Work and Play Pt. 12

"Fine, I'll stay in the damn suite." He wasn't helping himself feel like less of a third wheel by that point.

He agreed to help Jiao on whatever paperwork she needed, drive her wherever she needed to go for conferences, and show face for OTech when she felt like she needed to impress anyone. She never really needed Gabriel. Jiao was impressive as hell on her own.

By the time they all were too comfortable in the suite, Jalen insisted they all have at least one drink before they attended Jiao's conference as guests. She was merely making connections, talking everyone up and making them feel like the most special person in the world, even if for only forty-five seconds. The one-drink was a good idea—even though Gabriel made his one about three, given his size, and track record with taking a while to get drunk. It brought a nice buzz to the evening. He laughed with those who want to validate Jiao with his presence. They loved Jalen, and his jokes, and his swagger. Even Gabriel found himself captivated by how quickly Jalen seemed to bounce the words off the old white people who wanted to get a load of the "funny Black guy." Almost like a standup routine, but quick, smart, impromptu. Impressive.

Jiao laughed it up with an older couple, as Jalen stood next to Gabriel, mock-tired. "Shit gets exhausting," he joked. "Being the most interesting person in the room."

"You can't just declare yourself 'the most interesting person in the room,'" Gabriel said with an eyeroll. Jalen gasped, looking around exaggeratedly.

"I was talking about YOU, my man," he punched Gabriel's bicep. "Or Jiao. She's like a robot. She can just turn it on, you know?"

Gabriel nodded. "Jiao is a machine. I swear she's been offered jobs everywhere we go. I feel like I have to give her a raise so she doesn't leave me."

Jalen shook his head. "Jiao is too damn loyal to the cause. I think she would literally live out of a box if you would let her."

"Me?" Gabriel laughed.

"Oh hell yeah! Y'all are a package deal. That's alright... I fuck with it. It's funny cause sometimes I don't know what's up with her, and the weird shit she does until I talk to you. Funny stuff," Jalen pointed. "See? She's standing like you." Gabriel checked her out, and sure enough, she held a pose Gabriel found himself in often.

"She rubs off on me, too," Gabriel mused. "She whistles. Now I whistle."

"All the time," Jalen huffed. "Goddamn that woman is always whistling." They just watched her for a while, like proud dads. "Tomorrow, I'm getting her drunk. She deserves it." Gabriel nodded in agreement.

"I might start tonight," Gabriel grumbled. Jalen laughed.

The rest of the late afternoon went too well, to the point where the way they celebrated Thursday night was almost too much, and they were tempted to hit the bars that night. After convincing themselves it would be better to indulge at the start of the weekend, they fell asleep to a bottle of rose and rum. They woke up Friday with hangovers and plans to do the same thing all over again, when Jiao checked her email and began to freak out.

"My meeting is two hours away, and it's in three hours. Oh godddd, how did I miss this one!"

Gabriel and Jalen were on it, both of them calling those they knew in Vegas or nearby that would be able to get Jiao where she needed to go. Eventually, Gabriel's private jet contacts came in handy, and they were all feeling more relieved.

"You're a fucking LIFE saver," Jiao hugged him tight. "You both stay here tonight, I'm the one who fucked up."

"No, no—we'll go with you, Babe," Jalen insisted, but Jiao pushed him off the subject.

"Trust me, Saturday will be the best day we ever have," and she directed it Gabriel's way, and Jalen seemed to be in understanding. Gabriel looked between them suspiciously, but didn't have time to question it before they were rushing Jiao to the jet strip.

She waved frantically as they took off, and Jalen and Gabriel just laughed as they waved back, seeing her off once again. Gabriel knew that after this weekend, she would be feeling more comfortable with her portfolio and return to work with a happy energy. He and Jalen headed back to the car, and happy rapped along to the early 2000s Hip Hop station as they headed back. When they both didn't know a song, which didn't really happen—they each knew one if the other didn't—Gabriel finally checked his phone and sighed. "So, why did you guys drag me out here? I saw the Look."

"Jiao is using you for her own personal brand," Jalen said, no hesitation, and drumming on the steering wheel, bopping to the beat.

"Try again," Gabriel laughed, and turned down the music. "Y'all feel that bad for me?"

Jalen gave up and shrugged. "She knows you're not the type to treat yourself. I guess she wanted to do that. I suggested Vegas, since she would be out here anyway. Just... let her do her thing. For the record, for the half a year I've known you, I would agree."

"Agree that what?"

