Alec rolled his eyes in exasperation, but eventually obliged. "Both. Mixing them up a little will look great, I think." He looked at the flowers again and sighed. "Why do I have to do this again?"

"Because," Izzy said as she stalked back to her desk, stiletto heels clicking on dark tiles, "Clary is busy picking out Simon's tux with him. So you, brother dearest, get to be my maid of honor for the day."

Alec winced. "What about Jace?"

Isabelle just leveled him with an unimpressed glare over the rim of her reading glasses. "Are you serious?"

"Fine," Alec surrendered, a smirk pulling at his lips at the thought of their kind, but not exactly flower-savvy brother picking out Isabelle's wedding bouquet. "It may not be the very best idea."

"I think apocalyptic is the word you are looking for here."

Alec chuckled. "Alright, you win. Is there anything else you need me to do or can I go back to enjoying my day off before mom finds out I'm here and starts pestering me about the paperwork I'm not going to do, even if she reminds me a hundred more times about it."

A low ping from Isabelle's computer, announcing a new email, made them both flinch. Sighing, Izzy looked at her screen and then back at Alec, regret in her gaze. "Looks like she just found out. She wants us both in her office, pronto."

With a sigh that sounded like the weight of the world had just been put onto his shoulders, Alec turned towards the door and walked out, Izzy on his heels. If there was one thing that everyone in this company agreed on, it was that you better not let Maryse Lightwood wait.

***

The decision to start working in his mother's publishing company had been a no-brainer for Alec. Lightwood Publishing had always been a family business. Alec had grown up watching his parents run the firm like their own personal empire. He knew most of the people who worked there, was on first name basis with the essential personnel. He had been raised knowing he would run that company one day if he wanted.

Things had shifted after his parents' divorce, though. Lightwood Publishing had belonged to both Alec's parents equally, but it had always been Maryse who had run things. After the divorce she had taken over as sole owner. Robert had moved to Los Angeles, taking up a lucrative offer of an old college friend to join the board of a new company. Most of the board members had left with Robert, either joining Robert in his new company or taking up competitor's offers, leaving Maryse to put together an entirely new management team. That had opened the window for Alec to rise from his previous job as an editor with a bunch of administrative tasks to a more strategic position. He was now head of fictional publishing and took care of all projects that fell into that area. He also took care of a lot more managerial tasks than before, with the eventual goal to follow his mother's footsteps and take over the company one day.

Two years had passed since then, two years that Alec and Maryse had used to completely rebrand the company. They had butted heads more often than Alec could count, which had mostly been due to Maryse still clinging to her and Robert's old ways of running things, whereas Alec had been aiming for a slightly more modern approach. It had taken many more or less constructive discussions (and a bunch of very non-constructive arguments) to eventually figure out where they wanted to take the company in the future. In the beginning, every new author Alec wanted to sign or any new genre he wanted to implement in the company's lineup had been a struggle. It had taken them a while to figure things out, but now that they had, Lightwood Publishing was doing better than ever.

With Alec and Maryse finally working well together and Isabelle being a force to be reckoned with in terms of marketing and public relations, the company had turned from a successful and respected, yet antiquated publisher of classics and political biographies to a recognized player on a much broader market, its program now including a broader variety of genres and targeted at a more diverse audience. With the help of Isabelle and her talented team in PR and marketing they had been able to make the rebranding process go over relatively seamless, as far as the public was concerned. There had been some hiccups along the way, but judging from the most recent figures, people liked what they did.

The rebranding process had been lengthy and arduous, but at the end of the day, Alec was still very satisfied with what they had created. Plus, it had helped him to a job with tasks and responsibilities he enjoyed.

Well, most of them.

What he certainly didn't enjoy was that despite him having risen to management level, Maryse could still send him to any and all appointments she didn't have time to attend herself. That list included a few very interesting types of appointments, but mostly they were the kind of trips that required a commute halfway across the city (which was of course a total coincidence).

