LINKED

Chapter 2: The meeting

Hello, I envisioned James Corden as "Tom" because I think he would be perfect for it.. Apologies if this chapter if it is too dialoguey but I felt like they should get to know each other better. Also.. I think it is clear that I am not from London myself and that will be apparent in the upcoming chapters so please bear with me also for shit grammar. Lastly, comments are deeply appreciated.

"Uh Tom, was it?" Alec asked.

"Yes", Tom said looking at Alec curiously.

"Can... Can I talk to you somewhere privately?". Tom had frowned his face in confusion and had said of course, glanced at an also confused Ella and said they'd be right back. They walked across the corridor to what seemed to be Tom's office. It was small and bleak looking and on this desk there was a magnitude of papers, entry forms, Alec, scattered everywhere.

"Sorry for the mess, I wasn't expecting visitors. Unfortunately, two of our clerks are sick so we need to do the processing of these forms ourselves", Tom said as he walked towards his chair.

He pointed to Alec to take a seat, sat down himself and almost immediately after, folded his hands, looked down at his desk and then sighed deeply.

"I hate, hate when this happens", he grunted and he gripped his hair.

"When what happens?", Alec wanted to know. Tom looked up and then stared intently at Alec.

"You don't like her, do you"? he said with a slightly exhausted edge to his voice which suggested that this type of things happened more than often. Alec was not really sure what Tom was talking about but he did have an idea.

Alec did not know what to say. "That's not it".

"Oh come on, do me a favour and lie to me please", sighed Tom.

Alec took a short break to answer and then started his defence uncomfortably.

"See... It is... It's just that... She's not my type," he said, a little embarrassed. "I mean. She looks nothing like my exes. I can't imagine she's my match".

Tom sighed again, which was something like the third time in three minutes.

"And yet, Alec, she IS whether you want to believe it or not. Look" and Tom started tapping his keyboard and then turned the screen towards Alec.

"Here, look. A 90% correlation between your entry forms and hers. How do you want to argue with that?" Tom asked and Alec didn't answer, just looked at the big red number displayed on the screen.

"You score pretty much the same in areas such as intelligence, emotional intelligence, have similar preferences (stating that your match had to be living in or around London), you both love to go to the cinema and walk in your spare time, like the same bands, enjoy the same food. I know those things I just listed might be random BUT your socio-economical background may be different but you both grew up in a close family. Family is very important to you and you both are on great terms with your siblings AND you share the same values, the only thing you and her essentially differ on is sports, she isn't keen on it unlike you.".

"So. The only problem is probably that you don't find her attractive or am I wrong? ", Tom said in a somewhat accusing tone.

There was a short silence that became more uncomfortable with the second. Alec licked his lips, something he used to do when he felt nervous before answering.

"I don't see this going anywhere. I mean, maybe we are...", and he pointed to the screen "a good couple in theory but in practice" and he shook his head slightly.

" I'm not saying... I'm not saying she's ugly but my type is tall, blond and slim and... she is not".

Tom's mouth opened in slight aversion and he wanted to say something but Alec was ahead of him.