Chapter Two
Jace leaned back in his chair and sighed, glancing at the clock that adorned the wall above the doorway that led to the breakroom for the millionth time today. He couldn't wait until lunchtime; he was starving. Having had the same appetite since he was a teenager, Jace couldn't go more than three hours without eating. He was almost always hungry, and he had forgotten to take a break earlier to eat.
Though, he supposed, food wasn't the only reason that he was eager for his lunch-break. His hands hurt, his ass was numb from sitting for so long, and he was this close to smashing Simon's head through his monitor, if he didn't stop humming the Star Wars theme song as he typed.
And, at lunch, he would get to see Clary. But that was something that he was trying to push to the back of his mind, for the moment.
Jace had been working upstairs at City of Glass for two weeks, and he was still getting used to everything. The hours were longer, the work was harder, and he was still adjusting to his new job of being a salesman. It's not like he couldn't handle his job, he was actually enjoying it more than he thought he would; he just had to get used to everything. And he would, with time.
Things were going pretty good for him so far, though. He had figured out his new job pretty easily, with Alec's help, and he got along with the people in the office better than he thought he would have. Well, Jace thought, everybody except for Simon.
For some reason, the nerd just couldn't leave Jace alone. He was always causing conflict, and Jace would be damned if he didn't find it annoying and slightly amusing. But mostly annoying. It was almost as if Simon had some sort of guy-crush on him, but Jace decided to ignore that thought for the sake of having to sit next to him every day for the foreseeable future.
On Jace's first day working upstairs, after Alec had showed him what to do, he had been introduced personally to the rest of the office. Michael had come out of his office, and then proceeded to embarrass Jace even further than he had earlier that morning…
Jace's First Day…
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! May I introduce you all to Mr. Jace Herondale!" Michael announced grandly, mimicking applause and cheering under his breath immediately after. Jace coughed and shifted on his feet, trying to disappear into thin air as all eyes in the office turned to face him. He had already gone through this once this morning, how many more times did Michael plan to make him stand in front of everybody today? And how many times did he need to be introduced to a group of—hopefully—competent adults?
"Now, as you probably all heard me say earlier, this is Jace. He's the new salesman, blah, blah, blah. I think that you all get the drift," Michael continued, pausing as he walked over to one of the doors that decorated the walls of the large office space. He pulled open the door with a wide gesture of his hand, and then turned back to face the somewhat curious faces of the crowd before him. "I have personally, with the help of Corporate, arranged a party—to welcome Jace into our little family, if you will. So, if everybody will please come into the conference-room, we can get started. There's cake." Michael smiled toothily and gestured towards the open doorway once more, glancing quickly at Jace as he did.
Quiet exclamations murmured throughout the office, and then people were rising from their desks and making their way into the conference-room that Michael was still holding the door open for. Jace just kind of stood to the side and allowed everyone else to file into the room ahead of him, not really knowing what to do. Michael eventually gave up on holding the door open, and left it to Jace to catch the door before it slammed shut on the red-haired receptionist that he had briefly met earlier. As his hand caught ahold of the—surprisingly heavy—door, Ms. Morgenstern looked up into his eyes with a grateful smile on her face.
"Thanks, I wasn't even paying attention," she said quietly, and her words were a mixture of sheepish and friendly.
Jace nodded and sent her an encouraging grin. "No problem."
Ms. Morgenstern ducked through the doorway and turned back to face Jace as he hesitated in the doorway behind her, being the only person not in the conference-room already. Jace peered into the room warily, watching as Michael sliced up a rather large sheet-cake and passed around plates of the dessert to the awaiting crowd. Ms. Morgenstern smiled kindly over at him and offered Jace her hand, bringing his attention away from the crowd in front of him.
"I'm Clary. I didn't get a chance to formerly introduce myself earlier; Michael was just really excited to have someone else to try out his pranks on," she said as Jace gently took ahold of her hand and shook it.
Clary. Pretty name, Jace mused, before his mind registered the rest of her words.
Jace's brows crinkled with concern for his own well-being. "Um… Pranks? What kind of pranks?" he asked anxiously, his eyes flickering over to where Michael was standing with a plate full of cake, talking eagerly with Simon.
Clary laughed lightly, drawing Jace's eyes to her once more. Her laugh was intriguing; it made you want to sit and listen to it for hours at a time. Or maybe that was just the first thought that went through Jace's head, he didn't know.
"Don't worry; they shouldn't actually be considered 'pranks'. Michael just likes to think that he and Simon are geniuses, and therefore he makes all of the newbies go through his version of initiation." Clary paused. "And you should just let him have his fun. We don't get a lot of visitors in this particular department, and he was really excited for you to come work with us."
