From Jacob’s point of view, Zander had been true to his word - no major changes of any sort. If anything, the dragon simply stayed in his office most of the time, probably going over as much as he could about the details of the business. For the fox, this was essentially the same as it was before – come in, focus for eight hours, head home. It was what he enjoyed. Sure, he had to interact with clients occasionally, or with his coworkers, but it wasn’t overly invasive.

That changed, however, when Zander emerged from his office a few hours after the day began. “Can I have everyone’s attention?” He rhetorically asked to the room, smiling as heads turned in his direction. “I’ve got a surprise for you all today! I’ve booked a private dining area for us for lunch just down the street,” he informed, and small cheers were heard throughout the office. “Reservation’s in about half an hour, so if you’re all not busy, shall we head off then?” he asked, rubbing his scaly paws together.

Over the next few minutes, after finishing their immediate tasks, the staff all got up from their desks. They were rather pleased with the turn of events for the day, getting to enjoy some free food. A couple furs grabbed their coats before they headed out, chatting idly amongst themselves about the goings on of the day, or with Zander about what kind of food was on offer. Jacob, however, had pulled out his phone and was immediately texting Lane.

‘Uh oh. Corporate lunch…’ he sent off.

It took a moment, but as the group was exiting the building, his phone buzzed. ‘You’ll be fine. Just say you had a big breakfast or something.’

‘It’s gonna look weird…Tony never made us do these things,’ he fired back.

‘Yeah, but he’s not there now. Gotta at least show up to fit in,’ Lane replied.

‘I just don’t want him to be offended when I don’t eat anything,’ Jacob opined.

‘Just eat something small?’ Lane offered.

‘You know it’ll end horribly.  My stomach always gets upset if I try eating…y’know, normal stuff. Not used to it,’ Jacob rebutted.

His phone buzzed once more, but before he had time to check it, he was interrupted. “Seems like quite the conversation you’ve got going on there,” Zander remarked, looking down at the fox. “Not work related I hope – relax and enjoy lunch!”

‘Wait, when did he end up next to me? Fuck, I’ve been way too isolated…’ Jacob thought as they walked. He craned his neck to look up at the large dragon, gulping softly as he prepared to speak. “Uh…no, not work stuff. Nothing important though,” Jacob uttered.

“Good! I want us all to be able to take this time to talk and really bond as a team. I’ve heard good things about you from Tony,” Zander remarked.

“Oh…R-really? Like what?” Jacob asked, curiosity piqued.

“I’m sure you can guess. Clients love you, great technical delivery. No complaints about anything you do for them. A bit quiet, but you do work well with others when asked to,” Zander listed.

Jacob smiled softly, looking away for a moment in embarrassment. He lifted a paw and scratched the back of his head a bit. “Yeah…Sounds about right. I know I can be quiet sometimes, but I do try to get along with everyone.”

“Just like an engineer - focus on the negative of what I say,” Zander said with a chuckle. “Nothing else matters as much as being easy to work with. Teamwork is one of the things that can truly separate us from other companies out there. We can’t all be extroverts, but I’m sure if we get along well enough, we can find ways to bring you out of your shell.”

“Heh… Well, like you said, if I’m asked to, I’m okay at it. Would never consider myself a salesfur or anything like that,” Jacob said, shifting back a bit to allow Zander to enter the restaurant first.

“And you don’t have to be. It takes all sorts to make us successful,” Zander said over his shoulder. “One sec,” he interjected. “Table for 9, under the name Prince,” he stated, turning to the staff member near the entrance. 

“I take it this place is a favorite of yours?” Jacob asked, looking around the restaurant as they started to head to their table.

“Oh yeah. I come here at least once a year,” the dragon replied.

“For work then?” Jacob asked.

“Yep, it’s a common place I try to take groups like this for team outings. No boyfriend, or I’d bring him here on dates all the time,” Zander explained.

Jacob nodded softly. His boss was gay too - at least they had that in common. Maybe they’d get along better than he thought. “It does look like quite a nice place,” Jacob noted.

“Oh yeah. Just wait until you try the food,” Zander remarked, pulling out a chair and sitting down at the table. Jacob, upon realizing he needed to do the same, found he was almost trapped by the conversation. It’d seem weird to cut it off abruptly and go sit somewhere else, but if he sat near the dragon... well, his lack of appetite would be much more obvious. Seeing no other option, the fox sat down to the dragon’s right and lightly gulped.

“Don’t want to check out the menu? Don’t worry, it’s on me, pick whatever you want,” Zander said happily, perusing the list himself.

“I…uh, I think I’m okay,” Jacob stammered. “I didn’t really know we were doing this today, and I had a big breakfast. I do really appreciate it though; it’s a nice gesture.”

“No need to apologize, it’s my fault, I’m sorry for the short notice. I figured it’d be a nice surprise for everyone today. What’d you have for breakfast?” Zander asked, tilting his head slightly.

