Okay so the original chapter for this was written just after my 18th birthday, and I had to acknowledge the fact that that was EIGHT YEARS AGO. I'm in an existential crisis now; time is meaningless.
Also it's hit 30 degrees Celsius where I am (England) and we operate badly once it passes the mid-20s here, we are NOT used to the heat. The underboob sweat is real, pals. T__T
Love, Cam
Americano, No Milk
"So," Edward said, his voice rising out of my phone while I packed boxes. "In summary. You served a super hot Italian guy in the café."
"That really is the least pertinent part of this story, but yes," I replied, writing 'CABLES/CHARGERS AND SHIT' on the box and grabbing the tape dispenser to finish it.
"And then you went to see Harper, and he had a friend who needed someone to help out at that friend's workplace," Edward continued as though he'd not heard a word I said. "And when you get there, hot Italian guy is the boss."
"Yes," I nodded, turning to the next box.
"And then you, after ten minutes, signed up for this job and drove back home to pack up your shit," Edward said, his voice sceptical. "And you're moving in with Harper."
"Yes," I confirmed, grabbing the few books I thought I might need in the next month.
Edward paused thoughtfully, and then said, "You know, I think this might have something to do with the hot Italian guy."
I snorted, packing up my laptop and graphics tablet. "You would say that."
"Hey, I am absolutely happy to say that the hot Italian guy would sway my decision-making," Edward giggled.
"You are such a queen," I grinned to the air, unable to stop myself. "Look, yes, I realise he is very hot. I realise his eyes are intense as fuck and I like that sort of thing. I realise his suit was like, the hottest thing I've ever seen on a human being. I realise that his voice is-"
"Okay, now you sound like me," Edward laughed. "Seriously, though - this is what you want, right? Harper didn't force your hand or anything? I know he wants what is best for you, but they can all go a bit all-in on that sort of thing."
"No, I just..." I paused, trying to process why I had agreed to do this. "I don't know, it just seemed like a good place to work, and it seemed like I would be good at it. The second I entered the office I thought 'oh, there's so much I could do to help here'. The money's pretty good, too, even though I know my cost of living is about to go steeply upwards."
"How's Jenny and Lucie taking it?" Ed asked.
I lowered my voice so they couldn't hear me, and wrote 'BEDROOM CRAP' on a box before taping it up. "Honestly, I don't know. I think they've wanted me to go out and do something new for a while, they just didn't see it coming so suddenly. Which is fair, because neither did I, to be honest."
"I'm just happy you're happy," Edward sounded genuine. He was the only one that hadn't hounded me about dropping out of university when I had, and I appreciated it. Ed had changed jobs so much that I knew he understood that one career path until the day you retire wasn't what everyone was suited for.
"Thanks, babe," I said, hoping he knew how much I appreciated him.
"You should talk to Raves," he suddenly said, as though the thought had just occurred to him. "She's coming to the end of her lease, I think. Maybe she's up for living with someone? If you stay on at the job, I mean."
"Oh, sure," I thought about it. Raven and I were very different people, but we'd always been pretty good friends. She was strongly opinionated, which often made people shy away from her, but I had pretty similar views to her so we often just vented together about the government. From what I'd been told, she was tidy, quiet, and easy to live with. "Yeah, I'll shoot her a message, that's a good idea. Thanks, man."
"No worries, just in case you get tired of a pull-out bed after two weeks," he laughed. "Right, I'm leaving you to pack - I'm way behind you time-zone-wise and I need lunch."
"Okay, baby," I said, and looked around at the rest of the crap I had to pack up. "Speak to you later. Have fun! Gamble safely!"
Edward laughed and hung up, leaving me alone with all the stuff. I had separated it into things I would bring over later, if I decided to stay in London, and the stuff I needed to bring for the next month. It was a lot of clothes. I had way, way too many clothes.
"Ma!" I called down the stairs.
"Yeah?" Jenny called back up.
