Be My Companion

Alexis

“I’ll send you the link of the article,” Vanessa’s voice rang through the speaker. “In the meantime, Alexis, I have two suggestions for you. One, you tell me everything and anything there is to know about you because I can’t afford to be sideswiped like this again. And two, I’d steer away from googling yourself for the next couple of weeks.”

I felt my heart sink at Vanessa’s words. I had witnessed firsthand the media tear down a public figure before, but I was on the other side of it usually. I was simply a sober companion. I was no one special. Why were they targeting me?

Julian tightened his hold around me. “Thanks Ness. Is there anything else?”

“That’s all for now. I’ll call you if anything else comes up.”

Vanessa bid her farewell to us and hung up the phone. Julian placed his phone back on the bedside table and, even though I kept my eyes forward blankly staring through the window in front of me, I could feel Julian watching me.

“I’m so sorry, Lex.”

I shook my head. “It’s fine.”

“No it’s not. The media are only digging into your history because of me. It’s not fair to you or your family.”

Julian laid back down and pulled me into him, his arms feeling like my own personal security net.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked me softly.

I was feeling disappointed that Charlie had inserted himself into this mess and tried to paint me out like the villain. I felt betrayed that he was going out of his way to feed fire to this narrative that I was some unprofessional maneater.

“No,” I whispered.

Julian pressed his lips on my shoulder in a comforting kiss, and the gesture put into perspective where I was.

I had slept with my client last night and crossed the uncrossable line, and now the media were doing everything within their power to discredit me and run me out of my career and this country.

The fix was simple.

“Julian, I can’t do this,” I said.

I got up out of his bed and let out a deep breath.

“Lex?”

I spun around and saw Julian – in all of his shirtless, masculine glory – roll out of bed and look at me. His eyes were pleading with me, because he knew what I was doing.

“This is all too much,” I said. “Ever since I appeared at that press conference for you, the media have been doing everything within their power to tear me down, and why? What have I done? And on top of that, we…”

“We had sex,” Julian cut in.

“Yes we did, and we shouldn’t have done that.”

“We can deal with that later, but right now, let’s get through one thing at a time.”

“This is too much for me, Julian!” My voice came out louder than expected. “You might be used to being under the public eye with your big gridiron contract, but I’m not. I’m a simple man from Melbourne, Australia, and was dedicated to being on the other side of the camera.”

Julian looked pained at my admission.

“I’m telling Annie that I’m giving your case up and she needs to assign someone else to it,” I said finally. “Maybe after a while, all this will blow over and I can go back to living a normal life.”

“Don’t give up,” Julian said. “If you bow down and roll over for them, they’ll just continue to beat you down.”

“Julian, you don’t understand.”

He raised his eyebrows at me. “Did you forget why you’re here in the first place? The media have tried to eat me alive for years, Lex, and the worst thing I could’ve done was let them.”

My mouth snapped shut. He had a point.

“If you’re going to give up my case, don’t let it be because of them.”

Julian walked around the bed and approached me, holding his hands up to say he was coming in peace.

“Just think about it, okay?”

I let out a sigh and relented, nodding my head in agreement. Julian closed the distance between us and wrapped his arms around me.

“I won’t let them get to you, okay?” he whispered in my ear. “We’ll get through this together.”

I nodded my head and leaned into his embrace, placing my cheek on his chest.

---

Julian

While Alexis was finishing up his breakfast, I pulled my phone out and read the article about him that Vanessa had forwarded to me earlier.

I was one sentence in when I decided that Charlie McDaniels was a fucking loser. The same publication that began this smear campaign against Alexis had found out his identity and sought him out for an interview. Like the fucking loser he was, he repeated every lie they spat about my sober companion. As I continued reading the article, a specific quote from Charlie jumped out at me.

‘Not only did he cheat on me with his boss, he went out and cheated on me with several different men on a drunken night out. If there was someone not the least bit qualified to be a sober companion, it is Alexis Mendes.’

