Firewall (11 page)

J
ustin hated packing for anything
. He didn’t travel enough to really have a routine. He hoped that would change as he got the new business in place, though. He wouldn’t mind seeing more of the world.

Especially Portugal with Calder.

The thought brought a small smile to his lips.

When he was done packing, he left his room and headed toward Calder’s room. He slowed his pace when he heard Calder talking, though, curiosity taking hold.

“...That
is
a really kind offer...”

Justin’s chest tightened as he stopped outside of Calder’s door, a little to the side and out of sight. His heart pounded as he stuck close to the wall. He shouldn’t have been eavesdropping but he couldn’t resist.

“...And I do like the new terms... but I need time to think about it. Yeah, thanks for calling and I’ll get back to you.”

Justin wrung his hands together, nibbling his bottom lip. To him, it sounded like Calder’s old workplace was trying to get him back. If that was the case, there was little Justin could do. That company obviously had a lot more to offer than he did. Maybe once his firm took off, he’d be able to pay Calder more. That was if the firm even took off at all, but Underwood was a sure bet.

When he heard Calder moving around, he waited a few moments more before entering the room. “Hey, I’m done packing now.”

“Mm, me, too. Perfect timing.” Calder chuckled. “Want to go watch that movie now?”

“Sure.”

When they sat down on the couch, they watched
The Avengers
together.

“Is something the matter?” Calder asked after a few minutes during a slow part of the movie.

“Mm? No, why do you ask?” Justin responded. He hoped he was decent enough at lying.

“You just seem tense.”

“I’m just nervous about the conference.” It wasn’t a lie—he
was
nervous about the convention. It just wasn’t the entire truth either.

“All right... But if anything’s on your mind, you can talk to me about it.”

That had been the basis of their friendship for decades. Calder was always great for listening whenever Justin needed to go on a rant. All he hoped was that he had been even a fraction as good at listening as Calder was for times when Calder had come to him as well.

Keeping quiet for once was going to be hard but there was no way he could tell Calder everything that was on his mind right now. It’d be too damning, especially since Justin was still trying to figure everything out for himself. With the possibility of an even better job offer than before, the last thing Justin wanted was to scare Calder back to Underwood.

T
he next day
was all a blur as the pair traveled to the convention. The actual drive was only two or three hours but even that was something Justin had not done in a long time. Just being there with Calder in the car, chatting about things they passed and badly singing songs together was wonderful.

And when they had arrived in Seattle in the afternoon, there were so many new things to see. Justin had done some research beforehand of places he wanted to visit outside of the conference. He realized they were all very touristy places but that was fine with him. It wasn’t every day that Justin got to be a tourist either.

Calder drove them to the hotel and Justin admired how calm and collected he was. He was sure to have had the route memorized but the GPS was on in the front and he glanced at it periodically.

Justin didn’t want to talk much for fear of distracting Calder but couldn’t help it. He was wound up by the new surroundings and gushed away about everything he saw.

When they finally arrived at the hotel, Justin bounded from Calder’s car with his suitcase, heading inside the hotel with him. It wasn’t the fanciest hotel but that was fine. Justin didn’t want to drop too much money on somewhere to lay his head, anyway. He’d rather save the money for exploring.

He was feeling adventurous and had to take advantage of it.

Calder moved to the desk and checked in. When he was given the key by the clerk, he smiled and nodded, then headed to the elevator with Justin.

Justin didn’t mind elevators but he noticed Calder looking slightly stiff. Justin figured he was going over everything for the conference in his head.

Once they were out of the elevator, Justin followed Calder down the hall to their room.

“And here we are,” Calder announced as he unlocked the door and stepped inside.

Justin slipped in behind him then furrowed his brow. There in the center of the room was one king-sized bed.

“What?” Calder exclaimed. “I had specifically booked a two-bed room.” He turned and wheeled his suitcase out again, followed closely by Justin.

When they reached the bottom floor and approached the clerk again, Justin held back to let Calder do all of the talking.

“Hey, there. I have a two-bed room booked but the room you gave us is a single bed?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the clerk apologized and focused on her computer. After a few moments, she looked back up. “I’m very sorry but that’s the only room we have available.”

