Page 77 of Counterpoint
A huff, and Dominic drew back. “I probably should eat. But I don’t want to be a bother.” Fear and sadness there. That internal conflict Adrian saw, but could never touch. Whatever the issue, it had Dominic in its iron grip.
So he’d drawn Dominic into a sweet kiss, then whispered against those lips, “You’re never a bother.”
And that was true. Dominic was tangled and entwined into Adrian’s life now, and it hurt that he wouldn’t share with Adrian the passion that mattered. But he was never a bother.
He texted back,I’m glad I can be here for you, Dominic.He wanted to add more, wanted to say “Please trust me” or “I love you.” But those seemed too pushy, too much for a text. So he set the phone down and started working through his inbox.
Dominic had said the words, an answer to his own whisper. Adrian had thought Dominic hadn’t heard. But where he knew his own feelings, Dominic’s had been voiced after being tied up for the first time, an emotional and overloading situation. The last thing Adrian wanted to do was take advantage of something Dominic might not have meant. He needed to hear those words when Dominic was clear-headed.
There weren’t any more texts after that one, and Adrian pushed aside the worry about that. They’d had a pleasant dinner last night, and reaffirmed their date for Friday.
Besides, he really needed to focus on why he’d been copied on this chain of emails. The problem they were discussing wasn’t in any of the features he was responsible for. He let out a frustrated sigh, scrolled to the bottom of the email chain, and started reading up. About halfway through it, he sat up straight, his blood boiling.
William had inserted code for one of the modules Adrian had developed for an entirely different project smack into the middle of this one with barely any changes.
Oh hellno. He was not being blamed for this fuckup. And he certainly wasn’t going to clean up William’s mess this time. He was all for reusing code, but this was ridiculous. You didn’t just drop one function into another project without so much astestingthe damn thing.
A glance told him Russ had been copied on the mail. Good. He rose and strode to his boss’s office—and found William sitting on one end of it, in conversation with Russ.
Well,fuck. Adrian schooled his features and knocked gently on the frame. “Hey, Russ, when you get a moment, can I speak with you?”
Russ’s smile was one of those managerial ones. Pleasant, but without honest emotion and warmth behind it. “Sure. I’ll stop by.”
“Nah.” William stood. “I should get back to things.” He pushed something that looked suspiciously like tickets to a Yankees game closer to Russ, then turned. “He’s all yours, Adrian.”
In contrast, William’s grin was infused with feeling, but all the wrong ones. Spite. Malice. He slipped past Adrian without touching him.
Yeah, this was not going to go how he’d planned. Not with a buttered-up boss. Shit.
Russ gestured at his guest chair, and Adrian took it. “So, what’s up?” Russ folded his hands in front of him.
Adrian chose straightforward. “Did you get a chance to read this morning’s email from the Brada team yet?”
Russ nodded. “Looks like you have your work cut out for you.”
“But it’s not my code and I haven’t been working on that system. I’m...not sure how I’m supposed to fix this for them.” He paused. “Not when I’m also cleaning up code issues in our own products.”
“William said you were struggling.”
Adrian’s head felt like it might explode, the rage so sudden, it momentarily stole his breath. He wrestled it back under control. “I’m not struggling. Not with my own code. Not with my developer responsibilities.” He took another breath. “In fact, quite a lot of my work lately has been cleaning up William’s coding changes. He broke bits and pieces of critical infrastructure.”
Russ waved his hand. “He was improving speed and tightening the code. It was bound to expose weaknesses...”
There hadn’t been any weaknesses. And no need for a rewrite. Adrian swallowed.
Russ leaned forward. “Look, Adrian, I know the customers love you. And your work on your trip was invaluable. But since you’ve been back, your quality’s slipping. I don’t think William should be picking up your slack.”
“...picking up...” Adrian straightened. “How are the issues with Bradamyslack? I’m not on that team.”
Russ shrugged. “You are now. Run with it.”
Fucking hell. Adrian stared at Russ.
“Anything else?”
“No,” Adrian snapped, and rose. “Thanks for having my back, Russ.”
Another fake smile, and Adrian was out the door. Shit fuckinghell. He contemplated marching to William’s cube and strangling the asshole—but murder would only complicate his life.
