Fourth Encounter

Flynn stared at Henry blankly in bewilderment. What he had just said hadn't made sense to him in the slightest.

He and Lucas had met before?

Flynn was certain he had never met Lucas before, he would definitely remember that. Due to the fact that Lucas was the son of his business rivals, any memory of meeting him would be clear and would come to mind as soon as he saw him. Nothing like that had happened in the slightest.

“When was it?” he asked, trying not to show his eagerness.

“You can ask the gentleman in question,” Henry replied wryly. “I’m going to prepare dinner now.”

His butler stood up from the table and Flynn knew asking more questions would be pointless. 

Once Henry was determined about something, his mind could not be changed. There was no way he was getting anything out of Henry for now at least. Potentially he could try again at another point when Henry's guard was down, but that wouldn't be for a while.

Flynn left the kitchen and sat on the sofa by the fireplace to arrange his thoughts. Henry had lit the fire and it was burning away merrily which was a contrast to his current mood. He looked around at the lounge area which hadn't changed in the slightest since his parents' death and tried to think back to when they had been alive. Hopefully that would bring a past memory back.

The first logical point his mind reminded him of was the sight of Lucas earlier in the reception area sparking something in him. Based on that, maybe they really had met before.

The next questions were when and where they had met.

If he narrowed down a timeframe first, he could potentially work out the place and that might spark something.

Lucas had spent the past five years in France so it would have to be sometime before that. It couldn’t be school related as Flynn went to a select private school that didn’t take on many pupils and he knew everyone who had been at his school.

Was it company related?

It couldn’t be that as Henry had no direct connections to Chadwick’s Creations and had never worked there. Henry had been there to at least witness the meeting.

He spent the duration of dinner frowning at the table in hope that something would ignite the memory. Nothing had come to mind no matter how much he tried and by the end of dessert, he was feeling deeply frustrated.

“You said you had an appointment with him tomorrow, just ask him,” Henry commented eventually. “You’re only going to tire yourself out forcing yourself to remember.”

That was a very valid point to make, but he didn’t want to do it. He felt like Lucas would tease him for asking and it was an odd question to ask someone he had just hired.

He was just going to have to remember it of his own accord.

If it ever happened.

***

Lucas arrived promptly at the office the following day and Flynn was now prepared to see him again. After a frustrating night of no sleep, he had decided to change his mindset. He didn’t care about remembering their first meeting. It was very likely they had met in passing somewhere and he hadn’t paid any attention to Lucas. That was what it had to be.

“Good morning,” Lucas said formally and sat down in the chair opposite him.

“Good morning,” Flynn replied and slid the completed contract across his desk.

Now that he had spent more time with Lucas, he found himself less entranced by his looks and open personality which was good. They were going to be spending a lot of time together after all. It wouldn’t do for Lucas to notice he was attracted to him.

He watched Lucas read the contract with a curious eye. All Lucas did was smile when he got to the confidentiality section which was the act of a man who wasn’t easily intimidated.

“You did a good job with this as I was expecting. Please be assured that I didn’t come here with the intent of spying. What my parents do with their business isn’t my concern, I just want to make cake and chocolate,” Lucas assured him.

His conviction felt genuine and Flynn finally let go of his last seeds of his suspicion. Now all he had to worry about was Lucas noticing that he was gay. That was now the biggest concern he had.

“I take it you are happy to sign in then,” he said and handed over the pen.

Lucas neatly signed it and returned the contract to him. Flynn checked to make sure everything had been signed correctly and placed the contract to the side of his desk to give to Meredith to file.

“Now that’s out of the way, we can discuss your new roles,” he said. “There’s a lot of secrecy so the interview was deliberately vague about the job role.”

Lucas nodded. His blond curls bounced when he did that. Flynn’s mind momentarily wondered for a moment.

“I am familiar with things like that. I grew up with two business owners after all.”

Flynn reached over the lightswitch and turned the projector on so he could show his prepared presentation about the project. He had to keep everything businesslike and not let his mind wander to Lucas.

“You will understand everything that I’m about to say perfectly then,” he quipped and moved his chair so he was sitting next to Lucas.

The first slide shown on the projector screen behind his desk was a graph of projected and past sales of Chadwick’s Creations products.