One of those meetings was the reason why about two weeks after running into Magnus at the coffee shop, Alec ended up walking through the streets of Brooklyn once again, fuming with anger about how useless the entire appointment had been. He'd thought most of their business partners had realized by now that Robert Lightwood wasn't coming back and Alec was now their first contact for anything fiction. But apparently news hadn't spread yet to that particular illustrator's headquarters. Despite him sending them the details a few days prior, they had not even looked at his plans. And after they had asked for the fourth time in an hour when they were going to be able to speak to management, Alec had politely, yet distinctly ended the meeting (and mentally crossed them off his list of potential artists for the upcoming young adult series he needed a cover illustrator for).                                                                                            

Alec had come across people like that a lot back when he had first been promoted. Most of the company's business partners had been fine with the change in leadership and they had continued a reliable business partnership with them. But every now and then there was that one company so used to making deals with either his father or his mother that they just wouldn't accept or respect the fact that the younger generation slowly taking over.

Meetings like that frustrated Alec more than any other part of his job, sometimes so much that they left him in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

However, over time Alec had found a way to cope with that anger and prevent it from ruining his day: Plugging in his headphones and going for a walk whenever he had the time. Given how stupid the people at the meeting had been, it seemed like just the right way to clear his head before returning his office.

He had been strolling through Brooklyn for about ten minutes and was contemplating whether to grab lunch now or rather hope for a good day at the cafeteria back at the office when his surroundings started to get familiar. Alec realized that he was just a few minutes away from Pandemonium, the coffee shop he'd met Magnus at. Checking his watch, he realized that he still had some time until his next appointment, then without much thought crossed the street and headed towards the coffee place.  

Alec's go-to remedy for anger over ignorant business partners may be some music and a walk, but a large latte to drown his sorrows in turned out to be just as fine. Especially since this time around, Pandemonium wasn't nearly as packed as the previous time and Alec could easily find a seat.

On his way to a table in the far corner of the room he walked past the table he'd sat at the last time he had been there. He didn’t feel a tiny bit of melancholy when he walked past the occupied table, not at all. And it absolutely didn't get worse when he, once he had sat down at his table, surveyed the room to see if maybe, against all odds –

Alec snorted at his own pathetic behavior. He had met Magnus once. They had just sat together because there had been no other space to sit left. They'd had a good chat, so what? People did that all the time.

Yeah but people don't think about that chat two weeks later, you idiot, he internally scolded himself. Sighing, he grabbed his messenger bag and pulled out one of the manuscripts one of his editors had forwarded to him for consideration. Might as well get some work done.

He had made it through about twenty pages of a really promising story about a young policewoman working her ranks through NYPD while at the same time uncovering a massive legal scandal when next to him, someone cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, can I sit here?"

Startled, Alec looked up – right into a pair of dark Ray Bans. It took Alec a few seconds - and the owner of those dark Ray Bans pushing them down and looking at him over the edge of the tinted glass - to put the pieces together. But when he did, he smiled in surprise.

"Magnus! Hi!"

Magnus smiled back. "Hey. I just saw you sitting over here all by yourself and thought I had to say hello." He then paused, a hint of doubt crossing his features. "Is this weird? I can totally sit somewhere else if it is. It's not like there's lots of people here this time around."

Alec's brain had mostly clocked out to focus on the hint of Alec's eyes visible behind his sunglasses so he wouldn't stare at Magnus' ridiculously tight jeans or the gorgeous leather jacket over a navy V-neck sweater. Thankfully, it kicked back into action at the slightly nervous tone in Magnus' voice and prevented him from any potential embarrassments.

"Don't be ridiculous," he said hurriedly. "I didn't mind your company last time and I don't mind today. Have a seat!"

"Thanks", Magnus said, sitting down across from Alec and crossing his legs. He placed his mug on the table and smirked as he saw Alec's mostly empty latte. "So the coffee they sell here managed to match your high standards after all."  

Alec chuckled. "I have been a couple times before last time, thank you very much. But yeah, the place grew on me a little.

"As it should. I don't call this place my favorite coffee shop for no reason," Magnus quipped. He took a sip of his coffee, then set his mug down and looked back at Alec. "So. How have you been?"

Alec sighed, thinking of the meeting that morning. The short walk from his meeting to the coffee place had helped, but there was still plenty of unresolved frustration growling in his stomach. "Besides my job kicking my ass recently and my sister's wedding plans stealing my last nerve whenever my job doesn't? Fantastic. You?"