Calder frowned and Justin tapped him on the shoulder. “I don’t mind if we have to share a bed,” he murmured.

“Are you sure?”

“It’s no big deal,” Justin said, trying to sound as casual as possible. “If it’s the only arrangement available we should take it.”

“All right, we’ll take it.”

“Excellent, sir, and you’ll be credited for the price difference.”

“Thanks.”

Calder only looked mildly annoyed as they headed back upstairs and reclaimed the room. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s not your fault. It sounds like the hotel messed up.” Justin put his suitcase down and explored the room, making sure he knew where everything was. He then paused in front of the window, gazing out across the city. “What a view.”

“It’s not bad,” Calder agreed as he moved to stand beside Justin.

There, in that one moment as they stood together, a charge tingled throughout Justin’s body. Here they were, the two of them in a new city sharing a hotel room with one bed. It was going to be tricky with Justin’s libido going everywhere, but not impossible.

“The conference starts first thing in the morning, so we still have the day here to explore. What would you like to do?” Calder asked.

There were a million things Justin wanted to do that didn’t involve leaving the hotel room.

Justin shook his head and smiled. “I’m not entirely sure. I’ve looked at a bunch of things but couldn’t decide where to start first.”

Calder moved away from the window to pick up the laptop off the bed. “I’ve got a list of recommendations based on price, location, availability, and how much time it takes. We can narrow down the choices from there.”

Justin laughed, pleased with Calder’s organization. That was really handy in a personal assistant. Although it was being used as more or less a disguise right now, Justin was quickly seeing the benefits of having a personal assistant for real.

But now the only personal assistant Justin wanted was Calder.

Justin sat on the bed with Calder and scooted in close to see the computer screen. As he did, their sides brushed together. Again, the spark rippled across his skin and he tried to will the blush away from his cheeks.

Finally, after a bit of back and forth while planning, they were ready to go hit the city.

C
alder was
secretive about where they were going that afternoon. Justin was curious and tried to get it out of him as they drove, but Calder wasn’t budging an inch.

Then, they were in front of a series of odd-shaped colored buildings and Justin immediately knew where they were.

“You’ve taken me to the EMP Museum?” he gasped, snapping his head around to Calder.

“It was the geekiest thing I could find and I thought you’d appreciate it,” Calder grinned as they walked toward the entrance.

Justin’s eyes were wide as they headed inside. He had heard about the Experience Music Project museum before and how it was great for artifacts from film, literature, and music. One of the facts he’d heard about it was that it held the original
Star Wars
lightsaber, which was pretty cool in itself.

Justin was blown away once they were admitted into the museum. There were plenty of people around, which made Justin want to retreat into himself a little, but there was too much to see to do that. The museum was colorful and interactive, enticing people to lose themselves in worlds of all kinds. He was in awe as he floated around with Calder.

Justin’s favorite exhibit was called
Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction
. It was here that his inner geek flourished the most. Surrounded by artifacts and information from
Star Trek
to
Battlestar Galactica
, Justin was in heaven. He was brimming with excitement as he gushed his heart out to Calder and snapped as many pictures as possible with his phone.

As if marveling over the most iconic pieces in the sci-fi world wasn’t enough, the exhibit encouraged them to have their own adventures as well. Together, Justin and Calder scouted out new planets, met alien civilizations, and investigated alternate universes.

Justin was in heaven. He was so caught up in everything that he had to take a step back and check how Calder was doing.

“I’m sorry I’m geeking out big time here,” Justin laughed, a blush reaching his cheeks that he hoped wouldn’t be visible beneath all the colorful lights.

“Don’t apologize,” Calder insisted with a smile. “It’s good to see. I don’t have a clue about half of what you’re talking about but it’s cute.”

Justin straightened up when he heard this, his heart pounding harder still from this added level of excitement. He
had
to control himself, though, since he didn’t want to make a scene of it if Calder wasn’t interested.

But there was something different behind Calder’s eyes in that moment that sparked the chemistry within. It was a bemused and affectionate gaze.

