Page 3 of So Worth More
It turned out that I wasn’t going to be working under Andy. Freddie had corrected that notion immediately seeing the tension that both of us held. Clearly someone was feeling a little threatened, I thought with an inner chuckle. I’d get to lead my own team and I would be instrumental in hiring them, with the board adamant that I chose people that I was comfortable working with rather than picking the people that they wanted me to hire. This had left me confused until I saw how differently things were run at Parker’s on the brief tour that a prickly Andy took me on. Open plan work spaces, close knit teams, flexible working hours, working from home if they preferred, fruit and treats in the break room.
I’d been astounded when I’d learned that Parker’s board had turned down clients with short deadlines, but attempted not to look too impressed, earning me an eye roll from Andy. They insisted that their team not be overworked, had a work/life balance and that the people and companies they worked with operated ethically. My father would’ve had a conniption at all this “hippy dippy lark” as he’d have put it, rest his soul, in hell, where he deserved to be.
All I knew was that it seemed to be working. The data on output was fantastic. Sickness was minimal and the quality of the work outstanding, with Parker’s racking up a ton of industry awards. The people in the office looked so calm and settled. Staff turnover was nominal and this made me regret having not made the move months before when Parker Senior had come head-hunting me.
Not that I’d felt that straight away. Parker PR and Advertising had been something of a culture shock initially, especially with how rocky my relationship had been with Andy. Establishing a new team had been so stressful and time consuming that I’d thought about quitting. Then there were issues with Andy. We needled at each other often, personalities clashing I guess. Never anything big enough to need a visit to HR for mediation. We were big boys, after all. Freddie had taken a bit of an interest in me, which was cool, and he made great pains to smooth any ruffled feathers with Andy’s team as they often jumped to his defense. More than once I’d caught Freddie explaining the different atmosphere I’d come from and reminding my co-workers that it’d taken time for them to get used to the changes too. It had rankled me quite a bit that my behavior apparently needed justifying, that I was the odd person out, but Freddie had come to be a good friend, so I brushed it off.
Alfred Parker Senior was an interesting man and had tried to hire me several times personally, which was more than a little unusual. He was adopting a “new life strategy”, having had an epiphany as he lay recovering in a hospital bed from triple bypass surgery, following his massive heart attack during a board meeting. His fellow board members and friends had worked hard to save his life as they waited on the ambulance, with more than one facing therapy as they dealt with both the shock and their own mortality. It was amazing to be working for someone who inspired such affection and loyalty.
On returning to work, Parker Senior determined that things had to change, or else they were working for nothing. “Can’t spend money when you’re dead,” he’d famously said. After some research on different business models, they’d found one that had worked for them, while Alfred “Freddie” Parker Junior came onto the board, giving his beloved dad a chance to step back and heal properly. I had to admit that I was jealous of their relationship and wished that my own father had seen his heart attack as the warning it was, like Parker Senior had, instead of working himself to death with no one left to miss him. Parker Senior was a great man, one that I couldn’t help looking up to and Andy was one of his favorites, although he denied that with a laugh when Freddie poked fun at him, while I’d laughed. Parker Senior had a thing for saving waifs and strays.
Looking back at the start of things made me wonder, not for the first time, if perhaps I’d overreacted this weekend. That kind of thing, the way I’d treated Andy, was what I would’ve done before my time at Parker’s. I had changed, hadn’t I? My actions had been deplorable really. Andy may get under my skin and drive me out of my mind at times, but he deserved to be treated better than he’d been. My guilt prickled at me, I didn’t like acting like a prick, that was my brother Alex’s territory. There was just something about Andy that put me on the defensive constantly. Maybe we were too alike? Something to prove? Daddy issues?Who knows,maybe it was just that Andy reminded me of my past.
