At five on Saturday evening his doorbell rang. Opening it, he smiled at Tilly standing there with someone else, about their age, with dark skin, brown eyes and a goofy grin on his face.
"This is Hector. I hope you don't mind, but he also needed a break from work." she grinned at him.
"No problem," he grinned holding his hand out to Hector, who immediately grabbed it in a firm handshake.
"Everybody's been saying that you looked like a high schooler, but how old are you exactly?" Hector gawked at him, surprised that Raymond looked so young.
"Don't worry about that," he grinned back. "I'm old enough to drink, and that's about all that counts."
"True," Hector nodded with a slow smile. "Come on, let's get going. We have to make up for lost time."
Grabbing a table at a local pub, they ordered beer, with Hector also getting a bucket on sticky wings.
"I hope you don't mind that I ordered for all of us, but this is the best way to have beer." Tilly said as Raymond sat down. "It's also the best way to forget about those assholes at work. And by assholes, I mean your current boss!" he scowled, thinking of Jackson who'd made everybody's life at work a misery.
They were well into their fifth order of beer, when Raymond's phone started ringing. With a sigh, he took it out.
"Does this man ever lay off for a minute? he asked, before answering the call.
"Cook!" Jackson's voice boomed, making him yank the phone from his ear. "Get here right now!" he snapped over the line, cutting the call immediately.
"Seems like I have to go and babysit again." he grimaced at them, getting up.
Do you want me to take you?" Hector offered, also getting up.
"No, it's fine. You enjoy the rest of the evening, I'll see you at work." he waived at them, rushing out of the pub, calling a cab.
"What took you so long?!" Jackson looked irritated at Raymond, who'd just arrived.
"Do you want the real reason, or do you want to tell me what the emergency is?" Raymond looked at him calmly. He knew that being snarky wasn't part of his brief, but he may as well have some fun while investigating things at the company. Also, Jackson was being such an ass, and he still felt the buzz of the beer, so there wasn't any harm in pushing his buttons.
"What?!" Jackson was speechless for a moment, almost forgetting why he'd called Raymond over.
"Do you want to know the real reason why it took so long for me to get here, or do you want to tell me what you wanted." Raymond repeated slowly.
Jackson almost laughed at what he'd said. This little kid was really pushing his buttons, but he supposed that he probably deserved that.
"Okay kid, no need to get all snarky. I need you to get me a gift for my mother." he looked at Raymond when he said nothing. "Is there a problem?"
"No, no problem at all." Raymond turned around and headed into the study, returning a few minutes later with a gift wrapped box in his hand, holding it out to Jackson.
"What's this?" Jackson looked at the box as if it was offending him.
"The gift you wanted for your mother." Raymond almost laughed at the expression on Jackson's face. He could almost see the smoke as the wheels ground to a halt in his head.
"Is this a joke?" he snapped, the sour look on his face again. "What's in there?"
"You can either open it up and then gift wrap it yourself again, or you can give it to your mother when she arrives tomorrow." Dropping the box on the table, he turned around and started moving toward the door.
"Where do you think you are going?" Jackson got up from his chair, walking toward Raymond.
"Careful now," Raymond warned him, taking a step toward Jackson, goading him further.
"What's that so supposed to mean?" Jackson bending down so he was almost nose to nose with Raymond, trying to intimidate him into submission.
Not saying anything else, Raymond moved closer and planted a kiss on Jackson's mouth. He watched in humor at the shocked expression on Jackson's face. It was almost as if he didn't know what to do next, frozen in place.
"Now, if there isn't anything else, I'll see you on Monday, Mr. Dealer." he grinned at Jackson who was still confused at what had happened. Turning to leave, he chuckled to himself, shaking his head. One of them was going to break first, and he'd be damned if he was the one to cave. He's had enough experience with bullies to know how to shut them up.
Jackson stared at confusion as Raymond left the house. What was that all about? He felt winded. No matter how he pushed, Raymond always seemed to be one step ahead of him. He lifted his fingers to his mouth. He didn't expect that. Once he got over his shock, he laughed at the stupid way Raymond had shut him up. This kid was really one in a million. Maybe he needed to find out more about him. None of his previous assistants had ever stood up to him. They certainly never kissed him. Shaking his head, he picked up the box, gently shaking it, trying to discern what the contents were.
--
Raymond stood waiting for Jackson in the kitchen. He seemed to have chilled a bit after Saturday's altercation. He certainly didn't say anything this morning when Raymond had done his tie. Instead he had a weird look, a slight smile on his face. Running through his schedule, Raymond drove him to work in silence. By ten, Raymond thought he'd broken Jackson, who seemed to be more quiet than usual.
Taking him his coffee, Raymond stood in front of his desk, waiting for him to say anything, instead he dismissed him without a word. For the rest of the morning everything carried on in peace, something that Raymond was grateful for. It gave him more time to do what was expected of him.
At two, Jackson stopped in front of Raymond's desk, who jumped to attention, waiting for him to speak. Jackson glanced down and smiled, seeing Raymond's hand hover near the phone, as if anticipating what he was about to ask.
"Get me that woman from HR." He waited for Raymond to ask who, instead he lifted the handset, quickly talking into the phone.
"She's on her way." He confirmed, waiting for Jackson's next request. He was surprised when he turned on his heel and headed back to his office. What was that all about? Raymond thought, caught off guard by Jackson's request.
When Tilly reached their floor, she was expecting a bloody scene in front of her. Instead a smiling Raymond ushered her into Jackson's office, closing the door behind her
"Where did you get this kid?" he asked, his eyes boring into Tilly.
"He signed on as a data capturer, sir." Him asking confused her. He'd never shown any interest in where his assistants came from or who they were. He'd only fired them after a week. She hoped that he wasn't going to cause trouble that would have her whole department in uproar. She couldn't handle all the stress anymore.
"Do you have his file? I want to know exactly where he came from." he dismissed her. A data capturer. He seemed to be able to do more than that.
When he received Raymond's file, he was surprised at how little information there was on him. It really did seem as if he had come to them straight from school, but his file showed that he was in his late twenties, with no record of him ever going to college. Nothing seemed out of the order. But after reading the file, he was left more confused than ever. Who was this kid?
"Cook!" he called over the intercom. Maybe he could get some straight answers out of him. When Raymond stood in front of him, he had that bright smile on his face again, waiting for Jackson for speak.
"Tell me, what did you do before you got here?" his file didn't mention anything except him doing a few temp jobs all over the place. Nothing in the line of what he was doing now.
"I worked at a pizza shop." Raymond kept his answer short and vague, knowing that Jackson was on a fact finding mission.
"Yes, but how did you end up at Dealer's?"
"Well, I needed the money, so I thought I'd try my hand at something else." he looked quizzically at Jackson. Where was this going exactly?
"Well, that's obvious." Jackson retorted sourly. "You're file is very vague, is there something that you're trying to hide?" He couldn't shake the feeling that their was more to him than just being a temp worker who'd been floating around since high school. Nobody's record was that clean.
"Hide? Not that I know of. I'm sure that you've looked at my CV, so that should tell you all that you need to know." Raymond knew that he was on a fishing expedition, but knew that Jackson wouldn't find anything of interest. He'd been working at for his uncle long enough to know how to cover his tracks.
"Very well." Jackson wasn't too happy with his answers, but other than have him moved to another Department, there was very little he could do to draw the information out of him. And since he was so good at what he was doing at the moment, he'd rather not move him anywhere just yet. So far he'd been able to keep up with everything that Jackson has asked of him, without complaint. So why did it feel like he was missing something?