"Why didn't you stop me buying so many clothes? This is a nightmare!" I shouted.
"Me and what army?!" Jenny replied loudly. "You're a gay man in his twenties, Tom, you think I truly had any power over you buying clothes?"
I couldn't argue with that. "Harper, do you have a coffee machine?" I called to him hopefully, even though he didn't drink coffee. I'd live with one of those little pod machines if I had to.
Harper responded with, "I have instant coffee for guests and that's it!"
I cringed at the thought of drinking instant. I did it in a pinch, and for some reason it really helped my hangovers, but I'd been spoiled rotten with good coffee over the years. Damn my mothers and the café. I called to Lucie, "Mum! I'm taking my coffee machine!"
Both of my mothers groaned in disappointment, but I heard Lucie start to wrestle with it in the kitchen. I returned to the bedroom, starting to fold and pile clothes into boxes and a suitcase. I hadn't even started on my shoes. This was a nightmare.
"The kitchen is gonna look so naked," Jenny sighed, carrying the coffee machine out to Harper's car. Harper bounded up the stairs, and I smiled at the sight; it was nice to see him stronger and fitter than he had been a few years ago.
"I'm done with your kitchen stuff," he said, and caught sight of my smile. "What's got you so happy?"
"Oh, I just spoke to Ed," I hastily covered up my real reason, not wanting to remind Harper that his health came onto my mind so often. "He's having a great time."
"Well, it's Edward and Vegas, of course he is," Harper rolled his eyes, but smiled affectionately afterwards. He turned to my bedroom and took in the amount of clothes. "I'm sorry, where the hell do you think you're moving to? I don't have a walk-in."
"I know," I groaned. "Help."
"Well, it's mostly a nine-to-five, except for the social stuff like the benefits," Harper mused. "Pack night out stuff if you must, but remember you'll not be able to go out as often as you do here."
"My bank account will thank me," I grinned, discarding a pile to my right. "I know Angelo was in a suit, but the others didn't look too formal, did they? Misa was in a suit too, but she'd been with Angelo at a meeting."
Harper thought back to the meeting that morning. "Yeah, I'd say office wear, but I don't think suit and tie is what you'll need. You should get a couple of suits, though - for benefits and fundraisers. Those might be formal."
I added it to my to-do list on my phone and then stretched. "Okay. Then it'll be this pile to box. Can you do that while I deal with the stuff I absolutely do not want my mothers to see."
Harper couldn't help but grin as he said, "I'm sure your mothers own the same stuff."
I snorted, opening my bedside drawers and removing the contents; condoms, lube, sex toys and various kink-related stuff. "If they're using condoms, then I have some questions for them."
Harper spied my haul and laughed. "Jesus Christ, Tom, I had no idea you were so kinky," he nodded towards my collection, specifically indicating an anal hook.
"I'm a millennial, the hallmark of our generation is repressing emotions and making everything kinky," I replied.
"I'm a millennial," Harper repeated his words from earlier. "I don't own an anal hook."
I smirked. "Then you're not doing it right."
I heard my phone buzz five times, and looked at it to see a message from Jasper. I had sent him a quick message saying that I was moving to London on a whim and starting a new job. Ross and Jasper were living in London at the moment, establishing the London offices of Joss. His replies read:
Uhhh wtf man, any other major life decisions you wanna tell me about the day before it happens?????
So fucking excited tho
It's been forever since we lived in the same place
Ross is hype too (well, he said 'oh good, I'm looking forward to seeing him more often' which for Ross is like firing off a confetti cannon and performing a celebratory lap dance)
Seriously baby this is awesome, I'm so so happy for you but like, mostly for me because it means I can kiss your face off whenever I want, gonna be halfway down your dick :3
I grinned. Jasper was, as always, the only person who used the :3 emoji. Harper read them over my shoulder with my permission and laughed. "I thought you guys didn't do each other anymore?"
"Oh, we don't have sex very often these days," I confirmed. "But that's more due to proximity than anything else. And y'know, once Ross realised Jenny and Lucie wouldn't rip his balls off, the three of us had some fun."
