Swish (15 page)

“So, Thomas, what's your answer?”

Thomas's heart thudded as he gazed across the conference table to Barry. The man's tie had a few threads out of place and it was driving him nuts.
Not the point.
He raised his eyes to Barry's now and straightened his shoulder.

This was perhaps the hardest decision he'd ever made. He'd have given anything not to give this answer.

“No, thank you.”

Barry looked stunned. “You... don't want it?”

“Not at this time. I don't think it's appropriate, given... recent events.”

Barry waved a hand. “I don't know what you mean.” He winked and Thomas's stomach twisted; he'd been right to turn it down. “This is just the most qualified man getting the job. Are you sure about that answer?” he pressed.

“I just can't do it yet, sir. I look forward to getting another offer in the future if my work merits it,” Thomas told him. “And I'd like Irma to know that this is still my goal, but not yet.”

Barry looked deflated as he nodded. “Right. Well... thank you for getting back to me.” He rose to his feet and shook hands again.

Thomas walked tall as he left the office.

“What happened?” Georgie whispered, leaning in. Sam, Chris, and Kyle were all busy serving customers, but she sat next to him and there was nobody else in line right now.

“Not much. He wanted to know what I thought about a few things,” Thomas lied. “Compared to Halifax.”

Georgie looked disappointed. “Oh. We all thought you were getting a job offer.”

Thomas's stomach lurched.
I can't tell them... can I? Would they be jealous? They might wonder why...
“Why?”

“You're obviously the best-qualified. You're young, but you've got the degree. You're really good.”

Thomas's cheeks felt hot and he cleared his throat. “O-Oh. I see. Thanks. I try...”

“Take the damn compliment,” she laughed and rolled back to her window, waving the next customer to enter the bank over to her window.

Thomas blushed and closed his mouth, then glanced over towards the offices. Barry was approaching Irma now, and the two of them stepped into Irma's office.

It was only a couple minutes before Barry emerged again, his coat on and briefcase in his hands.

Oh, my god. She threw him out.
Thomas bit back his grin and nodded slightly, but he didn't look over as he passed on his way out the front door.

Irma wandered after him, leaning in the doorway of her office.

When Thomas looked over at her again, Irma offered him a slow smile and nod.

Thomas's anxiety faded instantly.

That
was
the right thing.

It was only later that afternoon, not long after lunch, that he brushed by her in the hall and she reached out to stop him for a moment.

“I hear you weren't ready for more responsibility this week,” Irma told him with a meaningful smile. “Would next week work?”

Thomas hesitated. “As long as it's not...”

“
This
meeting's with me, not that oily bastard.”

Thomas's jaw dropped. He hadn't heard that kind of language in the bank before from anyone, let alone Irma. “I...”

“Oh, don't look so shocked. We all think that about him. So, yes or no?”

“Yes,” Thomas murmured, smiling back. “Thank you.”

“Good job today, kid.” She nodded briskly and kept on walking.

Thomas glanced after her, then slowly walked on to the break room. Irma's respect was worth ten times more to him than any offer Barry could have made. If he was going to get an offer from Irma, he knew it was because he was the right man for the job.

Or if she just wanted to praise Thomas for turning down the offer from the “oily bastard” today, he was fine with that too. He couldn't help it; by the time he got to the break room, he was laughing about it. Maybe he should be a little more like Irma.

***

Before Thomas even pulled away from the curb after work, he sent a mass text to both of his brothers.

Hey guys, you two wanna come out to the bar with me tonight? Save our guys' night for tomorrow night instead?

He got his responses within moments from Cam and only a minute later from Jackson. Both were enthusiastic yeses.

That left him with one person to text.

Alex's fond responses made him smile broadly as Thomas suggested a date, which was quickly accepted. He wanted to see Alex around his family and friends more. He couldn't keep these parts of his life separate, and he didn't want to.

Best of all, though, were the heart emoticons Alex sent at the end of the conversation.

Thomas's cheeks burned with pleasure as he stared at it, then sent back the same heart to Alex. He pocketed his phone and tried to calm down, but he ended up pulling it out again to have one more quick glance at it before he drove.

