Lucky for Lucas, his new job put him to work right away. By day, he was planted before two large monitors at his station -- which was more of a cubicle carefully designed to feel less isolating, but a cubicle nonetheless -- obsessively iterating character designs for the newest installment of Battle Mages.

He was a skilled artist. His portfolio of thousands of character designs of any imaginable creature was what landed him the job. Elves, warlocks, fairies, dragons, hybrid creatures, plus an array of alien species like nothing his new boss had ever seen before. In normal circumstances, the speed at which new character designs popped into his head meant he lost most before he could commit them to paper or screen.

After three days straight of digitally sculpting tens of potential battle mages, he lined them all up on the screen before him. The result was so shocking and so predictable that he could only laugh at himself. He hadn’t realized it in the moment, but now that he saw them all together, his usual panache for creating unique creatures had given way to a singular obsession -- Alexander.

Before him stood one muscular man after another. Each with the same bicep vein and modestly ripped chest and abs. They only varied in hair color, height, and where the tears in their tunics revealed which parts of the character’s physique.

Lucas was hot for Alexander, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Since moving in, Alexander had been perfectly friendly. Only in that straight-acting way. He said good morning and good night. They occasionally shared a take-out order, since the kitchen was only halfway unpacked and neither had stocked the fridge. But he had made no noticeable overtures. No suggestive winks or sidelong glances. No casual rubbing his crotch while they sat on the couch watching TV. Nothing to suggest they even jerk off beside each other as bros. In fact, Alexander did not seem to be concerned at all with dating or hook-ups, as far as Lucas could tell. He checked his phone from time to time during commercial breaks, but he never seemed to get sucked into a doom scroll like Lucas. Alexander was a bit of a black box on all things romance. And Lucas’s brain took full advantage to project the perfect man onto that blank screen.

Lucas resigned himself to wanking off in his bed or under the hot shower as the memory of Alexander’s ball slipping from his running shorts grew hazier by the day.

When Lucas’s new boss emailed asking for a preview of his character designs, Lucas panicked. He could not submit thirty copies of the same slutty battle mage to her. The characters could be hot. Some of them had to be sexy. After all, the game was about living out your fantasies as magic-wielding creatures. This ode to Alexander would be embarrassing as a first on-the-job impression and well beneath Lucas’s actual talent. He needed more time to clear his head and start fresh.

Lucas painstakingly crafted a reply to his boss. He assured her he was working hard but blamed his delay on perfectionist tendencies. She agreed to the extension, given his need to acclimate to the position, but she made it clear this was a one-time deal.

Lucas had to find a way to focus. To get this lustful, distracting desire for Alexander off his mind. This job was too cool to end up losing because he had the hots for a straight guy he barely knew.