I felt my blood boil, and I locked my phone before I could even finish the article. Not only was he assassinating Alexis’s character, he was now attacking his professional integrity. This fucking loser had already played a part in ruining Alexis’s first career; there was no way I was going to let him ruin his second chance at life.

I looked up from my phone to see Alexis, innocently eating breakfast with a brave look on his face, and I felt the muscles in my arms tense.

Alexis was an angel, and anyone that tried to hurt him would have to deal with me. And that’s something that no one wanted.

“Julian?” Alexis’s angelic voice broke my concentration.

“Yeah baby?”

Alexis’s eyes widened at the accidental pet name. I was glad Frank was out of the room for that. It was hard enough to sneak Alexis out of my bedroom behind his back while he was in the kitchen.

“You look angry,” Alexis said finally.

“Just thinking about things,” I replied.

“You’re reading that article, aren’t you?”

I shook my head, but he tilted his head down at me with a raised eyebrow as if he was reading my mind. I let out a sigh and nodded my head.

“If you want us to get through this together, I need you to keep your cool,” he said calmly.

I nodded my head in silence. Alexis got up out of his seat and walked over to me, placing his hand gently on my shoulder.

“Let’s go for a walk,” he suggested. “I think we both need it.”

 

I followed behind Alexis as he walked down the street towards a nearby park. I had my shades on so I could unashamedly stare at his ass which looked so plump and juicy in his tight powder blue sweatpants.

We jogged across the road and down the set of stairs into the park area. I was used to people stopping to stare at me or even ask for photos, but I immediately noticed that people were also staring at Alexis.

“Let’s go this way,” I said.

Alexis stopped to follow me down a path that weaved through a path of trees, which seemed to be the path less taken. Behind the protection of my shades, I could spot a few people stopping and pointing at me and then Alexis. I felt like my skin was crawling, and my temper was being tested with all this newfound attention on my sober companion.

“What are you up to today?” Alexis asked me innocently.

I cleared my throat. “Should we talk about what happened last night?”

Alexis sighed. “We probably should.”

I put my hands in my pockets and continued walking beside him. “Did you enjoy it?”

Alexis pursed his lips, but he didn’t offer me a response.

“We need to be honest with each other, Lex.”

“Okay fine.” Alexis stopped mid-step and turned to face me. “Everything about last night was amazing, Julian. It was perfect. But it can never happen again.”

“How come?”

He raised his eyebrow at me. Fuck I loved when he got sassy with me.

“Our careers, for starters.” He looked around to make sure no one was within earshot. “And I’m not the type of guy that does that, you know? I’m not a one night stand, no strings attached kinda person. I don’t sleep with people I don’t care about.”

I smirked. “So you care about me?”

He narrowed his eyes at me and didn’t offer a response, which was a loud enough answer for me.

“Keep walking,” he hissed.

With a smile, I followed him as we continued down the path. More sets of eyes followed us, and I saw a couple of teenagers whisper at each other while watching us.

“I care about you too,” I said, keeping my head down.

“What does that mean?” he replied.

“I don’t know, Lex. I’m not privileged enough to know exactly who I am as early as you did.”

“Why do you have to ‘be’ anything?” Alexis tilted his head in my direction.

“What does that mean?” I echoed him.

“In today’s society, people are so quick to try and label themselves with terms that I believe are very outdated,” he explained. “You don’t have to fit into a box to appease others. You can still be the big, charming and cheeky Julian Ambrose that everyone already knows and loves, and still… care about me.”

He spoke with such a pure wisdom that it reminded me of my wise-beyond-her-years younger sister.

“Just be you, Julian,” he said. “I like you as you are.”

---

Alexis

Hitting Julian with my own philosophy about sexuality and other pointless labels seemed to stun him, and the rest of our walk became silent and uneventful, even if I could sense the stares of all the other people at the park.

As we arrived back to the penthouse building, I was shocked to see Vanessa standing out the front.

