Page 16 of The No Repeat Policy

A tiny snowflake lands on my hand, but the chill no longer registers. We’ve been on the back porch the last half hour, waiting for everyone to show up so dinner can happen. Madison is sitting to my right with Logan next to her. He pulled up a few minutes after I did, and just like us he, too, has a drink in hand, a vodka and Red Bull. Guess he ain’t planning on sleeping tonight.

Sasha’s sprinting and jumping about the backyard. It’s weird how the excitement in her eyes actually makes me happy. Every time she bites at another flake it’s like this involuntary need to shake my head and grin. Getting her was definitely the right choice.

“She’s having a ball,”

Logan says.

Honestly I am too. Well, a good time. Even though my jacket isn’t quiet as thick as I’d thought it was. I hadn’t needed one for this type of cold for years.

“Hmm…I wonder if it’s her first time seeing snow?”

I suggest. It’s a nice thought. The wonder of something brand new and exciting.

“Or she just gets real excited every time she sees it.”

Madison drops her head back on the wicker chair and downs another gulp of her Sea Breeze from the full bar in the kitchen.

“Maybe.”

I shrug. “It is pretty though. Been a while since I’ve seen it like this. I remember when I was young, we’d get out of school all the time for the snow. It could be dusting just like this and they’d still cancel.”

“Lucky you. I grew up here.”

Logan doesn’t bother to turn his attention from the snow. “It’s so normal it had to be a freaking snowstorm before they’d cancel. Sometimes they’d delay, but not often. We hated you all down the mountain.”

“We never got snow to have the chance to get us out school,”

Madison complains, a tiny slur slipping in with a missed word in there. “We did have to eva-e-evacoo-evacuate for hurricanes.”

“I’ll take snow any day,”

I say. Fuck a hurricane.

“I second that.”

Logan raises his drink.

The back door creaks open and we turn in unison to see Jon peeking his head between the crack.

“Food is ready,”

he announces and quickly retreats back inside.

“Guess that’s our sign?”

I look to Madison.

“Yep,”

she says and gets to her feet. She wobbles at first, so I put out a hand. “I’ve got this. I don’t need no man.”

I smirk, “Except Bradley.”

“Fuck you.”

She rolls her eyes and smiles. That still seems to be going. She’s been hanging out with him a lot, but she won’t call them a couple yet. They are. I don’t care what she says.

I whistle for Sasha in the vein hope she’ll just come back on her own. She doesn’t, so I start off into the backyard, making faint footprints in the snow. I lean down and pat my legs. “Come on, girl. It’s dinnertime.”

After snapping at a few more flakes she listens and follows us inside. She’s the kid I was. Just one more flake.

“Let me feed her real quick and I’ll be right back,”

I say, and run upstairs with Sasha on my heels. I unpack the sealed container of dog food I brought and pour a serving in the bowl next to her water bowl. “You be a good girl now. I’ll be downstairs once you’re done.”

I leave her in the room and jog back downstairs. Everyone must be in the dining room already; the living room is completely empty. I maneuver around the slightly too posh furniture before coming to an abrupt stop by the dining room entrance.

Icy blue eyes bloom into existence before me and I freeze. Those eyes. Familiar eyes. That hair. Swooping blonde waves. Little nose. Perfect lips. My eyes explode in surprise just as Xander’s do the same. I’m a stone. Stuck in place staring back at the boy I’ve dreamt about and tried to forget. He’s here. He’s standing in front of me. The only difference is he has less makeup on today and he’s wearing these oddly cute thin-rimmed glasses. But why?

What the fuck is Xander doing here? His mouth moves but nothing comes out. Yeah, I think he’s wondering the same thing.

“Ah, Kolton.”

Jon stands up from the table, jolly as ever. I’d forgotten there were other people here. “Meet my son, Alexander.”

Wha— Huh? Your son? Alexander? Xander? Alexander? Oh my God, Xander is my boss’s son. Oh my fucking God. The reality of it pours into my head. I fucked my boss’s son. Oh shit, and now I’m supposed to room with him. This is so, so bad. I mean, sort of a dream, but still so bad.

