Closed How Do You Deal With This?

[Keye Hayes]

Keye's hurried steps did not slow nor falter as she made her way quickly to her restaurant - the Lost Robin House. It was already quite late - well, not really but just after the dinner rush would have subsided - and it had been a rather long, eventful day that she would rather have skipped this day altogether if she had been given the choice. It started out well enough. She and Joshua had gone around town to explore and he played and made friends while she watched him have fun. Predictably, he got hungry and of course, she had taken him to the nearby café to get some food and drinks. It would have continued to go well if not for the fact that they had encountered an old schoolmate. And not just any schoolmate but it just so happens to be one Isaiah Jeffreys - also known as Joshua's biological father and Keye's old lover. The meeting went smoothly, as far as meetings go anyways. It was all pretty good considering Keye did not make a scene, the whole thing didn't end in tears and hysterics, and well, Joshua didn't know about the fact that he was within a five-foot radius of his father just this morning. Overall, yes, it did go pretty smoothly and if she wasn't in hysterics now, well, she was pretty sure that she was quite close to it at this point though she really wouldn't let it be known - especially in her own restaurant. Which she had just entered.​

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Smiling politely to the guests and whispering greetings to the employees, the woman made her way to the second floor and to a secluded corridor, quite hidden from sight from the guests. It would lead directly to the offices which was her goal now. She knew Felix would be working tonight and he was her target. Now, normally, Keye wouldn't be one to corner her friend. She didn't like sharing her life and current event much after her last friend - Isaiah - broke her trust and her heart. This was definitely an exception though. For one thing, it seemed that things involving Isaiah are automatically made to be exceptions. For another, a glass or two or more of firewhiskey probably helped this little cornering event along. And lastly, she knew that she needed someone right now and well, Felix was her only friend - no matter how a bit sad that showed her social life to be. Reaching Felix's office, she knocked on the door thrice in quick successions. "Felix? Are you there?" she croaked out. Well, those drinks sure did burn her throat, probably didn't help that she wasn't much of a drinker either.​

 

[Felix Styx]

Keye really shouldn’t have given Felix a management position. He had warned her. He had absolutely no experience managing anything, though he was good at calming people down, which was what his main job consisted of. Whenever someone asked to speak to the manager, that was usually where he would come in. He didn’t always have the best methods for dealing with the complaints, but it got done and if they lost a customer or two out of it, well, they usually gained one or two as well, so we’re they really losing any customers? Hard to say. Keye obviously didn’t mind, she read the reports he wrote at the end of every week, so she ought to notice should they be down on revenue or anything. She did most of that stuff because he wasn’t great at it. He was the man of the people not a man of numbers, he hadn’t even graduated, what use was he going to be to anyone really? Keye had a lot more going for her than he did, he just happened to surround himself with people that could take care of him, his luck was probably going to run out eventually. The reason, however, that Keye really shouldn’t have handed him a management position, was his complete lack of respect for authority or the rules. The employees weren’t supposed to be f*cking around on the job and lately that was all Felix seemed to do. He’d snuck Lanithro through the back and up to his office before anyone noticed and they were about to get down to business when there was a sharp knock on the door and Keye’s voice shot through him.​

“Keye!” He called, shoving Lanithro’s pants back at him before locating his own. “Just finishing up real quick, gimme a sex-uh sec, gimme a sec, to finish up!” He slapped himself in the face for punishment with his slight slip up and checked to make sure Lanithro was decent before pulling the door slightly open and leaving against it, blocking his bosses view of the items strewn across the floor. “How can I help ya, boss lady?” He asked, grinning from ear to ear. He’d always be eternally greatful to Keye, she’d given him a job when no one else could. Though he’d definitely deserved it and it wasn’t like he had wanted to spend the rest of his life working for Ezra bloody Cade. The man was a menace.​

 

[Keye Hayes]