“Good morning.” She looked at me sternly before turning her attention back to her client. “Morning Jules.”

“What’s up Ness?” Julian asked her.

“Entertainment Z want an exclusive interview with you, Alexis.” Vanessa turned her attention back to me.

“They’re the ones who are leading this smear campaign,” Julian said. I didn’t have to look over at him to know that his temper was rising.

“Exactly, and that’s why Alexis should do it. If you can give your own account of what happened back in Australia and clear your name to the one organisation that is actively trying to tear you down, then they’ll have nothing to use against you anymore.”

“I know how these interviews work,” I said with a sigh. “They’ll try to gaslight me into unintentionally confessing guilt, or will use snippets of my answers to create their own narrative. I honestly don’t think it’s a good idea that I participate in this.”

“I think it is,” Vanessa argued.

“I’m not a person of interest! I’m working for a high-profile gridiron player and that’s it!”

I felt the frustration building up inside of me. I felt like I was in an inescapable cage where dozens of reporters were standing on the outside, watching me, snapping photos of me, and there wasn’t a thing I could do to stop them.

Only last week, I was an unknown sober companion that was damn good at his job. And now I seemed to be the talk of the town for no reason other than simply existing.

“Think about it,” Vanessa said finally. “They want an answer by end of day tomorrow.”

After reminding Julian to have his phone on him at all times in case she needed him, she bid her farewell to us and disappeared.

Julian could see the obvious distress I was facing and he motioned for me to follow him into the building. Once we got back inside the refuge of his apartment, I collapsed onto the sofa and held a cushion over my face.

“I can’t do this anymore,” I stated for what felt like the 50th time that day.

Julian sat down next to me and I felt his hand stroke my arm.

“You’re tough, Lex. Don’t let these idiots drag you down.”

“I’m not used to this like you are, Julian! I’m not a celebrity, and not an ounce of my being wishes to become a celebrity. I want to be unknown and live a happy discreet life with a puppy and a latte that doesn’t taste like absolute dog shit.”

Julian chuckled. “It’ll be alright, okay Lex? Don’t give up on me now. I’ll fix this, I promise.”

“You can’t promise me anything.”

“Lex, look at me.”

I groaned, but I eventually took the cushion off my face, and when my eyes adjusted to the light, all I saw was Julian’s handsome face looking down at me.

“I’ve got you,” he reassured me. “I won’t let anyone or anything harm you, okay? I promise.”

I sat up and turned to face him.

“I shouldn’t work for you anymore,” I said. “I crossed a professional line that I knew I shouldn’t have crossed, and now there’s a conflict of interest.”

Julian nodded his head. “I know.”

And he also knew that, despite every ethical bone in my body screaming at me to give up his case, I was not going to leave him. Truthfully, the moment I started to catch any sort of feelings for him was the moment that I should’ve given this case up, but something undeniable drew me to Julian like a magnet, and there was no way I could tear myself away from him now.

“I won’t let anyone harm you, Lex,” he repeated himself.

Like a choreographed dance, he held his arms open and I fell into them, letting out a deep breath as I melted into his chest.

“I’ll protect you,” he whispered into my ear.

I looked up into his eyes; the serene blues calmed me almost instantly.

“Fuck it,” he said suddenly. “We’re in too deep now.”

He leaned down and planted a deep kiss on me, eliciting a deep moan from within. I welcomed his tongue into my mouth and placed my hands on his broad shoulders. The feel of his hard body pressed so firmly against mine sent a shiver down my spine, and ignited a fire in my crotch.

Julian suddenly pulled away, looking disturbed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him breathlessly.

“No it’s not you,” he said. “I just remembered JT’s engagement party is on tonight. In the midst of getting a sober companion and all this drama, I completely forgot about it.”

“Oh okay. Who’s that?”

He looked at me and shook his head, laughing. “You really should’ve studied up on me before taking my case, Lex. JT’s our starting quarterback.”

I playfully shoved Julian. “I studied up on you, not your team or the silly little game you play.”