Fuck. That should have been an obvious follow-up, but it was one the fox was utterly unprepared for. “My partner made it. I… Honestly, I don’t really know what it’s called; he’s usually got it ready by the time I’m up, and I’m too tired to ask many questions. I think it was some form of pasta?” he thought out loud, trying to remember what the horse had for dinner the night before.

“Well, that’s nice of him. Sounds like he cares about you a lot,” Zander remarked.

“He does, yeah. He’s a horse, named Lane,” Jacob said. 

Zander smiled softly. “Well, he sounds great. Maybe someday I can meet him,” the dragon commented. 

“Sure, we can do that,” Jacob said with a smile. “And he is great; I love him. He’s a software engineer like I am, but between jobs right now.”

“I can only imagine the conversations at home…” the dragon said, shaking his head a bit. “How long have you two been together?” Zander asked.

“Uh… About two years now. Started living together a few months ago,” the fox recounted.

“That’s sweet. Well, I wish you all the happiness in the world,” the dragon offered.

“Thanks,” Jacob said softly, smiling up at the dragon. Around this point, the waiter came around the table and started taking orders, forcing Jacob to again bring up the fact that he wasn’t going to get anything. The rest of the table happily completed their orders, and after a bit more good-natured ribbing from others about him not eating, he was finally able to relax a bit.

The food orders served as a bit of a natural break in the conversation, and given that the dragon was new, he wanted to put on a good face and get to know the rest of his employees. His attention was quickly directed to others at the table, leaving Jacob to his own devices. Some idle conversation happened with the coworkers to Jacob’s right, but nothing much of substance was talked about. As was the case with most work lunches, it tended to just be conversation about what they were up to for the week, and annoyances they ran into.

Jacob felt another small pang of guilt when the food came out, though with his diet what it was, the amazing scents now at the table didn’t even register to him as a meal or induce any hunger. It was mostly the type of thing he smelled if he and Lane went to a restaurant to get the horse something fancy before heading home to eat in private. 

After another forty-five minutes of painful small talk with his colleagues, Jacob breathed a sigh of relief when they were allowed to get up and head back to the office. The walk seemed much faster this way around, knowing the worst part of the day was over. Lunch was behind him, and since he had a spare moment, he pulled out his phone and fired off a quick message to Lane.

‘Lunch over. Not great, but he didn’t seem too upset,’ the fox typed.

His phone buzzed soon after with the response: ‘About as well as you could hope?’

‘I suppose, yeah,” Jacob typed out. ‘Just hope we never have to do that again.’

‘Sounded like just a one-off. Don’t worry, I’ll give you plenty tonight to make up for it ;)’ the horse replied.

The fox smiled and shook his head, tucking his phone back in his pocket. He was satisfied with at least letting the horse know, and suddenly had a strong desire for the workday to be over. Before he could even sit back down at his desk again, however, Zander again started up a conversation with him.

“Hey Jacob, could you join me in my office for a second?” The dragon asked, placing a rather large paw on the fox’s shoulder. 

Jacob glanced at it but didn’t object to his boss’s touch. “Uh, sure,” he said, unsure of what the motives behind the ask were.

A few steps later, Jacob followed the dragon into his corner office. He’d only been in here one or two times. There was a large desk facing the door, though it was even bigger than he’d remembered. He supposed the dragon would have had to replace the furniture for someone his size. No windows faced the rest of the office, and blinds currently covered those facing outside. A sole ceiling light lit the office, and with Zander being quite new, very few decorations were present to bring the place to life.

“Have a seat,” the dragon said warmly. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad. Before we get started though, I wanted to ask- You sure it was just a big breakfast? For why you didn’t want to eat, that is. Just want to make sure that I didn’t do anything wrong in your eyes. You can tell me anything; I won’t be mad.”

‘Fat chance,’ the fox thought. ‘No way you’re getting the truth.’ “Oh, no, I’m serious. I didn’t mean any offense by it. I do really think it was a nice gesture. I just don’t think I could eat another bite right now.”

Zander smiled. “Good. Last thing I want is to annoy one of my best employees. In fact, that’s kind of why I wanted to bring you in here today. I talked about it slightly on the walk over, but Tony did leave the most glowing review possible for you. From what I’ve seen over the last week, I believe every word of it and then some. I thought there was a bit of concern over being late on the first day, but you’ve been in early every day since, and I know we all get delayed every now and again.”

“Anyway, the point is, I know Tony ran this place pretty lean – and that applies to salaries, yours included. I think you’re worth so much more. I’d appreciate if you don’t share this with any of your coworkers, since you’re the only one I’m having this conversation with. I’ve got enough money to put behind this place and help us really grow, and I think having the best employees possible helps us with that. To that end, I’d like to offer you double your current salary,” Zander finished.

