A Miserable Pile of Secrets Ch. 05

Time just went on ...

There was a knock on the door.

Arthur almost bounced out of his chair. "Oh!! Hello?"

The door opened. Vince was grinning at him. "You want some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches?" Lunch break was supposed to be an hour, more than enough time for a grilled sandwich or two.

Arthur nodded and got up. "Sure." He temporarily clocked out. Then he followed Vince out of the office and to the nearest kitchen. Vince was courteous and offered to cook the sandwiches while Arthur sat on a bar stool that looked oddly wavy. Then Vince poured them both glasses of fruit juice, put the plate of sandwiches on the counter, and sat beside him.

"Good first day?"

"Yeah," Arthur said after swallowing a bite of food. He thought about asking Vince exactly why he had to keep track of numbers that should have been in digital format from the beginning, and should have been handled by other people, but he changed his mind very quickly. Work rule number one: Don't question the boss about his business management, unless something illegal's going on.

"It'll be pretty much like that every day. Think you can handle it?"

"I hope so."

A swig of his drink, and then Vince said, "Well I hope so too, because I'm going to hand you a lease after work."

That made sense. Even rich landlords had leases.

When the work day was all over, Arthur was almost shocked to know that he lived through it. He always thought he was too stupid to do office stuff. Just after he clocked out, Vince invited himself into the office with two sheets of paper in his waving hand.

They stayed in the office a bit longer so Arthur could read the lease, leaning against one of those wonky walls. "Pro tip," Vince told him, "read all contracts at least three times before you sign, and if you don't understand something call a lawyer before even touching a pen."

Good advice, but Arthur was already shooting a leery look Vince's way. "The rent you're asking for is the same as my shitty room back home. So's the pet deposit. It's almost like you copy-pasted the other lease."

Vince shrugged and said, "That's on purpose. I don't want to make life difficult for you."

Arthur gently chewed on his own tongue for a moment. Then he went back to the desk to get a pen. A few copies of the lease were made soon after it was signed.

Vince literally took his hand, squeezing as if it was normal, said something about his game room. Arthur barely listened. He was trying to soothe his excited heart, praying that his skin wouldn't sweat a lot. Vince's hand was a fine example of what a man's hand could be, sturdy and firm, rough and beautifully tanned.

The game room was disappointing at first, because Arthur thought it was just another bowling alley. Within a minute he found out there was more. It was connected to a different room. In the center of that other room, there was a huge aquarium column. It faintly glowed. Arthur took a moment to peer into the glass and coo over the seahorses, striped mandarins, spotted mandarins, pipefish, and funny little sea slugs. "Ohhhhhh, they're all so cute!"

Vince stood behind him, his reflection hardly visible because there were so many colorful things in Arthur's sight. Still, he could see a toothy grin. "Yeah, they're sweet little guys." He patted Arthur's back so hard that he was pushed forward just a bit. "Come on," Vince said, "let's play some pool." Arthur looked back and saw a fancy pool table. There was also a few big electronic game consoles, probably either purchased from an arcade or straight from a company that made those sorts of things. One wall had a dart board. The other had a few tiny basketball hoops. In a corner of the bright room, there was a poker table and a foosball table. In another area, there was a small putt-putt course. There was even a skee-ball game set up.

"Let me guess," Arthur said as Vince handed him a cue stick, "even when you're home, you hardly ever use this room, right?"

"I guess so," Vince said with a shrug, "but I have a buddy now, so who cares?"

Vince tried to teach Arthur how to play pool, but Arthur, as usual, was a slow learner. That was fine. They had fun anyway. Then they went to the poker table, where Arthur learned he had no poker faces at all. He was an open book. After that, they left the game room to go to the private little theatre, where they watched one of the few scary movies that seemed good enough for Arthur's tastes.

Once again, Vince took his hand. Arthur tried to think nothing of it. He was probably startled.

But Arthur couldn't stop his urges. He gripped that hand. He forgot to pay attention to the movie because he was thinking of other things, warm things, even slippery things. He even wondered what a kiss would be like.

That would never happen.

Never.

Vince was the coolest guy ever, the kind of guy you see in fiction. He was strong and generous, flashy and interesting.

And Arthur was just plain and dull.

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