Julian’s mouth fell open in pretend shock. “Silly little game, you say?”

I crossed my arms across my chest. “Yeah. And what are you going to do about it?”

In a flash, Julian had picked me up onto his shoulder with ease, his deep belly laugh echoing around the room.

“I’m gonna fuck that sweet ass of yours. That’s what I’m going to do about it.”

---

Julian

There was a silent understanding that came between Alexis and me ever since we slept together last night. We didn’t awkwardly tiptoe around each other under the guise of being simply client and companion; we had come to appreciate each other for who we were.

Alexis helped me with my cuffs and collar in preparation for JT’s engagement party. While the numbers were strict for this very exclusive party, JT understood that I had to bring Alexis with me. And to be honest, I couldn’t think of a better plus one.

“You look very handsome, Julian,” Alexis said, flattening my collar with his hands.

I looked into the mirror in front of me, and seeing Alexis primp and prep me, his body pressed closely against mine, made me giddy with excitement. But it also filled me with a sense of horror and confusion. Could I get used to the image of me with another man? Would I want to be used to the image of me with another man?

“What’s wrong?” Alexis must’ve sensed my trepidation.

“Nothing,” I said with a forced smile.

“I don’t believe you.”

Alexis was wearing a white linen shirt with light blue three-quarter slacks that cupped his butt so well. He had his hair tied up into a small bun with a few strands falling down the side of his face. He was absolutely breathtaking. Even though I was dressed in a black designer button-up shirt with white cuffs, and black tailored slacks, I couldn't imagine how anyone could notice me when I was with him.

I snapped myself out of my trance. I was thinking way too far into the future. Right now, I was going to enjoy my time with this beautiful specimen, and live in the present.

“I’m fine,” I said. “You ready to go?”

 

Even though everyone on my team knew who Alexis was and what his role was in my life, a part of me felt nervous turning up to an event with a man as my plus one. While a strong majority of my teammates were very progressive and supported queer rights, I didn’t know if they’d give me shit for not bringing a big-breasted woman as a date.

We walked into the beautifully decorated venue and took in the scenery, which had different posed portraits of the glowing couple hanging up on the walls almost everywhere you turned to look, and dazzling chandeliers cascading from the high ceilings. Alexis looked around the room in awe while my eyes scanned the place to find JT and his fiancée Tessa.

A photographer appeared out of nowhere, brandishing his camera in front of my face. “You have to get photos on the red carpet first, at the request of the soon-to-be-bride.”

“Sure,” I mumbled.

“Is this your date?” he asked, eyeing Alexis.

“He is my plus one, yes.”

Alexis followed me onto the red carpet in front of the white wall covered in purple ‘JT & Tessa’ logos. Not knowing what else to do, I stood there with a smile on my face with Alexis next to me, who also did his best impression of a smile.

“Get closer. You two look like awkward stepsiblings who don’t want to be around each other,” the photographer snapped.

I wasn’t sure what was an appropriate amount of affection I could show Alexis in public without alerting everyone in the room that I recently started fucking him. Being forced into a position in a public setting made me want to retreat to my little bubble with Alexis, where we didn’t have to put up a front for anyone else.

Alexis moved in closer to me and, not knowing what else to do, I put my arm around his waist and smiled. Alexis weaved his arm around me and put his hand on my shoulder opposite to him, and he almost leaned in to where his head was resting against my chest.

“Much better!” the photographer hollered.

He snapped a few more pictures before releasing us back into the wild. Alexis blew out a deep breath and looked up at me.

“Despite our working relationship shifting recently,” Alexis said with a knowing smile. “I’m still your sober companion and I do still need to keep tabs on you. I won’t follow you around all night if you don’t want me to, but I do need to routinely check on you and make sure you’re doing okay.”

Alexis eyed a waitress walking past with a serving tray of champagne flutes. He politely declined her, and she walked away with a perfectly practiced smile.

Scottie, one of our starting wide receivers, waved at me excitedly and began approaching us.

