The coffee shop was way too busy for a Sunday morning, Dimitrios thought as he stood near the door of the little café and waited on his order. He needed to get to work, and he was already running behind schedule. He should have been there an hour ago, which just meant he’d be staying an hour later tonight. He was leaning against the wall and looking at his phone, reading work emails and mentally drafting responses for when he got back to his computer, hating to type long work emails on the phone. It left too much leeway for typos and embarrassing errors.
Occasionally the door would open and a gust of cold winter wind would breeze over his side, but he ignored it in favor of reading his business correspondence. At least until a particular blast of air carried a lovely vanilla bean scent that made goosebumps erupt over his skin. Dimitrios felt his cock stir slightly at the perfect, sweet scent of an omega. He eyed the crowd, trying to spot who the scent belonged to, but he couldn’t tell. There were too many people in the confined space, and too many scents clogging the air to be able to differentiate between them.
He took several deep breaths, trying to catch the scent again, but to no avail. Whoever it belonged to was lost in the crush of people. When his order was finally called, he made his way to the front just in time to see the prettiest omega he’d ever seen. Blond hair, lovely face with full lips and sultry eyes whose color he couldn’t determine from this far away. Dimitrios quickly grabbed his coffee from the barista, but as he turned back to see where the pretty boy was, he was leaving.
Dimitrios watched as the omega pushed out the door, and the winter air carried the vanilla bean scent to him again. That was the boy whose scent he had noticed. Dimitrios pushed his way toward the exit, wanting to talk to the omega, maybe try to get his number… But as he reached the door, the blond stepped up onto a bus and he watched it pull away. His eyes traced the profile of the pretty omega through the window. He felt a little defeated as the bus drove away, he hadn’t felt attraction like that in years.
Sighing, Dimitrios headed for his car, damning his bad luck for losing the pretty boy. He unlocked the car and slid inside, heading to his office. As he removed his coat and took his seat at his desk, the usual heated shifting under his skin refused to calm down the way it normally did when he was focused on work. His mind kept playing the few moments that he’d seen the lovely blond omega over and over on an endless loop.
He pressed his knuckles into his closed eyes, trying to wipe the image from his visual memory. He was well aware that the blond had been hot, and he was also well aware of the fact that he was extremely sexually starved at the moment, but he had work to do. The alpha took a few deep breaths and forced his mind to focus on the reports in front of him. There was no time in his life for a relationship, even with a beautiful omega. He didn’t want a boyfriend anyway, he just needed to get laid.
After a few hours of working, Dimitrios was interrupted by his business partner Leon walking into his office and taking a seat in one of the chairs on the other side of his desk. The other alpha sat back and crossed his legs at the knee, giving him a knowing look. Dimitrios hated that look because it was always followed by harsh truths that he didn’t want to hear. He’d known Leon since elementary school, and there was no one in the world who knew him better, but that also meant that when he started in on him, he had more ammo than most.
“What?” Dimitrios said, looking back down at his papers and trying to give off a harsh ‘fuck off’ vibe. It was ineffective, Leon was impervious to his moods.
“Somehow I knew I’d find you here… on a Sunday. What are you doing here? There is no reason for you to be here right now. You need to take a break.”
“I’ve got work to do.” Dimitrios said, indicating toward the stacks of papers neatly arranged on his desk.
Leon leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, leveling Dimitrios with an unimpressed stare.
“Get a fucking secretary or an assistant. Fuck… Hire a new damn CEO. We both know you want to be downstairs in the lab working on the new products and designs. You’re killing yourself trying to do everything at once. We started this company together because of your engineering, coding, and computer science abilities and my business sense.”
Dimitrios rubbed a hand over his face, trying hard not to show how stressed and tired he was and trying to keep from getting angry at his best friend, who he knew was right. He was taking on too much, but he couldn’t help it. He was a control freak and he needed things to be just so, and trusting other people to take care of them was a big source of anxiety for him.
“You think I don’t know that? You think I want to be doing this?” Dimitrios snapped, sounding harsher than he’d meant.
Leon didn’t back down.
“Yes, I do think that you want to be doing this. Otherwise you would find someone else to do it. You are isolating yourself in work, it’s your SOP. You think that if you keep yourself busy you can keep from thinking about what happened with your parents, and you can avoid trying to build a life and find a mate.”
Dimitrios felt genuine anger rise up in him. How dare Leon bring his parents into this? That had nothing to do with this and was a really low blow.
“First of all, fuck you. And second of all, I don’t want a mate, I don’t want a boyfriend. I’m fine.”
“Shit, I don’t even care if you find a mate, but you need something in your life other than work. Even if it’s just sex. Find a pretty omega and get some of this stress out so you can think clearly for once. You’re not fine, Dimitrios and we both know it.”
Dimitrios pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek and sat back in his chair, trying not to lose his temper. He wanted to throw Leon from his office, he wanted to hit him. It wouldn’t be the first time their friendship had come to blows, and probably not the last. They were the most stubborn people in the world. Their parents said they were too much alike, which was why they were both best friends and worst enemies at times. It was hard to fight against yourself.
“I don’t have time in my life for a boyfriend. The last thing I need is a clingy, needy omega all over me when I’m trying to work or someone constantly interrupting my life.”
“Dimi. You’re rich as hell. Get a fucking sugar baby for all I care. Pay someone to come around and suck your dick a few times a week. Just do… something. Because your attitude isn’t going unnoticed around here, and it’s not helpful for the boss to be an asshole to his employees because he hasn’t popped a knot in too long.”
This was the second time in less than 24 hours that someone suggested a sugar baby to him. What the hell? But as he thought about it… it might not be such a bad thing. All the benefits of a relationship with none of the neediness and obligations. A novel idea.
Dimitrios sighed and rubbed a hand over his face again. That was the thing about being best friends with Leon—you could never win an argument. He was way too insightful, and he knew exactly what to say and do to make you feel like an asshole.
“Look, I know you’re right. But do you have to be such a dick about it?”
The humor helped dispel some of the tension, and let them both relax again. Dimitrios was still annoyed, but determined not to show it. He was a grown man after all, and didn’t need his friend telling him how to live his life. He knew Leon just wanted what was best for him. He imagined if the situation were reversed, and knew that he’d be a thousand times worse and probably would have made the whole thing harder for them both.
Dimitrios knew he was closed off from people. He wished he could blame it on what happened with his parents, but he’d kind of always been that way. He projected a lot of confidence and surety, but inside he was afraid of getting hurt, just like everyone. His arrogance and aloofness were just the mask he used with the world to keep them at arm’s length. It was the main reason that his few attempts at relationships over the years had failed. He couldn’t let people in, and after a while, everyone got tired of bashing their head against the brick wall that was Dimitrios Cirillo’s heart.
“Yes I do have to be a dick about it or you’d never listen to me. Stop your whole ‘I am an island’ routine and get laid, get your head out of your ass and let me see my best friend again.”
“Alright. I’ll try.”
“Good. Now, let’s both get the fuck out of here. I don’t want you to work anymore today. Just go home and relax for once. Think you can do that?”