Chapter Text
“Henry, are we boring you? If you are going to arrive late to this meeting, the least you can do is maintain one thread of concentration to the matter at hand”
Henry thought to himself 3 minutes is not that late as he looks up from his hand underneath the table where he has been turning his phone over and over in his hand. The nervous tic he has developed waiting for Alex to respond to his latest message. He makes eye contact with Phillip before realising he has zoned out of the meeting for what appears to be 10 minutes or so.
“Apologies Phillip, I was merely in deep thought about what these latest figures presents to us”
“Well if you had been listening you would be aware that I had just finished explaining that and was beginning to explain how they are going to be affect your work with your friend Percy” in which Phillip used dramatic air quotation marks around ‘work’. Henry’s hands tighten ever so slightly around his phone, his lifeline to Alex.
“Yes, you were making some very enlightening points. Please do carry on”. Henry encourages Phillip to continue, hoping for the meeting to finish soon.
As Phillip starts to drone on again about some new startling plan to derail the work Henry is doing with Pez, Henry’s mind starts to wonder again. As always Henry finds his mind wandering back to Alex. His mind goes over the scene in New York. Zahra’s face as Henry tripped out of the closet. The guilt he felt as he realised he had just outed Alex to someone which he may have not been ready to come out to yet. But also the way Alex’s eyes softened as he made eye contact with Henry after Zahra asked the one question that Henry was dreading, before he stuck out his chin in a way Henry had never seen him do before and said a simple ‘No’ which made Henry’s heart soar. Henry thought, maybe he could hope, just maybe, before squashing the thought deep down knowing it was ridiculous.
It was the same as when Henry sent his reply to Alex’s email this morning, when he could hear his blood pounding through his body, thoughts conflicting themselves in his head. On one hand, Alex had said No to Zahra. That had to mean that Alex had some feelings for Henry, the sex couldn’t be that good. But then that was before Alex had lost his campaign job. Now Henry wasn’t so sure. So Henry did what any person of decorum would do and offer Alex an out. He later thought that he really shouldn’t have included That Paragraph in the same email as that wasn’t the fairest but selfishly Henry hoped and prayed that Alex would not be tempted by his offer of an out. As these thoughts swirled round Henry’s head, he found himself turning his phone over and over again in his palm as if trying to spin a response out of it from Alex like thread out of a spinning needle.
PING
The sound of Henry’s phone alerting to him to a new email brings Henry’s mind hurtling back to the room. Phillip shoots a glare over to Henry and Henry quickly switches his phone to silent, cursing his morning self who had turned on the notifications in a desperate attempt to make a new notification arrive on his phone.
“Apologies, again” Henry mutters under his breath and once again Phillip continues with his talk. Henry finds himself counting down the minutes until the meeting finishes before giving up hope and trying to figure out how long to leave it until going to the bathroom does not look suspicious. After 5 minutes, which feels more like 5 years, Henry decides he does not care as to appearances anymore and excuses himself to the toilet.
Once checking that the lock was firmly closed in the door, Henry unlocks his phone to a new email from Alex, his heart in his throat. It must be around 4 in the morning for Alex but Henry knows how Alex’s boredom has been keeping Alex up at night even if this has just replaced whatever project Alex is working on that normally keeps him up till 4am and another strand of guilt tugs at Henry’s heart. Henry decides to read the email before his mind conjures any more thoughts. Henry sighs a deep relief after reading Alex’s first words even if he calls him stupid before his heart starts pounding for another reason and he feels himself fall for Alex a little more though he did not even know that this was possible at this rate. He adds the email to the folder with the others to reread and reply to later but finds himself going back to the invitation to Texas. Could he do it? Could Shaan arrange it around his next press appearance? He tucks his phone back into his jacket, knowing he will reread the email 20 more times before the day is finished and left to go back to his meeting, hoping to speak to Shaan as soon as it finishes. He finds his heart lighter as he leaves and has to fight a silly grin forming on his face before entering the meeting again to daydream of a hot sun, cool lake and a tanned Alex.
Chapter 2: Chapter two
Chapter Text
After a flight that seems to take years as well as blink of an eye at the same time, Henry finds a small bead of sweat forming on his eyebrow as he waits in a hanger for Alex to arrive. The gentle roar of a car engine and the words of some country singer blasting out of a car speaker alerts Henry to the arrival of the White House Trio and Henry finds a grin forming on his face with no control. With only a little squeal as a warning, Henry finds himself engulfed in a hug from June and Nora. He gently squeezes their waist, his face lost in a jungle of hair and perfume.
“Yes, hello, hello, it’s good to see you too” Henry responds to June and Nora as they both say about how long it has been since Los Angeles.
Then finally, he gets Alex in his arms. Just like that, the world has finally gone silent and Henry finds all the stress he has been carrying around from when he last saw Alex at the DNC melts from his body. The only emotion ranging through his body is love for this man in his arms and the butterflies flapping in his stomach indicating the excitement of having an entire weekend with Alex.
“Hi, love” He finds himself almost whispering into Alex’s ear.
ditz167 on Chapter 1 Sun 16 Jan 2022 02:07PM UTC
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Bubble10103 on Chapter 1 Sun 16 Jan 2022 06:47PM UTC
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ditz167 on Chapter 2 Sun 16 Jan 2022 02:11PM UTC
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