Page 57 of Besties
I pushed away from the desk. “How can you be so blasé about this?”
He grinned. “I’m not. I talked with our lawyers, who hired a private investigator. You’ve got all this going on. I’m thinking we’re pretty well covered.”
But we weren’t, and I knew it. “Someone is going to a lot of trouble here. They’re spending money left and right, and that doesn’t worry you?”
He stuffed the last piece of sandwich into his mouth, chewed, then swallowed hard. “Of course it does. It scares the crap out of me. What can we do, though? I could sit at my desk and bite my nails, or I can trust the lawyers and private investigator to do their job.” He pinned me with a telling stare. “And I know you’re already doing yours. You tell me what else you want me to do, and I’ll get it done.”
I thought for a minute. “How about if you get together a list of the people who tried to buy you out. See if any of them has a hand in this.”
“Already done. Our lawyers are also doing background checks on all current and former employees to see if any of them have worked for our competition.”
That sounded a little too heavy handed. “Wouldn’t that be—”
“An invasion of privacy? Yeah, I know. I felt the same way too.” He swiped a hand over his head. “They assured me that they wouldn’t be looking for anything beyond that.” He sighed. “This feels wrong. I’ve always given everyone who works here the benefit of a doubt. It sounds cliché, but I thought we were more like family, you know?”
And that was the crux of the problem. After Dennis Kramer, would they be able to rebuild on the trust that had existed?
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Live and learn, I guess.” He pointed to the other half of the sandwich. “You gonna eat that.”
I pushed the plate to him. “No, go for it.”
He gave me a kind smile, but I could see the sadness behind it. “It wasn’t a question, Max. You’re going to eat something. It’s already almost ten at night, and you haven’t moved from your desk once. Eat, then I’m taking you home.”
I sighed, picked up the sandwich, and took a bite. He was right. It was amazing. “So you’ve been watching me?”
He tilted his head. “Since we were kids. I know your expressions, your different smiles, your postures. I know you, Max. Better than I know anyone else in my life.”
“How come you never told me?”
He blew out a breath. “When I was younger, it was because I didn’t want to be gay. As I got older and realized I was bisexual, it was more that I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable with the fact I liked girls too. I know how you are. You’d worry that I’d up and leave you, just like everyone else in your life, because someone else caught my eye. Then your mom sat me down and gave me the hard facts. She knew how I felt, and if I wanted a chance with you, I had to step up and tell you so. Even then it was hard. You were with one guy after another after another, and I worried you wouldn’t take me seriously, and I got scared.”
“So what changed?”
“Jesse. Or, more accurately, seeing you bend over backward to try and please him while he walked all over you. I won’t deny it, I hated him. If he had been a good guy and had treated you like you deserved, I could have tolerated him, but he had what I wanted. You. After you called and told me what happened, I realized your mom was right, and that if I wanted you to be happy, then I had to give you the one thing that could always make you that way. Me.”
I grinned. “A pretty high opinion of yourself, don’t you think?”
His eyes widened. “Oh, hell no. That was what your mom said. She said you were at your best when I was around, so I hoped… I mean….”
He bit his lip, and I realized I shouldn’t be teasing right now. He was baring his soul to me, and I needed to handle it with care.
“Richie, no one ever made me as happy as you. No, scratch that. No one could ever make me as happy as you do. All the guys I was with? I wanted them desperately to be something they never could. You. You’re right, though. I wanted someone who wanted me. The problem was, I know now I was never going to be able to make a home with them, because my heart already had one.”
His eyes sparkled in the light as the tears slid down his crimson cheeks. He scrubbed his hand over his eyes and smiled at me. “Wow. When did we get so sappy?”
I knew he was trying to play it off, but my words had hit him square in the heart. “Do you need a hug?”
That was all it took before the dam broke and he was sobbing. I got up and he threw his arms around me, holding me to him. We stood there, arms wrapped around each other, and just being the center of each other’s world for a change.
Man, I loved this guy.
Chapter15
The next morning,I woke to find Richie in the kitchenette, sautéing up some vegetables. “Gonna make omelets,” he ground out, squeezing his eyes shut.
“Richie—”