I leaned in to whisper in Alexis’s ear. “I want you with me all night, baby.”

Alexis pressed his lips together to refrain from smiling and quickly recovered when Scottie joined us.

“Jules, my man! What’s up?”

“Hey Scottie. This is Alexis.”

Scottie nodded his head. “I’ve definitely heard about you already. It’s nice to meet you in person, Alexis.”

Alexis shook his hand, although he looked visibly rattled at Scottie’s opening comment.

“Don’t let that shit get to you,” Scottie told Alexis. “It happens to the best of us.”

Alexis mumbled his response and squirmed around nervously. I wanted nothing more than to reach out and hold his hand and squeeze it to tell him that it was going to be fine.

After making some small chatter, Scottie disappeared to re-join his wife.

“Your teammates don’t think I’m a fraud, do they?” Alexis muttered to me.

“Of course not. They wouldn’t believe a single word those idiots would put out, believe me.”

Another waitress offered us more alcoholic beverages but, under the watchful eye of Alexis, I turned her down politely.

“You’re doing well,” Alexis said.

I tipped my invisible hat at him which made him laugh.

A few more of my teammates rushed me to say hello, some with their respective wives or girlfriends, and they all politely greeted Alexis. Darius the tight-end even picked Alexis up for a big bearhug that made my sober companion squeal with delight.

“Ambrose!”

I looked over my shoulder and saw JT approaching me with a half-empty glass of champagne in his hands. His fiancée Tessa followed quickly behind him with her own champagne flute.

“There he is! Congrats my man!” I pulled JT in for a quick bro hug before kissing Tessa on the cheek.

“Couldn’t have done it without you, Ambrose!” JT turned his attention to Alexis. “And you’re the infamous sober companion I’ve heard all about. It’s very nice to meet you Alexis. This is my fiancée, Tessa.”

Alexis shook JT’s hand and air-kissed Tessa in greeting.

“We appreciate the gift you sent us as well,” Tessa said with a smile.

“Picked it out myself,” I said proudly.

JT clapped his hand on my back. “We appreciate both of you coming. Make sure you have a drink or two…” JT’s eyes darted towards and Alexis and then back to me. “Non-alcoholic ones, of course. The formal part of the evening should start in about an hour’s time.”

JT and Tessa left us to continue doing their rounds. Alexis stood by my side again and looked around at all of the people in attendance.

“Your world is so foreign to me,” he said.

“I know, but I’m so glad you’re here Lex. You get me on a level that no one else here does.”

Alexis brushed his hair behind his ear and smiled at me. God fucking damn, he was beautiful.

We continued to mingle with other guests at the event and, despite being out of his element here, Alexis continued to impress everyone with his charming wit and dazzling personality. I found myself standing back and watching him interact with the other players and their partners so effortlessly, and I was so impressed with him that it kinda, well, it turned me on.

We sat down at a table by ourselves with a couple of mocktails that Alexis had gathered for us.

“Here’s to JT and Tessa,” he said, holding up his glass.

“And to sobriety and being able to remember a great night.”

I clinked my glass with his and took a sip of the drink. Consuming a beverage that didn’t contain alcohol on a night out was new to me, but it was a feeling that I thought I could get used to eventually.

Seeing all of these happy couples expressing their love and affection for each other in public made me long for that opportunity to do so. I had never been the type to show PDA for any of the girls I had dated before, and it had never really crossed my mind. But now that I had established whatever connection I had with Alexis that bypassed the surface level relationships I had previously, it was a craving I didn’t quite know how to satiate when we had to play it so discreet and undercover.

Well, there was one solution in mind.

I leaned over to Alexis and whispered so only he could hear.

“I want to fuck you in the bathroom,” I said confidently.

Alexis’s eyes widened and he looked at me in shock.

“Julian…” he began.

“Meet me in that bathroom in five minutes,” I said, nodding towards an indistinct restroom in the corner of the venue. “I’m gonna fuck you so hard, baby.”