Page 19 of Surface Scratch
“Yeah, man, you’re cool, why not? We could go get some drinks and cause a little chaos about town.” Andrew grinned at him.
“Oof, I dunno about the drinks part. I’m pretty good never touching alcohol ever again,” he said with a laugh, then turned back to the ice box and continued emptying it.
“Oh, come on, we had fun! You’re very loosey goosey once we get a few drinks in you.”
Caleb considered it for a moment, staring out at the VIP tables that had been bought for the night. His eyes fixed on a group of three men and one woman sitting at the VIP table closest to the bar. All four of them were facing in his direction, their faces looking as though they had just come from a funeral. He couldn’t see the man in the center’s eyes past his black sunglasses, but he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up the longer he looked at them. They were staring directly at him.
Weird. And creepy. He turned away from them to grab a bar towel, tossing it into the bin to absorb the remnants of the melted ice he couldn’t scoop out. “If you promise not to force feed me drinks like you hate my liver again, then sure. After the next schedule is posted, let’s see what days we both have off,” Caleb said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Andrew lit up as he rinsed off the final glass, flicking in the air to fling the water from it in a way that made Caleb worry he would lose his grip and hit a customer with it.
“Lookin’ forward to it.” He wiped his wet hands on his pants and then wrapped his arms around Caleb. “See you later.”
Caleb’s eyes widened as the hug lingered a little longer than he expected it to. Andrew pulled away, still smiling, and patted Caleb’s shoulder. “I’ll grab your number off the call sheet and text you when the new schedule is up,” he said.
Caleb watched him disappear, melting ice bucket in hand, through the big swinging doors that led to the hallway. That was… weird. But then again, he wasn’t used to friendships of any kind, so he supposed the finer details of how guys interacted with each other were lost on him. Tariq was very touchy with him as well, constantly wrapping him up in giant bear hugs and ruffling his hair.
He made his way toward the staircase, again glancing back at the creepy VIP table. The guy in sunglasses had dark brown hair and a gaunt, sickly face that looked familiar, but without seeing the rest of it, Caleb couldn’t place where from. It wasn’t Vincent, so there was no reason for him to feel as uneasy as he did, right? But one of the faces he could see wore a look of pure disgust.
Caleb forced himself to forget them as soon as he stepped onto the staircase, his excitement building as he went up toward Marcus’s office. Tariq flashed him a grin and thumbs-up from behind the desk of the DJ booth as he walked past. Did Tariq know? They always made a point of waiting until they were alone to show any affection, particularly because Marcus said he wanted to do things “the right way,” which Caleb interpreted to mean no more furiously making out whenever they couldn’t seem to help it any longer.
He reached the top of the stairs and noticed the door was slightly ajar. That was unusual. He knocked on it before pushing it open. Marcus had told him he didn’t need to knock if he was coming up to see him, but it felt like the right thing to do.
Marcus was at his desk, his thick-rimmed black glasses on and his phone pressed between his shoulder and his ear. He jumped up, tossing his glasses on his desk and moving over to Caleb still standing in the doorway, a smile on his face that could light up a Christmas tree. Caleb felt his knees grow weak as Marcus leaned down to kiss him, phone still pressed to his ear.
The physical affection had toned down after those first two fervent encounters, but that didn’t stop Caleb’s blood from catching fire every time they touched. If anything, he was glad to slow things down, given his lack of experience with dating. Not that he didn’t eventually want to go… further, but it seemed like the right thing was to take a little extra time to get to know each other before having another encounter progress like it had in the walk-in fridge.
He could hear a voice on the other end of the phone, but he couldn’t make out the words as Marcus pulled away from the kiss. Marcus gestured for him to take a seat on the couch. Caleb glanced over his shoulder at the open door, making sure there was no one coming up the stairs who could have seen Marcus kiss him, then shut it. They lived in a city, but this wasn’t New York or Chicago, and he didn’t want to do anything that would negatively reflect on Marcus’s business.
Caleb sat down on the couch as Marcus moved back behind his desk, popping his glasses on to resume doing something on the computer. Caleb smiled at him, the butterflies that had permanently taken up residence in his torso fluttering wildly. Marcus looked really good in his glasses.
“Yes, yes, you know my stance on that. Tell me, how is that pet project of yours?” Marcus hit a few buttons on his keyboard and the printer hummed to life. He walked back over to Caleb and sat on the couch next to him, his arm wrapped around Caleb’s shoulders. “Well, isn’t that something? It only took, what? Two months to get to this point? I was certain you’d end up scrapping that one when you didn’t get results after a week.”
Caleb leaned his head against Marcus’s chest like he always did when they met up in the office, savoring the closeness that he had no idea he’d been craving for so long. Marcus was always cool to the touch and Caleb could barely hear his heartbeat, even when his tinnitus wasn’t acting up, but he imagined someone as fit as Marcus had one of those freaky low heart rates like a marathon runner. There was something comforting about that reliable beat he could set a metronome to.
“No, that’s not a pet project. It’s something… different,” Marcus said to the other person on the phone. His hand drifted up to Caleb’s mess of curls, coiling a finger around one. “No, and you know why. It’s only a few more days, don’t be so dramatic. And honestly, if you’re that upset about it, you shouldn’t’ve pushed it that far to begin with.”
The muffled voice on the other end of Marcus’s phone call was saying something loudly, but it didn’t sound angry. Caleb felt his phone buzz and pulled it out of his back pocket.That’s odd, who’s texting me at this hour?
Unknown: Hey, it’s Andrew. Went to grab a drink from the Queen and she said you’re up in the office. Getting in trouble?
Caleb pursed his lips. What would be the best response? He made a point of not mentioning anything to his coworkers, mostly out of concern for Marcus’s reputation, but also because he didn’t want to play twenty questions with them. If either Tariq or Andrew got wind of them seeing each other, he feared he’d never hear the end of it.
The thought of it did bring a smile to his face. He wasn’t sure where things were going just yet, but the fact that there was someone he could call his own had seemed to blot out most of the negative things that plagued him at night. Was it too early to refer to Marcus as his boyfriend, even to himself? Probably.
Caleb: No, just updating my availability. Did you need me to do something?
“You could just be honest,” Marcus mumbled to him. Caleb glanced up in surprise as Marcus rolled his eyes at something the other person on the phone said. “No, not you. You’re already too honest. I was talking to Caleb—” He let out an exasperated sigh. “Of course he’s here, why wouldn’t he be? No. No, I already told you, it’s not like that. Okay, you know what? I’m going to hang up. Remember, you have four days left, and you better act like a choirboy when the four days are up or we’ll have a repeat of ’96, got it?”
Caleb gave Marcus a quizzical look as he hung up the phone. “You told that person about me?” he asked.
Marcus kissed his forehead. “Of course I did,” he said. “Now why don’t you tell me why you’re lying to Andrew?”
Caleb blushed. “I figured it would be best not to have everyone who works here know right away.” His phone buzzed again.
Andrew: Dang, wanted to ask you something. Next time, I guess. Can’t wait to hang out soon.
He clicked the screen off and looked back at Marcus. His eyes were narrowed at the phone in Caleb’s hand as though it had said something offensive.