Jace absorbed her words for a moment, before nodding slightly and entering the room fully. He stood as close to Clary as could be considered socially-acceptable for strangers to be and watched as Michael suddenly stood on a chair and addressed the room.
"Shoot," Clary mumbled under her breath, dread and disapproval clear in her tone.
Jace turned towards her to ask what she was talking about, but Michael spoke up before he could even open his mouth.
"Okay, everybody! I have a few things to say, and then I would like Jace to come introduce himself," he said brightly, turning his eyes on Jace and grinning hopefully over at him.
Jace was confused; hadn't Michael already 'introduced' him today? Like, twice? What more did Michael want from him, a pre-written speech explaining Jace's childhood? Maybe a memoir about how he was birthed?
Jace, seeing that Michael was waiting for a response from him, just shook his head fractionally and tried to communicate just how much he was going to resist speaking in from of everyone through his eyes. The light in Michael's eyes dimmed slightly, but he was still bubbly as he continued to address the crowd in front of his chair-podium.
"Well, I guess that Jace is shy, so I'll just go ahead with things." He held out his hand expectantly, in the general direction of where Simon was standing below him. "Simon, if you will please hand me the toasting wine," he said, not looking down to see if Simon would hand him this supposed 'toasting wine', but instead smiling grandly at the crowd of uninterested employees in front of him.
Simon picked up a questionable glass bottle from the table where the sheet-cake was sat and poured a light liquid into one of the many plastic cups set on the conference-table—resembling that of a waiter, or a butler. He then obediently handed the cup over to Michael, who brought it up to eye-level and started his speech.
"Since the dawn of time, there has been glass. Whether in windows, or in cars, or in fancy doors, glass has always been there for us. It is what you could call the glue of the universe—," he started to say, dramatically gesturing with his free hand and almost dumping his 'toasting wine' all over his suit-jacket.
As Michael continued to spew off nonsense about glass and other random things, Jace leaned down so that his mouth was close by Clary's ear, and whispered, "What the hell is he talking about?"
Clary glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and mumbled back grimly, quietly, "Michael likes to make toasts for everything—every single holiday and special occasion. And getting a new salesman is considered a big occasion in his books, apparently."
Jace nodded, before a sudden thought occurred to him. "That isn't actual wine is it? Because I thought that alcohol was illegal in the workplace," he whispered, eyeing Michael's cup warily.
Jace wasn't in the mood to find out what Michael was like intoxicated—he could barely handle him sober.
Clary giggled quietly and shook her head, her hair slightly brushing against the side of Jace's cheek. He moved away slightly, not wanting to invade her personal space or anything—because after all, he had just met her officially today.
"It's apple-cider. Michael just thinks that it's wine, but I filled up an empty wine-bottle up with cider instead. After last year's Christmas party…" Clary trailed off, shuddering slightly.
Jace just nodded and tried to tune back into Michael's speech.
"—and I am so proud to say that you, Mr. Jace Herondale, will be joining our family," Michael said, sounding choked up. Jace wasn't quite sure how to respond to that; he had just met this guy yesterday, and excuse him if he wasn't quite comfortable with being cried over. And by a stranger, nonetheless.
But of course, Jace had to take it like a man and not show just how freaked out he was—because Michael was staring right at him. So, using one of his mother's many 'tips on how to be polite', he just nodded slightly at his new boss and sent him a small smile, hoping to consolidate him and to stop him from actually crying.
There's nothing worse than watching a grown man blubber over something trivial, Jace thought to himself.
Michael smiled back at him, practically beaming and apparently satisfied by his response—or the lack thereof. "Well," he started, and raised his cup up in the air, before seeming to realize that he was the only one with a drink. He snapped at Simon under his breath, "Why doesn't everybody have toasting wine, Simon? Do it now," before he turned to smile at everybody else, with his hand still raised, as Simon scrambled to fill up cups and pass them around.
When everybody had a cup—filled with cider instead of wine, but that would be a little secret kept between Jace and his, hopefully, new friend—Michael started his toast once more. "I would just like to welcome you into our little family, Jace. Welcome, and may your successes as a salesman soar higher than your dreams." He finished this off with taking a drink of his 'wine', cueing everyone else to do so as well.
Jace took a small sip from his cup, never having been a huge fan of apple-cider, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Clary smiling into her own cup. He bit back a smirk, a giddy feeling pooling in his gut for absolutely no reason at all, and then tried to focus his attention on the rest of the room.
People all around him were conversing and Jace figured that he might as well try to be social—after all, he was going to have to work with these people from now on. But, he internally concluded, I'm not going to go up to people and try to start a conversation. I'll try to be social, but I'm not actually going to make an effort.
