Page 5 of A Reindeer Wish for Love
I couldn’t take my mind off this incredible looking man standing with the sun in the background flowing in from his floor to ceiling windows, or what appeared to be a hard thick cock I’d imagined, because now it was at eye level when he straightened up and became erect in his posture.
He didn’t palm it or maybe he was waiting for me to do the honors.I didn’t know because it was the way he stared at me.The tension was there between us.I felt it and I suspected he had too.If he wanted to take me now in his office, I had prepared myself to bend over.
However, he was too professional and cautious, and I felt when his chest stop heaving he had controlled himself.It was the way he stared at me that signaled something he wanted.I didn’t know at the time, and I didn’t care.I wanted the job first, and I wanted him, and if it took bending over to get what I wanted, I would.
It had been a year of being out of law school and working as a teacher and extra jobs waiting tables to take care of myself in a city that had little if no pity on the educated, but poor running around Manhattan seeking employment.
I had roomed with two other guys and a cat in a tiny apartment, sleeping on their couch because they were a couple with one bedroom and they felt sorry for me.These were my friends since college, and they were in the same horrible place I had been trying to get a job with everyone and their daddy running around interviewing, and finding out that the job had been taken or there were lines and lines of young men and women and some older men competing for the same employment in a hellish economy.
Therefore, when I strode into Mason and Halifax, I had nothing to lose, and it was a funny thing when your back was against the wall, you would do anything, even call your parents and ask for a loan you know you will never pay back, and they can add that to a long list of money you owed and add that to your inheritance along with all the worthless junk, like old CD’s of movies you could get now on streaming services, and out of date stuff they’d planned on leaving you when they died.
My mother had given my sister all her gold jewelry so I could forget that nest egg with the price of gold rising every day.My sister became angry once she discovered my mother and father had given me loans because she knew I couldn’t afford to pay that back.She thought I’d made off like a bandit, but in truth it was her who had.
“Mr.Winthrop.Mr.Winthrop, Clayton, you’re hired.”I had gotten lost in my thoughts, and I hadn’t heard that beautiful man say, Mr.Winthrop, but I heard “Clayton.”I sat up and locked eyes with him.“Go to Human Resources and sign the appropriate papers, and we can talk later.”
I jumped up not believing my good fortune.Is it true I’m working for Mason and Halifax?Mason extended his long arm and handed me some papers, and I rushed for the door before he changed his mind.
Then when he called my name, I thought he’d read my intentions on my face.The part where I wanted him to fuck me and I wanted to suck him.
“Clay.”I turned around surprised he would call meClayand not Clayton.“Don’t forget we have a Christmas party tomorrow night, and I expect to see you there.You need a nice suit and you can go to my barber on the first floor and he’ll take care of you.”
Oh shit, he noticed the DIY haircut.
“There’s a signing bonus also.The cashier will give you a check or cash.It’s up to you.”
“Thank you.I appreciate that, Mr.Mason.”
“Call me Mason.Or Mr.”Not Christopher, not Mr.Mason, but Mason,I thought,This can’t be happening to me.But it had and I had to tell someone, that was after I purchased a suit.
After going to Human Resources and ending up at the cashier’s office where they told me what my sign-in bonus would be, and they even opened up a bank account for me at the bank they did business with.I discovered I would start on Monday to my delight.The Christmas party would be tomorrow, and I still had time to purchase a suit and shirt and a pair of shoes.
When I left the shops on Fifth Avenue with a purchase of a Tom Ford suit, a suit I thought I would never look at without it rendering me blind.Those salesmen are good. He convinced me that if I bought this suit and wore it, I could have whomever my heart desired.And I even bought a bottle of cologne for an outrageous sum.
After admitting to the salesman that I was gay, he had said that he knew.How I didn’t ask him, and I didn’t care.He had sold me on the dream of that suit and what came with it.
I even caught a cab instead of the bus, although I’d prefer to ride the bus.
I rushed up the stairs in this building without an elevator and opened the door to that walkup apartment I shared with my two friends.Marty had arrived home first, and he was cooking.He was the resident cook, and he enjoyed every minute of it.He cooked because ‘he loved it,’ he’d said, ‘...and it brought joy to me and his fiancé.’No one could afford to eat out and he was saving us money.He wanted to open his own restaurant one day.
“I got the job.”I said, my heart racing, not because of the stairs, but because of the excitement of knowing I finally found a profession I had worked hard for.
Sitting at the small bar with the table nearby backing up to the window looking into another apartment, I said, “Finally I’ll be able to pay you back and get an apartment on my own.”
Marty stopped what he was doing and smiled.“I’m happy for you, Clay.But I wouldn’t be counting my chickens before they hatched as my mother would say.There is no way you’re going to make that kind of money as an intern.”
Marty and his fiancé were working, but I had yet to find anything that would pay a living wage.I’d managed to pay my part of the rent and utilities by borrowing from my parents, but that wasn’t going to last.My parents couldn’t afford me living away from them and they asked me to return home.I’d considered it, but I had to keep trying and look what happened.
“Yes.”I raised my hands above my head.“You are looking at a man who is working for one of the biggest law firms in New York.And we’re going to celebrate tonight.I brought some wine.”I waved it in Marty’s direction.
Marty reached in the bag and pulled out the wine.“Sweetie, this is too expensive for us.You need to go back and get your money because we are going to need it because the landlord just raised the rent.”
“What the fuck.You’re paying four figures for this apartment now.Your cat doesn’t want to stay here,” I said.“I have enough to get an apartment from my bonus money, and you can share it with me.”
Marty turned and walked back to chopping the vegetables.“You can’t afford a large apartment in this city.You would have to be working for...Mason and Halifax.Now that’s a law firm.I heard once you get in with them your worries are over.”
“Well, my friend, our worries are over because I was hired by non-other than Mr.Mason himself.He told me to call him Mason.Not Mr.Mason but Mason.”
“Whatever you do, don’t fuck him.”
