Spark & Stone - Ch. 16

Chapter Sixteen - #TGIM

Aidan sat at his desk, fired up his computer, and began browsing through his e-mails. Leaving aside the spam that seemed to find him no matter how hard he tried to keep it his inbox crap-free, a few social media notifications that he ignored since they just showed how happy some people were, and newsletters from online shops he only visited once, he finally decided that it was actually a good moment to get to work.

Only that, for the first time since he started working, he could not find the motivation in him to 'hustle harder', as was the mantra around the office these days. No, Aidan the perfect professional seemed long gone, or hidden somewhere he could not find him. In his place, the no-longer-a-virgin version of himself sat triumphantly. Well, maybe not that triumphantly, since he was still sore after his crazy weekend.

His middle finger was lazily rolling the mouse wheel, and his mind was happily wandering, back to what had happened in the short span of a Saturday night and an entire Sunday.

The good news was he hadn't dreamed whatever happened. The bad news was that he had no idea where to go from there. Heathcliff had been clear; they were in a relationship of sorts. Not a relationship-relationship, but sort of a business deal. It was easy for Heathcliff to take everything so easy, mostly because he hadn't been the one getting fucked.

Not that Aidan had any regrets. He had been an enthusiastic participant and he would have done the same all over again. He just hoped Heathcliff would be true to his word and this would continue, at least for a while.

It felt like he had so much to learn, mainly about sex, but also about interacting with someone on an intimate level. Everywhere he looked, people seemed married to their jobs, and treated romantic implications as nothing but obstacles. By how they bragged, they also fucked a lot, but Aidan had an inkling that wasn't the case, at least, not for everyone.

Work was the number one priority. It had to be for him, too. He was twenty-two, young, strong, capable, ready to climb the career ladder that seemed to go up, up in the clouds, only if he logged in the hours and proved to be the perfect corporate employee.

At least, that was the spiel. He envied Heathcliff. The man didn't have to work from nine to five. He did what he liked. And, on top of everything, he had no troubles showing how good he felt in his own skin.

Someone was leaning against the half wall of his cubicle. The smell of coffee from the downstairs machine let the intruder's presence known. Aidan turned his head, feeling already irritated. Could people just see that he was busy working?

"Thank God it's Monday," the intruder, some young employee who was even newer than him, commented with a wistful look on his face.

He wore a suit that seemed too large for his skinny frame, and shoes that appeared as penguin feet from under the overflowing hem of his pants. Penguin-pants, Aidan thought an immediate nickname for the man interrupting his musings about a certain gorgeous fitness guru.

"Excuse me?" Aidan looked at the other, intrigued.

"It's the start of a new week," the young man said loudly, as if he was addressing an invisible audience, "the gate is open for new opportunities."

Aidan felt the need to roll his eyes, but caught himself in time. "Yeah, nice, great, whatever," he mumbled and turned toward his screen.

"Attitude is everything," the guy continued, as he could barely wait for someone to listen to him babbling away.

Aidan didn't want to listen. He stole a glance around, half sitting up from his chair. To be fair, they were the only ones present. Why had he come so early? Maybe because he felt too energetic after his weekend with Heathcliff.

"Work is the most beautiful thing in our lives, as young people," the intruder added.

"For you, maybe," Aidan said under his breath.

He would have sided with this guy last week. Well, maybe not entirely, but still. Now, he had more important things on his mind.

"What did you say?" Penguin-pants asked smoothly.

"Nothing. I'm just going through the tasks for the day, in my head. I sometimes find myself talking," Aidan attempted an apologetic tone, while trying to make it clear that the guy was bothering him.

"That's great, Aidan. Just imagine, one day, years from now, that we might switch our cubicles with some offices on the corner," Penguin-pants continued, seemingly impervious to being told off.

"There's only one office on the corner," Aidan pointed out.

Penguin-pants stared down at him with his washed out eyes. "Exactly," he said pompously and finally decided to leave.

Aidan shrugged. Whatever that dude was into, Aidan wasn't interested. He needed to go back on more important matters, such as how serious Heathcliff was about the whole thing happening between them.

No, no, no, he had promised himself that he would not lose his head, and that was what he was doing. He would just have some more amazing sex with Heathcliff, but that was where everything stopped.

