Alec woke up from the best night's sleep he'd had in a month. Talking to Magnus last night had really helped with that.
Sitting up with a smile, Alec stretched and looked at the time only to have his eyes widen as he realized that it was a quarter past noon. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd slept that late! Getting up he slipped his joggers on, and made his way towards his kitchen, but stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of his living room. His entire living room floor was covered in balloons! There was one red heart shaped mylar balloon floating around the room with a note attached to a straight pin reading, 'pop them,' so without further ado, Alec took the pin and started popping balloons. With each pop, the deflated balloon fell to the floor leaving a mess of latex to clean up along with scrolls of paper. Deciding to pick up a scroll he unrolled it to read the message.
I love the way that you put others needs before your own
He then picked up another.
I love that you give those you love the world without expecting anything in return
And another.
I love the way your eyes light up when you're talking about your passions
He read message after message until he came across the biggest scroll.
Alexander, most of all, I love you. Words cannot express how deeply I regret treating you the way I did, and I vow to spend every day going forward making it up to you. Never feel like you can't talk to me about anything on your mind. I'm always here for you, and I will always be there to listen and help you work through any of your troubles. I pray to whatever God that's out there that you will one day realize that you are the best of us. You are my better half, my soulmate.
At that point Alec was full on crying. Talking to Magnus last night did feel like a relief, but this seemed to confirm it was the right thing to do. Picking up his phone, Alec quickly dialed Magnus' number.
"Hello, darling," Magnus greeted after the first ring. "It seems that you're finally awake."
"Oh, Magnus," Alec sobbed. "H-how?"
"How what?" Alec laughed, knowing that Magnus was being coy, sniffling as he did so.
"How did you manage to get… well everything?" Alec asked. It just occurred to Alec that Magnus' gift would've had to have taken a while to do. Then after everything he'd still need to get them here without waking Alec up.
"Well," Magnus drew out. "For the sake of being honest I started that gift a while ago, but after our discussion last night I decided to move up my timetable. As for how I managed to get them in your apartment while you were sleeping… I had Raphael do it for me."
Alec could faintly hear a 'you're lucky I love you, Lightwood,' coming from Raphael in the background through Magnus' phone, followed by a 'back off bitch, he's my boyfriend. Get your own,' from Magnus. Alec couldn't help the burst out laughing as he listened to the two of them banter back and forth. He'd missed that so much over the last month.
"Why did you have Raph set it up?" Alec wondered, knowing that Magnus still had a key to his apartment. "You could've done it yourself."
"For two reasons," Magnus explained. "First being that I wanted to respect your wishes about us not spending time alone in private together - I consider last night to be an exception to the rule - and secondly because it would've been extremely awkward if I was still setting everything up when you woke up."
"I can see your point there," Alec replied. Though, if Alec were being completely honest he missed spending nights curled up on the couch together talking about anything and absolutely nothing of importance at the same time. He genuinely enjoyed spending time with Magnus - both pre and post breakup - but no matter what he wanted, he wasn't going to loosen the rules for a while yet. "But, thank you Magnus. This cheesy gift means a lot."
"You're welcome Alexander," Alec could hear the smile from the tone of Magnus' voice. "What time would you want to go to the bistro?"
"I can be ready in twenty minutes," Alec said all at once, then felt his cheeks warm with how quickly he replied.
"Don't rush my love," Magnus chuckled. "My day is wide open."
"I only need to shower and then I'll be ready," Alec said more slowly, still embarrassed with his previous response.
"Have you eaten yet?" Magnus question, his tone coming off as concerned.
"Not yet… " Alec trailed off, forgetting about that one tiny detail. Hell, he even forgot about his coffee!
"Take your shower, and I'll run to the deli down the street and pick up some sandwiches for us to eat while we work. I'll even make a coffee run for you," Magnus added, once again, coming to Alec's rescue.
"Sounds good," Alec hesitated, then added. "I love you." Because he really did. Even though things weren't great Alec felt the need to say it. Magnus had told him over and over again that he still loved Alec, but this was the first time since they've been - somewhat - back together that he'd said it himself.