Perhaps he was staring too hard because Calder shied away a moment later, clearing his throat.

Way to ruin the moment
, Justin lamented to himself but was distracted again moments later by the next flashy thing.

After they were done with the spacecraft, they moved on to other exhibits that had tons to offer as well.

As they headed toward the video-game exhibit, Justin’s eyes were everywhere as he took everything in. He was absolutely taken by everything around him. When he turned to gush to Calder about the fun he was having, his heart dropped.

Calder wasn’t in sight. Instead, all he saw was a flood of young children that were probably there on a field trip.

Justin’s heart pounded as he remained rooted to the spot and looked around for Calder. There was no way that he had strayed
that
far from him. He had to be around there somewhere. It should have been no big deal that he was separated from Calder, but with the stress of everything and his growing paranoia, he was more than a little nervous.

Okay, don’t panic. You’re at a museum. Nothing bad’s gonna happen at the museum
, Justin assured himself. He took out his phone to message Calder.

“Justin, there you are!”

Justin blew out a breath of relief as he snapped his head up. Calder was right there in front of him. “I was just going to text you.”

“I wasn’t far from you,” Calder assured him as he closed the gap and stood close. “I was just over there but the kids were in the way.”

Still, far enough.

Holding Calder’s hand right now seemed like it’d be a good idea. It was right there and swinging at Calder’s side.

He reached out and took Calder’s hand. The moment their warm hands touched, a pleasant and exciting jolt went through Justin’s system. It was a lot like how he had felt when the two had explored in bed together. There was something more innocent about this touch, too, that spoke to Justin on another level.

Calder’s eyes widened, but he didn’t pull away from the hold. Instead, he squeezed Justin’s hand in return. Justin was so happy, but also embarrassed, and he couldn’t bring his eyes to meet Calder’s. When they resumed walking through the rest of the exhibit, his heart raced and he didn’t let go of Calder’s hand for a second.

Holding hands while out together... This was a thing that couples did. The thought and act made Justin’s heart soar.

By the end of their tour of the museum and its various exhibits, Justin was ready to go. His mind was reeling from everything and it was almost disorienting to emerge from the museum.

“Did you have fun?” Calder asked as they headed back to the car. They had dropped hands upon leaving the museum, which disappointed Justin. His hand felt cold already.

“Lots of fun,” Justin agreed, nodding his head so sharply he almost gave himself whiplash. Even the moment of panic at their brief separation hadn’t dampened the overall experience. In fact, it had only heightened it since it had led to them holding hands.

And Calder had never once tried to pull away. Here was a man still trying to figure himself out, yet he didn’t mind holding hands with another man in public? Not just any man, but Justin?

“Are you hungry?” Calder asked, breaking Justin right out of the moment.

“I could eat!” Justin squeaked and adjusted his glasses, which made Calder pull back with a laugh.

“You all right?”

“I’m fine,” Justin insisted as he raised a hand with a dismissive wave. “But let’s eat something quick and easy.” He was ready to go back to the hotel and crash for a bit.

“Sure thing, boss,” Calder mused as they climbed into the car to scout out something to eat.

J
ustin was
beat by the time they arrived back to the hotel room. His phone was filled with so many pictures of the trip. More pictures than he had taken in a long time. Most of them were sneakily-not-so-sneakily of Calder.

“I haven’t done a museum like that in years.” Justin flopped down onto the bed. He didn’t want to budge, although he needed to get his nightclothes on as well. “It’s going to be an early night for me.”

“We definitely need to get you out more,” Calder laughed. “And traveling in general.”

“I’ve been so focused on the digital world that I’ve kind of forgotten about all of
this
...” Justin lamely gestured and gazed up at Calder, who was getting his own clothes from his suitcase. “I really like having you around.”

Calder stopped in his tracks and glanced at Justin. When their eyes met, despite the exhaustion, a little jolt of energy coursed through him.

“I like being around you, too. We shouldn’t have let, what, eight years go by without seeing each other.”

“No, that was really dumb of us. We were both so caught up in our own thing... Ah, well, I shouldn’t speak for you,” Justin added.