Center Stage Ch. 02

I felt Grey’s arm tense around me again. Did he really think so little of me? You would think after six fucking months of working together he would know I wouldn’t put myself in a position I couldn’t handle. I deal with him on a daily basis. The verbal sparring with Lucas was a walk in the park. Besides, Ariel gave me a complete run down on almost every thing that had happened to him his whole life. We went over everything the last two nights. Photographic memories can be very handy sometimes. It really helps me in my work. I can recall anything I’ve seen or read in a matter of seconds.

“Fine. How did Zachary get the scar that is on his right knee?” Lucas asked with a sneer.

Once again my mouth worked faster than my brain and I couldn’t stop the laughter that poured from me. Lucas looked at me like my head spun around.

“First of all the scar isn’t on his right knee. It’s on the left side of his left knee. He got in when he was camping with his grandfather when he was thirteen. He fell out of the canoe and his leg hit the bottom of the stream. Then again, if he wasn’t such a head strong bull then he would have listened when his grandfather told him to sit his scrawny ass down.”

The look on not only Lucas’s face, but Grey’s as well, was enough to make me almost double over in laughter.

“His scar is on his right knee you bitch! And you made that story up. I am not stupid!”

Oh man. Lucas was fucking pissed. Unfortunately this just made me laugh even harder. I looked at Grey and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“Lucas,” He began trying to stifle a smile. “Cameron’ right. It happened exactly the way he said.”

Lucas opened his mouth in another vain attempt to make a come back, but a woman’s voice rang out through the apartment.

“MADISON! YOU GET BACK HERE YOU EVIL BITCH!”

I looked off to my right side where the voice was coming from. I saw a beautiful Golden Retriever puppy barreling towards us. She was the cutest thing I have ever seen! She had a small strip of white right across the middle of her forehead. She stopped about five feet from us. I could have sworn she was glaring at us. I could hear a small puppy growl come out of her, even that was cute.

“Be careful guys.” Dale explained. “Madison is my girlfriend’s dog. She hates men. She is ok with me now, but at first she bit me every chance she got. I don’t know why she dislikes men so much, but she’ll bite you in a heartbeat.”

“How often is Lucas over here? That might explain her animosity.” I said with an innocent grin.

Let me tell you Madison was a smart fucking dog! At the sound of Lucas’ name she turned towards him and let out a big, deep growl. I love this dog!

I squatted down on the ground and didn’t say a word. Madison immediately looked at me.

“Cameron, that really isn’t a good idea. I did warn you. So if she takes a chunk out of you then you can’t sue me.”

Dale laughed as he talked to me. Madison moved forward a few steps and had begun growling at me. Grey took a step back and looked at me.

“Cameron, he’s right. I’ve been here a few times and I swear she was trying to kill me.”

I loved this dog more and more every second! She not only disliked Lucas, but she also seemed to hate Grey. This dog was my soul mate! She took another step towards me and her growling kicked up a notch. The three guys took another step back and looked at me in confusion. Madison was looking up at me and staring me down. I decided to take a chance. I sat down and placed my hands in front me on the floor palms up. Just then a beautiful woman approached the circle and looked back and forth between Madison and me.

“Cameron…” I heard Dale say from behind me. “I would like you to meet my wonderful girlfriend Sydney.”

“Hi Sydney. It’s great to meet you. I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t want to break eye contact with Madison. I’ll be with you in a minute.”

“Maybe I should get the first aid kit. Madison already bit one person tonight.”

Before Sydney could finish speak though Madison walked straight up to me. She sat down right in front my hands. She was looking up at me with her head cocked to one side. Here is the test of truth. Either she will trust me or I might just lose a finger. Madison sniffed the air a little bit and then did what I was hoping she would do. She stood on her back paws and put her front paws on my chest. She was licking my face with a vengeance.

I heard all four of them gasp.

“Zack, it is so good to see you again.” Sydney began. “I’m glad you brought Dr. Dolittle with you. I’ve never EVER seen Madison take to a man that fast before. It took her two weeks before she would even let Dale pet her.”

I scooped Madison up in my arms and held out my hand to Sydney.

“It’s nice to be able to finally see who I was talking to. It’s great to meet you, Sydney.”

We started having a polite adult conversation until Lucas had to put his two cents in again.

