Page 12 of Stand By Me

"Okay, good." Jake waved him off. "See you tomorrow."

Clay nodded again and hurried out, finding Martinez leaning against the wall by the entrance.

"Sorry it took so long."

"No problem. Did you score a date?"

Clay grimaced. "No, it's— Never mind."

"Damn. I'd think that with your face and everything, you'd have game to go with it."

"I have game." Clay followed Martinez towards their car. "Also, 'my face and everything'?"

"Don't go fishing for compliments now," Martinez threw over his shoulder. "You know what you look like."

"Nothing to write home about." Clay shrugged. "Especially comparing to other people working at KRK," he added. "I mean, seriously."

"Yeah, that's a bizarre number of beautiful people, but Kalei won't admit he makes any hiring decisions based on a hotness factor." Martinez paused before opening the car door to grin at him. "Our egos refuse to accept that, though."

Clay snorted, shaking his head. As they pulled out and headed back to the office, he spared a glance back at the museum.

He'd missed his chance with Mario today, which was a bummer. But maybe he would get another chance before the benefit.

And if not… Well, he knew where Mario worked at now.

All was not yet lost.

* * *

Jake opened the door with a phone pressed to his ear and waved him in.

"I have to go, Mom, Clay's here." Jake nodded as if his mother could see him. "Okay, I will. Love you, too. Bye." He disconnected and put his phone on the counter in his kitchenette. "My mom says hi."

Clay put a bag of take-out on the table before taking a seat.

"Tell her I said 'Hi, Ma'am'."

Jake turned from where he was pulling out the plates to roll his eyes at him.

"She told you to call her by her name."

"I'm not calling the former First Lady by name, no matter how long it's been."

Honestly, he was not that keen on her in the first place. He was happy for Jake that he had a closer relationship with his mother these days, but Clay still held a grudge over things she had and hadn't done for her son in the past. Jake's often-repeated defense about how she had been pushed into things by his father only carried so much weight.

This was one of the few topics Clay and Troy were in perfect agreement on, actually, but both knew they wouldn't get far with Jake on this, so they mostly dealt with it by sending each other knowing looks.

Speaking of…

"I forgot to ask yesterday—is Troy's work thing actual work, or work he's not getting paid for but can't stay away from?"

Troy and Jake had met years ago, in the White House, when one of them was the communications director and the other—the president's son. They'd fallen in love, then fallen apart, and had gone in different directions, both far away from the White House. But while Jake had kept his distance from politics, Troy had become involved in the education reform this year—a hard-won battle that was nearing its end soon.

Clay would bet Jake was counting the days until the president was scheduled to sign the damn thing now that it had made its way through Congress at last.

Jake huffed as he took a seat. "Actual work thing."

"Why the huffing, then?" Clay handed him the dumplings and put the coleslaw between them.

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