And, it seemed, Clary wasn't going to make much of an effort, either. She just stayed by Jace's side, didn't make to move and start talking with other people, and for that he was grateful. He didn't want to look like a complete loner on his first day, and he might've already made a friend. And yes, it was okay for adults to be excited about making new friends. It was completely normal.
Or at least that's what he tried to convince himself.
Jace stood quietly by Clary for a few minutes, before she started to talk, and he turned to face her once more.
"I guess I should introduce you to everybody, huh?" she asked. When Jace nodded and shrugged with a 'sure' expression, she continued, "Well, I'm pretty sure you've already met Simon—he's my best friend. And Alec, he doesn't really like me all that much, but I've been trying to soften him up and I'm pretty sure that he likes me, at least a little bit, deep down. I'm almost positive that he's actually the biggest sweetheart ever to walk the earth, but I just have to break through his thick outer shell first—"
Jace cut her off before she could continue, something she said early on bugging the shit out of him. "Wait. Simon—Lord of the Nerds, I Hate Everything Within a Five Mile Radius Simon—is your best friend? Are you sure we're talking about the same guy, because he's kind of an ass—," he started, eyeing her warily as he tried to find out if she was just messing with him earlier.
She wasn't. Sadly.
"Hey—he's not an ass! He just really doesn't seem to like you, but I'm sure he'll get over it. He's really a nice guy—you'll just have to get used to him. And don't act so innocent. I know you've been baiting him all day," Clary told him, sounding stubborn and defensive, and Jace would be damned if he didn't find it incredibly attractive.
So he couldn't help but grin as he said, "Okay, okay. I believe you. I'll give him a chance to redeem himself, but I don't think it'll work out. And if one of us ends up dead in the end, I'm blaming you."
Clary just grinned back up at him and replied with a teasing, "Sounds fair enough," before someone else joined their little group.
It was a woman, and Jace knew women well. She had very long, very black hair, pin-straight, and the darkest set of eyes he had ever had the chance to encounter. Her lips were painted red and a tight black skirt hugged her legs beneath a fashionable blazer on top. Jace couldn't help but think that she looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place where he would know her from.
While Jace was taking in the form in front of him, Clary brightened up and smiled over at the woman in front of him. "Jace, this is Izzy. She's a Supplier Relations Rep, also Alec's sister."
'Izzy' smiled over at Jace, bringing warmth to her dark eyes, and held out her manicured hand for him to shake. "And you must be Jace—though it's not that hard to recognize you, considering that Michael has been talking about you nonstop."
Jace smiled at her and took her hand, bringing it to his lips. So he was a flirt—sue him. "Nice to meet you."
Izzy laughed and shook her head at him when she had her hand back, sneaking a glance at Clary as she did. "Well, aren't you a smooth one. I see what you mean, Clare," she said, winking dramatically at the now-blushing redhead by Jace's side before dashing off to go talk to one of the other girls in the office.
Jace furrowed his brows in confusion, both at what Izzy said and at Clary's blush, but was stopped from questioning his blushing companion by another person walking up to them. And this person was… well, would sparkly be descriptive enough?
The man—Jace was pretty sure it was a man, but he was going to keep his references gender-neutral until he was positive—was wearing a very glittery tie, and his dark hair was also decked-out in glitter. He had dark kohl liner surrounding his eyes, and was grinning from ear to ear—slightly unnerving Jace. Other than the odd tie and a few other things, he appeared to be relatively normal.
That is, until he spoke.
"Clary, my darling, would you care to introduce me to this fine specimen?" the man asked, giving Jace a thorough once-over. Jace, feeling incredibly uncomfortable under the man's gaze, shifted form foot to foot until the man's eyes lifted up to his face once more.
Clary giggled slightly and leaned over to nudge the man's arm teasingly with her hand. Jace watched the movement under a sharp gaze, not liking her touching anybody else—but then he mentally chided himself for it, because he had literally just met this girl.
"Magnus, stop it," Clary told the man—'Magnus', apparently—before turning towards Jace and saying, "Don't mind him, he just enjoys the discomfort of others. It's cruel, and you don't have to deal with it." She shot Magnus a sharp look, causing him to chuckle, before he held out his hand towards Jace.
"Magnus 'The Magnificent' Bane, blondie, but you can refer to me as simply Magnus. Though, 'Your Magnificence' will also be accepted—," he started to say, and Jace started to reach towards his outstretched hand out of politeness, but Clary cut Magnus off before he could go any further.
