Chapter 21 #2
“I’m here.” Jensen couldn’t help but press his lips against Daniel’s forehead and took a greedy lungful of his scent.
It felt like they’d been apart for months, years, lifetimes.
Far too long. And now that they were together again, Jensen couldn’t imagine leaving.
“How are you?” he asked. “What can I do?”
Daniel shook his head. “I don’t know. Can we go sit on the couch?”
Jensen would have climbed Mount Everest if Daniel asked with his quiet, wavering voice, so following him into the occupied living room was easy enough.
The colonial-style room was furnished with colorful pieces of furniture, rugs, and most notably, three other men.
Placed in front of the couch Daniel led them to, a coffee table sagged under the weight of the man that sat on it.
He had his legs spread, his shorts riding up his thick, hairy thighs, and his elbows resting on his knees.
Another one of Daniel’s roommates was cuddled up on an armchair across from them.
His massive hoodie had been pulled over his knees so only a pair of thick patterned socks were exposed.
The third roommate vibrated from his spot on the couch’s armrest with an enormous smile on his face. “Hi, boyfriend, I’m Casey, and this is Brody and Arlo. We’re so excited to meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you all too,” Jensen said, then turned his attention back to Daniel.
Jensen wrapped his arm around him and pulled him into his side. Daniel’s hands went to Jensen’s chest and tugged on his shirt, trying to pull him closer. God, if only he could get closer. Jensen wanted to open up his rib cage and force Daniel inside.
After a moment, Daniel let out a breath. “Everyone knows now. I haven’t been making as much as I usually do, and I’ve come up short. They’re covering my portion of rent this month, and I’ll pay it back as soon as I can.” He didn’t look particularly happy about that.
“For the last time, you don’t have to pay it back. Think of it as a very early Christmas present,” Casey said.
“I don’t know how I’m going to pay it back anyways.” Daniel pulled a hand down his face as he groaned. “I no call, no showed to work tonight. My boss is going to murder me and use my hair to restuff her pillows.”
“If she needs hair, we could shave off Brody’s fuck-ass mullet and donate it.”
Brody shoved Casey, nearly pushing him off the couch. “You like my fuck-ass mullet.”
“You wanted to leave your job, anyway,” Jensen pointed out. “Maybe getting fired would be a good thing. This was the push I needed to quit my job.”
Daniel reared back and put a hand on his stomach. “You quit your job?”
“They wouldn’t let me leave, so I quit. But that’s not important right now.”
“The hell it’s not! Jensen, you shouldn’t have done that. I would have been okay.”
“I wouldn’t have.” He grasped Daniel’s hand in both of his. “I needed to be here with you. Besides, I wanted to quit my job. It might be time you took the same risk in order to open yourself up to other opportunities.”
“Aww, that’s so cute,” Casey whispered.
Daniel ignored his roommate. “And do what?”
Jensen shrugged. “What do you want to do?”
He chewed on his bottom lip for a long moment before slumping back against the couch. “It’s stupid.”
“I doubt it.” Jensen squeezed his hand gently.
“Come on, tell us,” Casey pleaded.
“Well,” he said, begrudgingly, “I thought it might be fun to be an event coordinator. But, like I said, it’s a stupid idea.”
“No way, boo, that’s a great idea,” Casey said.
“I think you’d be good at it,” Brody chimed in. “You already know how to work customer service.”
“I agree,” Arlo said. “It’s actually surprising how much better I’ve gotten at dealing with customers for my corporate job since I started my cleaning job. Calming down an angry customer because their system has a defect is a breeze compared to deescalating a situation when my dick is out.”
Daniel made a frustrated noise and ripped his hands out of Jensen’s grasp. “It’s not a good idea. I have no qualifications or experience. There’s no way a person like Janelle would hire me.”
“Who’s Janelle?” Jensen asked. “And why won’t she hire you? Do you have her number? I can call her.”
He should probably get his mother involved too.
She had once talked a grocery store into opening an hour early just for “quiet shopping hours” because Jensen had a difficult time being around so many people with loud music playing when he was a young kid.
His mother could do anything, and Jensen wasn’t above calling in the cavalry to get Daniel the job he wanted.
“Yeah, who the fuck is Janelle?” Brody asked.
“This is so fucking embarrassing,” Daniel muttered to himself. “She is the director of the company that put on Casey’s studio’s event the other night. And no, no one is calling her. I’m not qualified to work for her, and they probably aren’t even hiring.”
“I can get their phone number from my boss,” Casey offered.
“You can put me down for a reference,” Arlo said. “Not sure if they’ll care about it, since I work in tech and not events, but I can figure something out.”
Brody snapped his fingers, then pointed at Arlo. “Character reference. We could all be character references.”
“The only reference they’re going to need is a picture of this face,” Casey said and leaned across the couch to try pinching Daniel’s cheek.
Daniel leaned away and glared at him. “They’re going to want more than just a pretty face.”
“It doesn’t hurt,” Arlo said, matter-of-fact, and Jensen couldn’t help but agree.
“Everyone, stop.” Daniel put up a hand. “I appreciate the support, but it doesn’t matter. Tomorrow, I’ll go into work and beg my boss for forgiveness. And I’ll figure out how to pay everyone back for rent this month.”
Jensen could see Daniel’s roommates gearing up to argue, but he had a feeling it wasn’t going to be productive. They could fight about it all night, but Daniel wasn’t in the right place emotionally to continue the discussion. Besides, they couldn’t really do much at the late hour.
“I think we should call it a night and continue this over breakfast in the morning.” Perhaps Jensen could get Daniel to see reason with a full stomach.
“Great idea.” Daniel stood from the couch, pulling Jensen with him. “Come on, I’ll show you to my room and we can get ready for bed.”
He laced his fingers with Daniel’s. “Good night everyone,” he said, then picked up his pace so they were side by side. “By the way, I have no toothbrush. I also don’t have a phone charger. Or pajamas.”
“Looks like you’ll be sleeping with your collarbone out, you slut.”
Jensen let out an exaggerated sigh. “For you, I’ll suffer through it.”
Daniel shook his head and chuckled softly. Jensen counted that as a win, at least for now.
“I’ll find you some clothes to wear to bed.” Daniel let go of Jensen’s hand then went to his dresser.
“I would appreciate that,” Jensen said, righting his shirt sleeves. “Can I draw you a bath?”
Daniel’s head whipped back to gaze at Jensen with wide eyes. “You’d prepare a bath for me?”
Jensen shrugged. “I figured you could use one after today, and—oof.” The air was knocked out of Jensen’s lungs as Daniel threw his arms around him.
“Thank you,” Daniel whispered against Jensen’s neck.
With a fond smile on his lips, Jensen hugged him back. There were so many things they had to talk about and figure out. But, for now, all they needed to do was hold each other and get some rest.
And shower. Jensen really needed to shower off the airport germs.