Harper shot a look at me, but it was too late. I heard an, "EXCUSE ME?" from behind me, and turned sheepishly to see my mother staring at me.
"In my defence," I held up my hands, "it's only been like eight times."
Harper burst out laughing behind me, sitting on the bed to keep himself from falling over. Lucie was aghast at the thought of Ross defiling her baby, but Jenny generally found it hilarious, more so when she realised it was Ross, Jasper and me.
"Oh come on," she said to Lucie. "You cannot truly be surprised by this. Jasper and Ross are the horniest people I've ever met."
"Edward will take personal offence to that," Harper teased Lucie, while he wrote 'TOM SEX TOYS LMAO' on the box he had just packed. Even she had to admit that one was funny.
*****
I decided that, except for my clothes, I'd just live out the boxes rather than unpacking entirely at Harper's place. I'd only be leaving in a few weeks, for home or for another flat, so there wasn't much point in settling too much. Harper pulled out the sofa bed for me, which was more comfortable than I'd been expecting.
He pointed at me sternly and said, "You may only masturbate in the shower, because I have no spare set of sheets for this bed."
I laughed really hard at that one. "I think I can restrain myself when in bed, H. You do not need to worry about your security deposit."
"Good," he laughed, and eyed the coffee machine. "Does that do other things? Like hot chocolate or something?"
"Yeah," I nodded, getting off the sofa bed. "You want one?"
"Please," Harper said, sitting down on the sofa bed. "God I'm tired. I am so far past the age where I can help a friend move in exchange for a pizza. When you move next, I'm not helping."
"Totally fair," I grinned, filling the milk jug and sticking the steaming wand into it. When the milk was at 140, I tipped some drinking chocolate powder into it and stirred it, pouring it into a mug. "Here you go."
Harper took the mug from me, sniffing it. "Okay, I might not let you move out."
"Build a second bedroom and we got a deal," I grinned.
*****
I looked up at the apartment building that Jasper's flat was in and heavily asked, "Dude, how much does this place cost?"
Jasper smiled innocently. "Around three thousand."
"Jesus Christ," I cringed at the thought of it. "You two earn way too much money."
"Trust me, it doesn't go as far living here," Jasper sighed. "Our place at home was the same size and like, half the price. We were thinking of buying, but it's just ridiculously expensive."
We walked into the foyer, because it was way too fancy to be called a lobby. I saw what looked to be marble pillars, and said, "I'm not even going to ask if that's actually marble." Then I saw the doorman. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."
"Trust me, I know," Jasper grinned at my expression, then warmly greeted the man. "Hello, Simon, any messages for Ross?"
"Mr Stone has eighteen messages, mostly from his sister," Simon said, handing over a bunch of memo notes. "You have three, one each from anxious brides, one of which was very rude. You also have a parcel; your new headphones arrived."
"Oh, fantastic," Jasper said, ripping open the package and handing me the box. "Brilliant, it's perfect. Check it out, Tom - do I pass for a straight gamer?"
"You're wearing a glittery t-shirt, so no," I commented, whilst Simon casually took the empty box from me and threw it over his shoulder into the bin. Even his aim was classy.
"Simon, this is Tom, my friend from home, he's been given a spare key so add him to my safe list," Jasper said, putting the headphones on and turning on his bluetooth for them. "Tom, this is Simon, the concierge for Mondays and Wednesdays, and the love of my life."
"Oh, lucky for you," I smirked at Simon, who chuckled. "Ross got bumped to second place, I'm guessing?"
"Oh, Ross is like, fifth at the moment," Jasper said, as we got into the lift. "I found a new doughnut place so honestly, that's risen above him."
"Entirely understandable," I nodded seriously. "So how's wedding photography alongside Joss stuff? Isn't it hard to balance?"