Magnus let out a gasp. "I love you too, darling."
With that, they hung up and Alec quickly got ready.
~oOo~
Once they got to the bistro Magnus insisted he handle the stove situation first and foremost. He breezed into Alec's office, leaving Alec and Raphael to just stand there awkwardly as he riffled through the paperwork that was in neat stacks on Alec's desk. Alec could do nothing but stare with his mouth open and his eye twitching and he watched Magnus destroy his organizational system.
"Ah ha!" Magnus exclaimed, holding up the shipping invoice for the stoves.
"You know," Raphael said with a slight laugh. "Had you just waited, Alec would've been able to get it for you without messing up his desk. And then Lightwood's eye wouldn't be trying to twitch into a new state."
"It's alright," Magnus waved off Raph. "I'll put everything back when I'm done."
"Oh, no," Alec interjected firmly imagining the horror of Magnus trying to fix what he'd ruined. "I'll do it while you're on the phone."
Alec moved protectively towards his desk, while Magnus stood beside him dialing the phone. Raph was unhelpfully leaning against the doorframe with an amused expression.
"Yes, my name is Magnus Bane, and I am one of the owners of The Corner Bistro," Magnus winked as Alec raised an eyebrow at that comment.
"Yes, my partner, Alexander Lightwood, ordered three stoves from you," Alec glanced back up only to notice the shit eating grin plastered on Magnus's face. He truly was enjoying this! "Now, reading over this invoice it says nothing here about a signature required from the purchaser in order for the delivery to be accepted."
There was a pause for a moment, then Magnus made a few humming noises.
"Alright, very well," Magnus let out a long sigh. "I need to speak to the manager in charge then."
There was a long pause, presumably while Magnus was waiting on the manager. Alec just now was starting to get his desk back in working order. Magnus started speaking again a moment or so later, retelling what he said to the previous person on the line.
"Well, Mr. Debroski, I have the shipping invoice and the attempted delivery notice sitting right in front of me. The invoice gave an estimated delivery time with the window of one to four in the afternoon. The attempted delivery notice stated that your driver arrived at ten thirty in the morning. How is it fair to my partner that your driver arrived outside the time your company gave, and refused anyone else's signature even though there's nothing stating that the purchaser themselves is required to sign for it?" Magnus's voice rose as he went on.
"I'll tell you what. Seeing as your warehouse is located in the Bronx I will have someone come and pick the order up themselves. You must've lost your mind thinking you could get away with pushing our delivery date back for over six weeks. You will also drop all delivery charges, and I expect a partial refund due to the fact that you're very well causing us a delay in opening our restaurant," Magnus huffed out in what Alec could only assume to be annoyance.
"Mhm-mhm… mhm-mhm… uh huh," Magnus murmured, then raised a single brow at Alec. "Yes, yes I can arrange that for you, thank you! We will see you on Monday." with that, Magnus hung up the phone.
"The stoves will be here on Monday morning. Also, I did promise an autographed chefs jacket for the warehouse manager. He will be delivering them personally," Magnus said with a smug smile.
"Why the hell does he want your autograph on a chefs jacket?" Alec asked, confused as all hell. "You'd think he'd want your autograph on a cd or something?"
"Oh, dios mios, Alec!" Raph laughed, shaking his head. Magnus looked equally amused. "He doesn't want Magnus' autograph, he wants yours!"
"Why?" Alec asked.
"Isn't he adorable?" Magnus turned and asked Raph. "It's so cute when he forgets he's famous."
"Alexander," Magnus said, his smile getting bigger if at all possible. "Once the Big Oaf finally took the time to read the name on the shipping invoice he went nuts, apparently he's a huge fan! It honestly took everything in me to not start laughing at the poor guy! But anyway, he said that he was going to resubmit your order at a forty percent discount, knock off the price of shipping, and get the delivery - and your partial refund check - here to you by eleven Monday morning."
"Hey!" Raph exclaimed with fake enthusiasm. "At least we can witness this guy's expression when he sees you since we don't have anything pressing until that afternoon!"
Alec only responded by rolling his eyes and flipping Raphael off, which then left Magnus and Raph giggling like a pair of school girls.
