A few weeks later, I was still smarting over the fact that I'd been forced to get Eric's help to rent an apartment. It was in my name but he'd had to co-sign for it. Which, I guess, was progress. Ryan kept trying to reassure me that it was, anyway. Eric and Ryan had both helped me move. Well, Eric helped me move; Ryan supervised. Eric and I weren't back together but we had managed to have five or six really halfway decent conversations. We'd also had at least twice that many nasty fights. Ryan assured me that was progress too.
My new apartment wasn't in Plano, but it was in Richardson, which was the next town over and only a few minutes away from Dylan's house. When Eric discovered that fact, by inadvertently finding out that his parents knew Dylan when he mentioned the firm to them, Eric was none too pleased. It was actually the basis for quite a few of those aforementioned fights, even though I hadn't spoken to Dylan since I had changed jobsites. Dylan and I never did have the breakup conversation but we seemed to mutually accept that it was over the morning we had been late to work. The last week that I worked at his office, we only spoke about issues relating to my job and even those conversations were strained. We weren't compatible and we both knew it. He couldn't be the man that I needed him to be, and I couldn't live with the man that he was. It appeared to be the story of my life. I still missed him. I regretted that I had lost him as a friend but I understood. The attraction between us was too strong, the sex was too good, and the emotions were too powerful for us to just be friends.
And I was back to being celibate. Well, not exactly. Most people would consider my sex life to be very active. Ryan still had never invited me to his house, but he spent several nights a week in my bed. Ryan was getting what he needed. Unfortunately, I wasn't. I'm positive that he would have been more than willing to help me out via the employment of a variety of choices in my toy box. I never asked. I knew, from experience, that using dildos just made me hunger for the real thing. They would make me come, and come hard, but left me feeling hollow. I needed warm flesh inside me, a real body over me, and the pleasure of my lover to feel satisfied.
It was the second day of the second job that I had been assigned since leaving GWG and my lackey was late. His name was Todd, and he was a little bit of a slacker, but he was also a genius so I worked around his inherent laziness. At ten after nine, there was a knock on the server room door.
"It's about time you got..." I stalled out when I opened the door to Jason. "You're not Todd."
"Jas. On," he pointed to himself and slowly enunciated his name as if he was speaking to an imbecile.
"Ass. Hole," I retorted in the same tone of voice. "What are you doing here?"
"It's good to see you too," he replied sarcastically and then shrugged. "Roman called me an hour ago and told me to report to you here. That's all I know."
"Well, shit," I sighed. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you're here. I just don't know what happened to Todd. Pop a squat. I'm going to call Roman."
Jason sat in the chair normally occupied by his predecessor while I called our boss's direct number.
"This is Roman," he answered.
"This is Rain," I mocked.
He didn't rise to the bait. "What's up Rain?" He usually had a sense of humor so something was definitely wrong.
"Jason just showed up on my site."
"Yeah. I sent him."
"What happened to Todd?"
Roman sighed. "We let him go."
"You could have told me," I replied. "Why?"
"I shouldn't tell you but... He was sleeping with the client."
I was shocked. For more than one reason. There was the obvious one, of course, and then there was the fact that there were no women at the current jobsite, and Todd was, most assuredly, not gay. "What client?"
"Rachel Tulen," he named the executive secretary on the last job. "We knew about it weeks ago but we didn't have anyone to replace him with until Jason could be pulled."
Roman misinterpreted my silence as reproach and got snippy. "I'm running a networking business not a brothel. I didn't think you'd care since you seemed to like Jason. If you're unhappy with it you can come in after work tonight and we can talk about it."
"I'm fine, Roman," I assured him. "I'm just surprised. I didn't see or hear anything inappropriate."
"Mr. Selznick sure did," Roman replied, his voice still hostile. "The office was wired. You would think that a computer geek would know to turn off the security camera before bending the secretary over her boss's desk."
"You would think," I agreed.
"I need to get back to work. Are we done here or do I need to stay late and expect you?"
"We're done," I assured him. "Jason is great. I'm glad to have him."
"Good. Later."
I stared at the phone on the table after we'd hung up, thinking how close I had come to being Todd. Or, possibly, Rachel.
I went straight home after work and stripped down immediately. I had spent the day crawling around in the ceiling and was covered in God knows what. I turned on the shower to let the water warm up when there was a knock on the door. Grabbing a towel, I wrapped it around my waist and answered the door.
My jaw nearly hit the ground and I forgot to breathe. Eric stood on my doorstep looking like a fantasy made flesh. His hair was pulled back in a single braid down his back. He was wearing an exquisitely tailored, charcoal gray, three-piece suit with a black, brocaded, banded collar, narrow lapels, and matching vest. Under that, he wore a silver shirt and charcoal gray tie, tied in a Windsor knot. The entire ensemble appeared to be silk and I caught myself reaching out to touch it.
"Ho. Ly. Shit," I moaned.
"My sentiments exactly," he smirked and pointedly glanced down at the obscene tent in my towel.
"Fuck," I groaned under my breath and turned around to adjust the towel, trapping my erection against my belly. Once secure, I turned back.
"I'm sorry for just dropping in," he said. "I was in the neighborhood and thought that you might care to have dinner with me."
"You were in the neighborhood?" I asked, suspiciously. "Dressed like that?"
"Yes," he replied. "I had court today."
"Court?" I asked.