Magnus smirked. "Well, my cat apparently thinks he's Banksy now and started systematically ruining my new living room curtains by running his claws through it until they tear. But other than that, I don't have anything as fancy to report as a sibling's wedding causing me headaches. But I have to admit, I would love to hear more about that story. That bad, huh?"

Alec let out a defeated sigh at the thought of The Bouquet Incident, as he had dubbed Isabelle's interruption for his last meeting with Magnus. He didn't even want to start thinking about all the other small and bigger mishaps that had followed.

"You have no idea. But if you really want to hear it, I hope you brought some time with you, this is going to be a long story."

Magnus grabbed his own coffee mug and leaned back into his chair comfortably. With an elegant wave of his hand, he motioned for Alec to begin. "I'm all ears."

"Well, it actually all began with the reason why I had to leave so suddenly the last time –!

"Oh, you mean when you just bailed on me and all you left was that charming little note?"

Alec huffed in amusement. "Yeah. Arguably not my best moment."

"Not just arguably."

"Hey! I'm trying to tell a story over here. Do you want to hear it or not?"

Magnus laughed softly, then reached out for his coffee and took another sip. "Sorry. I'll be nice now, I swear."

Talking to Magnus was just as easy as it had been the last time. They had a good laugh about The Bouquet Incident and all the other little hiccups and problems of organizing Isabelle's wedding. In return, Magnus told Alec a few stories about his best friend's moving troubles and how someone from work majorly pissed him off, which then led to Alec telling Magnus about his meeting earlier that day and everything that had gone wrong with that. Magnus sighed, laughed, rolled his eyes when Alec walked him through what had happened, from time to time interrupting with an anecdote or two of his own. Oddly, Alec felt himself relax more and more the longer he talked to Magnus. Which was even weirder considering Alec usually didn't open up to strangers that easily, let alone tell them about his personal life.

But he found that talking to Magnus was actually enjoyable. He was interesting and attentive, funny and sassy without ever being condescending or judgmental. He had fascinating stories to tell, yet was great listener as well.

And he seemed to know on instinct what to say to make Alec feel better.  Whether by telling him about his cat's most recent antics (Alec had a good laugh when he learned Magnus had named his cat Chairman Meow) or by recalling one of his mishaps while writing new music (Magnus had previously mentioned that he sometimes liked to write songs in his spare time) – the longer they talked, the more Alec's anger fade away.

Unfortunately, the remaining time on Alec's lunch break faded away just as quickly. When his phone pinged with a reminder that his next appointment was approaching, he felt like barely twenty minutes had passed when a glance to his watch told him they had actually been talking for almost an hour and a half. Alec's heart sank at the thought of having to leave Magnus once again. He put his phone down and looked up, only to realize that Magnus was already frowning at him, cautious.

"Bad news?"

Alec cleared his throat. Magnus' gaze lingering on him totally didn’t make him nervous. It didn't.

"Sort of. Lunch break is over; I need to go back to work."

Magnus pouted, which totally didn't pull Alec's entire attention to his lips for a second. Not at all.

He snapped out of it just soon enough for Magnus not to notice – at least he hoped so.

"Aww, shame," Magnus said, "but I would have had to go soon anyway. Are you taking the subway back to Manhattan?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm headed that way too. Want to walk together?"

Alec smiled and nodded. Apparently he wasn't the only one who didn't want their break to be over yet.

He totally wasn't relieved about that. He wasn’t.

Fine, maybe a little.

The walk to the subway station was short, but comfortable. They kept talking about they had planned for the rest of the day. Alec learned that Magnus was going to visit a friend in the afternoon and told him about the meeting with finance he had scheduled next. Magnus, who had put his sunglasses on again the second they had left the coffee shop, grinned at Alec's lack of motivation and Alec was sure that behind the dark glasses his eyes crinkled with glee.

They reached the subway stop way too fast for Alec's tastes. Alec sighed when he stopped a few steps away from the stairs and turned to Magnus, who was already looking up at him.  

"Well, I guess this is goodbye again, then?"

Magnus chuckled. "I suppose it is." He paused, looking at Alec with a slightly hesitant expression, almost as if he was contemplating something, weighing the pros and cons. "Except if you're interested in a rain check?"

Alec felt his lips pull into a smile. "I'd like that.

Magnus grinned back at him. "Me too."

Alec's gaze drifted down the street, back down the sidewalk they had taken to get from Pandemonium to their current location. "So I guess I'll just see you next time I run into you at Pandemonium?", he teased.

