The weeks that followed were anything but calm. Nonetheless, it was a good distraction. During the day, I met with a lot of people to discusse project updates and close deals. This left me with no time to think of anything other than what I had in front of me. I came home too tired to even eat, and oftentimes I ended up sleeping on the couch without a shower. The weekends were spent with the guys, Justin, or with my family. 

Despite my seemingly easy facade, I am consistently plagued by emotional turmoil each time I am reminded of he-who-must-not-be-discussed. I refuse to acknowledge any feeling towards him that isn't platonic or formal. I needed to face this dilemma like a man and not some confused boy with a high school crush.

In fairness, I think I was doing well in facing it "like a man" – a man who is running away because he is in denial.

Three sharp raps on the door broke my concentration from the instructional video I was watching. I almost didn't recognize the man who entered if it wasn't for his five o'clock shadow and sapphire eyes. Blinking a couple of times to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, I quickly rested my chin on my palm to keep my jaw shut.

He had his hair cut. He got rid of the man bun and settled for a tapered cut and styled his top like, well, a regular dude. And he wore glasses, a thick, horn-framed one that complimented the shape of his face. 

Since when did he use those? And why the hell was I analyzing the way he looked?

"Can I help you?"

"Jaxx wanted to see you - us - at the boardroom. Said you needed to check your phone every once in a while," he smirked and I felt something funny in my throat. 

There were indeed a lot of messages and Jaxx's last was a threat with profanities. In spite of it, I smiled at his persuasiveness. I bet he would send me a voice clip of him growling if I gave him the idea.

He and I walked side by side, passing by other employees who ogled or secretly stole glances at us, but most likely the looks of admiration were for him. I rolled my eyes before I caught myself, and just as I did, a wave of shame and confusion washed over me igniting another argument in my head and in my chest.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed him take a couple of glances at me. I clenched my jaw and forced myself not to look at him. I forbade myself to take the bait. It looked like he wanted to say something but I interrupted him.

"Is this something important?" I glanced his way but did not look him in the eye.

"I think it is. He's been nagging since this morning." He stepped aside and let me move to the door first. I was glad he didn't open the door for me; he wasn't my servant anyway.

"Okay Jaxx, what's this –"

"Surprise!" "Happy birthday!" the people shouted and confetti bombs erupted.

"Holy Jesus! Crap!" was my immediate reply as I stumbled back and hit the wall. One hand was on my chest, the other on the doorjamb as I stood still, catching my breath.

Wait, didn't I just walk through the door?

Understanding what that meant, I immediately jumped away and put on a happy face, not caring to apologize or thank the wall. Heat flooded my cheeks and I guarantee you it wasn't because of the surprise.

"Mr. Ace! I didn't know you blush!" Noelle hugged me.

"Neither did I," I mumbled.

"You look cute when you blush, sir. Maybe we should surprise you more often," Adelle chirpped.

"Cute? Cute? I'm a handsome man!" I joked but quickly checked my watch to see the date. I was pretty sure it wasn't my birthday.

"Yeah, your birthday isn't 'til nine hours but then that would be Saturday. We don't hold office on weekends," Jaxx answered my thoughts. He sat on a chair at the head of the table, right in front of the cake and under the banner.

"Unless it's really important," he added, chuckling.

"Gosh, I feel so special, Jaxx. So thoughtful, I'm tearing up here," I say, wiping away an invisible tear.

"I know. Now stop being a dramatic, get your ass here and have the photos taken so we can all eat cake and start drinking."

Happy birthday was sung, photos were taken, and there were several attempts at candle blowing because I looked like "a forty-year-old armadillo", or "oops, my finger was on half of the lens" or simply because "the filter sucks".

More people came and others left too soon because the room could only fit so much. I was surprised we had enough food to serve most of them. Right in the middle of the merriment, Bart yelled to make an announcement.

"Okay listen up, my faithful and servile co-employees! Stop whatever you're doing and let me have your full attention. I said to stop eating, Karen," he called out of the programmers. She opened her mouth to protest but closed it again seeing the mischievous glint in his eyes. Poor girl, she hasn't even started eating yet.

"I would like to thank you all for coming and helping us consume the huge amount of food that Adelle ordered. This was supposed to be just a meeting for six but upon confirming the order, she mistakenly entered sixty. 

"And so to save her measly paycheck from a sizeable deduction from the ferocious and unyielding Mr. Benedict Jackson – sorry man, you're the bad guy here," he looked apologetically at Jaxx, who gave him a smirk and just shook his head, "the ever-gallant and thoughtful IT kings organized the second reason why you're here. 

"We took the whole food fiasco and turned it into a last-minute surprise birthday party for the firm's CEO, Mr. Bradley Acebedo, also known as Ace to people privy to him. That includes me, and excludes the lot of you, by the way," he deadpanned and had the whole room chuckling and laughing.

"Ace has been a fantastic friend, a hard-working, diligent CEO, and loving, virtuous mother goose to us all when ferocious father gander, Jaxx, left us all alone for a 'Sabbatical leave'," he said sarcastically and made air quotes with his fingers. 

"It was a good two years, mom. After that, it's just been hell," he sighed dramatically and shook his head. Only a few other people laughed sincerely with us. The others remained silent, wide-eyed in horror. Someone even dropped his drink. 

Jaxx's eyes narrowed but continued to chuckle. I could tell he was holding back pouncing at the guy. It was clear he wanted to give Bart the finger but was still too proper to do it in front of all the employees.

Bart's dry humor was not for the slow-witted or the weak-hearted. There were a few ladies in the room who gasped and covered their mouths, stunned that he was taking a lot of jabs at Jaxx, who was known throughout the firm as ferocious and unyielding. It took this clown a while to be himself and to joke around with it and he used to only do it in private, talk jokey shit about us. Now he's more comfortable and smug with it, but we didn't mind because he knew his limit.

