Office Affair

Where on Earth are you?!

Dominic checked his phone and rolled his eyes. There were ten missed calls, all from Kayla. He knew what she wanted him to do. She wanted him to come home, and he would have done it tonight just to pack his stuff up and check into a hotel,  if it weren't for Anya's condition. It was a perfect excuse not to go home. Still, not going home meant going somewhere, although not anywhere, to spend the night. He needed company and here was only one person that he could think of.

"Mike, buddy. Can I crash onto your couch tonight? I can't go home. I promise I'll tell you all about it, but please...I really need a friend tonight."

"Sure, come over. I'm still awake."

A fifteen minute drive took him to his old friend's apartment. Mike and Dominic knew each other since pre-school days, and it was the kind of friendship that lasted through their growing up, fights in the sand, sliding down the snowy hill and breaking their arms while doing it, first dates, first heavy drinking and vomiting, and engagements.

 "Wow, Mike, you have some serious redecorating skills." Dominic whistled as he walked through the door.

"Thanks! I'm having fun with it but it's a lot of work. You should have seen it last month - it was a total mess."

"And you didn't call me to help you?"

"I'm a grown man, Dominic. I can take care of myself."

"You sure can. But you're still my little brother." Dominic said and Mike giggled.

They came from different financial backgrounds. Whereas Dominic's family was filthy rich, Mike's was struggling to make ends meet. Still, and that was the part of their relationship that Kayla refused to understand, they clicked from the moment that Dominic asked him to play hide and seek with his friends, seeing how Mike sat on the bench with a bored look on his face. To repay him for his act of kindness, Mike had offered to beat up a bully that has been breathing down Dominic's neck for quite a while, even though he wasn't stronger than Dominic.

Even though they rarely discussed their families' financial situations, they couldn't help but being jealous of each other from time to time. Mike, obviously, envied him for the amounts of money that were piling up on his bank account, but he softened his reaction when Dominic, quite suddenly, told him that he was jealous of him, as well.

"I don't understand. What for?"

"Because you have the thing that I don't have."

"What's that?"

"A happy family."

Mike looked at him with his eyes wide open. He never thought that a person such as Dominic, and a best friend at that, would ever be jealous of him, let alone for such a reason.

"What do you mean?"

"Because...your mom cooks delicious meals, she is happy, she is kind, her hands smell like cinnamon and apples, her skin is soft when she touches my cheek...your dad is home every night for dinner, he is listening to your problems. I don't have that. My mom is never home to make dinner or lunch, she said that staying at home is boring and that she would rather be anywhere else, basically. Dad is working way too much, and I don't have the time to talk to him about the things I would really love to talk about."

It took Mike to think about it for a few moments.

"I think you can call yourself my brother. My parents love you. I head them saying that you are a great influence on me."

"Really?"

"Sure! It would be so fun to have a brother."

"Yeah! Yeah, I could do that! I could be your brother!"