"I'm seriously considering blowing off work on Monday just to witness this," Magnus said as he wiped a fake tear away. "Raphael, you have to promise that you'll record this interaction and send it to me immediately!"
Alec sighed at the two for them. "Yeah yeah whatever," Alec tried to downplay their antics. "I've still got dishware to fret over. If I have time I'll worry about keeping cameras away from Raphael come Monday morning."
"What I am here for but to remove all frets from Alexander's life," Magnus exclaimed. "Onward to the dishware!"
Alec found himself once again rolling his eyes even as he was smiling. Standing up, he motioned for them to follow him back out to the dining room where the tables were set up in the corner. There was still a lot of painting to do so Alec couldn't set the dining room properly until that was finished, but he did have a few tables arranged so they could set the dishware out to look over. A couple of the tables in the corner had stacks of dishes and glassware piled on it, ready to be placed and arranged into a combination he could live with.
Upon seeing the tables laden with dishes Magnus charged forward, leaving Alec hanging back. Magnus completely ignored the pastel colored dishes and moved straight to the yellow and gray ones. Alec watched as Magnus grabbed an assortment of dishes, then instructed Raphael to grab a bunch of different glasses.
"Okay darling," Magnus smiled as he set the pile of dishes down. "As much as I love you, go away. I'll call you when I'm done."
"But it's my restaurant!" Alec exclaimed, affronted that he was getting kicked out of his own dining room.
"Yes, but you're too stressed out about this stuff to think clearly and logically," Magnus replied, cupping Alec's cheek. "It's okay to have a fresh set of eyes helping you out."
"What about Raph?" Alec nearly whined. He hated not having control of the situation. "He's invested in this mess just as much as I am!"
"Yes, darling, I know," Magnus sniggered. "He is going with you. I only needed his help to carry stuff."
"Go into your office and finally eat for once! I didn't buy you those sandwiches for you to merely look at them," Magnus reprimanded.
Alec had forgotten about his lunch. He'd planned on eating while Magnus was on his phone with the stove people, but when Magnus had messed up his desk, the thought of food had been forgotten
"Fine," Alec grumbled over his shoulder, making his way to his office. "Call us when you're done."
"He's right, you know," Raph said as soon as the office door was closed. "We need a fresh set of eyes on these damn dishes. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I thought picking out dish sets would've been the least of our problems."
"Who're you tellin'?" Alec snorted in frustration. "I thought our biggest problem would be picking out what pattern and shade of white to use. Not picking out colors!"
"But trust me on this," Raph said after chewing his food. "Magnus is a wiz at this sort of thing. I can almost guarantee you that he's already done, and just waiting for us to finish eating."
Raph paused again, this time with a contemplative look on his face. "He worries about you, you know. He even made a comment to me this morning about the weight you've lost."
"Yeah, my dad said something to me about my weight loss the other day," Alec reluctantly admitted. "The stress has just really been getting to me, you know?"
"I get it," Raph agreed, Alec knew he'd been dealing with the same issues. "But for the sake of honesty, this morning Magnus made me promise him that I'd make sure you take care of yourself when he's not around."
"I'm not a child, you know!" Alec exclaimed, sending a disgruntled look towards Raph.
"I'm aware," Raph gave Alec a smirk in return. "Let's make a deal. You and I will take the time out of our day to eat a proper lunch, everyday, no matter how busy we are. How does that sound?"
"Yeah, we can do that," Alec reluctantly agreed. "Though, I thought we agreed that you wouldn't get in the middle of mine and Magnus' issues? I kinda feel like you're not living up to your end of the bargain."
"I agreed that I wouldn't be the middleman in your spat. I never said that I wouldn't butt in when it came to your health," Raph winked and grinned. Alec just held up his hands in surrender. He knew he couldn't argue with Raphael there.
"Alright lovelies!" Magnus called as he entered the office with a flourish. "Come look at the options I've laid out for you."
Both Alec and Raphael groaned when they got their lazy asses out of their seats, and moved to the dining room.
