Alec stayed well away from Christian after the big announcement. He'd been hidden in the background of the pub all night, wondering how to approach the man, but now he decided he'd best not. He'd need to regroup now.

He sighed as he rubbed his face. Clearly he had his work cut out for him, but he'd fix it.

It had all started with a flier. The fact that the sight of Christian's face on a piece of paper with a rubbish pun for a business name on it actually pulled him in was a minor miracle. He'd thought himself now to be beyond caring or wanting to find 'the one'. Yet something inside him told him Christian would be good for him. He'd called the number, and liked what he'd heard. Meeting Christian for his taster training session, he'd liked what he'd seen. And now he simply liked the man he knew.

Maybe Christian could be the one for him. They had plenty in common. Alec owned two family restaurants and Christian had been in catering for years. Alec had wanted to branch out a bit more and here was Christian doing just that by setting up a new business for himself - that inspired him.

It had been over ten years since his parents had died, leaving their estate, money and businesses to him. He'd inherited them just as he'd finished university and had been plunged head first into the business world with barely a care for his social life. He'd cut himself off from the world by this point and slowly lost contact with friends. Now everyone was an acquaintance or associate to him. He was getting older and now he finally felt ready to devote more time to finding someone to share his life with.

Syed had been a disappointment. Hearing about the man that Christian had fallen in love with was one thing, but seeing him? How could this scrawny weed of a man be loved by Christian Clarke? He was underwhelmed at best when he'd laid eyes on Syed and he had a feeling it wouldn't be hard to get Christian's attention away from him.

Unfortunately, subtle hadn't quite worked so far. Christian hadn't flirted back. He was worried that he'd gone about it all wrong by hiring Christian. Clearly the man didn't want to get involved with a client.

Alec had an idea, but it wouldn't fully solve that issue... he just hoped that a change of setting - and their roles - might help ease Christian's mind a little. And maybe doing something for Christian might soften him up a bit too.

He watched them. In the pub. Laughing. Hugging. Smiling at the people around them.

He didn't like it.

When Christian had been hurt in that fire it had taken every ounce of his being not to go to the hospital and see him. He felt he needed to respect that, at the moment, they weren't together and he wasn't much more than a client and friend. If Christian's other friends had gone to see him then it wouldn't have looked weird for him to have gone too, but they seemed to have stayed away. He'd kept checking on Christian, and he knew that he was going to be okay. Alec had sucked it up and he'd talked to Syed about it almost every day on the phone.

He felt as if his past had come back to haunt him when he'd discovered it had been fire that had hurt Christian and almost taken him away from him.

He'd only just come out to his parents the night before they had died. He'd only just argued with them and had them throw him out the house, when they'd perished. It had been an awful night. He'd been disowned by overly religious parents only for hellfire to swallow them up during the evening. The next day he'd inherited everything.

The smoke alarm had dead batteries in it and there had been faulty wiring in the kitchen which had sparked everything off.

He'd spent days talking about it as a great tragedy to all the well wishers in black who turned out for the funeral. He'd put on a polite face through it all and had been told he was strong for holding up so well. What they didn't know was that by the end he'd hated them and was glad they were gone.

They'd bloody deserved everything they got that night.

And now he was the ruthless businessman no one should cross.

He always got what he wanted.

And now, Alec Banagher had arrived in Walford.

This universe is about to be continued in a new story called 'Beating of the Storm'. I hope you all stick with me for it, thanks for all your comments and support so far, you've been... amazing! ;)

indehed

xox