“Xa— Alexander,”

I stumble, forcing myself to nod. “Uh, it’s good to meet you.”

I don’t know why I say it. I know him. Like really know him, at least in one very specific way. And he knows me. But they don’t know that, I’m sure. It’s one of the cardinal rules of a hookup. If we meet in public, you don’t know me.

“Yeah. You too.”

He gulps. “It was Kolton, right?”

“Yep,”

is what comes out of my mouth. What is happening? Or better yet, how is this happening? I can’t room with him. I mean I want to. I’ve wanted to every day since I last saw him, but I can’t. Not here! Not at the company getaway, in his house with his dad here. Besides, there has to be a reason he ghosted me. Right? God, this is so not how I envisioned this weekend.

Neither of us have moved yet. I almost forget I’m here for dinner. Thankfully the table is set behind Xander with platters of food all down the center. I should just go sit down and act casual. That’d be best.

“Kolton here is rooming with you this weekend,”

Jon says to his son.

Xander, or Alexander, twists around and locks his eyes on his dad. Oh my God. He’s just as in the dark as I was. This is so awkward. He doesn’t say anything at first. Instead he just stares at his dad in shock before catching himself.

“I’m sorry, what?”

Alexander asks. His voice jumps an octave and I’m doing everything I can not to react. Part of me wants to laugh while another part wants to turn tail and run for my car. “Room with? He’s rooming with me?”

“Yes,”

Jon says. “Is that okay? I thought—”

“Yes, of course. Definitely,”

Alexander says, his tone saying anything but the words he’s spewing in a hurry. He swings his gaze back at me. It’s almost like he’s telling me that it’s okay, that I should go along. I squint but nod.

“Uh, yeah. It’s good,”

I say, even though after the fact it hits me I probably wasn’t included in that question.

“Obviously.”

Xander, or Alexander, shrugs, then grabs my arm and pulls me around the corner. He peers back into the dining room to say, “We’ll be right back.”

“Oh—”

I start but stop before I out myself. He doesn’t stop in the kitchen or the living room. Everything wooshes by until we’re standing in the middle of what appears to be a small library. Damn. This is nice, actually.

“What the actual fuck are you doing here?”

Xander whispers under his breath with enough force to make me blink.

“I would ask the same of you, but…it…you…”

I start to lose my words. It’s crazy how what I was thinking to say literally makes no sense because, well, it’s his cabin, I guess. Also, he’s here, Xander. Somehow he’s standing right in front of me, beautiful eyes looking like they could murder the fuck out of me, but my God, he’s here. The one thing I’ve wanted for weeks. I have it. “You’re, uh…my boss’s son? Seriously?”

“Yeah, so?”

He shrugs and starts pacing. “You want me to go back and unborn myself or something?”

“No!”

I yelp, as if it’s a serious question and try my best to rebound. “That’s…uh…c-crazy,”

I stutter, which fuck that shit. I’m not the type to get flustered, but this is insane. I fucked my boss’s son? He’s the guy that’s been haunting my mind for weeks but won’t even acknowledge me, and now I’m supposed to stay in the same room with him tonight? How the fuck is this happening? It can’t be real.

“You think?”

He’s still pacing. Which is sort of cute, because his jeans are so tight. “Are you checking out my ass?”

“What?! No!”

I bark, shooting my eyes back up. It was just as nice as I remember though.

“Really?”

Xander huffs.

“I mean, it is a nice ass,” I say.

His mouth drops open and he shakes his head. “That’s what you’re thinking about right now? My ass? Fucking typical.”

I shrug. Now that I’m semi back in my normal state of mind and the initial shock is waning, I’m seeing the possibilities. He’s here. I’m here. We’re rooming together. He’s already told his dad, my boss, that it’s obviously okay. So we will be in the same room tonight. And there is only one bed in there. So, you know. It makes sense, right?

“So you’re not going to take any of this seriously?”

Xander stops and plants his eyes on me.

“Any of this?” I ask.

“This.”

He throws his hands between us.

“The way I see it, there’s no way around it.”

Unless of course I leave and go back down the mountain, and fuck that. I want to see how this plays out now. Maybe things could be better, or at least fun.

