welcomed the stress relief and jokes at times with how things were around here at times. However, a glance towards Hailey and he knew Kyle was digging himself a hole.

"Let me remind you that she's a Chicago police department detective and can put you in handcuffs," Alex comments as he places a hand on his teammate's shoulder. "I suggest you keep that in mind before you tease her again." 

"Careful Alex, he may enjoy the handcuffs," Hailey warns with a smirk of her own. She knew this was a risk, but she was going to swing for the fence. She might as well give it a shot in knowing she would not be getting rid of Kyle's teasing anytime soon. "We both don't know what happens in his bedsroom, right?" 

"So Alex, did you decide to date a police officer so she could handcuff you to the bed?" Kyle quickly turns the tables, with a smirk of his own as Alex's cheeks go as red as an apple. William could see the embarrassment on his teammate's face, genuinely feeling bad despite knowing it had been the right thing for Kyle to say. 

"Just so you know, I like my other teammates better than you," Alex comments before continuing his walk down the hallway ahead of them. He hoped they would catch the hint and leave him be as it was clear the introductory to work was not going as he would have thought. "Don't we have a meeting to be getting to?" 

"I should smack you silly for that comment," Hailey shares before running to catch up with Alex. 

They stop at the office labeled with his name, their eyes locked on each other as Hailey tried to read through the possible emotions that Alex was feeling right now. 

"Deep down beneath all the teasing, he cares about you," Hailey shares as she takes Alex's hands with her own, keeping his eyes focused on her as the teammates pass on by. "Rather than being a normal human being, he is teasing you to get those feelings out. They say sometimes those who tease the most are the most scared about showing their real feelings." 

"Or they are just total jackasses," Alex comments, earning a chuckle in response from Hailey as that was certainly true as well. However, just like Alex was getting it from Kyle, she knew she'd return home to similar comments from the guys at work. "I like how you tried to throw it right back at him. Nobody has done that before. It's nice that he knows you won't take his shit." 

"We have a cage in the basement of Intelligence. I could always welcome him to Chicago, throw him in there and get rid of the key..." Alex could only look at Hailey in pure shock at the suggestion, having not expected that by a longshot. "It's a mini jail cell where we use it to question some of the worst criminals and get the answers we need out of them. The threatening actions or words can sometimes bring answers quicker than normal. It'd be cruel if I threw Kyle in there. However, he may not say anything afterwards....."