"Oh, just go hit on Alec or something, Mags," she told him, pushing him away from Jace and back into the crowd of employees. She was surprisingly strong for such a short person, Jace noted. Magnus just shot her a wink, and then he was gone.
Kind of like magic, Jace mused to himself.
"Sorry about him," Clary said, capturing Jace's attention once more.
He grinned. "It's fine. He's quite a…an interesting character, isn't he?"
Clary snorted. "Yeah, interesting. Right."
Jace raised an eyebrow at her. Ah, sarcastic, are we? Hmm…
They were soon joined by someone else—well, several other 'someone's.
An olive-toned girl with curly hair—who Jace later learned was named Maia; a tall guy with brown hair named Jordan, who was apparently dating Maia, though it might have been a little against Jordan's will; and an older man, maybe around forty-five, with ginger hair—who Jace learned was named Henry. Maia was the Customer Service Rep for the NYC branch of City of Glass, Jordan was apparently 'just the temp', and Henry was the HR Rep for this branch. They were all really nice people, Jace decided. Sadly though, they all apparently worked in the annex, so Jace wouldn't be seeing a whole lot of them during the day.
Clary and Jace ended up just standing in the corner of the room for the rest of the 'party'. Jace was introduced to a few more people from around the office—Raphael, Bat, and Camille, the accountants—and then Michael announced that they all should clean up and get back to work.
And as much as Jace hated to admit it, he didn't have a bad time. But that might have had something to do with the person he spent the whole party talking to…
Present…
The clock that was placed above the breakroom doorway read 11:30, and Jace sighed in relief as he sprang up from his chair. He made a beeline for the breakroom, hearing a small commotion from the flat-lay of the office as the rest of the employees ambled into the breakroom after him. Jace was starving, and he wasn't going to wait for everybody else to hurry up and join him—he was going to eat right now.
He grabbed his lunch out of the fridge that was pushed into one of the breakroom's corners—which was a brown paper bag with 'JACE' written neatly across the top—and then weaved in between the tables that crowded the room toward the one in the very back of the room. He'd been the same in high school during lunch hours: find the table in the very back of the room, preferably in the corner, and sit by yourself. It wasn't that Jace was antisocial, or that he had no friends—it was just that he had a complex for hating social interaction with humans.
But that sounds bad, so we're just going to say that he wanted to eat his lunch in peace, okay?
Jace opened his bag and fished in it for his sandwich—which just so happened to be PB&J, his mother's recipe. After he had taken a massive bite out of the poor sandwich, he spared a look up at the rest of the room. Almost the entire office had filed in, taking up the majority of the tables and sitting in groups as they talked about this and that while they ate. Even the Warehouse Crew was there, Jace noted, taking another bite.
Jace's first week working upstairs with the 'big guys', he had learned that the New York City branch of City of Glass had a warehouse in the bottom of the building. He was pretty astounded when he learned that little fact, given the fact that he had worked there for two years now and had never heard of a warehouse located anywhere in the building. But he had been just kind of half-assing his job down in Customer Service, so…
The cute receptionist, who had become somewhat of a friend to Jace in the past two weeks, hadn't come into the breakroom yet, and Jace watched the door slightly eagerly as he waited for her to come join him. They had been sitting together, along with a few others, at lunch, and Jace looked forward to his breaks. He enjoyed having Clary's company, and was sure that they could become great friends with time. Maybe even more than friends…
He had to fight off a grin when Clary's bright red curls cleared the doorway. He forced his eyes down to the table, assuming an air of nonchalance. He didn't want to appear too eager, after all.
He waited for her to walk over to his table, as she had done every day for the past two weeks. It had become a sort of ritual for them—Jace would start out sitting alone in the back of the breakroom at the back table, Clary would come in a little later than him, and then she'd come join him at the table and maybe bring one or two of her friends. Most of the time her friends consisted of Simon and/or Izzy, but Jace figured that he could ignore Lord of the Nerds for the duration of his lunchbreak.
But Jace had to look up from the gray surface of the table, had to discontinue his faux nonchalance act, when Clary didn't come join him at what he had started to dub as 'their table'. And when his eyes were no longer stuck taking in the plain surface of the break table, when he forced himself to look around the room in search of the familiar red curls, he realized what had happened.
Clary was sitting on the other side of the room, at a table with warehouse workers occupying every available seat. It was an almost ridiculous sight, Clary's bright hair standing out in a crowd of dark gray uniforms and work slacks. Jace would've found it comical if it weren't for the fact that Clary's small form was tucked into the side of one of the warehouse workers.
Jace's eyes narrowed. It wasn't just any of the warehouse workers, either—it was Sebastian Verlac.
Clary's fiancé.
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