2.
Lex
His hips and lower back hurt, but by the time he arrived at the shop the next day, Lex was recovered enough to do his job. Which was a good thing, because the damage to Surrey was near catastrophic. His skills were going to be in high demand.
“Lex! Good to see you, buddy.”
He turned at the call, pausing to wait as one of his work friends jogged up to him, having just arrived himself.
“Hey, Jay. Yeah, looks like we’re going to be in for it today.”
Jay had been working for Western Hydro nearly as long as Lex. Between the two of them they had nearly forty years of experience working the lines. He was glad to see that someone who was as close to a friend as Lex would allow himself to have had made it through the storm unscathed. A bit of him was also glad he’d been able to make it in to work. They were likely going to be extremely busy for the next few days.
“You said it! I wasn’t sure whether we’d see you today.”
Everyone knew Lex lived out in the middle of nowhere. With the numbers of downed trees and nigh-unpassable roads, it wouldn’t have been that unsurprising if he hadn’t made it in. But Lex didn’t like to let people down. Besides, he actually enjoyed his job.
“Let’s go on in then. No time to waste.”
The pair of them had—unsurprisingly—been called in early, along with every other line-worker that their boss could get his hands on. Probably even some of those who had moved on to other things. Rumor was that power was out to the entire town. Only those places that had generators—which was a surprisingly high number—would be able to operate. The sooner Jay and Lex got out on the roads and worked to restore power, the better.
They split up upon entering. Jay went to find his crew, while Lex went straight for the boss’s office. His team knew what he expected of them. There was no need to find them. They would either be there, or they wouldn’t. Either way, Lex was heading out as soon as possible. The town needed him.
“Alexander Cronus! Where the hell have you been?!”
He shuddered at the use of his full, given name. Lex hated being called Alexander. He hated even more when Vince, his boss, used his full name as if he were in trouble.
“Hello, Vince,” he said in a neutral tone that would have scared many another people into being more respectful. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the powers that be had seen fit to assign him a superior who was completely oblivious to the power brimming in his voice.
“What the hell took you so long to get here?” Vince snapped.
“Well, Vince. I’m not sure if you’ve been outside much today, but the traffic is pretty bad. Some prankster idiot came up with the brilliant idea to cut down hundreds of trees and lay them across the road. On top of that, he dug up a lot of the smaller roads too. It probably took him thousands of buckets of water to wash it all away, but he was really persistent it seemed. This, unfortunately, meant that I had no quick way in to work after you called me twenty minutes ago.”
The drive in to work was usually half an hour, but as soon as Lex had awoken from his slumber and shoveled food down his throat he’d started preparing to come in. As soon as the storm abated he’d saddled up and started heading in to work. In reality the drive had taken him most of two hours, but he’d been well on his way when Vince had called. Not that he intended to tell his boss any of that. The less he had to interact with him, the better.
Vince just ignored the rebuke and started shaking a finger at him. “You know what Crones”—when he was really mad he started to butcher people’s names on purpose, thinking it was an insult—“I’ve got enough shit to deal with today. You taking your sweet time to get here isn’t necessary. So get your team together, and get to work.”
Lex nodded, not feeling like wasting any more words on the fool. It irritated him sometimes that Vince was the one in charge. Lex could do the job in his sleep, and if he tried, he was sure he could get it. But he didn’t. Being out working on the lines, using his hands, that was where Lex enjoyed being. Stuck behind a desk was not for him.
“Did they send a corporate bigwig out yet?” he asked, looking over Vince’s bald head and scanning the interior of the office.
“Yes.”
It was hard not to smirk at the way Vince seemed to shrink, but Lex, being the polite and non-vindictive person he was, found it easy not to. Okay, so he simply held it in until later, but that was close enough! Whoever they’d sent must be getting under his skin. That meant they were either better at his job than him, or simply a micro-manager higher up on the pecking order who had decided to shove Vince out of the way.
In Lex’s opinion, either one was an improvement. Did he mention he didn’t have much faith, trust, or confidence in Vince on a regular day? Let alone with the disaster-scale event they were dealing with now.
“What are you waiting for?” Vince snapped.
Lex fought back the urge to tear the shorter, fatter, and hairier man’s throat out. In the wild he would have had this man submitting to his authority in seconds. That was his domain though. This was the corporate world, a place where sniveling, manipulative politicians like Vince succeeded, when they shouldn’t. If Lex wanted to remain, and do what good he could for Surrey, then he needed to avoid doing things like beating his superior into a bloody pulp.
Instead he simply flexed his arms, watching as Vince slowly clued in to the demonstration of power as knuckles and joints cracked. Knowing he was safe from physical violence because he was “superior” to Lex, Vince didn’t cower as he should have. But he did go a little whiter in the face. That was good enough for Lex.