Magnus' laugh was as soft as his voice had been over the past few hours. "I guess so. But to be totally honest with you – as much as I enjoyed our chance encounters, but…", he said, pausing for a few seconds, before glancing back up at Alec. "How about we make things a little less complicated and you give me your number?"

***

Alec didn't mind working for his mother. He didn't.

Or at least that was what he tried to remind himself of as he was stuck in his second boring meeting of the day, trying his best to not fall asleep while Aldertree from finance talked about the company's most recent revenue figures. Well, talking wasn't exactly the correct term as far as Alec was concerned. Trying to convince Maryse that Alec's children's books program line was doomed to fail sounded more like it.

They had been going back and forth for almost an hour now. As a consequence of Lightwood Publishing's rebranding process, Alec had implemented a line of books for children under the age of ten and signed a bunch of promising authors. Just like everything else that meant a change from the company's previous ways of work, it had taken Alec some convincing until Maryse had agreed.

However, things had been changing recently. While at first she had merely tolerated the program, she seemed to have warmed up to it. A few weeks prior, she had even expanded Alec's budget for the project. He'd already had thought of a few interesting ideas on how to go forward with it, but apparently - if things were up to finance - those were never going to happen.

He was dragged out of his thoughts when Aldertree directly addressed him for once, instead of just talking to Maryse all the time.

"Look, Alec, I'm not trying to crush your plans here. I'm just trying to make clear that the children's book program hasn't been performing as well as we had thought it would. From a financial perspective, it would make sense to invest that extra budget into something else with a higher return, like the classics."

Alec snorted. It took everything in him to not roll his eyes too, instead he leveled Aldertree with an unimpressed glare. "The classics? The very thing that has been keeping the company from becoming more popular with younger people, or you know, just people in general, for the past few years? Sure, makes total sense," he deadpanned.

Maryse sent him a sharp glare from her seat across from him. "Alec."

"I'm sure these ideas are well and good from a financial point of view" Alec continued. "However, we have to keep the creative aspect in mind as well. And judging from that, I see no reason why we should shy away from expanding our children's section. It's brought us a considerable amount of new readers, also it has made us look better in the public eye." He paused, looking at Aldertree and then his mother. "It's only been about a year. Let's give it some more time."

Aldertree opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by Maryse herself. "I think we are done here for today," she said, closing the folder with the figures they had been going over for the past few hours. "Thank you, Victor, for your suggestions. I will review them with Alec and get back to you early next week.

Once again, it took Alec everything in him to hide his reaction. Only that this time, it was a smug smile. A glare from his mother made it disappear rather quickly, though.

"What was that, Alec?"

Alec sighed and turned towards his mother. "Aldertree has tried to sabotage my work ever since I got promoted. I'm done putting up with everything, just because he's the head of finance. That was that."

Maryse's features softened. She got up from her seat and circled the table, sitting down in the chair next to his. She reached out and took his hand, squeezing it lightly.

"I know you're not exactly his biggest fan" – this time, Alec did roll his eyes – "The thing is, he's doing a great job as head of finance. You're doing a great job as this company's future CEO. You don't have to like him to work with him. I'm not too fond of him either. But can you, please, make it seem a little less like you want to kill him on sight every time you see him?

"I'm not –" Alec tried to protest, but was silenced by a knowing look and a raised eyebrow from Maryse. "Fine. I guess I can try."

"Thank you. I appreciate it." Maryse got up and ruffled through his hair, which had long gone messy from Alec running his hands through it in annoyance throughout the afternoon. "Speaking of trying, how did your meeting this morning go?"

**

Filling his mother in on everything that had happened earlier that day took Alec about another half hour. After that, he felt drained, even though it was only 4pm and he still had work to do. Since heading home for the day wasn't an option, he did what he always did when he felt like going home but couldn't actually do so yet – he made his way to his sister's office.

Isabelle was on the phone when he entered her office. He leaned in the doorway for a second, hesitating, just in case she was talking about anything important. Isabelle waved him in as soon as she noticed him standing there, gesturing for him to have a seat at the couch she kept in her office for precisely moments like that

With a sigh, Alec flopped down on one the couch, his back flat on the cushions and his legs dangling over the edge. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the sound of Izzy's phone call while also trying not to focus too much on the headache that was building up just behind his temple.

