Page 2 of A Reindeer Wish for Love
However, I knew I would never wear that outfit to a party.
Leaning over and speaking to Tom or maybe his name was Dave.Yes, I vaguely remembered he was a Dave, because there were so many Davids and Toms at Mason and Halifax’s law firm, I got them confused most times.
“Who is that dude Mason is chatting with?”Well, it didn’t look like they were chatting, but I wanted to keep my interest hidden.
“I’m not sure,” Dave leaned in to say as he took another drink.
“I thought he was married.”
“I thought so too, but to a woman.Imagine our chagrin when a meeting was called and he announced that he was getting a divorce, and in the same sentence he said he was gay.”
“And Dave when did this occur?”I said, trying to learn as much as I could because this dude loved to talk if I remembered correctly.I could get a year’s information if I played my cards right and asked the right questions.That’s right.I had to ask the right questions, and you’d think that being a lawyer, it would come easy, but it didn’t.
“The name is Tom,” the dude said.“I can see how you would get me mixed up with that handsome guy over there.”I glanced over and Dave was a handsome man with chiseled features.
“Sorry about that, Tom, but you do look just like Dave.”I lied.Sometimes it’s best to lie and reinforce someone’s idea of themselves.
“Yeah, some say that, but he has dark hair, and my hair is red.You could see it better in sunlight, but the lights are so low I wouldn’t be able to tell either?”Tom said with a gesture of displaying the dimples on his chin under green makeup trying to look appealing in his Grinch costume.
“As I was saying, Tom, when did that happen?”I reached for a glass on the table and drank a little because people who drank didn’t like to talk to sober people.I didn’t know what that was about, because I was not a drinker, but I was a man who liked to fit in.
“Well, it was right after our Christmas party last year.You know the one we had.”How did he know?“I remember you were there.I remember faces, but I don’t remember names.Also, you disappeared right after the party.”
“Clayton Winthrop.And I vanished because I was sent to the basement for research.”He shook his head because he remembered.Then I extended my hand, and he shook it and reached for another whisky on the rocks.Who would have thought Tom could remember me.I tried to hide the entire time I worked for the firm because I’d been buried in research.
That’s when I learned to use AI to get my work done faster, and I was the reason Mason and Halifax began to move into the twenty-first century.
I had been assigned to that department alone where I couldn’t interact with anyone.There I would feed AI with all kinds of information and vocabulary which made the lawyers in this firm’s lives easier.
However, I didn’t realize at the time it would cost jobs.
Then as I turned to place my unfinished drink on a table, Tom hit me on the shoulder, “Did you see that?Mr.Mason and his boyfriend, disappeared into his office.If walls could talk.”He smiled at me.“You know he has a shower and probably a Murphy bed in that large office.Everyone isn’t able to afford those luxuries.”
“He’s the head of this law firm and I hear it’s the best litigation firm in Manhattan.So, he must deserve to relax sometimes and kick his feet up.I know I would,” I said in Mason’s defense, but that had been the last thing I wanted to do was defend the man who caused misery and loneliness for a year.
“I’m just saying and I have nothing against gay men, my brother-in-law is gay, and from what I remember you’re gay too,” Tom revealed.
“You’re right, Tom, I am gay.I never tried to hide it,” I stated.
And I respect a man who comes out and tells people who he is.You can say the wrong things—”
I cut Tom off.“Maybe you should watch what you say.”And I walked away and inched closer to Mason’s office when he and his boyfriend came sauntering out laughing and joking.They were as immaculate, no just fucked hair, or untucked shirts I could see.They looked the same as they first went into the office.
Perhaps I’d been upset at the wrong things.I had no claims on this man except I was the one responsible for him following his desires.
However, I wasn’t the recipient of his warmth and needs except for that one night, and now I stood gawking at him wondering if heremembered me.My eyes traveled over his body—perfect, and that impeccable red velvet suit pants, with black suspenders with the white shirt covering his statuesque hard physique as if that suit was painted on that magnificent body.I stared down at his black patent leather shoes, and they had been shined to perfectioned.
He had everything in order, his company, his clothing, but his life and marriage were in shambles as I soon learned from Tom.
Tom had been with the firm for years when Mason’s father was in charge.And the way Tom talked it wouldn’t be long before he ‘got the boot’ as my father would say after coming home from his construction job and telling my mother all the men who had been laid off.
When I glanced over at Tom, he was reaching for another drink and had his phone in the other hand.“What’s the problem?”
“You know that small envelope we got, it had a check and it was a large one, and I just received an email.The kind you get from AI and it said I had been laid off.Code word fired.”
“I know that’s shitty around Christmas.”
“Not really.My wife had wanted me to retire, and I just loved going to the office every day.Now I don’t know what to do.With you, your life is just beginning.”