"And as if leaving us for two years was not enough, he brought home, his bastard son from another mother company and demanded that I share the IT department with his illegitimate child. I had no choice but to agree, otherwise I would fall from his good graces and lose my severance pay."

"But Jacob Kingston, I daresay you're already overstepping and wearing out your welcome. Imagine, he wants to share the limelight with the great Bart Quing! We know a kingdom can only have one king!" he shook an angry finger at Jacob.

God, he can be so theatrical it's making me cringe, I thought to myself while shaking my head. 

My eyes involuntarily made their way to the man in a gray sweater with the light blue collar of his dress shirt sticking out. His new look really suited him. The way he laughed brought out the dimple on his left cheek that was often hard to find under his stubbles.

Fuck, fuck! What am I even thinking? I immediately shut my eyes as if I was in pain. 

When I opened them, I directly looked back at our court jester. But I felt not one but two pairs of eyes burning through my soul -- one blue, the other gray. If those were eyes were capable of emitting laser beams I would have been chopped finely like shallots that are sprinkled on top of congee. I swallowed hard and pretended not to notice anyway.

"Good thing we're past the medieval age and the department isn't a kingdom. And let's not forget, I am generous. I'm so happy to share everything with you, bro," this time, he pointed to fingers at him and cocked them like a gun. 

"Without this guy, we would not have been able to come up with this wild, utterly embarrassing last-minute video to roast our Ace," again reiterating that everything was unplanned.

"One king will bow down to an ace. But two kings can and will trump an ace. Watch this and weep," he laughed maniacally.

"Oh, and happy birthday, man! Sending you all my love from across the room!" he ended his speech sending me a flurry of flying kisses.

It was a seven-minute audiovisual presentation that was clearly not last-minute. There were interviews from friends and employees alike; pictures out of the office that made me think our El Valle friends were actually a part of this, and a whole lot of editing and memes that had everyone in the room slapping their thighs and holding their bellies in laughter at my expense. I even ended up tearing up. But it was all good fun.

The end credits only flashed the pictures of two people: The IT Kings.

"Yes, this was all my idea, but I thought of sharing the credits with Jacob here because he did most of the legwork. And in case something goes wrong, we both end up sanctioned. I'm generous like that," he quipped and winked at the guy.

After an hour or two, we wrapped it up and sent everyone home. Bart wanted to stay until midnight but I had to go home to my family. They were expecting me. It was our family's tradition to wait up to greet the celebrant at the stroke of twelve. 

It has been that way for as long as I could remember. It was also one of Cole's favorite things to do. Then we would have hotdogs or kielbasa, marshmallows, smores, and sparkling juice, which was weird with smores. But it was his favorite combination so what the hell.

My mother welcomed me with a warm hug and multiple kisses all over my face when I got home. I suppose you could say she was a little bit excited that her middle child was in her home again. Mothers are funny creatures: they can't wait to kick you out so you could "spread your wings and fly", yet they're the same beings who cry and beg you to stay when you do.

"What are we having for tonight?" I asked, even though we both knew the answer to that.

"The same old kielbasa, smores, and sparkling grape juice," she giggled. "I swear your brother has the strangest taste buds. I ordered that pasta you like from Vernazza. Miguel said he would personally deliver it later."

"I hope you didn't invite him over," I grumbled, pretending I didn't like to have him around. It was always fun to wind her up like that.

"What? Why not? He's your friend and he was going to deliver it just before midnight, so of course, I invited him to join us. Is there anything wrong? Did you boys fight?" her eyes were wide with concern. She had always loved the guys as if they were her own, inviting them over every chance she had. My parents wanted a lot of kids but after Cole, they decided to focus on him and his needs instead.

"Yeah, he's just... you know what? I can pick it up. I'm just gonna go head to that resto now and get the pasta."

"Oh no, you won't. You better fix whatever is wrong between you. I can't have my boys fight. It's your birthday, Bradley! I'm going to call him." She fished out her phone and dialed Seb's number before turning her back on me. As soon as I heard Seb's high-spirited 'hello', I grabbed the phone from her.

"Seb, I'd trust your chef more than you to make the seafood pesto for later. No offense, but the last time you made it, it tasted a little too... seafood-y," I snickered.

"Seafood-y? It's supposed to taste 'seafood-y' because it's a seafood pasta, you unsophisticated duck!" he yelled. "Now stop pestering me or I'm going throw this out of the window!" He immediately dropped the call. Smiling, I handed the phone back to my mom, who just shook her head.

"Why do you always want to rile me up like that, son?" She gave me an exasperated look.

"Because it's fun and I love you," I kissed her forehead, thanking the Lord that my mom was a good sport. Our moment was interrupted by the bell ringing.

"Oh, that must be your guests," she chirped and clapped her hands.

"My guests? I didn't invite anyone," I scratched my confused head.

"I did. Now be a good birthday boy and welcome them. I'm going to get the lanai ready," she waved me off as she scuttled to wherever the food would be.

My gut didn't fail me when I saw the faces of our neighbors. Val handed me a bottle of wine before she hugged me tightly and gave me a long, resounding kiss on the cheek. Once she let go, her parents greeted me. Chino let his folks ahead of him before shoving two bottles of whiskey onto my chest and hugging me. He had a smirk on his face like he knew something I didn't. 

To my utmost surprise, Jaxx wasn't alone. That was fine, but this wasn't the company I expected him to bring.

"Happy birthday, bro. I hope you don't mind," he said as he nodded towards his companion with no remorse whatsoever on his face. My smile dropped.

Un-fucking-believable.

♤♡♧♢