Page 28 of Stand By Me

"Clay, hi." Eddie rolled his chair around to face him. "Can I help you with something?"

"Hi, I wanted to catch you before you left to ask about the Smithsonian auditorium, but I can come back later—"

"No, no." James got up and stretched, and Eddie followed the movement with his eyes before turning his gaze away.

Oh,Clay thought, a lightbulb going off in his head.So that's how it is, huh?

"I need to get going anyway," James went on. "Thanks for tonight, Eddie," he said softly, patting him on the shoulder. "Couldn't have done it without you."

Eddie rolled his eyes, clearly suppressing a smile. "I bet you say that to all the techs."

"No one but you," James promised, walking backwards towards the door, and turned right before the brief look of longing appeared on Eddie's face, here and gone.

Clay didn't miss it, though, and instantly regretted coming in there and interrupting these two.

"Don't keep him too long, okay?" James asked as he passed him by, but before Clay could say anything, Eddie got there first.

"Go away now! I can regulate my own bedtime, thanks." Then, when the door closed behind James, he turned to Clay. "Come on, sit and tell me what you need."

"Sorry, again, for the interruption," Clay offered, taking a seat James had previously occupied.

Eddie waved him off, turning to face his screens.

"Don't worry about it. James likes to come over after an op to wind down, that's all. He says the hum of computers and the typing calm him down."

Yeah, Clay thought dryly.I'm surethe computersare what's drawing him in.

"You said something about the Smithsonian auditorium?" Eddie prompted. "What do you need?"

"I was wondering if you could show me how much each of the upstairs guys are going to see, depending on their position. I have my notes and predictions, but Martinez told me to talk to you, since you've, and I quote, 'probably done this already and more accurately, too'."

"Tell him he needs to do better than that if he wants to get back in my good graces. But," Eddie added, clicking at something on the screen, "he isn't wrong. We can create different models depending on how many people you want—"

As they got into it, Clay forgot about James, but a few hours later, when he was talking with Martinez on the roof of their office building, taking a break from the floor plans and security positions, he remembered the morning scene he'd walked in on.

"Hey, are there any rules regarding relationships within the company?" he asked, stretching his legs as he leaned back in the lounge chair and crossing them at the ankles. Kalei was a genius for creating this space.

Martinez shot him a look from his seat. "No, but HR likes to know about it, just in case. I mean, there's basically no official chain of command around here outside of bigger ops, so as long as Kalei or Noa aren't doing it, there's no issue, you know?"

Clay nodded. Kalei was the de facto owner and CEO of the company, but Noa Alana was the close second as the COO. Clay had only seen him once so far, in passing, since Kalei was the one overseeing the field assignments, while Noa handled the financial and administrative side.

"Why?" Martinez asked. "Did you get laid inside the company already? Damn, that's—"

"No! I barely know anyone, how would I—" He paused. "Never mind. No, it's not about me. I saw something this morning that made me wonder, that's all."

"Uh-uh. Who was it?" Martinez kicked Clay's chair lightly. " Come on, spill. I can come up with at least three options off the top of my head, so it's likely I already know."

Clay turned to him. "And does nobody really care about straight or not straight?"

"Well, if they do, they're either not saying anything or they don't last very long." Martinez shrugged. "I don't know if it's the word of mouth, or natural selection, or what, but somehow we ended up with more people who aren't straight than those who are."

That, Clay didn't expect. "Really?"

"Yep. There's you, me, Jeremy. There's Melissa, who actually married her girlfriend a few months back, and half the company was at the wedding. Then there's Dave and Travis who I'm pretty sure are screwing each other. And Eddie, who would destroy the Internet for James, so once James pulls his head out of his ass and sees it, it's likely there'll be something there. And there's Vic, but I don't see that one ending happily." Martinez paused. "So, anyway, is it one of them? Because I'm barely getting started here."

Clay huffed. "Unbelievable. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's great, but I never thought I'd find a place like that. The best I hoped for was 'we don't care, but please don't ever bring your date to any work events'."

"Is it like that in the Secret Service?"

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