Come on, Aidan, he chided himself, do you really think a guy like that would want anything else? It was a wonder in itself that Heathcliff wanted anything from someone like Aidan. So, he needed to stop fretting, and be content with what he had.

Hmm, what he had ... his mind traveled to the day before. How many times had Heathcliff blown his mind? Yes, he used metaphors, trying with all his might to stop his mind from sending the wrong signals to certain parts of his body. The last thing he needed was a hard-on at work.

He would open Excel and start working. That would be the perfect cold shower he needed so that he could stop his mind from wandering to those magnetic blue eyes, perfect abs, amazing c -

"Aidan, do you have those graphs ready?" A female voice interrupted his daydreaming.

"Of course," he shook his head, "just printing them."

"Good. The boss wants them now."

When the hell had that man arrived? Looking around, Aidan noticed that the cubicles were now quite animated. His daydreaming proved dangerous. He was clearly unaware of his surroundings.

He grabbed the graphs impatiently, the whirring of the printer getting a little on his nerves. He could have just used the larger printers down the hall, but, for some reason, his boss wanted him to have a printer in his otherwise poorly appointed cubicle. For emergencies, or something like that.

Aidan ambled toward his boss's office, and almost crushed into Penguin-pants. "Sorry," he said and tried to move past him.

Apparently, Penguin-pants had other ideas. When Aidan quickened his pace, he did the same, and for a few awkward moments, they almost brushed their shoulders.

Little was Aidan's surprise, seeing how Penguin-pants was making a beeline for the big kahuna's office, just like him.

"He wants to see my graphs," Penguin-pants threw over his shoulder.

"Really? That's exactly -"

The door opened and their boss's personal assistant looked them up and down as if she could check them for some fatal diseases while doing so. "You're late," she said haughtily, and made room for them to walk inside.

This was odd. Everything was odd, Aidan thought, and pushed one hand through his hair and arranged his tie quickly. Why on earth was the big kahuna asking two different employees for those graphs? Maybe they weren't the same graphs; that was one possible explanation.

The personal assistant pushed them both through the door to the inner sanctum of their leader. Aidan still felt awkward next to Penguin-pants.

Their boss was behind his desk, his fingers propped in front of him. "The graphs," he demanded shortly.

Aidan took one step forward, but the other was quicker and placed his papers in front of their boss, as if he was showing the man some treasure map. Their boss examined the offered gift with scrutinizing eyes.

"Excellent!" he shouted, startling Aidan.

Penguin-pants seemed unfazed. Damn, he had been here longer, but their boss's antics still took him by surprise. He collected himself quickly and hurried to show his graphs, too. The boss threw them a bored, fleeting look.

"Work harder, Spark."

What? What was that? What was that supposed to mean? Graphs were graphs.

"What do you mean, sir?" he asked directly.

"See this line?" The man asked, and pointed at a thick red smudge of printer paint on Penguin-pants's material. "This is what I want to see. And the font! Verdana? Spark, I thought you better than this!"

Aidan frowned and took one step closer to look at the other's graphs. "These are incorrect, sir." He drew with one finger along the praised red line. "We can't expect this level of growth -"

"You have no confidence, Spark!" His boss boomed, and, for a second, Aidan wondered if the windows rattled or was just his imagination. "Ambition is a way of life. If we're always cautious, how can we move forward? How can we conquer the vast expanse of the universe?"

Aidan could feel a headache coming in. His boss was a total nutcase, he was sure of it, but this talk about conquering the universe was new. And he had never been scolded about his graphs before. He was the big kahuna's PowerPoint darling. Everyone knew that.

Apparently, he now had competition. Aidan threw a furtive look in Penguin-pants's direction. The guy seemed quite pleased with himself. So that was that morning talk all about. A new PowerPoint star was in town, and he was challenging Aidan to a deathmatch.

Aidan could care less for deathmatches. "Sir," he insisted, as he turned toward his boss again, "it is not about precautions, it's about facts."

"Facts." Penguin-pants snickered at his left.

"Yes, facts," Aidan said, half-turning toward his unexpected competition. "We're not ignoring facts, are we?"

"Your insinuations are disappointing, Spark," his boss intervened. "We create an environment here. It's not just a business."

