Ease [Cashton/Muke]

Chapter seventeen

"Don't wanna go." Ashton whines into Calum's collarbone, sparing a glance at Alec waiting in the driveway to take him to school.
"I know Sweets but we're gonna sort it all out, alright? Three more days for me darling. You can do this. Now you better get going or you'll be late." Calum tries to reassure the boy before glancing at his watch and seeing it read 7:15am already.
"I like spending time with you." He adds quietly.
"Me too darling. I'll see you on Friday okay? And as soon as I finish work tonight I'll call you and we can have a nice long chat, we can even video call. All day you can text me. You can do this."
"Okay. Bye Cal." Ashton pouts.
"Bye Ash." Calum replies, going in for a soft peck on the lips before sending him out of the garage.

Ashton turns back to look at his dom with a final dramatic pout and Calum blows him a kiss as he gets into his own car and soon starts driving to the office -significantly later than he should be.

"You said you'd be late! This is beyond late!" Maggie shrieks when Calum finally arrives at work at 7:40, only twenty minutes before yesterdays supplier meeting is set to continue.
"You didn't call and ask for me sooner." Calum retorts.
"I figured," she rolls her eyes, "that nothing I could say would get you here any sooner and that you can read at least clock by yourself. Was I wrong?"
"Nope." Calum pops the p and stays relaxed as he glides from his office to the conference room.

Calum hums at the documents on the table for a moment before glancing up at his assistant who already looks to be getting comfortable and ready to take minutes.
"Can you please get Riersack on the phone?"
"What?" She blanches. "Cal you've got," She glances at the time, "15 minutes until this meeting starts."
"We already covered that I can read the time."

"Oh my god." Maggie shakes her head, grabbing Calum's mobile and dialling the school before trying to get through reception as quick as possible before handing the phone -on speaker- back to Calum.

"Mr Hood, what can I do for you?" 
"Hello Mr Riersack. I don't have a lot of time as I'm about to go into a meeting, however do you believe stalking is grounds for suspension? Not only was Ashton spat on and shoved the last two days, yesterday someone followed him home from school. Followed him. To his house." Calum gripes, having no time to spare.
"I- of course. I am completely shocked and appalled by this development. Give me names and I will have it sorted." Tony says, completely beside himself.
"Ashton, much to my dismay though I do understand his perspective, will not give names for those students spitting and shoving however the one who followed him home is Cory Sandilands."
"Right. Well I have this sorted immediately. I do appreciate your call."
"Thank you. I must be going now. Have a good day Mr Riersack."

Calum hangs up the phone without another word and Maggie saunters over to him to collect the phone.
"That was necessary but you now have eight minutes left."
"You know, I'm feeling quite relaxed." Calum hums, leaning back in his chair.
"I- look it's great that you got that fucker suspended but need I remind you that you have a business meeting in seven minutes? A meeting that went for two hours yesterday and still didn't come close to being finished."
"No you see, none of this matters like it used to Maggie."

"Dear god you're going to either drive this company into the ground or, more likely, retire at 22." Maggie mutters.
"Neither." Calum jumps out of his seat to start strolling around the room and begin subjecting Maggie to an inspirational spiel. "It matters but, fuck, nothing matters like the people in our life. Our friends, our family, our partner. They're what our life should be about. I want a review with HR about the way my staff are managing their work/life balance. Make it standard in payroll for everyone to be on double pay outside 8-5, Monday to Friday."

"I hope you know how exhausting you are."
"I do." Calum grins. "That's why you, Margaret, can have triple pay outside standard hours."
"We have agreed to never acknowledge that that's my name. You're basically drunk on love right now and I'm not taking anything you say seriously."
"Mag-"

"Thank fuck they're here." Maggie leaps out of her seat and rushes to meet the staff at the elevator, praying to everything holy that Calum can pull himself together for this.

The meeting finishes in just under two hours and Maggie would be relieved by how Calum deals with all if all the texts Ashton was sending him -but she was the one reading- weren't so stressful.

Ashton - Calum: I'm at school now, don't wanna be here. Miss you

Ashton - Calum: Cory got suspended for the rest of the week this isn't what we agreed on how do I make a decision now

Ashton - Calum: Cal :(

Ashton - Calum: Am I annoying you?

Ashton - Calum: I'll go now

Ashton - Calum: Hope we can talk soon

Ashton - Calum: Miss you

Ashton - Calum: ...

Ashton - Calum: xo

"Your meeting Michael for an early lunch at 11. Figured you'd prefer it to a call. You have an hour for it before the meeting with suppliers." Maggie says once they're back in Calum's office, post meeting.
"Oh cool, thanks for that." Calum replies, looking up in interest when Maggie stays standing next to the door biting her lip.

"Maggie... what is it?" He raises an accusatory eyebrow.
"Just promise me you won't make me reschedule any of today's meetings."
"What happened?" He presses, increasingly worried.
"Just uh, read the texts from Ashton. I considered telling him you were in a meeting but I left it." She says nervously, handing Calum his phone before darting back to her desk and avoiding the fallout.

"Fuck." Calum groans to himself as he reads over Ashton's texts.

Calum - Ashton: I'm so sorry I didn't reply darling, I was in a meeting

Ashton - Calum: Oh. Sorry.

Calum - Ashton: No it's okay, no need to apologise. Remember I told you, you can always communicate with me.

Ashton - Calum: So... Cory... does this mean I have to test Monday as well?

Calum - Ashton: I'm so sorry Sweets. I forgot to mention to only do it for a day or two. No you don't have to go Monday if you've already decided to leave

Ashton - Calum: Okay

Calum - Ashton: I'll sort this out. Just try and focus on the things you do like about school. You can do this Sweets. Xo

Ashton - Calum: Okay. Thank you. Xo

A/N: so me doing three updates in one week did not fucking happen... I'll try again but I'm gonna stick with promising minimum of two and hoping for three. Love you all so much :)

[Edit - I edited and wrote the authors note for this and thought I published it two days ago but I just discovered I left it in the drafts I'm so sorry.]

-Grace Williams xo