{ #2 } I Would Give Him The Moon (MxM || 18+)

Chapter 25 - Compromising

(Joshua's POV - Mon. 14 October 2013)

"What was that about?" Allan asks as he settles at the round meeting table in my office.

"What?" I ask him in return, although I have my idea. I will need to cut this conversation short again...

"All this blushing on Liam's face, like I interrupted something..." he answers with a knowing look.

"You didn't interrupt anything, Liam was about to go back to his desk after our morning meeting. I guess you just surprised him with the knock on the door," I explain naturally.

"Yeah sure... Just be careful..." he advises, looking at his computer.

"What do you mean?" I ask nonchalantly, focusing on my own screen.

"You know what I mean, Josh. I've known you for long enough to have my guess about what is going on..." he says casually.

"And what is your guess?" I ask defiantly, although I know I should stop this now. He looks up from his screen and folds his arms across his chest, leaning back in his chair.

"Josh, you are my friend and, as a friend, I've never meddled much into your private life, or at least the part you never told me about; but I've seen a few of these guys you called your boyfriends and I know that they were not really that. And I have my guess on what's hiding within Aaron's club too. I don't judge you because I don't know much about... all this... and honestly I don't really care... to each their own after all. You could be involved in a sect or do anything that I don't approve of, you would still be my friend... well to a certain extent of course... but anyway, if what's going on with Liam is what I'm thinking about, that's not my business and I can only advise you to be cautious in the office." Well, I guess that had to happen at some point...

"Don't worry, I'll be careful," I simply comment, looking back at my laptop.

"You know that some people have spiteful tongues here... and I'm not sure that picking someone that is your employee is the best idea, but if you think that you can deal with this, that's fine."

"It will be fine," I reaffirm. "And I trust you to keep this secret. Hadn't it been you, I would have kicked you out for suggesting things like this. I'm sorry I never told you before, but I never wished to discuss this with people who don't belong in this lifestyle; they mostly wouldn't understand it."

"Josh, I'm not asking you to tell me about it, don't worry... I always knew you were some kind of kinky guy!" he guffaws. "Just saying, be careful with Liam. This is a different situation for you... Anyway... let's review this agreement with Cole..."

With that, we set to work on the agreement and spend the whole morning there. I notice Liam go to fetch my lunch around noon and go out again a little while later. I thought he would have stayed at his desk and look at the contract while having his lunch, eager to see the details, but he only comes back at 1:00 and sets back to work. My own afternoon flies by between conference calls and the visits of Derek who presents me the final budget for the new division and Connie who confirms that she's interviewing Derek's friend tomorrow. She also informs that she worked with Liam to accommodate two more interviews on Thursday in my calendar for the function of Manager of the new division. Hopefully one of these two will provide a good fit because I will need this person to work urgently on the project and doing interviews is not really my favorite task. As usual, I have glanced at Liam as often as I could throughout the afternoon; he has been focused on his work, worrying his lips all the time and looking nervous for the past two hours. I wonder if this is from the stress of work or due to the contract he is about to read. At 6:00, I see him tidying his desk and warily walk to our meeting room, carrying the white envelope I gave him this morning. I chuckle at the fact that he needs to hide to read it, more than certainly conscious that I can see him through the windows.