Page 22 of The Weight Of It All
“They’re really good. Well, I think so,” he amended. “I love fresh produce and getting inspired to try new things.”
“Me too!” I said. I stopped at a red light and grabbed my menu planner from the centre console and handed it to him. “Here, have a look through that. There’s an app on my phone for it as well, so I can download new recipes and whatnot. I just printed this week’s plan to bring with me.”
“Oh, this looks good,” he said, nodding to the first page. “You could do this one vegetarian as well.”
I squinted at him. “Well, I could.”
Reed laughed. “Like your meat, I take it.”
“I’m gay, so yes. In all forms.” The tips of his ears turned pink as he smiled, so I apologised. “Sorry. No filter, remember.”
“It’s all good. Don’t apologise.” He looked out over the water as we crossed the Iron Cove Bridge. “Your friends and family must be used to you and your lack of filter.”
“Uh, yes.”
“And the people you work with?”
“Actually, no. Only my personal assistant, Melinda, is. She’s used to me. But no one else.” I sighed. “I don’t talk to anyone else, really.”
“At all?”
“Not if I can avoid it.”
“You choose not to talk to them?” Reed frowned. “Is that a management thing? Because you don’t seem the type to snob your co-workers based on pay rate.”
That made me snort. “Oh God no! It’s not a pay rate thing. It’s a ‘me being a filterless idiot’ thing.” I pulled into a parking spot at the markets and turned off the engine. “When I first started there, Gr?” I stopped short of saying his name. “I mean Sauron suggested I not talk to people up front. You know, wait until they got to know me and liked me before they heard some of the things that come out of my mouth.”
A little line appeared between his eyebrows. “He suggested you don’t talk to people?”
I nodded. “Not exactly nice of him, but I could see his point. I mean, in staff meetings I would say nothing instead of calling the national marketing manager a fucking idiot. So it kind of worked. In six years I’ve had two promotions for simply putting my head down and getting my work done. There’s a lot to be said about being the overweight unattractive guy. Kind of invisible, or more to the point, no one sees me as a threat, so I kinda sneak through, ya know? But now people are used to me not saying much, just keeping to myself, and it’s too late to change.”
Reed was quiet for a long moment, and I wondered which part of what I’d just said he didn’t agree with the most. “I don’t know much about the corporate world. I’ll be the first to admit that. And maybe what Sauron said was plausible, but,” he shook his head, “I dunno. I’d just never tell anyone to not be who they are. And who knows, maybe the national marketing manager was a fucking idiot?”
“With terrible fashion sense.”
He smiled. “With terrible fashion sense. Who knows? Maybe that needed saying.”
I chuckled at that. “Or not. I love my job, and being in the corporate world comes with certain stipulations that I dressand behave a certain way. It’s not all bad. I’m quieter at work, but I’d imagine the majority of people in corporate finance don’t fly their freak flag at their place of employment.” I nodded to the park up ahead, to the crowds looking at stalls as they strolled through the market. “Shall we get out?”
Reed climbed out of my car, and it wasn’t until I had to stand up that I was rudely reminded of the muscle pain in my legs. And back. And arms and shoulders and holy shit. “Ow. Okay, I think I overdid it.”
Reed gave me a sympathetic smile. “You poor thing.”
I straightened up and rolled my shoulders. Well, tried to. “Why did you let me push myself so hard today?”
He laughed at that. “Uh, because you were pissed off at Sauron, remember?”
“Oh yeah.” I sighed as I hobbled toward him. “I forgot.”
He looked me up and down. “You’ll be okay?”
“Just out of interest, how many calories does dropping dead burn?”
Reed snorted. “You’re not going to drop dead, Henry.”
And suddenly I caught a whiff of something and I perked right up, my sore and aching muscles momentarily forgotten. “Can I smell coffee?”
Reed laughed and answered his own question. “Yeah, you’ll be fine.”