“I’m going to guess that your secret project is to revitalise the company,” Lucas guessed. “The projected sales don’t look like the best forecast.”

That was true. In fact the red arrow was pointed downwards. The finance team often ran scenarios for the future and it had been disconcerting at the start of the financial year to see the predicted figures. That was mainly what had started his drive to revitalise the business.

“This is a graph with the worst possible scenario actually,” Flynn replied. “The market is always changing and with all the modernisation I feel worried about the company losing out. That’s why I came up with a new project.”

Lucas’ face was neutral and Flynn was finding it easier to speak to him now that it was purely business focused. His mind was focused on the facts and figures rather than Lucas.

“What is your project?” Lucas asked. “I can tell that it involves chocolate and cake.”

The next slide showed the shop he had bought a few months ago in London. He had chosen it for its location and its adaptability. It hadn’t been too difficult to adapt the store into what he needed.

“What people like in this day and age of technology is personalisation, I am opening a combined chocolaterie and patisserie. Everything will be handmade on the premises and it will have an old fashioned feel. Everything has been set up, it’s been a matter of finding the staff.”

Lucas nodded.

“I’m looking forward to seeing this place. Are you doing it under the company name?”

“That was something I wasn’t entirely sure about. The marketing department suggested not using ‘Chadwick’ and it’s now called Cafe Chocolat. It’s not the most original, but it fits with what we’re doing.”

Lucas leaned forward to see the image better.

“When does it open?”

He looked more excited now and Flynn felt a lot of pride. He had worked hard on the idea from the conception stage through to the current stage. Everything had been something from his own mind.

“In three weeks time to give all the staff a chance to be training and get acquainted with their job roles. Although it will be mainly you that needs to be fully acquainted as you have the hardest job,” Flynn explained. "The idea was to have a separate patissier and chocolatier."

Lucas grinned widely at him.

“Does that mean you will be supervising me personally?”

What did that smile mean? Flynn was mystified as to why Lucas would be thrilled at the idea of him constantly breathing down his neck in the kitchen. Most employees were uncomfortable at him just passing through their departments.

“Did you want me to?” he asked doubtfully. “You’d be the first person to want it.”

Lucas opened his mouth and seemed to think better of what he had been going to say.

“...I appreciate your opinion and we’re the same age so I think it would be a waste if we didn’t try to get on well with each other,” was his eventual reply.

That was unexpectedly touching. It seemed like there was finally someone who wanted to be friends with him. It had always been hard for him to make friends.

“I see, I guess it would help if I did keep a close eye on you,” he replied. “Are you free tomorrow?”

Lucas sat up in his chair with visible eagerness.

“Are we going there tomorrow?” 

Flynn was happy to see that Lucas was this excited over the prospect of visiting the site of his personal project. Lucas rose even higher in his mental estimation.

It really was a shame he couldn’t be anything more than a friend to Lucas.

“We are, I need to give you a tour and get you acquainted with the place. We can come up with the menu together,” he said.

His new favourite person clasped his hand.

“I will look forward to it then,” he said with a smile so blinding that it was clearly visible in the dim light.

The very close contact caused Flynn to freeze up instantly. Lucas was holding his hand and his smile was hypnotising.

What should he do?

He moved his hand out of Lucas’ grip a moment later. If they stayed like that any longer, he really wouldn’t be able to pretend he wasn’t affected by Lucas.

“I’m looking forward to making progress with the project as well,” he said to continue the theme onto a safer course. “It’s been going around in my head for a while.”

He got out of his chair and switched the lights on again. In the darkness it had been easy to forget that he had such a sterile office and wasn’t someone pretending to have control of their life. Now he could see the grey walls again, he felt more grounded.

Lucas looked at him curiously and stood up as well.

“I will see you tomorrow,” he said with a pause after grabbing his coat. “It will be like a date.”

“We’re meeting to do work,” Flynn replied sharply.

Why had he said ‘date’?

Lucas grinned widely at him.

“Naturally.”

He strolled out of the office and Flynn flopped back onto his desk chair. He was mentally exhausted from the torment his mind was going through. Lucas was making him resist his mental restrictions and he was beginning to feel like he did have a chance with someone.

He knew he couldn’t do anything though. Lucas would get tired of him at some point and the more he opened up, the worse he would feel when Lucas was gone.