________

“ALISTAIR”/SEBASTIAN

 

My sexy little omega was beginning to turn my world upside down.  I was falling more than I expected and the more time I spent with him, the worse I felt about not coming clean about who I really was.  Tuesday couldn’t come fast enough for me.

 

Monday night around 11:00 I got a call from one of my business partners in Dubai about a problem with one of our developers, and they wanted me to fly out the next day because I was the only person the developer wanted to talk to, and he insisted on seeing me in person.  I was pissed because it meant I had to postpone my date with Bryan, and that also meant I had to prolong telling him the truth.  I really hoped by the time I told him, it would not be too late for us and I hoped he would not want to walk away from what we had before we had a chance to really get started.

 

I was going to call Bryan the following morning and break the news to him that I had to leave town for a bit.  I was going to be gone for at least two weeks, and according to what I was hearing about the mess I was going to have to clean up, I was barely going to have a minute to myself.  I’d had two other business trips like that in the past and I had literally worked from the moment I got on the plane until the moment I had returned home.

 

We were building a massive shopping center in Dubai and everything had to stay on schedule.  Nothing pissed me off more than losing money because someone forgot to get a permit or order certain materials.  No, I was going to nip that problem in the bud and then I could get back home and get on with fixing my personal life.

 

Bryan sounded disappointed when I called him the next morning but I was going to make it up to him.  I just needed to get through the next couple of weeks.  He was going to be surprised, to say the least, when he found out the truth about me.

 

A week into my trip, I reached out to Jaxson and had him fly out to show me a few pieces he had found for the mall.  I was having his family’s galleries supply all of the artwork for the mall in Dubai and I wanted to make sure they meshed with my vision.  I trusted Jax’s taste, but I wanted stunning pieces, many of them oversized, so I had to make sure his choices blended with the overall look of the shopping center.

 

As soon as he arrived we got right down to business.  He was my kind of friend and business colleague:  business first, everything else after that.  He’d found amazing artists from all over the world, but what really surprised me was the incredible artist he found right in Dubai.  His name was Garon, he was only 21 years old, and he had crafted the most beautiful soaring birds sculpture made of steel, which was going to be the focal piece in the lobby.

 

I stood there, in Garon’s gallery, looking at the piece in wonderment.  I looked over at Jax and slapped him on the back.

 

“Amazing, Jax, really beautiful.  Exactly what I was hoping for.  I wanted something like nothing else in the world and I think you have found it.  Your sourcing talent is like no one else I have ever met.”

 

“Thanks, man.  When I met this guy I had no idea he had this kind of talent.  He was selling beautiful paintings at a fair and when he told me he had bigger pieces, I never expected this.  I was blown away.”

 

“Well, you did a fantastic job in finding him.  I want you to do one more thing for me, Jax.”

 

“Sure, just name it.”

 

“I want you to pick one of your paintings to hang next to the elevator bank in the lobby.”

 

He looked at me, completely surprised.

 

“The…are you sure?  One of my personal pieces?”

 

“Yes,” I smiled at him, “you are a talented artist, Jax.  Your work should be displayed somewhere.  Since your father won’t allow you to display your work in any of the family’s galleries, I figured I would have you show something here.  Hopefully your father changes his mind about that one day.”

 

“Wow, Sebastian, thanks man.  I appreciate the opportunity.  It means the world to me.”

 

“No problem.”  I glanced at my watch and saw that it was nearly time for dinner.  “I am sure you are exhausted, but do you want to grab an early dinner?”

 

“Sure.  You can tell about this new omega you were all excited about a couple of weeks ago.”

 

I grinned at him.  “Excited doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.”

 

Jax was one of my best friends and I knew that I could trust him with anything I said.  I also knew he was genuinely happy for me that I had met someone I really liked.  I had not met anyone special since my ex-boyfriend Seth broke my heart, and Jax was there for me when we broke up.  I was devastated beyond belief and I was jaded for a while, wondering if I would ever find love again.  As crazy as it sounds, I felt like I had found that with Bryan and I couldn’t wait to tell Jax all about him.  I missed Bryan like crazy and could not wait to see him when I got back home.