All Work and No Play - Frerard

7

Gerard felt the colour drain from his face as the contents of his cup splashed up against his pants leg. He couldn't quite fathom that Frank was stood at the head of the long table and announcing himself to the room as Mr Iero. It was quite obvious what was going on, but his brain wouldn't quite compute.

Meanwhile, Frank forced his eyes from the back of the room where a few people had rushed to Gerard's aid, picking up the cup and handing him paper towels. He cleared his throat and made some half-assed attempt at dishing out compliments to the room and welcoming them to the company, before giving one glance back to Gerard and quickly exiting; Ray swiftly following behind to ask if 'that was it?"

"What do you want me to say Ray?" Frank snapped. "I told them they were doing well, didn't I?"

"Well, I thought you might meet them individually and actually talk with some of them."

Frank had intended on doing exactly that, but he had been completely thrown upon seeing Gerard. How could he not know that his potential boyfriend was an employee? Had they really never discussed their work?

"I have a lot to do Ray. I'll catch up with them again. Now if you'll excuse me..." he said sternly.

Ray took the hint and headed back to the boardroom to make up some crap about how busy Mr Iero was, but that he'd wanted Ray to reiterate how pleased he was with all their work.

Gerard made his way nervously back to his desk and just sat quietly for a little while.

"He was as rude as I imagined" came Emma's distant voice, pulling him from his thoughts.

"I'm sorry. What?" he replied.

"Him" she replied, waving her hand in the direction of the CEO's office. "Fucking ignorant or what?"

"Oh. Yeah. I dunno. Maybe he's just real busy" Gerard defended.

"Yeah. Or maybe he's just too far up his own ass to even be in the same room as us for more than thirty seconds."

Gerard nodded, and Emma carried on bad mouthing Frank until she realised Gerard wasn't really listening and headed off to find someone who would.

He looked over to Frank's office door and tapped his foot nervously. Should he go over and knock? Should he wait for Frank to come out and speak to him? What the fuck was he meant to do in this situation?

He eventually took out his phone and turned it over and over in his hands. He would message him. That's what he would do. He typed out several messages until finally plucking up the courage to hit 'send'.

Frank had let out a long breath as he'd closed his office door; his back leaning firmly against it as his heart rate slowly returned to normal. Gerard couldn't be here. He couldn't work alongside him. And what if everyone found out about his other job and that Frank had met him there? That couldn't happen obviously. What the fuck could he do though? He couldn't just fire him. He had no reason to and that would be a shitty thing to do to say the least. And if he did, that would be the end for them. And he really, really liked him. God, he didn't know what to do. Everything could be ruined before it had even begun between the two of them.

His phone alerted him that a message had come through and he opened it without thought.

So? You're my boss?

Gerard sat and waited for the rest of his working day for a reply, but received nothing. He packed up his stuff and headed out, stopping outside of Frank's door. He wanted to knock but having had no reply made him doubt himself. Instead, he quietly left the building and headed home. He sat in his living room sipping on coffee that had gone cold. He kept going over the scene in the afternoon and wondered what Frank had thought. And why hadn't he replied? Should Gerard text again? He didn't think he should. The ball was in Frank's court now. But one thing was for certain, he wasn't looking forward to going to work in the morning. He switched on the TV to try and think of something other than fucked up situation he'd found himself in, but he couldn't concentrate. Why was nothing ever straight forward for him? It wasn't fucking fair. He checked his phone dozens of times; checking it wasn't on silent, or that he'd somehow missed a message coming through. He even switched it off and then back on again, just in case it was playing up and not receiving texts for some reason. Yet, his solitary message still sat there staring back at him without a response below.