Rumors were flying fast around work about him and Dean, and he didn't deny any of them, even the more ridiculous ones he heard. He smiled coyly when asked, nodded when people expected him to, and said nothing at all.
Hugh stalked by his cubicle several times during the remainder of the week, talking loudly about how disgusted he was by two faced dicksuckers. Justin avoided him like the plague.
It didn't matter. Dean was finally his, and nothing the shitbags at work may say could get through the elation he felt. It was freeing. He felt above the petty bullshit and drama of the office, floating in his own haze of happiness.
Dean set some ground rules after they made up. No lunch together, no visiting Dean's department during the day, limit texting during work to less than ten messages total, and only the most casual greetings if they passed in the halls. Ben had protested, but Dean promised that if he followed those rules, he'd be allowed to come over Friday night.
Hugh and Justin walked by his cubicle intentionally on their way to lunch every day now, the only time Justin would come within a ten foot radius of his cube. They talked about him loud enough for him to hear, and he knew it was intentional. It made him feel itchy, that his 'friends' were suddenly not his friends at all, that the thing with Dean negated four years of friendship. Though, he wasn't sure he could remain friends anyway, at least the kind of friend he'd been.
Past-Ben was a little embarrassing, he realized, and a bit of a dick.
He ignored them again today as they walked by, though his eyes followed them out as they left. He felt a wide range of emotions quickly that all boiled down to a bit of disappointment, but mostly good riddance. He didn't like Past-Ben that much anymore, and he didn't like Past-Ben's friends at all.
"Sure are asswipes, those two," Aisha said, leaning over Ben's wall from her cubicle beside him. She rested her arms on the wall and her chin on her arms.
He looked at her, slightly confused. She'd talked to him less than a handful of times since she'd moved into the cube beside his a few months ago. "Come again?"
She snorted, staring at him with piercing blue eyes. She tucked flyaway strands of black hair behind her ear, which drew attention to the piercing in her left eyebrow and the line of piercings up her earlobe. She tossed her head and the rest of her hair, tied up in a tight ponytail, swung over her shoulder and draped down her back. It ended somewhere around her butt he knew, though he couldn't see it from his position. "Your friends," she said, raising one eyebrow as if it was obvious. "They're asswipes."
"Oh. Yeah, I guess so," he agreed. Why was Aisha talking to him? "Not sure we're still friends, though."
"No big loss, in my opinion. Don't look so afraid, dude," Aisha said with a bark of laughter. "I don't bite, unless you want me to." She rubbed her nose, it looked like a nervous habit, drawing his attention to the small red gemstone in her nose.
Heat rushed to Ben's face. "I'm good," he said, avoiding her eyes. It struck him that before Dean, he'd have been hitting on Aisha right back. She was hitting on him, wasn't she?
She laughed again. "I'm Aisha, by the way." She poked her hand into his cube.
"I know." Still, he shook her hand by reflex alone. Her skin was hot and she squeezed his hand harder than was necessary. He tried to pull away but she held him with strength he hadn't expected. She flipped his hand over, then pulled his fist open and looked at his palm, tracing the lines of his hand with her middle finger.
He tugged again, but she didn't release him. He stopped fighting, sure she'd let him go whenever she was done with what she was doing. He'd never paid much attention to her, he'd always thought she wasn't much to look at, but now that she held him captive, he found he'd been wrong.
Her features were pretty striking, dark almond eyes set in a deep tan complexion accenting her black hair and sleek cheekbones. Why had he never noticed before? Aisha pursed her lips to the side, then caught his eyes. "Your life is complicated, Ben."
He snorted, then nodded. "At times," he agreed. She released his hand and he pulled it back, rubbing his wrist where she'd held him tight. "Not to be rude, but you've never really talked to me before. Did you need something from me?"
She pouted. "Listen, Ben, your asswipe friends, well, they're disgusting animals. Figured you were, too, since you hung out all the time. But now..." She shrugged. "I don't think you're actually like them at all."
He watched her carefully for a moment. "I'm still me," he answered, but it felt like the wrong answer.
Her expression said the same, and he felt like a third grader again in Mrs. Adam's class when he'd messed up his multiplication table again. "You're not the same Ben that sat here a month ago, Ben."
He opened his mouth to refute her, then closed it again and nodded. "I guess I'm not," he agreed. Dean cuddling with him on Tuesday night popped into his head, and he was glad he wasn't the same him from a month ago.
Aisha whined a happy little whine. "That smile! You're thinking about him, aren't you?"
Ben reset his mask, trying to look skeptical and bored. "Who? Of course not."
She laughed, clapping her hands. Ben saw she wore rings on most fingers, and the rings were attached to a bracelet by golden chains on her left hand. "That's just adorable," she gushed. "How'd he woo you?"
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Aisha, no offence, but we really never talked before this. Why would I tell you something so personal? We're strangers."
"We're cube-buddies!" Aisha dismissed. "It's fine, I'm totally a safe space." She leaned deeper into his cube. "You know you wanna talk about it, and now you don't have any friends, much less the kind who'd understand, even if they weren't asswipes."
She was right, he found. He really did want to talk to someone else about Dean, about their relationship. Still... "I don't know you at all."
She frowned and pouted at the same time. "I guess that's fair. Hmm... Well, you're a sub, aren't you?"
"Sub?"
She frowned. "You're so innocent. How can you be so innocent at your age? Submissive, Ben. You're submissive to Dean, right?"
He paled, his stomach wringing with instant anxiety. "No."
She laughed, clapping her bedazzled hands together again. "You're absolutely a sub. Is Dean a good Dom?"
He blushed, turning away. "This isn't the time or place, Aisha."
"Oh, he is. This is great. I never thought you'd be into BDSM, Ben. You didn't strike me as the type, but I can see it when you're thinking about Dean. You've never been interested before?" She looked around, then shook her head, her ponytail swaying. "No, hold up." She ducked out of sight.
He had a second of relief before she was in his cube. She wore a pale pink top hidden under an oversized cardigan that covered her body down to her thighs, and a long, khaki-colored skirt under that. "This's better. Gabe's being a nosy bitch. He has his suspicions that I'm not just a boring, unkempt millennial airhead, but I'm not gonna give him the satisfaction of finding out. Anyway, Ben, you were telling me about how Dean dominates you. Is he into spanking? Does he tie you up? Use toys? Humiliation?"
His face was on fire. She was blocking his exit, he was trapped in his cube with Aisha's probing questions. "No," he squeaked. "Aisha, I-"
"You're so submissive!" she whispered excitedly. "You must melt in Dean's hands. I didn't know Dean was a Dom, is that how you fell into his trap?"
Ben cleared his throat. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"You're dating Dean," Aisha said matter-of-factly. "Everyone knows."
"How do you know it's not just a rumor?" Ben countered.
She snorted, then rolled her eyes. "Your asswipe friends don't talk to you anymore, they talk about you. It's not a rumor."
It stung. He wasn't sad or anything, it pissed him off more than anything else. "They're dicks," he agreed. "Still, couldn't we be fighting about anything and they just found something to make me an outcast?" His phone vibrated and he reached for it, looking for an excuse to stop talking to Aisha.
It was from Dean. He'd done his best to avoid sending Dean any texts all morning, he didn't want to use up his ten each day, and he still wasn't sure if that meant ten total between the both of them, like he only had five, or if they each had ten. He wasn't gonna risk not getting to go to Dean's apartment tonight. 'No texts today?' Dean asked.
'Saving them up. Don't wanna give you a reason to cancel.' He looked up from his phone to find Aisha watching him raptly, looking giddy.