"You don't treat yourself. You really just be serving other people. It's messed up." Jalen swerved to avoid a random object, maybe a cat or a plastic bag, and cursed under his breath. Gabriel spilled the remnants of coffee on his jeans, and tried to dab it away to no avail. "Damn, my bad."

Gabriel just chuckled it away. Although they were very expensive jeans. As if Jalen read his mind, he gasped.

"Shiiiiiit, those are probably Gucci or some shit, huh? Maybe you do treat yourself. We're 'bout to be back soon."

---

Gabriel tried to scrub and mini Tide stick the coffee out of his, yes Gucci, jeans, but decided to just hang them up instead, and wait until he got back to find a cleaner. He stood in the bathroom pants-less, contemplating how much he should even do in that moment, much less for the day. It wasn't like he hadn't had conversations with Jalen one-on-one, but spending the day alone with Jiao's man was going to be interesting nonetheless. Gabriel wasn't sure if their motivation to party and let loose would die down without Jiao, but Gabriel was kind of flattered that Jiao and Jalen made their little Vegas weekend about him. He suspected she'd be back later in the evening anyway. She was the type to get Gabriel to play drinking games, and gamble, and go to strip clubs.

Strict religious background prevented him from doing that stuff before.

Jalen stood behind Gabriel, in the main area. "You got big ass legs," he commented, staring Gabriel down, almost impressed-like. Gabriel blushed. People commented on his body often. He hadn't been as self-conscious about himself since turning about 24, when people stopped asking him why he stopped playing football, and if he had to work out and bulk to look the way he did. He always shrugged. He was just a big man. Kind of felt soft compared to his exterior.

Gabriel was happy that Jalen never felt intimidated by him when he met him, as most of Jiao's boyfriends were prone to be. If anything, the guy was almost overly comfortable from jump. He made fun of Gabriel's tendency to squint instead of getting contacts, or glasses. Gabriel hadn't even thought of it. He said that Gabriel was a "goofy motherfucker." Now he said he had big legs.

"Yeah. Hard to find expensive jeans." Gabriel turned back toward the mirror. Before he knew it, Jalen had walked into the bathroom with him. The man was probably around 6'2", but Gabriel made him look smaller. Jalen was a shade or two darker than Gabriel's complexion, and they shared a similar eye color. Jalen's were more a shade of amber. Gabriel just kind of stood in the moment, looking at his and Jalen's frames in the long mirror.

Jalen puffed himself up to seem bigger, and Gabriel laughed, seemingly unphased that he was in only shorts and a button-up. "You know, if I started to eat eight meals a day, I bet I could get there—" with that, he slapped down on Gabriel's thigh, and Gabriel laughed, swatting him away. "Nah, I'd just be a fat fuck. No offense to fat dudes. I just couldn't pull it off. I feel like mixed dudes can't be fat."

"I'm a mixed dude," Gabriel retorted. Granted, he put together that Jalen was mixed Black and white, compared to his Mexican and white. Different. Kinda the same, too.

"And look at you. A pillar of health." Jalen winked, and left the bathroom. Gabriel decided it may not be too awkward to spend most of the day with Jalen. They could easily get messy food and beer, find a street show, maybe watch some basketball. Wait for Jiao.

That's how most of the afternoon went. Clockwork guy stuff. They got back to the suite around 6:30pm, hungry again, and that's when Jalen went into his bag, pulled out a hairbrush, and unscrewed it, revealing all sorts of fun things, mostly weed. Gabriel scoped out the little pile: a few joints, what looked like molly, and the smallest bit of coke. Gabriel couldn't help but smile. It'd been a while since he'd had his go at MDMA or weed. He wasn't going to go crazy, push his limits, but he was even more eager for Jiao to get back. Maybe he would be interested in picking someone up at the casino that Saturday.

"I'm getting into the weed now," Jalen said. "Saving the rest for Saturday." Gabriel agreed. "And there's Crown in the freezer. And the expensive ass liquor you bought."

They ended up ordering food, and soon they realized Jiao would most likely not be returning that night. Jalen spoke to her in their suite room, and Gabriel overheard.

"Jiao, Baby, you do what you need to do. Nah, we're gonna smoke some, drink some. Watch the games. No, no—he's cool! We've been just sticking around the suites."

He wondered if he even wanted to try and go out tonight. Gabriel was a self-declared homebody most days. He wasn't the type to go out often. Gabriel was personable, and usually found himself in good company with whoever he ended up with for the day. He suspected he and Jalen wouldn't run out of things to talk about anytime soon.