If Keye would be the person that was prone to public breakdowns, then surely she would have broken down in front of Felix's office by now, but as it was she was close enough to a breakdown as it was. She was not used to breakdowns not really, not having experienced a full-on breakdown-sobbing-heartbreaking-nearly-screaming session since finding out her pregnancy and knowing that her ex was not going to help her with it at all. That had been a trial. Since then, she had sworn to herself to not let herself be affected by other people. Apparently, her ex-boyfriend and father of her son was not covered by "other people". He was, apparently, on a whole different scale! Which was likely causing her near panic attack right now right outside Felix's office. So she didn't really care at the moment whether Lanithro was in Felix's office or not. He could bloody be naked right now and she wouldn't give a single f*ck. She was probably interrupting their happy-fun-naked-alone time but she really didn't care because she was intoxicated and she was definitely wanting some companionship right now. Maybe, later or tomorrow she'd apologize for interrupting sexy time (of course she knew sexy time when the situation was there, Merlin knows she'd had plenty during her Hogwarts time and directly after).​

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"We met Isaiah today. By accident," Keye said in a rush as she entered Felix's office while waving at Lanithro. "Hi Lanithro," she greeted rather haphazardly before turning to Felix once more. "He wants to be part of Joshua's life," she told Felix seriously, feeling rather close to a panic attack herself. It was the first time that she had seen Isaiah since she had informed him of her pregnancy, and it was a few years after that that she had met Felix. After their friendship had grown, she had eventually told the man about her past lover - that was also Joshua's father - that she hadn't thought she would ever meet again, and now here they were. And Keye didn't know how to deal with this development. Last she met Isaiah after all, he hadn't wanted anything to do with their child. And now everything's changed and Keye didn't know how to deal with that and she was intoxicated because she didn't want to think about it and how she felt about it, so here she was, interrupting sexy time and just waiting for Felix or even f*ck*ng Lanithro to say something about this whole situation.​

 

[Lanithro Styx]

Lanithro could hardly believed that he just got blocked from having some really good fun in an office, one of his fantasies. He put his pants back on, and kicked his shirt to the side as Keye opened the door and spoke to Felix, greeted him, then back to Felix. Merlin, she smelled like a bar. Lanithro turned to Felix and raised an eyebrow. He had no idea what in the world she was talking about. He greeted, "Hey Keye." What she needed was some coffee and something to sober her up real quick. He looked to Felix since he didn't know what to do. He didn't really want to continue with someone watching. Especially someone drunk. For now, he stood a little away from everyone.

 

[Felix Styx]

Isaiah? Now, that was a name Felix hadn't heard in a while. He remembered the guy from school, but mostly he remembered him from Keye's stories. When she got drunk like this, which admittedly wasn't terribly often, she would regale Felix with stories, though it tended more to be about fights than anything else. Felix gestured to Lanithro to make her some coffee before turning back to his boss with a frown. He wasn't used to her being so needy about herself, and so it was a bit surprising to see her seek him out. Sure, they were friends and stuff, now, but they hadn't been before and they were still navigating that friendship anyway, so it was really hard to tell. "Keye, babe, you need to calm down," he was concerned she might start hyperventilating or something and he was so not prepared to play nursemaid to his boss. He didn't have the correct skills at all. This was all very hard for her to process he could see, but she needed to let herself relax a bit first, or he couldn't help her. He wasn't rightly sure why she had come to him, but he supposed she felt safe enough around him to do so, which worked for him. He liked to think of himself as something of a safe person anyway. He carefully moved her through the office and to his desk, trying to coax her into sitting. On the table, in the chair, he didn't care, she just needed to be off her feet. "I thought you said he didn't want nothing to do with Josh?" He asked, genuinely curious what might have changed the guys mind. He didn't know anything about him, but he knew Keye wouldn't have lied about him not wanting to be in Josh's life, and he was a sweet kid too, Felix liked him.​

 

[Keye Hayes]