"We don't have any shoots going on at the moment, and Aaron is running things really smoothly while I'm doing the wedding circuit," he said, and we got out at the fourth floor. He unlocked the door at the other end of the corridor, and opened it for me. "Welcome!"
I hadn't seen Jasper's new flat yet - they'd only been here six months and we had spent time together mostly at home instead. I took in the sight of their flat and said, "Jesus Christ, you really do earn too much money."
As we walked into the living room, I asked, "Anyway, what about you two? No plans to walk down the aisle? We can throw condoms instead of rose petals, if you want."
"Now that would make an excellent photoshoot," Jasper sounded amused. "But no, I don't think so. Honestly, I'm happy doing it whenever Ross wants to, so I've left it up to him to decide when he's feeling it."
"Well, you are only twenty-five," I mused, and then winked. "But Ross is getting on a bit."
I heard a low growl behind me and a hand went to my hair, pulling it back. I grinned as I looked up and saw Ross looking at me, irritated. "Don't you be a little shit," he warned me, and I laughed, pulling out of his grip so I could give him a hug. "Yeah, yeah, I missed you, too," he muttered, returning the hug and kissing me on the lips. "You sure you don't want to move in here? We can clear out the office and turn it into a spare room."
"It's cool, Harper's place is good," I replied, but looked around the flat. "Not that this place isn't ridiculously cool, I just don't want to steal Jasper's home studio."
It was spacious, which was honestly not something you could often boast about living in London. It was very white, with a dark plum and bright yellow as accent colours. It was so different to their old place, but it felt more like a mix of the both of them than just Ross' place with Jasper existing in it.
"Those yours?" I asked, nodding at the landscapes on the wall.
"Yeah," Jasper said, and ducked his head as Ross kissed him on the cheek, looking proudly at his boyfriend. "Shut up, they're just photos."
Ross rolled his eyes at Jasper's embarrassment, and said to me, "First day, then?"
"Yeah, Jasper insisted we have breakfast before my first day," I said, and then added, "Well, that and he wanted to make me pretty."
Jasper folded his arms across his chest. "Well, I wanted to make you pretty, but I can't now, because you turned up already looking pretty."
I had to admit I had tried especially hard to look good. My hair usually refused to settle down, a dark mess of short waves smashed on my head, but I'd tamed it somehow with Harper's hair products and several YouTube tutorials. I was wearing dark jeans that I knew made my butt look good, with a shirt and light blue blazer.
"Don't you be getting any ideas," I warned him. "I tried to look good today, can't have you messing it up by stripping me."
"I wish," Jasper sighed, checking his watch. "But we both have to get to work. I'll walk with you to the tube."
Ross eyed us both. "Tell you what, Twinkie, let Tom actually focus on his first week at work, and then we can have sex with him if he hasn't accidentally 'fallen' on his boss' dick. Okay?"
Jasper winked at him. "Deal."
I sighed, and pushed Jasper back out towards the door. "C'mon, trouble. I have to try much harder at my job now my mother is not my boss."
*****
I got into the lift at work - it was odd to say that it was my workplace, even in my head - and took a few deep breaths. I was going to be fine - I was going to do well, regardless of what my brain gremlins told me. The lift took me up, and I visualised myself rising from the place I had become comfortable in, to new and exciting heights.
"Hey!"
I jumped as Ian popped out at me. "Do... do you just wait there for people?" I asked, clutching my chest.
He held out a coffee, completely ignoring my question. "Coffee?"
Straightening up, I immediately forgave him for the mild heart attack. "Thanks!" I took it, and sipped it without checking the temperature. Thankfully it was not scalding, and it was an americano; I needed the caffeine content. Jasper had taken me for breakfast at a place that only served herbal teas, which was nice, but did not give me the jolt of energy I needed.
"So," Ian led me through to the main room in the offices. "Misa's set you up a desk in her office - we've heard from the plumbers, they said the pipes are being sorted tomorrow, so we should be able to get the contractor in by the end of the week to fix up your office."