Alex was hinting at the same emotion that bubbled in Thomas's chest whenever he spent time around Alex... or even thought about it. Even all these years later, their feelings had never truly faded. It felt completely natural for them to be flickering back to life, but much stronger than before.

And now, Thomas was strong enough to admit it to everyone else: he was a sucker for this gorgeous detective and his better ways.

“You're kidding me.”

Cam stared at the laptop screen without really seeing it yet, still processing Noah's words. Noah had his arm around his shoulders, and he'd just told him a few words he'd never expected to hear.

Nathan was back.

Well, not really. This article was dated a couple weeks ago, but he hadn't even thought about Nathan in fuckin'
forever
.

“How dare he?” Cam whispered, finally focusing on the headline. It was sensationalistic, just as he'd expected. Some gossip blog or news site or crap, talking about closeted gay sports stars, and the piece featured Nathan's account of their relationship.

Cam scanned it and shook his head. Some of the details were right: they'd had a tumultuous off-and-on relationship, yeah. Others were
wildly
off-base: the off-agains hadn't been caused by his own internalized homophobia and fear of discovery.

Christ, Nathan had spun this to make himself look like a little angel. That was probably what ground Cam's nerves more than anything.

“I can't believe he'd do this.”

“Or that he found someone to pay him, presumably.”

“Is it paid?”

Noah shrugged. “It could be for revenge. He sounded like an asshole.”

Cam pushed his laptop back and pulled Noah closer. “Yeah, he was. All that... it's half-true, but...”

“It's fine,” Noah murmured. “I believe you. You don't have to explain yourself to me.”

Cam still burned with the urge to explain:
I
wasn't dumping him;
he
refused to meet my family;
yes
, we fucked in a locker room once, but there was nobody else in the damn building, and it wasn't the fuckin' main Toronto arena!

He let out his breath and nodded, then looked at Noah. “How did you find out?” Then, something clicked. “You were talking to Alex...”

“I asked him what we can do,” Noah murmured quietly, fidgeting with the hair at the back of Cam's head. “He told me it's pretty much nothing. Unless we sue people for libel or whatever, but he said... well, he didn't think court was fun.”

“Right,” Cam murmured, his thoughts still absent. Had any of his teammates heard about this? Matty would have told him, right?

He pulled out his phone and sent Matty a quick text.

Some shitty article out online about me. Don't look it up please. But it's mostly garbage.

Matty was still his closest friend from the minor leagues out in Toronto, though he'd been drafted to play with the big boys now.

Then, Cam looked at his boyfriend and blew out a quiet breath. “Anyway, I'm not getting back into it anyway. Nobody I care about will think twice about the story. They all knew about us.”

Noah silently nodded.

“And...” Cam trailed off thoughtfully. Matty had texted back.

No problem man. At practice now. TTYS. We gotta Skype.

Cam quickly answered,

Yep we will soon. See you buddy.

“Good, Matty's cool with it. He'll deal with everyone else if they nose around,” Cam told his lover. “And Chase helped? You two are on good terms now?” He'd kind of thought Noah would be pissed off.

“I hope you don't mind--”

Cam kissed Noah to silence him, then smiled gently. “Of course I don't. If Thomas is gonna date him...”

“We don't know that,” Noah reminded him.

Cam laughed. “You heard the car starting up this morning as well as I did.”

“Now who's a gossipy little bastard?” Noah told him off, but he was grinning, too.

“I'm just saying,” Cam winked. “And now he wants to come out to the bar tonight to talk to Jackson and me.”

Noah just smiled quietly, then closed the laptop lid and turned on the TV instead.

God, Cam hoped this was the beginning of Thomas opening up. It was about time, for all of their sakes. And if he was finally seeking love, about
fucking
time for his own sake.

Please, let Alex be trustworthy.

“How's work going?”

The question that had stressed Alex out since last year no longer held as much weight, even coming from his parents.

He could honestly answer, “Great.”

“Any interesting cases?”

“Yeah. Today I did a missing cat. Found it by three o'clock. He spent last night outside, though... it's a damn good thing he found a great shelter.”