Seeing him standing there brings back memories of his body against mine, his moan, flashes of us lying there naked, talking. I want that again. I want all of it, but part of me wants to talk again, like really hear him pour it all out, that person who needed someone to be there and listen. Then again, I could just go for the sex. Why the fuck would I want to listen to him after he ignored me for weeks? What the fuck am I thinking? He’s an ass. A pretty one, sure, but stop with the sentimental shit, Kolton. He’s stuck with me. My only goal should be to fuck him before I leave.

”God,”

Xander huffs again. He’s doing that a lot. He paces more, back and forth in front of a large ornate desk with books piled high on each side.

I cross my arms and lean back. I don’t know what he wants me to do. This is his place, his dad. I’m just a guest, and guests are to be treated well, right?

Finally he stops.

“Okay, ground rules.”

Xander points toward the ground. That’s a little too literal for my taste, but I brush it off.

“Serious?”

I raise my brow. This is where we’re going.

“I get the bed. You get the window couch,”

he starts.

I faintly remember the couch. It was set into one of the windows, sort of like a little cubby. It didn’t look too comfy, and it’s right up against the window. That’s going to be so cold.

“Hell no,”

I stop him. “It’ll be cold as fuck over there. I get the bed, you get the window. I am the guest after all.”

The yucky caring part of me kicks in and immediately makes me feel like absolute crap for that. I might want one thing since he’s being an absolute ass, but I can’t make him sleep there. I’ll take the window couch. Having a heart sucks. Why can’t I just be a careless fuckboy?

“Not my fault. Number two. No nude in the room. Three. No peeking when I’m in the bathroom. Four—”

he keeps going.

“Oh my God, I’m not some sort of creep.”

I step back.

“You’re a man,”

he says as if it somehow doesn’t apply to him as well.

“And you’re not?”

I cock my head to the left.

“You know what I mean,” he says.

“Do I though?”

I ask. Suddenly it hits me that there is a whole room of people waiting for us to return, plus food that’s getting cold. I’d almost forgotten.

“Yes! All you think about is sex.”

He sounds disgusted.

“Last I remember, you were the one begging me to fuck you harder,”

I remind him candidly.

“Fuck you,” he spits.

“Would you?” I grin.

“You’re such a child,” he says.

“No, I’m daddy, remember?”

I grin bigger. This is going to be great.

“I…uh…sto…just…no! Stop it.”

He finally gets it out.

“Maybe we should get to dinner; they might be getting suspicious,”

I recommend. My phone vibrates and I can almost certainly guarantee that it’s Madison wanting to know what the hell is going on. “Can’t have them thinking you’re blowing me for a pre-dinner snack.”

“But…fuck you. But, yeah,”

he gives in and starts toward the door. “Fine.”

“We can discuss this tonight…”

I say, but I’m not done. “In bed.”

He huffs and rolls his eyes, which is oddly hot, before leading the way back to the dining room.

This is going to be so great and so horrible all at the same time. I can feel it in my bones. Hell, I just have to make it through the weekend without getting fired. That’s all. Don’t get fired. Watch that ass move as he walks in front of me, but don’t get fired.

When we make it back to the dining room all eyes are on us. There are only two chairs left. The one next to Madison where I immediately head, and the one directly across from the same chair. So it looks like we’ll be staring each other down the entire dinner too.

“What was that?”

Madison leans in and whispers.

“I’ll tell you later,”

I say, as Jon’s wife Pam is already talking.

“Is something wrong?”

she says, looking at Xander.

“No, all good.”

He smiles and nods, taking the seat across from me. He looks up and meets my eyes. God, they’re beautiful even when they’re burning with hate.

“Are you sure?”

Jon asks. He doesn’t seem convinced. Shit, I sure wouldn’t be.

“Y’all were gone a bit,”

Gregory pipes up.

First of all, Gregory, mind your business. I want to say it so bad in the moment, but I hold my tongue. What is Xander going to say though? We didn’t think to have a cover story. We were both too surprised.

“I, uh- I just had to lay some ground rules.”

He shrugs.

It’s not a lie. It’s actually spot on, but it still seems weird.

