rich & sad ↣ joshler ✓

29. Disgusting

It was two days later when Josh was walking into the office once more. It was Friday and he was in a really good mood. Did it have anything to do with Tyler? Or what they did last night in Josh's bed? Maybe... but Josh was just going to let himself be happy. It didn't matter why or how.

Tyler was actually still at his place. Josh told him he could sleep in since he didn't want to make Tyler go home at 7:30 in the morning.

As he was nearing his office, Hayley began walking up to him with an anxious look on her face. "Mr. Dun, you know what you should do? Take the day off. Maybe even the weekend."

Josh stopped walking. "What happened?" He asked, the smile dropping from his face.

She sighed and Josh instantly became alarmed. "I um..." she began. "I don't know how to tell you. You'll probably just find out when you get to your office."

He let out a nervous laugh. "What? What will I find out?"

Hayley pursed her lips. "I don't want to be the one to show you."

Josh instantly began speed walking to his office. He entered and shut the door quickly, haphazardly throwing his coat and bag off before turning on his computer. His leg bounced nervously as it turned on and a few seconds later he was greeted with his account.

He signed in and as soon as he was on his desktop he was clicking the browser repeatedly until it opened.

He didn't know what to do so he began typing in his name, hoping he would find whatever Hayley was talking about. Surprisingly, all he had to type in was 'Josh d' before his named popped up. He didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

As he waited for it to load, he loudly drummed his fingers against the desk. Once the webpage did load, he realized that it was a bad thing. Very bad.

The first few articles were what caught his eye. The first one was from the Modem website and was titled something normal but the next ones... were not good.

He saw one that said "Guys and Gadgets: Primgold CEO is Gay?" and his heart sunk. It seemed to fall more and more as he scrolled down the page and read more articles. Some positive, some negative, but all about his sexuality.

He clicked on one article that read "Joshua Dun, Primgold CEO, likes men! Biggest scandal since Jeff Bezos divorce!"

As his eyes scanned the page he felt like he was going throw up. However, he clicked on more and more articles and read through them all. The positive ones were fine but the negative ones seemed to overpower those and make Josh feel worse with every word.

One article he clicked on talked had a comment section and maybe he was an idiot for going down to it but he did anyway. A comment in particular caught his eyes and he gulped when he saw there were 72 replies.

This is disgusting. I've been a Primgold customer for years and this ruined it for me. Switching to Apple for sure.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," he said aloud. Josh didn't think about this. He didn't think about the public's reaction. "Fuck!" He put his head in his hands.

Tears started to fill his eyes. Not only did this affect his company this made him feel like shit about himself. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to handle this.

He grabbed his phone and unlocked it, going to his contacts. He was about to tap on Jenna's when he stopped. How was she supposed to help him? She didn't have this problem. She wouldn't know what to do. Besides, she was probably either sleeping or getting her kids ready for the day. He didn't want to bother her.

He scrolled down and pressed Tyler's name, holding the phone to his ear and waiting anxiously.

It rang five times and was about to reach voicemail when he picked up. "Hello?" He answered in a groggy voice, making Josh instantly feel bad since he woke his boyfriend up.

"Ty?" His bottom lip wobbled as tears filled his eyes once more.

"Shit," Tyler replied. "Josh? Are you crying?"

"I—" he began, forcing himself to take a deep breath. "This isn't good. Modem published the interview. People don't like it. They don't like that I'm gay. I'm panicking. What the hell am I supposed to do? Some people are boycotting Primgold and others are just talking shit. This is so bad for my reputation. It's making me feel like shit too. I'm stressed and I'm going to have to work even more to make sure I still have customers—"

"Relax, babe. I'm still half asleep I can't process anything you're saying when you're rambling. Breathe."

"I don't know what to do!" Josh told him, internally cursing himself when a sob came out.

"Hey, listen to me," Tyler began in a soft voice. "Why don't you take a break from work? Like a week or two? Surely you have the vacation time and it's your own company."

Anxiety filled Josh's body at those words. "I can't. I can't do that. I can't be gone for that long."

"Why not?" His boyfriend questioned. "You've been missing little amounts of work here and there, which is more than usual, and everything's been going fine. You told me yourself that you trust the people on your team to get shit done. You have an assistant too and obviously she's never failed you if you've kept her around this long. If you need to take time off so this blows over and you can recovering then take time off."

"I—"

"And fuck whoever has an issue with it," he added. "They're not making millions and aren't CEO of a big company. You have so much on them. And just because a few people aren't supporting you anymore doesn't mean you're losing a ton of customers. Literally a handful of people aren't going to matter. You need to calm down."

"Okay," Josh nodded even though Tyler couldn't see him. He closed his eyes and let tears slip down his cheeks.

"I'm still at your place. Leave now and we can cuddle and spent the day together. It can be your first official day of your vacation."

Josh thought about that for a moment. Tyler was right. He did deserve a break and his employees could handle it. And if they can't, he'll either come back in or fix everything himself. "I have to talk to Hayley and get everything sorted out but then I'll leave. Stay there."

"Okay," he could hear the smile in Tyler's voice. "I'll see you soon."

"I love you," Josh said in a low voice, biting his lip anxiously.

"I love you too, baby."

Josh hung up the phone and let out a shaky breath. His eyes drifted over to his computer screen. He wiped his eyes before exiting out of the tab and shutting his computer down. Grabbing his phone, he dialed Hayley's office phone number.

It rang once before she answered. "I'm sorry," she said instantly.

"Me too," Josh sighed. "Can you come here? I need to talk to you about some things. I think I'm gonna take a few weeks off."

"Wait, really?" She asked, surprise evident in her voice. "You're taking time off?"

"Can I not do that? Do you guys need me?" He replied, his anxiety resurfacing.

"No, you can!" She assured. "I'm just a little shocked. You never take time off."

"I think I need to," Josh admitted.

"I think so too," Hayley paused. "I'll be there in like a minute."

"Okay. Thanks, Hayley."

"Of course, Mr. Dun."