Keye smiled at Lanithro, trying to hide to an extent the verge of panic and breakdown that she was feeling right now. Alright, so it was probably a little unhealthy to bottle up feelings for the past how many years but it wasn't like she actually expected them to have a reason to resurface. Much less blow up on her face. If there was one thing she had not been expecting, it was Isaiah wanting to be part of Joshua's life. She had herself convinced for years that he didn't want anything to do with her - their - son. And now when she had decided to finally return to New Zealand, she just happens to run smack right into him. "Right. Calm," she repeated as she took deep breaths trying to gain some semblance of the calmness that she had in her Hogwarts years. "I can do calm," she reminded herself, conveniently forgetting that she had a temper to be rivalled and was a complete worrywart in her days as a student. "I'm good at being calm." No, she was definitely not but somebody had to give her points for trying. Besides, she didn't actually mean to ingest as much alcohol as she did tonight. The first shot was for her nerves. The second was for her nerves. The third had been for the what ifs of the future. The fourth was for the past. The rest she lost count. "And he didn't!" she exclaimed, raising her arms in complete exasperation, hoping that this would prove her point. "And... And... then he's just there! I'm ordering coffee and cake and then suddenly he's talking to me as if seven bloody years haven't passed!" Her arms were practically making wild motions for emphasis on her barely-making-sense narration of the day's events. "And then he's declaring that he wants to be part of Josh's life!" she said as she completely just collapsed on the chair in Felix's office, feeling as if all of her energy was drained out of her. The woman groaned, feeling the exhaustion, "I need a break. Andohmygodbreak!" she said as she suddenly perked and looked completely mortified as she stared at both Lanithro and Felix. "I am so so so sorry for interrupting sexy time," she practically pleaded. It was likely the alcohol speaking for her at this point as her calm and collected persona had been thrown out the window several minutes ago. And well, it was sort of hard not to notice (although she did manage to ignore it for a bit - how? she didn't know) that sexy time had been ongoing or on the process of ongoing when she had decided to barge in. Especially since Lanithro was deliciously shirtless and Felix was sort of deliciously indecent (she was drunk and she could certainly appreciate, and would definitely berate herself when sober and alone). "I'll make it up to the two of you eventually," she said as she just ended up groaning and burying her face in her hands to save herself from further embarrassment.​

 

[Felix Styx]

Felix looked pointedly over at Lanithro as he tried to calm Keye down. It was certainly one of those moments where he wished he was a bit better with emotions than he was. He was good with people, generally, like when they were making a ruckus in the restaurant, but for the most part, he let them go to do whatever they wanted. Seeing Keye like this, in this state, it was strange. He was used to the straight laced woman who had her sh*t together, not this hot mess. She wasn't drunk, not really, she clearly had more to drink than she probably should have, but she wasn't slurring her words and she wasn't doing anything stupid, clearly she was just drunk enough to be emotional though and that was enough for Felix to know they needed to keep her calm. Emotions and alcohol rarely mixed well after all. He knew that as well as the next person. "Keye, why do you think he wants Josh back in his life? I mean I can't really blame him, I was thrilled when I learned about Victoria... and Lanithro's three - he was thrilled too," He hoped it meant that Isaiah was manning up and actually getting his act together. Considering Josh had already gone so long without a father, it wasn't right and Felix hoped this meant that Isaiah was going to act like a decent person after all. He raised an eyebrow then when she apologised for interrupting he and Lanithro and he laughed a bit. "Well, to be honest, you're lucky you knocked when you did. Even a minute later and you would have been walking in on something a little less easy to cover up," he said, winking over at Lanithro. "But, don't worry about it, we forgive you," he added, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You just need to figure out what you want, Babe, because this is your life, do you want Isaiah to be in Josh's life? He's a good kid, what do you think this would do to him?"​

 

[Lanithro Styx]

Lanithro pressed his lips together as he listened to Keye and Felix talk about things. How Josh's dad suddenly wanted to be there. The former Gryffindor shifted a bit on his feet, deciding to keep quiet about it since he didn't really care one way or another. But waiting seven years would be bad if the dad already knew. Eventually, Keye apologized for interrupting his intimate time with Felix, and while Felix said that they forgave her, Lanithro muttered, "Speak for yourself." Though he was half way joking, and just said it low enough for Felix to hear it. Lanithro fetched his shirt since he figured that this was not going to end in some fun time anytime soon, and went to go sit on the desk. He folded his arms across his chest, to wait this out. Maybe if he was lucky, things could perhaps end up in his favor after all.