High time for a huge mental eye roll. Here we go, Aidan thought. The talk about the environment, and not just any environment, but the one the big kahuna was struggling to invent at the workplace.

"We think beyond," his boss made his fingers crack.

Aidan stopped a grimace just in time. He needed to work on his neutral attitude when it came to his boss's interminable speech about what the company meant to him and had to mean for everyone else, regardless of paycheck.

"Can you think beyond, Spark?" the man asked, in a paternal voice.

"Yes, sir," Aidan said stiffly.

"Today, toiling for greatness is our raison d'être. It's not about profit," his boss said, standing up and slamming his palm against the desk.

"Not about profit," Penguin-pants echoed, his eyes shining, his mouth a bit slack in awe.

Aidan took an imperceptible step away from his co-worker. The guy was seriously giving him the creeps.

"It's not about our products," his boss continued.

"No, not our products," Penguin-pants murmured in fervor, clasping his hands in front, and rocking gently back and forth.

When had this meeting turned into some Corporate Cultists Anonymous networking event? Aidan hoped they wouldn't have to hold hands and sing Kumbaya next.

"It's not even about growth!"

"No, not growth!"

"It's about us," his boss's voice became gentle again, "as humans, living together, working together, creating a greater good."

Wow, Aidan thought. He had always believed his boss was a quirky character, but this bordered on insanity. Maybe he should call 911 and ask for help? Someone needed a straitjacket.

His boss droned on about some mission of sorts. Aidan knew he needed to pay attention, but his mind was wandering again, against himself. It was like he had a natural mental shield to protect him from bullshit, particularly the corporate kind. His co-worker continued to echo the big kahuna's words without fail. Aidan wondered briefly if he was caught, perhaps, in some absurd play, waiting for a saviour of sorts who would never come.

Eventually, it was clear. He was no longer the boss's favorite PowerPoint graph illustrator. Actually, that was a relief. He would have more time to invest in things that truly mattered. The only inconvenience was that falling from his boss's graces meant that he had even lower chances of advancing to a creative position.

"I have an idea," his boss said while puffing his chest in self-importance. "Today, we'll have a marathon."

Marathon? Seriously? Were they going to run around the building, dressed in suits? What about the female employees? Some of them wore high heels, for goodness's sake!

"It is even more."

Of course it was. Everything was more with the Military Apeman, Aidan invented another nickname, this time for his boss. For some reason, his creative juices were flowing. Not in the right direction, but they were definitely flowing.

"It is a test of will."

Aidan was sure he didn't like the sound of that.

"We'll see who's capable of putting in the most extra hours. We'll toil, we'll struggle, but we will prevail," his boss put out a fist, punching the air in a victorious gesture.

Oh, great. Heathcliff would hate him, and even forget about him, but there was no way around this. He was called to arms and needed to prove himself. That meant no going to the fitness guru's house tonight, no eating that delicious food Heathcliff managed to make while still keeping it healthy - how he did it was beyond him - and, above all, no chance of amazing sex.

***

"Hey, guys, welcome to another livestream," Heathcliff said while opening his arms wide. "Today, we are going to do something a bit different. Some of you asked me in the comments about some stretching exercises that anyone could do. So, let's get to work."

Heathcliff continued his explanations in front of the camera, and, from time to time, he looked at the live chat so that he could give the people watching him some extra pointers. One of the commentaries made him grimace.

He could choose to ignore it, but he knew about these things. They were going to come back and back again like a nasty fly.

"I see you're interested in my love life," he said during a small break. "No, I did not turn into a monk. Actually, far from it."

As he grabbed his elbow and pulled it tight, keeping it there, he looked at the large screen. Whoever that was, had no intention of letting him off the hook.

"Well, the truth is I found someone. Someone who's gorgeous, makes me laugh, and is a great person all around."

He huffed when he read the next comment. "No, I didn't turn straight, and far from me to elope. You, guys, know I don't believe in the marriage institution. But we're not here to talk politics, right? Let's get to work. I can bet that you can't exercise and type at the same time."

The troll, if it was a troll, stopped for a while. Maybe he or she was doing what Heathcliff said, which was certainly healthier than being hunched over a phone and trolling people's live chats.