"Cool," I replied. He pointed out Misa's office and I politely went in, putting my bag down on the desk Misa had set up for me. She was on the phone, and waved at me, mouthing 'one sec' while she returned to the call. I walked back out and asked Ian, "So, where do I start?"
"I believe you wanted to organise?" he gestured to a desk where he had put a label maker and some sticky notes alongside some collapsible boxes.
"Well, I had hoped I wouldn't pack another box for the rest of my life after moving," I joked. "But give me a label maker and I'll be pretty happy."
"I figured Misa would set you up with Matt's work laptop when she's finished with the morning calls," Ian explained, and then checked his watch. "Usually takes her an hour or so. That work for you?"
"That works," I nodded, and saw that Barbie was in her office, tapping away furiously at a keyboard. I waved, and she caught sight of me and waved back, but didn't say much else. "Where's Chris?"
"Meeting with Angelo," Ian nodded at Angelo's office. "Chris and Angelo are those freaky morning people I keep hearing about, they do their best work before lunch. I do my best work at around ten at night."
"I feel that," I nodded, picking up the label maker. "Right, I'm going to start on this room. If you see a pile of stuff in a weird place, it's there for a reason, so do not move it."
"Gotcha, boy wonder," he saluted and left me to it. I considered it; well, there were certainly much worse nicknames to have.
I busied myself in reading and organising everything around me. It would have seemed that Matt had absolutely no pattern in his filing habits, but fortunately there were several obvious categories to sort things into. Every filing cabinet seemed to only be partially full, so I started removing everything from them as well, sorting it more thoroughly.
After Misa had finished her morning calls, she found me with several separate piles. "Whoa," she said, looking around the room. "You work fast."
"Trust me, I am a pro at organising shit," I laughed. "I helped my friend Edward organise his make-up for drag shows for years."
"Really?" Misa asked, interested.
"Pretty sure I knew how to contour a face before I knew how to do algebra," I nodded, and indicated the piles. "That pile is admin between our high-paying donors that tend to do one-off yearly payments. That pile is our monthly donors who tend to do below fifty quid a month each. That pile there is our personal inter-business admin, bank statements, employee contracts, business expenses, that sort of thing. That pile is everything to do with our events, but I think I need to divide that further. That pile there is about our merch and advertisements. And that one is our financial reports, stats, and other stuff I don't understand very well."
Misa looked impressed. "That is a lot of stuff."
"Yes, and Matt must have been a mad genius if he could find anything in what he had set up," I nodded emphatically. I looked up and said, "Ian said you wanted to show me through the systems and stuff?"
"I can do that later, you keep going with this while you're in the zone," she shook her head, and then Angelo's office door opened.
Chris had his head in his work, and almost tripped over one of my piles when Angelo reached out and grabbed him. "Hm?" he asked, and looked around to find me sat on the floor surrounded by paper. "Uh, what the fuck happened to the floor?"
"Organisation," I replied, and he looked down at me in confusion. "I'm Tom, you met me on Friday."
"I did?" he asked, frowning.
"You were having a fight with a printer," I reminded him.
His frown cleared. "Right, right, the guy that was here when the printer was pissing me off, got it. Nice to see you."
"You too," I smiled, and went to return to my organisation when I caught sight of Angelo. He was in much more casual attire, jeans and a t-shirt. I had thought I'd miss the suit, but the bastard seemed to look glorious in everything he wore. I fixed my eyes on the file in front of me, determined not to embarrass myself lusting after my boss on my first day.
"Hi, Tom," he greeted me. "Thanks again for getting the contract back to Misa so quickly."
"No worries," I waved a hand dismissively and hit Misa in the leg as she was stood next to me. "Sorry, Misa, I'm clumsy."
Angelo eyed the towering stacks of files around me. "Be careful."
"You've got a call in twenty minutes," Misa reminded him.
"Thanks," Angelo nodded and then frowned at her. "Misa, you've shifted your hair off-centre."