The idea of going out and catching a show seemed to get less and less appealing as Gabriel and Jalen filled up on alfredo and bread and fried chicken, and decided to get into the alcohol. They talked about Jiao, some old college stories, including college sports. Which both Jalen and Gabriel participated in. Gabriel played football for two years, Jalen played basketball for three. They were grateful to be level-headed, realized they wouldn't be playing for the leagues. Gabriel was too sensitive for football anyway.

It got to be 9:30 when Gabriel was happily on the verge of drunk, and they finally made good on their promise to smoke some weed.

Within the first hit, Gabriel felt himself float a little bit. He was definitely a lightweight in this respect. He sank into his chair, and held back a cough, until Jalen told him to just let it out. He was instantly on cloud 9. Gabriel was soon very high, and very serene as he and Jalen sat on the balcony, watching the lights of the city stories below. Every movement was slow, heavy, but in a good way. He felt full, satisfied. No more than ten percent of him wanted to leave the suite, interrupt the energy of the common space.

Jalen took the smart remote and turned the sports on TV to some alternative hip-hop and jazz, and Gabriel blinked slowly, realizing that his eyes were probably red.

"One time I went to Mexico. I was 22. Very stupid. But I smoked SO much weed, I ended up drifting on a little boat without any way to get back to shore," Jalen laughed. "I damn near drowned." Jalen puffed at his joint one more time, the fire lighting his eyes almost golden, and illuminating the natural highlights in his loosely curly hair, chopped short on the sides. He still looked like a basketball player.

"I'm not tryna get to the point where I drown in the tub," Gabriel rasped, and then cleared his throat. He looked around to see if he had some water nearby, and Jalen read his mind once again.

"You want another drink?" he asked Gabriel, standing up slowly and making sure to maintain balance. "Tequila lime coming up."

Gabriel texted Jiao a few words of good luck while he was still coherent, because he was sure this wouldn't be lasting long. He wasn't sure if he wanted to get wasted, but it might be nice to sit down in the shower. Jalen seemed to be feeling just as bubbly and lit as he was, and Gabriel decided that he was grateful for his presence. He decided that he wasn't going to be upset by his little problems, or caught up in his feelings. He was going to enjoy the night, and get drunk with a friend.

Jalen joined him again with two readily made drinks, as well as the rest of the bottle, about 2/3 full. "You know what? I think if I went out tonight, I would've been drunk, but not this drunk," he sighed, handing Gabriel his drink. "This is what the fuck needed to happen."

Gabriel agreed, the alcohol somehow soothing his throat. He drank the mix way too fast. He'd feel that one in twenty minutes. Guaranteed. As he went to set his glass down, Jalen "tsk'ed" at him, and filled his glass again. "I agree. Thanks for... I dunno. It's nice to not have to go fuck a stripper to have fun. My friends always..." Gabriel ran his hands through his hair and took a sip. "I feel good. That's what I'm saying. I feel like everyone always wants to absolutely rave all the time. I just can't keep up. This is nice."

"Good, man. That's what I'm tryna say; good vibes only."

"Only." Gabriel agreed. He watched Jalen down his drink, almost as fast as Gabriel did. "Are we really about to get tequila-drunk, inside, in Vegas?"

"If we went gambling without Jiao, she would actually kill me. I think—and not even in a racial way—she's like Lucy Liu from fuckin' uh—what is it?" Jalen snapped and racked his brain.

"Die Hard. No, Kill Bill."

Jalen burst out laughing. "Die Hard, the Lucy Liu movie. But yeah, no losing money without my girl." Jalen drank another big gulp of his tequila, giving Gabriel a knowing look. He was challenging him. Gabriel took another drink, equally big. Jalen smirked, and took another. Gabriel followed suit.

Before they knew it, they were laughing uncontrollably, on their third—maybe fourth? fifth?—drink, and getting to the abs-hurting stage of the night, edging past 11pm. They found a checkers set, placing it on the table between them, choosing to try and slur their way through more funny stories, and more drinks. Tequila mixed with lemonade. With lime, with sprite. With all three.

Jalen king'ed his piece as it reached Gabriel's end of the board. "You know? I've matched you the whole night. I-I'm proud of myself," Jalen laughed. "I could probably even out-drink you."

Gabriel was very drunk. "I think you're absolutely wasted, and talking shit," Gabriel dismissed him.