The looks around the table seem to agree. I think it might have actually sparked more confusion. Ground rules. Yeah, okay. Ground rules for what? Xander obviously sees the same question in their eyes and his lips start moving again before words even come out.

“Just the basics. You know?”

He shrugs, and nods too much. “Don’t use my toothbrush. Not to be putting items where they don’t belong. That type of thing.”

“Oh, okay,”

Jon sighs.

The way Xander looks directly at me when he says that second one is very pointed. The message gets through loud and clear.

“Let’s eat,”

Pam says, and the plates and fancy pots begin to move around the table.

I let the food distract me. There are candy cane-decorated bowls of baked beans and delicious-looking kernel corn. I think that’s a chicken casserole Logan is scooping onto his plate, and there’s a tray of deviled eggs next to him. Oh, and the baskets of rolls, literally baskets of them. There are also a few dishes I’m not sure about, but they look good, and a big ham on a platter. It’s like you’d see in a movie, but it’s real here. Guess that’s what having money looks like.

“So Kolton.”

Lawrence’s voice rumbles across the table. “How are you liking working with us? It’s been, what, two months now?”

“Almost. Will be next week,”

I tell him. “And honestly I’m enjoying it. I like the freedom of it, the innovation.”

It’s literally everything I can do not to glimpse in Xander’s direction. I want to see him, but I can’t make this any more awkward than it already is.

“Innovation,”

Lawrence repeats. “That’s right. That’s what I told Jon and Gregory before we opened up your spot. We’re old. Sort of set in our ways.”

“Sort of?”

Heather grunts, pushing a lock of blonde hair back over her shoulder.

“Hey now, we’re not that bad,”

Jon laughs. Heather raises her brow but doesn’t protest.

“Yeah, yeah. Simply put, we don’t understand all that computer stuff. Hell, I’d still have a flip phone if they still made them.”

“He held on for dear life to that damn thing.”

Gregory leans over the table. “We finally bought him an iPhone so he’d ditch that dinosaur.”

Laughs jump around the table, but the one I hear is Xander’s. It’s like honey. A melody.

“It was a good dinosaur,”

Lawrence laughs, then tugs at Reagan. “Have you even seen a flip phone?”

She nods and giggles. It’s sort of annoying, actually. One of those high-toned, I-swear-it’s-fake types.

“Of course I have, silly.”

She swipes at his shirt.

“Alex,”

Jon says, and Xander’s attention darts toward my boss. “You’ve never seen one, have you?”

“Nah. Too ancient.”

Xander shrugs. He knows exactly what he’s doing.

“Ancient?”

Jon laughs.

“So ancient,”

Xander whispers under his breath, but I hear it, and I can’t help but look at him. Our eyes meet and I’m smiling because it was funny, and his laugh was cute. He’s not anymore though. Fuck. I look away.

“We might be old, but we’d make it if the electricity went out, unlike y’all,”

Gregory huffs.

“You mean like in an EMP?”

Logan grins and sits to attention.

I think something just activated in him, like damn. He’s suddenly excited.

“A what?”

Gregory squints.

“An EMP. An Electro Magnetic Pulse,”

Logan repeats slowly. That’s his first error. “Like if they detonated a—”

“Ah, that shit.”

Gregory shakes his head and throws a hand through his hair. “Yeah, like that. Y’all young’uns wouldn’t last a minute without your phones and electric cars.”

“I mean, all of our cars need electricity to run, right?”

Chad finally speaks up.

All eyes drop on him. Most of them not excited.

“My bad,”

he grins coyly and starts back into his mashed potatoes.

With the conversation effectively off of me, I steal a quick glance at Xander’s sharp chin and then pull my phone out. I hold it under the table to send a message to Madison.

KOLTON: Alexander. He’s Xander. Club guy. Greek goddess!

I hear her phone vibrate in her pocket, and her eyes shoot down and then at me. I nod and whisper, “Check it.”

She squints and discreetly pulls out her phone, tapping the screen until I see a message pop up. Her mouth drops, and she not very discreetly shoots her attention across the table to Xander and then finally me.

“Are you serious?”

she leans in and whispers.

“Very,”

I say, and start typing again.

KOLTON: HOW did you miss that at the club? You know him, right?

