5. Sam

"Hello, Samantha?"

I startled at the voice behind me and whipped around in my office chair. I'd barely had time to check my email and wolf down my yogurt parfait since I'd arrived. "Hey, hi." I swallowed down my surprise and discomfort at the name and smiled at Sally, the sweet HR lady . . . and someone else.

She wasn't alone.

"This is Alex."

The attractive slim but muscled Asian man at her side grinned broadly and jutted out his hand. "Hi, it's nice to meet you."

My brain only then came back online, and I remembered the email from Sally last week about a new hire for my department. I was good at my job and worked fast, but our workload had already started increasing with no signs of letting up, so I was grateful for the help.

I hadn't met him yet, but I'd heard good things about him. I hadn't even been sure of his gender until now.

Relief drained my entire body of tension as I stood, returning his handshake. "Oh, Alex, hi! Right. So sorry about that. My brain was somewhere else."

He gave me a mischievous grin. "It happens."

Sally clapped her hands together, squealing. Her short frame and chin-length curly silver hair bounced as she did. "Ah! I can just tell you will be great friends." She eyed me. "You okay here?"

I smiled, shoving my hands into my deep—thank god—pockets. "I'll take it from here."

"Great." She turned to Alex. "Anything you need, let me know. You know where my office is. Good luck!"

He chuckled, a deep sound I was jealous of, as she scurried off.

Alex turned to me, setting his bag on the chair of the desk next to mine. Our administrative staff had already put his nameplate on the shelf between our desks, right beside mine, and he eyed my name. "Samantha Coleson . . ." He raised an eyebrow, and I was instantly jealous of that, too. "Something tells me that's not the name you'd prefer."

I just stared for a minute, swallowing hard to find my voice. My fingers found the hair at the back of my neck out of habit. "Uh . . . no, actually. I prefer Sam. No one here . . ." I cleared my throat. "Um, no one here knows that, though."

He nodded, his eyes telling me he understood more than should've been possible. "Got it. Sam. I love the name."

How could he know how proud that made me? For most people, their name wasn't anything to be proud of—it just was. A lot of people hated their name. But mine? I chose it. It was mine. And hell if Alex didn't make me feel like this was the best day of my life for that.

So I decided to be honest. Hadn't I been hoping for a while to make a friend? "I appreciate that, Alex."

He grinned at me. "You know what? I think Sally there was right. I think we're going to be great friends."

I grinned back.

***

Early January

As Sally and Alex had both predicted, over the past month, Alex and I had become work besties. I'd even discovered his love of gay romance novels when he'd accidentally shown me the audiobook he was listening to—the audiobook of a novel I'd read a few months back. I took a chance, asked him about it, and we'd started an unofficial work book club.

Work had started to feel fun again. Life had started to feel fun again.

I'd even told him about Cameron—C.L. Masterson—whose new book was scheduled to come out in a few months. Alex had been dutifully working his way through his extensive backlist, and he'd started to fall in love with his books like I had.

Best. Bestie. Ever.

Alex had started to bring me out of my shell, too. He'd invited me to a gay bar as his wingman—he couldn't know how euphoric it was that he'd even asked—but I was still a little gun-shy so I'd declined. But over the holidays, as we'd gotten to know each other, he'd made me realize that I didn't want to put my life on hold any longer. I was a trans man, and that wasn't changing.

So why had I been waiting to transition?

Had I been terrified? Yes. But my first appointment with my therapist had gone extremely well, and I'd started my weekly testosterone shots just before the new year.

I was finally on the path.