Russian Roulette: Flashbacks [male x male]

Ch. 5: I can afford coffee

Then

When people in Gareth's group offered support or gave their word, they meant it. It had not taken Phoenix long to discover that. Cracker had come through without hesitation.

The moment Phoenix had found the perfect apartment, he had mentioned it in passing to Cracker, and suddenly Cracker had been all up in his business, looking over the numbers for the apartment and Phoenix's accounts. No surprise, Cracker had been thoroughly impressed with Phoenix's financials. He was wealthy to a point where it seemed ridiculous for him to work at all.

Having inherited a fortune from his mother's brother, which Phoenix had used a part of to play the stock market and do investments, Phoenix had accumulated a strong portfolio of lucrative ventures, mostly for fun to see if he could do it. Then there was the pay he had gotten from his jobs and positions of teaching. Of course, there were the payments given for his time doing 'experiments' as a kid, he had been paid whenever he had done something they could use. Added to that was the signing bonus with a relocation package from Gareth, and his monthly wages and percentage bonus on Gareth's income as part of the contract he and Gareth had negotiated.

Longer story short...

Phoenix was loaded.

And Cracker loved how Phoenix was almost as anal about his accounts as Cracker was with his. There had been very little for Cracker to improve on.

Still, he had gone over everything, making sure the apartment Phoenix had chosen would be the best deal possible.

He had brought in another of Gareth's guys, Alexei, who was a licensed building inspector. Alexei had gone over the apartment with his most critical glasses on and found a few issues, which had helped Cracker to get the price lowered.

A lot.

How he had done that, Phoenix had chosen not to look into.

Phoenix would have had no problems paying the full price, with Cracker and Alexei's help he had saved a handsome penny. Not to mention that Alexei had pulled in a bunch of Gareth's guys who were in construction to fix the issues. And they had not stopped there. They had redone the hardwood floors where needed, had painted all rooms, and fitted the blinders and curtains, Phoenix had been asked to choose to fit this color scheme. They had spruced up the kitchen with new countertops and cabinets and updated the bathrooms at no cost.

They had, without Phoenix's knowledge, broken down all the doorways except for the front door and made them wider and taller with custom-made doors, made by Keff, who was a carpenter. It was marvelous to walk through them and not have to duck or at least be aware to not bump his head.

Everything they had done, Phoenix had been in awe of.

The only demand was a housewarming party with free drinks.

That Phoenix could do.

Hell, he would throw in snacks if needed.

He was floored with the way they all had come to help him with things he would normally just have paid his way out of and never bothered anybody with. Having joined Gareth's gang had already proved to be one of his best decisions. Never before had he felt accepted like that at face value. Yes, he sucked at reaching out to make friends but they more than made up for it and had befriended him.

For some reason that escaped Phoenix, they sought his company.

It was a weird blurry line between colleagues and friends. One he found himself not being too bothered by.