Misa made an 'ugh' noise, and took her hand to her head. With one smooth move, she whipped her hair off her head and turned to the mirror to reposition it. I blinked, surprised by the fact that her hair was a wig, not her real hair.
She spied my expression in the mirror and said, "I have alopecia. My eyebrows are tattooed on."
"No way," I was fascinated by the thought of tattooed eyebrows. "How do they make them look realistic enough?"
Misa shifted her wig, pulling it into place, and then turned around and leaned over so I could see her eyebrows. If I looked super closely, I could see that the tiny hairs weren't real, and neither were the shadows around them, but they were incredibly well done. "Whoa," I said. "That is so cool."
"I know, right?" she beamed. "They did a good job. Which is good because, you know, I trusted them to tattoo my face. Can't laser that off."
I pulled a face. "Yeah not a good thought." I sighed and turned back to the piles of paper. "Remind me why I thought this was a good idea?"
"It looked like hell," Misa reminded me, and I nodded, getting to work.
Looking at the piles of papers, it was like gears started switching in my head. I examined each cabinet, silently analysing the space in each one, assigning each shelf a category. It wasn't for another few minutes of sorting through the first pile that I realised Angelo was watching me curiously. I frowned at him and he said, "Sorry, just wondering how you're organising it."
"Oh," I said, and indicated to the three sub-piles I had going on. "I'm organising the events one at the moment. It's divided by event, and then alphabetically by file name. It helps me to skim it as well, to get an idea of what the events are like - the oldest I've found was eight years ago, which matches when you started the foundation, so that means that Matt likely had pretty comprehensive records."
Angelo smiled. "You really do have an excellent memory, then."
"Did a lot of research this weekend," I admitted. "I read your Wikipedia page, and some interview with a paper in Boston."
His smile faded and was replaced with a grimace. "That interview is horrible."
I laughed at his chagrin. "I think you gave the writer a crush on you, she called you enigmatic like five times. It was interesting though, your work history is fascinating." When he shrugged, I asked, "What made you leave law and go into this?"
He thought about the question, but the answer was just, "I suppose I just changed my view on the world."
"I see..." I said, although I didn't. His answer was mysterious. I wanted to know why he changed his view, but it seemed like a personal question to ask for someone I had only met twice before. "Is there anything you need me to sort out that's more urgent than this?"
"Not at the moment, this is probably going to save us a lot of time," he nodded at what I was doing. "I appreciate you hitting the ground running on this."
"No problem," I said, and I meant it. Everyone here was hard at work, and I wanted to show them that I would do just the same. I wanted to make sure I was making a positive change in the office, and this was just one step of many that I would take to achieve that goal.
"So," Angelo sat down near me. "What about your work history? Ian didn't say where you've worked admin before."
I laughed sheepishly. "I don't think Ian knows where I've worked before - Harper just kind of flung me into his hands. But honestly, I'm a bit of a jack of all trades. My mothers own the café I met you in, and one of them is a freelance contractor, so I've done small business stuff for years. I did admin for my friend Ed for his drag act, and ran his social media for a while, too. I've worked customer service, retail, office stuff - you name it, I've probably done an entry-level version of it. Oh, and during university I was a bartender, which I'll never do again because man it's stressful."
Angelo smiled. "Sounds like a varied history. What did you study at university?"
I froze, my smile still stuck on my face. Shit. Why did I mention university? "I..." I struggled to find the words. "I didn't finish uni - something I didn't intend on admitting to my new boss."
To my relief, a deep laugh was Angelo's reply. "Don't worry about it, my sister never finished university either - I won't pry. University isn't necessary to prove yourself to anyone here."
I was grateful for that last bit. I gave him a small smile, finding his eyes watching me curiously. "Thanks. It's not a particularly interesting story, I just wasn't happy there."
That was a lie, and I think he knew that, but he kept to his word and didn't pry. Instead, he said, "Well, I do hope you like it here. I think you'll be fun to have around."
I blushed a little. "Thanks, Angelo."