Realizing I’d stopped pounding on the bag and was just resting my head against it, I felt the pain in my hands register; the knuckles had split and were bleeding. I’d wrapped them thoroughly, as I’d been trained to, but I’d been punching for too long and had put too much force into each punch, as if each thump on the bag would somehow absolve some of this guilt I felt. I just didn’t know what to do.
Perhaps Andy was right and we needed to stop things. God knew I didn’t want a relationship. Been there. Done that. Got fucked up worse. No thank you. Still, Andy sparked something in me that I hadn’t felt in so long and I felt strange knowing that our little game of tit for tat was at an end. It rankled that Andy’d been the one to call the shots on this. What if we tried to be friends? I didn’t know if there was enough there between us for that but didn’t want to go back to what we were before we hooked up. Did Andy like me enough to be my friend if an orgasm wasn’t at the end of it? Could I put up with Andy, with his quirks and the way he irritated the shit out of me, to have him treat me with the same care and kindness I had seen him treat his other friends with and not want more? To have him look at me without that heat in his gaze across the gym floor?
So, I would never admit this to anyone, ever, but I hadn’t even looked at another person since I had met Andy. Yes, I was an equal opportunity kinda lover - it was about the person, not the parts they had or how they expressed their identity, thank you very much. This had shockingly been one of the few things I’d not been at odds with my father about. “Fantastic PR”, my father had actually commended me on being so open! I’d scoffed in my father’s face and had received a firm rebuke. Father never raised a hand - words were much more cutting, after all - and left longer-ranging damage.
I grabbed my towel up and slung it around my shoulders after wiping the sweat off my face. Picking up some cleaner from one of the buckets dotted around the open plan space, I cleaned the bag thoroughly. Deciding to have a steam and see if that helped release some of the tension that’d settled along my wide shoulders and in my neck, I headed towards the back of the gym where the sauna and steam rooms were.
Dropping by the water fountain, I took a long drink in the hopes that this headache building was from dehydration and not a tension migraine, as I could be out of the office for days being unable to drive, and I had so much to do. Last time I had one, my output had dropped dramatically, being unable to bear looking at my tablet for any length of time, to the point that Andy had somehow heard I was ill and had visited me. The memory of that made me cringe when I thought of my behavior back then. I really was an asshole.
The phone rang on the console table by the door. It was the front desk security for the building asking if Andrew Barker was on the welcome list at my condo. At first I was confused. The pain was making grasping at thoughts like holding water in my hands, and processing anything was slow going. Who was Andrew Barker? Then I remembered and gruffly allowed Andy to come up.
Tapping at the door came a few minutes later and I’d shuffled to the door, trying to avoid any sudden or jarring movements. Dressed in sweatpants and a faded black t-shirt from the day before, unshowered and bed-rumpled, I knew I looked far from my best.
I roughly jerked the door open, wincing as the sudden movement spiked pain through my head. “What do you want?” I demanded of Andy with a glare. A less than polite greeting, but I felt like shit and just needed to go hide in my darkened bedroom, not to be dealing with an unwanted visitor.
Andy looked startled at my gruff manner. While we constantly skirted the boundaries of rudeness at work, this was the first time we had seen each other outside of it.
“Um…” he cleared his throat, seemed to gather himself and said, “I heard you weren’t feeling well from James,” he seemed a little concerned. “Said something about horrendous tension migraines and um…” Andy seemed to stall at the glower l was sending him at this over share from James. Visibly straightening, he continued, “my mom got migraines a lot and she swore by this medication,” showing me a package he fished out of his messenger bag, “and a bag of peas on the back of the neck, with your feet in warm water. Though that might not work for tension ones, so um, I could give your shoulders and neck a massage with this really good essential oil mix she swore by. I don’t know what’s in it, but Mom taught us to work the reflexology points too, if you’d rather not have a massage from me.” Andy paused looking me straight in the eyes and all I could see was this sweet earnest need to help. My skin prickled, gut churning with anxiety.
“Why?” was all I could bring myself to say.