“Work orders.”
“What?”
Lex rolled his eyes, but Vince was too busy looking around at the barely constrained chaos that was the office around them to notice.
“You asked what I was waiting for,” he said patiently. “The answer is work orders. Usually I get them on a clipboard, so that I can write things down as I finish them. You know, pink papers with places I need to go to do my job written on them.”
Vince scowled. “The head office bitch is handling those. Said she wanted to ensure it was done properly.” He snorted. “As if she thinks I don’t know my own town well enough to deal with this.”
Lex decided telling Vince that he didn’t know Surrey well enough to deal with something like this, but that was probably not the best course of action. So he just shrugged and pretended like he didn’t care. “Okay,” was all he said.
“Well? Why are you still standing here?”
He inhaled deeply and counted to three, which was likely the only thing that prevented him from picking Vince up by the neck, slamming him into the nearest wall, and letting his eyes go yellow while he tore a strip or three from the man so that he could learn his place.
“Where. Do I. Find. Her.” He spoke slowly, punctuating the words as he went. His voice had dropped an octave or so, his anger beginning to show through even his defenses.
Vince drew himself up to his full height. When he realized that barely brought him up to Lex’s throat, he stepped back and lifted his chin aggressively. Lex wanted to laugh at the posturing, but he simply did not have time. Surrey needed him out on the roads, working to restore power. Not giving in to one of his biggest non-sexual fantasies, which involved a closed fist and his boss.
“She’s in my office,” his boss said.
Lex grinned. “Is she moving in?” he asked in a hopeful way, and then walked around Vince before he could recover, leaving the sputtering moron in his wake.
His fist rapped smartly against the door frame. The door itself was open most of the way, revealing a blonde woman sitting at the desk. She was dressed in a white buttoned shirt with a gray vest on top. A matching suit jacket was draped over the chair. He couldn’t see her lower half, but judging by her manner Lex decided it was a tight pencil skirt. The suit was cut with male styling to it, and based on the way her shirt was stretched across her upper body, he could figure out why.
She looked up at his knock, and he blinked as the brightest pair of blue eyes he’d ever seen glared daggers at him.
“What do you want…?” She paused, making it clear she didn’t know his name.
“Oh,” Lex said, fumbling in a pocket, pulling out a white plastic rectangle and pinning it to his chest. “Lex,” he said, tapping the nametag and smiling dumbly.
He disliked people who power-tripped, and this woman had that written all over her face in capital letters.
Her eyes went from the bright blue of the sky to the cold arctic glacier in a nanosecond.
Oh, this is too easy.
“What do you want?”
The pointed insult by not using the name he’d just provided was clear, but he didn’t care.
“I was told to report to you.”
She wanted to play games? He could play games.
The hiss of air through clenched teeth was audible even to him, ten feet away at the door to Vince’s appropriated office. Lex knew he shouldn’t be giving in, but damn if he wasn’t getting sick of these managers thinking they were the best thing ever. He’d love to see them out doing the actual work, instead of just organizing things and pretending like they cared about the little guy.
“Who told you to report to me?” she ground out.
“My boss.”
It took a real effort not to smile in her face.
“Does your boss have a name?”
Lex frowned. “Well of course he has a name. Who doesn’t have a name?”
The pencil in her hand cracked. Perfect, he was getting under her skin. His head tilted slightly to the side as she sat up in the chair, finally giving him her full attention. He studied her while she took several deep breaths. Truth be told, she was rather pretty looking now that she was all steamed up. He enjoyed the way her cheeks turned red. It offset the strict and severe look she had going on.
He wondered if she suffered from Resting Bitch Face, or if she’d worked hard at it.
“And what is his name?”
“Vince,” he supplied cheerfully.
“I see. Why did Vince tell you to come see me?”
“He said you were doing his job.”
Lex thought she was going to explode. The steam coming out of her ears was almost visible. He dropped the dumb smile and gave the woman a calm stare. Part of him wanted to tell her that she should relax and smile more. Nobody should be that cold. Those same eyes tracked the change in his face and her jaw clenched some more, but she didn’t say anything.
“I need work orders,” he said, capitulating now that it was clear she was aware he was purposefully messing with her.
“Your name?”
He almost started all over again, but he decided against it. There were people who needed his help. Playing games wasn’t going to get them power any time soon.
“Lex, but it’s probably filed under Alexander Cronus.”
A stack of pink sheets was snatched up into one hand and shoved at him rigidly. Lex stepped forward, took the papers, smoothing them out until he could grab a clipboard to put them on.
“Thank you,” he said politely and retreated from the room before she could say any more.
Corporate. I hate those stuck-up pricks.