Lost in Arcadia

Arrival

“You asked for me, President?”

At the call, Paradis Harker—nicknamed Addie—was jolted from her deep focus and looked up from her computer screen. When she saw the bespectacled and unremarkable-looking man standing by the partially open door, her resting b*tch face broke into a pleasant smile.

“I did, Arden,” she answered while leaving her seat. As she approached the man, she fished for her car key in her bag and continued, “So sorry to bother you, there’s no one else I can ask last-minute. My brother is coming home today and said he needs a ride back to our parents’ place. Will you go and pick him up from the airport?”

“Of course, President,” the employee named Arden replied politely, holding out his hand palm up to receive the car key from his boss. Even if he didn’t actually have the time to do the task either, he couldn’t very well say no.

“Thank you!” Addie said anyway, surprising Arden when she didn’t simply drop the key on his waiting palm and instead pressed both it and his hand between both of hers.

At the sudden contact, Arden stiffened ever so subtly and clenched his teeth. A mere moment later, however, his whole body relaxed again.

Addie didn’t notice anything as she continued, “I’d say you’re a lifesaver, but I’m not actually looking forward to my brother coming home. You can take your sweet time driving to the airport and make him wait. It’s no problem at all.”

At that, the taller female alpha finally let Arden go.

The man pressed his lips together into a small smile and shook his head. In his relatively short time working for her, he had never heard the President say a single good thing about her brother.

But even though she kept complaining after the fact, she would still send him money whenever he asked. And now, she was sending her most efficient employee at such a busy time to go and pick him up.

“I’ll be going now, President,” Arden said, taking a step back and closing the door after himself.

But Addie held the door open and was now the one standing by it as she watched Arden leave.

“Take care on the road!” she called, causing the man to look back and nod at her awkwardly.

The reason for the awkwardness could be gleaned from the dry or outrightly weirded-out expressions of her other employees. They had all been working for her longer, but it was only after Arden Callahan joined them that she began displaying such behavior.

‘If favoritism had a face…’ some of them couldn’t help but think.

Strangely, they weren’t bitter about this.

Though the man was mostly quiet and looked unassuming with his thick-framed glasses, loose-fitting and buttoned-up shirt, and frumpy brown hair, he was so technologically savvy that he had made many of their workplace operations go faster and smoother within his first few weeks here.

There were less than a dozen of them working for Paradis Harker, but with the growth of their company, their workload had been increasing exponentially over the last couple of years. With a single person’s inclusion, however, gone were the days when they would have to work overtime because they’d been doing certain tasks manually when they could have been automated all along.

But aside from the fact that they could now go home early because of him and have more quality time for themselves, they had also received assistance from the reserved man many times over in these six or so months he had been working with them.

All in all, they didn’t mind too much that their usually hardass boss clearly viewed him as her savior from above. It was the truth anyway.

There was one strange thing about him, though…

Aside from the boss herself, he didn’t seem to have any interest in getting close to anyone else.

***

Aboard a plane that would shortly be taking off, the passengers prepared themselves in various ways for the long flight.

A short-haired woman who could only be described unironically as tall, dark, and handsome looked across the seat between them towards her other adult companion.

The man she was with was smaller and had a slim build that made him look delicate. His curly hair fell in light brown ringlets around his small face, and without fail, anyone who laid eyes on him would think they had beheld a cherub that had come down from heaven.

From the time they met until now, always, the female alpha who had sired their two children with him thought the same.

“Caris,” she called.

When he turned to her, the woman’s face, which looked sharp and cool ordinarily, became warm as she smiled and reached for his hand over their older child in the middle seat.

Careful not to jostle the sleeping baby that was strapped to him in a carrier, the male omega named Caris took her hand and gave her an answering smile. It made him look far younger than his actual age of nearly thirty.

“What is it?” he asked quietly, still smiling in curiosity.

His partner Meena squeezed his hand before interlocking their fingers in a familiar gesture.

“I thought you might be nervous,” she answered. And though she tried to hide it, there was also a hint of worry in her eyes.