“Oh, poor thing,” his father frowned, setting down his knife and fork. “Good for you. Do you think business is picking up?”

“Definitely. This client found me through another client, who found me through another... I'm at three referrals deep, and I think that's the critical mass. From everything I learned in the business class at college, anyway.”

Probably more useful than the classes on surveillance or the law had been the business class where private investigation students learned how to run their own businesses. Most did, though a fair number joined the bigger security services companies, too. Given his employment history, Alex hadn't exactly had a choice.

“So you think you're going strong, even not doing insurance cases anymore? They aren't the end of the world,” his mother told him. Before she could gather up their dishes, Alex stood up to do it. “Oh, thank you.”

“No problem.” Alex stacked plates. “Yeah, it's going fine. But I'd really rather not, for now. For as long as I can get away with it. I have more inroads in personal cases now. Insurance and business cases can be steady if you do the same thing for the same firm over and over, but that's... not why I got into it.”

His parents exchanged looks.

“Honestly,” Alex insisted, setting the plates in the sink and returning to their dining room table. “I'm fine. I have work and friends to keep me busy. And something else I wanted to tell you.” His heart raced; this was an early announcement, so he wanted to keep it casual. He also wanted to spread the news.

“Oh?”

“There's a guy I've met. I'm sort of seeing him, we're still figuring things out, but we're interested in seriously dating.”

“Oh, congratulations. Who is he? Do we know his family?” his father asked.

Alex laughed. “Dad, stop it. You'll meet him soon if he's not too shy. He's still coming to terms with everything.”

“Don't get your heart broken by someone who isn't proud enough to be with you,” was his mother's advice. She spoke with a frown of concern.

Alex reached over to squeeze her hand. “I won't, Mom, I promise.” Ironic, though. That was just about what had happened last time... though he'd done the actual dumping, it had been after Thomas told him he wasn't coming out.

It was six of one, half a dozen of the other for their past faults. He trusted Thomas again now, and vice versa... perhaps even more strongly now that they'd hurt each other before. Broken and fixed trust ought to be weaker, he thought, but it was just the opposite.

“Good. We hope we can meet him sometime,” his father followed up. “When he's ready.”

“Thanks,” Alex smiled. He laughed when his phone went off in his pocket, then checked the caller.
Oh, it's not him. That would have been weird, twice in a row.
He didn't know the number. “Sorry, I should take this for work.”

He stepped onto the porch and shut the door, shivering as he stayed close to the house. “Hello, Alex speaking.”

“H-Hi. I'm calling about your services. I actually, uh, heard about you. My buddy Chase was talking about what happened the other day. My name's Floyd.”

Floyd... I know that name. Oh!
“You own the tattoo shop he works at.”

“Oh, you know me. Yes.”

Can't exactly tell him how if Chase hasn't told him I tracked him down...
“Yes, I do. Go on.”

“I have a sort of problem. I don't know if you can help, but... in case you can.”

“Of course. Do you want to speak over the phone or in person?” It was a bit of a trick question since Floyd sounded nervous and he'd already guessed he didn't want to talk over the phone.

“In person would be great,” Floyd told him, sounding relieved.

“Is it urgent?” Alex wanted to spend the evening with his family since he'd be out tomorrow – and as many nights soon in the future as possible – with the Rileys. “Should we meet tonight?”

“No, tomorrow or whenever you're free is fine. Evening works better.”

“How about the day after tomorrow? Are you working that night?”

“I can close the shop and we can talk there, yeah. Good idea,” Floyd answered. “I'll see you then. Oh, one more thing...”

“Yeah?”

“Can you not tell the Rileys about this yet? They're my friends and all, but... especially Chase.”

“Of course. As soon as I consult with a client, confidentiality applies,” Alex told him. “That's no problem.”

Floyd sounded relieved. “Okay. Thanks, man. See you soon.”

“Bye,” Alex told him and hung up, then tapped his phone on his lips.
Very interesting.
It could be something as simple as a background check on an employee – though he doubted it, with how nervous he sounded – or it could be more.

He'd find out soon enough.