"Nope, nope. Don't take this away from me, Big Man. I have done very well for myself thus far." Jalen downed his drink, and pulled out the other bottle. Gabriel just shook his head in disbelief. "Although you're right. I'm pretty fuckin' faded." He sat back in his chair, and did a deep inhale.

Gabriel stared ahead, taking in the twinkling lights, admiring the prettiest places. He looked over at Jalen, who seemed to stare him down. He looked back out, and then back at the man, who continued to stare. And maybe Gabriel was crazy, but he didn't think so. Something flipped. Jalen was leaned back, looking at him under impossibly long eyelashes. His bottom lip seemed to get so subtly caught between his teeth, that if he hadn't been staring back, Gabriel wouldn't have noticed.

Gabriel felt something twinge in the pit of his stomach, and it wasn't from the alcohol, but he frantically tried to excuse it as such. He looked away again, a big gulp of water seemingly washing the feeling away. He huffed once, more water. More tequila. Something else. He needed a distraction. These thoughts were so foreign to him. There was no way Jalen was looking, like LOOKING at him like that. Maybe that's just how he looked when he was drunk? Maybe Gabriel had gotten some crazy shit subconsciously stuck in his head as they spent the day together.

"Smoke again?" Jalen offered, seemingly snapping out of it. "Maybe I'm tryna knock myself out."

"Y-yeah," Gabriel agreed. That little stir, that little twenty-seconds of heart-pounding confusion, seemed to sober him up a little. "I think I'm good on the alcohol," he commented, and Jalen seemed to agree.

More weed, more hip-hop that seemed to turn more jazzy by the minute, and Gabriel and Jalen were in the living room, sharing more stories over a joint.

"I tried to dread my hair once," Jalen admitted with a lot of faux-sadness. Gabriel over-exaggerated his shock. "And no, you can't see pictures. But that shit was... whew. Terrible. My hair is too... you know. Better than the time I thought I was the lightskinned Justin Timberlake."

Gabriel seemed to forget about the moment earlier until he reached out without thinking, and briefly ran his fingers through the two inches of Jalen's soft, curly brown hair to agree with him. That twinge came again, and he quickly retreated, hiding it with a laugh, and another smoke. Jalen simply smiled and leaned back in his chair. Gabriel did the same, creating more distance between them. But as soon as he wanted to stop the little alarm bells, the little questionings of "is this in my head or is this something legit," Jalen was right back to staring. Not only a stare this time; the smallest hint of a smirk tainting his lips. He kept his eyes on Gabriel, and reached for his drink, taking a long sip, and maintaining eye contact. Almost locking Gabriel in, it would be too awkward to look away now. Afterward, he licked his lips, slowly, sensually, keeping the tip of his tongue dancing for just a bit too long. Back to that smirk again.

It was absurd. This wasn't in his head. Gabriel couldn't believe it. That twinge was back. It spread into a full-blown conspiracy. This was attraction. This was about sex. This was gay. He got up, clearing his throat, and heading to the kitchen, mumbling about some water.

He was too comfortably drunk earlier that his efforts to clear his head were just fought by horniness. Suddenly he was flooded with images of Jalen as he sat there. The light brown, just-tanned skin looked caramel to him, edible. The loose curls resting atop his head, sometimes spilling onto his forehead. The delightfully-not-annoying confidence about Jalen was attractive to him. Gabriel wasn't allowed to be attracted to him. To men. He tried to think it away, but every thought ended up on Jalen's physique, his bronzy eyes, smooth skin, full lips. He tried to think of how he was a straight man, how much he liked women—

--and then saw himself grinding his body against the other man's. He shook the thought away. He couldn't be the weird one, the one misinterpreting shit. Did Jalen even know he was looking at him like that? Maybe they were both too intoxicated to know what was happening earlier, but now...

A couple minutes later, and Jalen joined him in the kitchen. "I'm feeling like I sobered up," Jalen teased. He pushed a drink Gabriel's way, sliding it across the table with his fingertips. Gabriel agreed. There seemed to be a lot of sobering moments. He didn't look Jalen's way, but took a tiny sip. Then he wondered if it was a good idea to keep going. Is this what Jalen wanted?

When he forced himself to make a decision, between ending the night right there by calling it off, saying he was tired, and choosing to continue, he took a deep breath, and took a deeper drink of his tequila, and he guessed this time, Sprite.

Jalen played Gabriel's game, turning awkwardly away from him. Making it noticeable, so Gabriel would have to confront that he was indeed avoiding his gaze. So he sucked it up, and turned Jalen's way. "I bet I could do more push ups than you," Jalen mused.