Eventually, Izzy hung up and came over. She took in her brother's sprawled out form and chuckled. "That bad, huh?"

"You have no idea," Alec retorted and groaned when he turned his head to look at her and moving his head made the pain worse. "I had a meeting with Aldertree."

Isabelle grimaced. "My condolences. That guy is a nightmare," she said, sitting down in the chair across from Alec. It had originally been just the couch in her office, but she had added the chair after Alec had made coming over to vent whenever work pissed him off a recent event.  

Alec sighed. "Tell me about it. I wonder if he's made it his own personal goal of ruining every idea I have, or if he is that much of a jerk with everyone.

Isabelle had started skimming through one of the gossip magazines she kept in her office to indulge in sometimes, and looked up at Alec, unfazed. "Oh, he is like that with everyone. Lydia had a meeting with him last week, when she came back I thought she was about to take his head off. Something about cutting costs of our book presentations for the next quarter."

Alec pulled out his phone and started scrolling through his messages, just in case Magnus actually started to use the number Alec had left him. He smirked at Izzy's mention of Lydia's murder plans. "I relate to that sentiment on so many levels."

Chuckling, Isabelle softly slapped him with her magazine. Alec yelped. "Hey! I came here to rant about Aldertree and my general state of misery, not get physically assaulted by my own sister."

"It's not assault if it makes you stop saying stupid stuff. Besides, you're not ranting, you're staring into your phone. What's so important on there? Hot date tonight?"

Alec waited just a second too long with his answer. Long enough for Isabelle to realize just how close to home she had hit with her joking assumption.                                                                            

"Oh my gosh, you totally have a hot date tonight!" She put the magazine cover away and leaned forward, curiosity radiating off her. "Tell me everything!"

Alec felt like smacking himself into the face as he dropped his phone on the coffee table.  Feeding his sister that type of information never ended well. Once something had caught her attention, she was like a bloodhound in fancy clothes and high heels. Elegant, yet deadly precise. It was what made her great at her job, but also terrible whenever it came to matters Alec would rather keep private.

He groaned at his own stupidity, then rolled his eyes in a desperate attempt of making Isabelle believe she had assumed the wrong thing. "There's nothing to tell."

"You really need to work on your lying skills, Alec. I don't believe you for a second," Isabelle said with a laugh that only grew louder when Alec felt his cheeks warm up in embarrassment. "So, who is he?"

"I told you Isabelle, there is no one. And even if there was, I wouldn't tell you. You're too nosy for your own good sometimes."

Isabelle tossed her hair over her shoulder and shrugged. "It's not my fault I'm fabulous. But you're still a terrible liar."

"I'm not –" Alec started, about to start ranting about how he still deserved to have a private life, even if Isabelle and him were very close. But he didn't get to actually do so, as his phone had apparently picked just that moment for the ultimate betrayal. Out of nowhere, it started vibrating with a new message, the glass coffee table enhancing the sound.  It was only thanks to Alec's long arms and quick reflexes that he could save it from his sister's nosiness.

"Hands off!"

Isabelle giggled. "Wow, that has to mean it's something serious."

"It's not serious, we've barely – ", Alec mumbled, shutting his screen off, before he'd even realized what he'd said. When he looked at Isabelle again, he let out a defeated sigh. Her shit-eating grin spoke volumes.

"You know what, I'm gonna go. I've had enough people annoying me for one day."

"Whatever you say, big brother," Isabelle called after him when he walked out the door. "But don't forget to tell me what your beau texted you."

"You know I won't," Alec retaliated, waving over his shoulder as he walked out of her office.

He didn't get to check the message until later that night, when he was back in the quiet safety of his own apartment with no annoying clients, colleagues or meddling younger sisters in sight.

When he finally did pull out his phone again and opened his unread messages, he was glad he hadn't. The message's content made him let out an embarrassingly loud laugh he really, really wouldn't have wanted anyone to hear.

Alec! I really enjoyed our talk this afternoon, but I'm not sure if I typed in your number right. Just text me back to let me know, will you? Also, if I did get the number wrong and this is the phone of a nice old lady or some other handsome single guy, I sincerely apologize. Well, in the old lady case. - M.