Her phone buzzes again and she starts tapping. The bubbles jump on my phone until her response comes back.

MADISON: My bad. ::monkey-hiding emoji:: I’ve never seen him shirtless, or with makeup, or with a mask on.

I roll my eyes. Fine.

“Kolton.”

Jon’s voice jumps at me and I startle to attention. It’s said like someone who’s said it more than once already, and there are a few eyes on me.

Dammit.

“Uh, yes, sorry,”

I apologize.

“I was just saying that maybe you can help talk some sense into my son this weekend,”

Jon says. Some sense? “He’s intent on wasting his time on a film degree.”

Shit. That type of help. I hold back an aggravated huff. Excuse me! It brings Halloween night in my bed rushing back into my head. His smooth skin. The tenderness of his lips. My fingers in his hair. The way he talked about this very thing. I’d been angry at his dad this entire time, not even knowing it was my boss, who I thought was pretty great. I mean maybe he is, but God I hate that mentality.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand,”

I say instead.

“He’s in school for a film degree. How’s he going to truly use that?”

Jon bemoans the situation, one he’s assumed in his head. “You have a useful degree. You can really do something with it, you can get a job.”

My eyes twitch from Jon to his son, to Xander. His lips have twisted, pushing to the right side of his mouth. He blows out an annoyed breath before looking up. His eyes land on me and his eyelids droop. It’s like he’s saying, Fine, let me have it.

“I-I-I, uh…”

I dart my eyes away from him, bouncing between my co-workers and their significant others. Do they seriously expect me to say something wise that’ll suddenly change Xander’s mind? “I’m sure Xa-Alexander can find a good job in the industry.”

“See?”

Jon throws his hand out toward his son, and Xander rolls his eyes.

“No, I mean in the film industry.”

I shake my head. I thought it was clear, but apparently not. I try to think back to when Xander told me about his aspirations. Was there something specific he wanted? Come the fuck on, Kolton, surely he said something, or was I just too damned focused on his neck to remember? “There are so many things he could do. I’m sure he’s thought it through. He’s a smart guy.”

My eyes fling wide. I don’t know him. Fuck. I throw a quick disclaimer out.

“I mean, you know, you look like a smart guy.”

I look in his direction and shrug.

Madison knees me, and I’m left holding back a grunt while she’s smiling like a proud mother. Just wait until dinner is over, bitch.

“But IT is so much safer. We’ll need people in your field forever,”

Jon suggests.

“And it’ll only become more in demand in the future,”

Gregory chimes in.

“It’s growing like crazy,”

Logan joins in, and if I weren’t sitting here with my bosses, I’d give him a look that could kill.

“That’s if AI doesn’t make us obsolete.” I shrug.

“There are so many other great fields, better fields,”

Pam says. “Nursing. Psychology. You always were fascinated with the mind.”

“So is film!”

Xander finally defends. “Shit, you publish books and you don’t want me working in film? Isn’t that a little hypocritical?”

“People are always writing books. We need books,” Jon says.

Need? We need books? We don’t need movies? I don’t get the difference.

“I uh-I don’t want to get in the middle of anything here, but movies are often just books on the screen. They actually employ tons of people, and it is an art just like books.”

“Yeah.”

Xander smiles at me for the first time since he got here, and it makes my chest flutter. Oh God, fuck that shit, Kolton, he was just laying into you and you’re going to get all giddy over a fucking smile? “I could do so much. I could direct, I could write. I could literally film, with a camera. I could even act.”

“That’s so hard to get into though,”

Pam laments. She seems reluctant to say it though.

“Of course it is, but that’s not the only opportunity,”

Xander repeats himself.

I huff. He’s definitely the same boy I had over that night. Hot and gorgeous. Driven. Knows what he wants but just needs people to support him.

“It’s still not as steady a career.”

Jon brushes it off and then looks back at me. “Just talk to him about it while you’re up here, please.”

“Sure.”

I barely keep myself from shrugging. Don’t shrug at your boss, Kolton. Even if what he’s asking of you is stupid and you’re not actually going to do it.

Xander’s hope seems to drain back out of his eyes. So this is how this getaway is going to be? Lovely.