“Look, work is work. We’re competitive for the best jobs and you run your team how you like. There’s no real need for us to be besties or anything, but getting along at work somewhat, would actually help. There may’ve been an email sent to both of us about our blow up last week.” Andy winced as he said that last part with a look of shame, seeming to have taken the blame for letting it get out of hand. Stupid really since I had been in the wrong and was too embarrassed to admit it. Halfway through the argument I’d realized it but just couldn’t back down.
“I didn’t want to come,” he blurted. “Parker Senior heard from Freddie that you were off and about our argument, so he got on my case a little about you and me. He wants us to get along. Basically, he said I should offer an olive branch, so here I am.” The last part was said with a shrug. “You gonna let me in?”
Deciding to grab that olive branch, I stepped back from the doorway, allowing Andy into my spacious condo. “Nice place,” said Andy appraisingly as he glanced about the place.
It wasn’t nice. Sterile was the word I would use to describe it. Yes, the furniture was all new, sleek and white with a black leather sectional and black accessories, but it wasn’t a home, it was cold. My mother had hired a decorator after I’d purchased the condo with my inheritance, insisting that it was time to move out of her home. Living with her had been an unavoidable necessity. Part of me wondered if the decorator and all her help was a way to assuage her guilt over how things had turned out.
“Freddie and Senior have a point but I feel like shit, man, and the last thing I want to do now is pander to anyone or play nice. I just want to take some more painkillers and sleep this off, which was what I was about to do before you turned up,” I barked. Lies. I’d been on the couch feeling sorry for myself and debating on if I could get a food delivery person to pick up more painkillers while bringing me some food. When was the last time I ate last anyway? My stomach felt hollowed out.
Andy was starting to look irritated with my tone which gave me a sick sense of satisfaction. I wanted to get under Andy’s skin as much as Andy got under mine. I wanted to poke and rile and fester there until Andy snapped. In the silence that followed my words, my stomach took the opportunity to growl its displeasure at the lack of food from the previous day. Clearly hearing it, Andy smirked. “Right, let’s feed you, get this medication in you, and then I can get outta here and let you sulk or whatever. Then I can honestly say I visited and tried to help. Clear conscience,” he smugly stated.
After almost force feeding me some toast and fluffy,perfectly scrambled eggs, Andy gave me the pills with a glass of water and perched on the coffee table. “Gimme your foot,” he demanded. “I’m going to work on some pressure points like my mom showed me, then I’m outta here and we won’t talk about this again.”
I lifted my right foot and Andy grabbed at it, clasping it with both hands in his lap. His face was serious as he moved his long fingers over pressure points in my foot firmly, causing an indescribable feeling to rise in me. Before I knew it I could feel my dick getting hard and I squirmed on the sofa a little trying to discreetly adjust my cock in my sweats. Unfortunately Andy noticed my predicament, my gray sweatpants hid nothing.There was a reason they were used for thirst trap pics after all. His face flushed scarlet, “Mom never mentioned this happening with clients.” he muttered.
“A reflex. There’s been a dry spell. It isn’t you, don’t flatter yourself,” I bit out with a sneer, feeling humiliated at my body’s reaction to Andy’s hands on me. Then the single worst thing I could’ve said followed, “Do you give happy endings like your mom did? That’d really release some tension.” Silence echoed and Andy’s mouth gaped before his face turned a furious shade of red. Dropping my foot like it was electrified, he got up, abandoned his things without a word, and left.
Three - Andy
It was Friday and the office was abuzz with gossip. Unfortunately, it was about me and Will. The speculation was that we’d both gone for a contract and Will was furious that I’d won it, which is why he hadn’t been in the office since he stormed out on Tuesday.
There was even talk that Will was going to quit. James had heard that and had looked a little green before Freddie had found him and informed him that Will was ill and needed James to lead their current contracts. Obviously gossip was getting out of hand and needed to be nipped in the bud.