Alec's breath caught when he set foot into the dining room. Magnus had set up multiple place settings with all of the samples that he ordered on different tables throughout. The first setting Alec came to was of yellow plates and bowls with gray and white, hand painted intricate floral patterns around the edges. It was pretty, but a little too feminine for his taste. The next table he came to was of solid gray dishes, but it looked too bland for his liking, and the same thing for the setting that had the solid yellow dishes placed throughout. The last setting intrigued Alec the most with a mixture of the solid yellow and gray dishes together, but it still wasn't quite what he was looking for.
"Do you like any of the options?" Magnus asked, his tone somewhat timid.
"I do, but you just gave me another idea," Alec responded softly.
With the theme of his restaurant being a countryside french bistro, Alec pulled out a fifth table. He loved his tables and chairs. They'd all been handcrafted by Luke and then painted white and distressed by Jocelyn. Alec grabbed the floral patterned dinner plate, a round gray scalloped lipped salad plate to place on top of the dinner plate, and a floral patterned soup bowl and placed it on top of the salad plate. Alec looked at the mismatch set he'd created, and grabbed a yellow bread plate with more of an octagon design and placed that on the upper left hand side of the place setting.
"I must say," Raphael started, moving around the table looking at what Alec created. "Even though the dishes don't match, they do go well together. I like it!"
"Thanks," Alec mumbled as he looked at the different glass options.
The glasses Alec chose were all clear with etched patterns in them, and they all had short stems to give them more of an antique look. He grabbed different sizes with that same pattern and placed them on the table. "I like the two larger glasses, which we could use for water, iced tea, and sodas. The champagne glasses would be great to serve mimosas with for Saturday brunch, and I like the wine glasses."
"I can work with that," Raphael responded, still scrutinizing the table. "I don't think the delicate look of the glasses would be appropriate for other mixed drink or beer glasses though. But I could look for glasses that would at least go with this pattern… maybe keep the theme of 'similar but different' with the bar glasses."
Alec nodded then stepped back to really take everything in. He liked what he was seeing, and it really did remind him of the small family owned bistro he visited with his parents when he took them on a wine tour. Alec remembered that none of their dishes matched, and how it made the bistro more charming.
"Do you think the customers will like the mismatched look, or would this deter them?" Alec questioned, glancing at Magnus and Raphael.
"Well, I find it charming, and it really goes well with the rest of the decor," Raphael stated, looking around them, taking pictures. He'd been doing this all the time, stating that he wanted to see the progression of the restaurant's transformation.
"I agree, Alexander," Magnus said, causing Alec to turn to face him. "Even though they don't necessarily match, the dishes go so well together. I don't think your patrons will have any cause to complain."
Alec turned to scrutinize the place setting for a bit longer before sighing in relief. He felt Magnus' body heat radiating off him even before his long arms circled around Alec's waist.
"See darling," Magnus whispered in his ear, kissing Alec's temple. "You didn't need me, you created this all on your own."
"Well," Alec hummed. "I got the mix-matched idea from the table over there," he pointed to the table that had the yellow and gray dishes set up. "But it just needed a little something extra. You and your 'problem solving voodoo skills' were of great help."
"'Problem solving voodoo skills,'" Magnus snorted. "I like the sound of that. I may just use that."
Alec laughed, leaning back into Magnus' embrace. "Thank you for helping me today. You have no idea how much stress you've saved me from."
"No, Alexander," Magnus maneuvered to face Alec. "Thank you for giving me the second chance to be here with you today, to help you. I will do my very best to not screw things up this time around."
Without even having to look closely, Alec could clearly see that Magnus meant every word that he said. He couldn't control his actions even if he wanted to, and lunged forward giving Magnus a searing kiss. Alec could only hope that with Magnus' determination things would eventually be better for the two.
~oOo~
Well, Another chapter down. I wanted to get this posted sooner, however, my poor poor beta had been sick for well over a week and I wasn't going to ask her to edit while she should've been resting.
What did you think of the chapter? This is really Malec's first real interaction that you guys really got to see since the whole break up thing. Do you guys agree with Alec that he doesn't want things to move too quickly with them this time around, or did this chapter change your mind?
Thanks for reading!