“You just think you are so wonderful don’t you, Cameron. Well, let me give you an update. You’re not. I have half a mind to take you outside and beat your ass for all the attitude you’ve been throwing around.”

As I turned to face him Madison began to growl in my arms. I patted the back of her head to soothe her.

“If I were you Lucas I would stop writing checks with your mouth that your body can’t cash. You’re an over the top out of work diva who really didn’t have any talent to begin with. If you even want to try and kick my ass you better bring a lunch and bring some friends. Well, that is if you even have any friends you could bring.”

I heard that people’s faces could turn purple from anger, but I never really believed it. Lucas’ face though looked like something out of Willy Wonka for a second. He sputtered a few times, but didn’t quite really say anything. He finally spun around on his heal and stomped away. Madison was licking my face. I gave her a wicked grin.

“Go get him girl.” I whispered in her ear.

I sat her down and she took off like a bat out of hell. A second later you could hear Lucas scream out in pain. I laughed and turned around to face Dale, Sydney, and Grey. They all had serious expressions on their faces. Oh well. If they are pissed then fuck them! Just as I was about to defend myself Sydney started giggling. Before you know it the other two had joined in with her.

“Cameron, I think you and I need to go have a drink and get to know each other better.” Sydney said. “Anyone that can do that to Lucas is someone I want to be friends with.”

“Cam and I will meet you over at the bar in a second guys. Let me get a word alone with my man.”

They both smiled at us and nodded. Grey came up to me and led me off towards a quiet corner of the loft.

“Jesus Christ Cameron!” He started with as soon as we were out of anyone’s earshot. “What the fuck was all of the back there? I have never seen you like that.”

Before I could even respond he just kept on going. He was like a runaway freight train. I thought at first he was pissed off, but he had the smile on his face. It wasn’t the smile I see at work everyday, but the smile that he gave Dale earlier tonight.

“You are fucking brilliant! I can’t believe how you casually put Lucas in his place like that. And from the way you were acting with me everyone definitely thought we were together. I had no clue you were this amazing.”

I kept a smile on face because people could still see, but there was a volcano of anger exploding in my body.

“You have no clue what type of person I am because you never take the time to get to know anyone that works at CPS. You are concerned with only one thing, Mr. Grey. Yourself. You are paying me hourly for this tonight so I figured I better give the performance of my life.”

The icy calm mask of composure was back on his face in the blink of an eye.

“Who do you think you are to judge me like that? You don’t know me from Adam…”

It was finally my turn to cut him off.

“I don’t know you? That is the biggest pile of crap I have ever heard. I am your fucking assistant. I know more about you than even you know. I know how you take your damn coffee. Two sugars and some milk. I know what you eat every fucking day. I know your schedule better than you do. I know that when you went to your high school prom your limo broke down and you had get a tow truck to haul your ass to the dance. I know when you were eight you had to get your tonsils pulled and you were so scared you didn’t sleep for a week. I know more about you than you know about me. All you know is my fucking name and that I will perform any task you give me better than anyone in that whole fucking company, except maybe for your sister. So before you start preaching to me about what I don’t know, you better take a long hard look in the mirror you self-serving, conceited son of a bitch.”

For the first time ever in my presence he looked stunned.

“How do know about those things from my past?”

I rolled my eyes, but managed to keep the smile on my face.

“I had to know shit like that. Otherwise, how would we be a believable couple? Of course that is something you wouldn’t think of. You were probably too concerned about seeing your snobbish ex-boyfriend to consider that maybe you might need to know anything about me. On the other hand, if by some miracle, you didn’t actually think of just yourself and thought about needing information on me, my guess would be you figured I would just handle it and there wouldn’t be any problems. Well, you just worry about you, which you seem to be pretty good at by the way. I will handle everything else, like I always do. You really need to come down off that high horse you ride and start thinking about other people. If you don’t you are going to wake up one day as a lonely, bitter, angry fuck. My only hope is that I’m not around to see it. If you would excuse me, I need to mingle and make people believe this fucking charade.”

I looked at his face and that blank mask was still in place. Even after all of that his face still didn’t betray a single emotion. Fuck him. I’ve got work to do. I gently brush passed him and headed towards the bar. I most likely lost my job back there. I might as well have a celebratory drink. The alcohol is free. Time to party!