Jacob’s eyes went wide. D…double? He didn’t think he was all that underpaid, but…was he? “W-What?” he asked, stunned.

“You heard me,” Zander simply stated. “Before you get too excited, there is one caveat – Because you’re so good, and have knowledge of a significant portion of our clients, I don’t want to lose you. I’d need you to stay on for at least two years to make sure we get all that knowledge transferred, and someone to keep all our clients happy. The salary would continue beyond the two years, which is spelled out here,” Zander stated, pulling out a quick page from his desk drawer and putting it in front of Jacob, “assuming you stay. I’m sure you’ve heard it costs ten times as much to obtain a new customer as it does to keep a current one, and I think you’ll be a big reason why we can keep ours through the ownership transition.” 

“Just to be completely transparent since I do have to cover myself here as well - this is above market rate for someone in your position. This is an offer for you and you alone. If you do leave before the two years is up, you’ll have to repay the difference between your current salary and your proposed new one. Again, this is all spelled out here. No pressure, but like I said, I want to protect myself, and I don’t want to be spending this money to get screwed over in the end. It’s up to you if you want to read it over, take it to a lawyer, anything like that. Mine has already read it, and it’s ready if you are.”

“I…uh…wow. I’m not sure there’s much to think about. You’ve been great so far, I, uh, I like my job, and I don’t think I can quite turn down that much money. Lane would kill me,” the fox remarked. “I guess…Just let me read it over real quick?”

“Sure, no problem,” Zander said with a smile.

Jacob picked up the piece of paper and started scanning it. The dragon didn’t seem the type to pull a fast one on him, and as far as he could tell, nothing remotely troublesome was even present. It wasn’t even a full page. It was almost literally what the dragon said, with hardly any legalese in it to confuse Jacob. It all made perfect sense to him. It laid out his salary and penalty for early departure, but he didn’t think staying two years would be a problem – not for that kind of money. Nodding softly to himself after reading everything in front of him a second time just to be sure, he picked up a nearby pen and scrawled his signature across the bottom.

“Wonderful!” Zander said happily. “I think this is the start of a beautiful working relationship,” he continued, standing up from his desk. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’m a bit of a hugger,” he informed, opening his arms toward the fox.

“Uh, sure, okay!” Jacob said, a bit too overwhelmed by everything to refuse. He stood up himself and wrapped the dragon in a hug, proving just how big his boss was. Not only did Jacob’s head just barely go up to the dragon’s chest, but he couldn’t even get his arms fully around the larger male. It wasn’t fat either – the fox would be surprised if Zander had even an ounce of fat on him – but the dragon was fucking solid. Muscles everywhere you touched, and Zander clearly had to temper his own strength to make sure he didn’t crush the fox. 

The hug went on a bit longer than Jacob expected, and near the end, he had to remind himself that he was in a workplace setting, and that he had a boyfriend already at home. Though, if he were single…No, he put those thoughts out of his mind, and finally dropped the hug. As he stepped back, Zander smirked ever so softly as he could see the beginnings of a tent in Jacob’s pants, though he pretended not to notice. “Well, that was all, unless you had any more questions,” Zander said happily, sitting down to be more at eye level with the standing fox.

“No, I, uh…I think that’s it,” Jacob replied, clearly flustered now in addition to the excitement of his new salary. 

“Well, if anything comes up, you know where I am,” Zander said invitingly, gesturing widely to his office.

“Same goes for you. If you need anything, let me know,” Jacob said happily, turning and opening the door, leaving the dragon alone in his office. Not two seconds after closing the door, the phone was back in his paw. 

‘Uh…Zander just doubled my salary…’ he sent off, quickly informing his boyfriend of the news.

‘WTF?’ Lane sent back almost immediately. ‘That’s amazing!’ another text said, quickly following the first. ‘Did he say why?’ A third asked.

‘Yeah…he said Tony left a great review of me before he left, and Zander wanted to make sure someone who knew the customers was around for a while,’ he sent, before being cut off by the character limit. ‘Part of it was that I had to stay for two years, but I don’t think that’ll be a problem – I like Zander so far, and I can certainly tolerate it for that much money,’ he continued.

‘Two years is a while, and you barely know him…but damn, that’s a fucking huge increase…we could redo the bathroom…’ Lane replied.

‘Should I be jealous?’ Jacob sent back, teasing.

‘No, you’re the only toilet for me <3. I was more thinking we could even just rip out the porcelain one we have and put in a bigger bathtub.” Lane shot back. 

“Sounds like a plan to me. Gotta get back to work though, meeting soon. Will talk more tonight,” Jacob replied, putting his phone back in his pocket and sighing. He picked up his headset and opened his calendar, shaking his head a bit as he tried to refocus. Getting anything done would be difficult today as he tried to get his mind off the stroke of good fortune that seemed to be befalling him now.