Caris saw it and knew what she must be thinking. He let out a brief and quiet laugh.

“If I'm nervous,” he said softly, “it's only because of excitement.” He followed those words by bringing his partner’s hand up to his lips and giving her fingers a kiss. “After all these years, I can’t wait to finally be bonded with you.”

Hearing that blew away all the remaining doubts and fears in Meena’s mind. She smiled even more brightly in infinite happiness.

And they would have gone on like that, just staring only into each other’s eyes as if the world didn’t exist, if they had not been interrupted by a tiny voice between them.

“I need to go pee!”

“Shh…” Caris immediately cautioned, his voice still quiet as he turned to their four-year-old daughter. By mutual accord, he and Meena let go of each other, and the latter began to rise from her seat. “Sneha, darling, lower your voice. You’ll disturb the other passengers.”

“Not to mention your baby brother,” Meena added with a sigh before bending down to pick up the young girl. “Come on, then, little terror. Let’s get you to the restroom.”

Now carrying a bundle of joy each, the alpha and omega exchanged looks of love and resigned amusement before parting temporarily. Caris stayed behind to soothe their son while Meena went down the long aisle carrying their daughter.

On their way to the restroom, the female alpha passed by a male one. He was already buckled in and had put on a sleep mask, seemingly dead to the world.

But as a slight wind fanned his face, he stirred a little. He reached up and rubbed his nose, then fell back asleep again.

For the first time in a long while, on his flight back home, Kade Harker had pleasant dreams.

***

As he had been sitting close to the exit and only had his large backpack with him, Kade was among the first ones out of the plane. He counted that as a good thing the instant he spotted someone among the people greeting the new arrivals.

The person was holding up a piece of paper, and written across it in bold letters was that name he didn’t appreciate all that much: ARCADIA.

Immediately, his vision darkened and narrowed. No matter how many people were giving him looks and double-takes as he approached or passed them by, he saw nothing else but that piece of paper as he took quick and large strides towards the one holding it.

Before he had even taken the last step, Kade had already reached out to snatch the paper. It got torn at the parts where the person had continued to hold it firmly.

“This was Paradis’ idea, wasn’t it?” said Kade in a pissed-off tone, his attention still on the paper that he had proceeded to crush between his palms.

“It was,” the person replied neutrally.

Only after hearing his voice did Kade look up and see a man who could only be described as his complete opposite.

Where Kade was vain and always took care to look fashionably eye-catching wherever he went, this guy was… not.

Whatever he was going for with his hair, it wasn’t working. The thing he really needed was a comb to sweep it all away from nearly half his face.

And sure, those thick glasses could have looked good on a hipster. On him, it just looked sad.

Finally, that long-sleeved and checkered shirt that he had paired with blue jeans belonged in a bin as far as Kade was concerned. And did he really need to button up even the collar? The weather wasn’t that cold yet.

Kade had roamed his eyes quickly up and down the shorter man while he was making such rude assessments. Whether the man noticed it or not, his bland expression didn’t give anything away.

“I don’t recognize you,” Kade then said upon finally looking at the man’s face again. He tried to meet his eyes, but the reflective glasses the man was wearing made it difficult. “You must be the new guy Addie was talking about. Arden, right?”

In that same neutral tone, the man didn’t acknowledge the question and only replied, “The President sent me to pick you up. Welcome home, Mr. Harker.”

Kade shrugged off the snub and began to walk towards the exit. Arden quietly followed.

“No need to be so polite,” the alpha said over his shoulder. “Just call me Kade.”

In response, the man just looked ahead and pretended like he hadn’t heard him.

Despite himself, Kade narrowed his eyes in displeasure before likewise looking ahead and scoffing under his breath. “Whatever.”

So the guy had no intention of getting along. Big deal.

Even though he thought that…

“I’m starving,” he still petulantly said, putting on his sunglasses against the bright glare of the sun and drawing more looks from others in the process. “Let’s eat somewhere on the way.”

It was only after the two men had left the building altogether that a certain family of four reached the arrival area.