It didn't take the troll long. Heathcliff liked to think it was a troll, and it was best to ignore such things, but he had a reputation to uphold, and that meant that he was nice to everyone, even those who tried to get a rise out of him.

Plus, somewhat secretly, he wanted to brag about Aidan, without telling who it was or any details. The thing was he was damned proud of his latest conquest. That was a way of saying since there was still a long road to get Aidan to fall for him, and not just consider him a good lay. He was working on that.

"Maybe that's what's happening," he said and smiled as he read the new comment. "Yes, even someone like me can be monogamous. Plus, I've always been that, serial monogamous, but monogamous nonetheless. And that's all for today's livestream. Thank you, guys, for watching, see you on Wednesday, when we'll talk about healthy eats and how we can have more of them in our diets without a hassle."

It was no wonder some people wanted to know what was with him and his sudden disappearance from tabloids and whatnot. Also, it was a relief that the tabloids themselves had left him alone for the time being, at least.

That could not take long. They would harass him soon enough. As long as he had provided for their shitty publications with endless gossip material, he had been their sweetheart. Like the vicious vipers they were, they would strike.

Aidan was right about being cautious. But unless they thought about breaking into his home or sending drones over the high fence to spy on him, they had no chance of learning anything. Outside the home, Aidan was just someone from The Healthy Shakers, sent to him on business, and Heathcliff could live without PDAs, seeing how important appearances were now. Not that he wouldn't have liked some PDAs if they involved Aidan. Just the thought of walking hand in hand with his cute bunny made him smile fondly.

His phone rang, interrupting his thoughts. Maybe it was Aidan. It was just late afternoon, and he was well aware that the bunny worked long hours, but a man could hope. Maybe his naughty boy had snuck into the bathroom for a quickie and needed Heathcliff to provide the right entertainment.

But no, as much as he liked the idea, it wasn't like Aidan to do such a thing. He sighed when he looked at the phone. It wasn't Aidan, but Michael.

"Hey, hey, stranger, you disappeared from the face of the planet since Saturday night," his friend teased him as soon as he put the phone to his ear. "I am dying to know, so I'm swallowing all my pride and dignity and, as you can see, I'm calling first. How was it? Did Aidan tell you off?"

"You wish," Heathcliff snorted, "what kind of friend are you, you ass?"

"The kind who wants to know if you got laid, and if your crush was, at least, somewhere around when that happened," Michael joked.

"Yes and yes," Heathcliff said curtly, but he was dying to talk to someone about Aidan, and Michael was the perfect candidate since he knew him so well.

"Details. You know you can't leave me like this."

"I can, actually. C'mon, Mikey, you know I'm a gentleman."

"In what parallel universe? But I don't want details about sex positions and all that. I suspect that your bedroom gymnastics are unparalleled. My question is: how did Aidan react? How come he didn't put you in place?"

"Obviously, he likes me," Heathcliff said with satisfaction.

"Ah, damn," Michael sighed, "and I thought the man to tell Heathcliff Stone 'no' finally fell from heaven."

"You would have liked that, wouldn't you?" Heathcliff laughed. "Always ready to make fun of my predicaments?"

"I'd never," Michael said theatrically. "But I like Aidan. I'm not sure if walking into the wolf's den was the best decision in his life."

"Are you worried about Aidan more than about me?" Heathcliff protested. "Who always saved you a place in the cafeteria all throughout the middle school? And who got you your first date ever? Or supported you when you came out to your folks?"

"Hmm, I think you're forgetting a few hundred other things, but well, at thirty, your memory might start to fail."

"You're twenty-nine years and eight months old, asshole," Heathcliff said with affection.

"Still in my twenties. Now, seriously, Heathcliff, do I have any reason to worry for you? Is there something the matter?"

"Stop it right there, mother hen. No and yes. I think I like Aidan very much."

"Yes, you told me."

"No, I really, really like him."

"Oh."

Heathcliff waited for a few seconds. "That's all you have to say?"

"Sorry, I was busy checking the fashion trends for best men at weddings."

Heathcliff laughed. "I didn't break that badly. I still don't see the point of marriage."

"All right," Michael said brightly. "But it was worth checking. I think I'm going to buy a new suit, just in case."