Glitter

Chapter Four

Blue

I felt like an idiot.

It had been four days since I’d met Henry, one of the sweetest guys I’d ever come across, and every hour since we’d parted ways, I’d been mentally kicking myself that I hadn’t got his number. It never even occurred to me I hadn’t grabbed his contact details until a few hours later.

The only thing that got me through the weekend without completely losing my sanity was the probability that he was an employee of Eckersley’s. It wasn’t a tremendous help though, considering that the building was over thirty levels tall, and each level had at least a hundred employees that all started at different times of the day and night. Finding one person in at least three thousand wasn’t quite needle-in-the-haystack odds, but short of stalking the entry doors in the lobby for a full week to see if I could catch a glimpse of him arriving for work, it sure felt like it.

What made it worse was that I had already organized with my boss to take Monday off so I could get some personal errands done, including having my hair updated. The purple and blue had been fading for a while now, and although I could get those colors boosted, I felt like a change. My hairdresser had done a marvelous job of upgrading the faded color to an emerald green, and I’d spent last night swapping out my second-hand jewelry to complement the new vibe I had going.

It was a decent enough distraction from my spiraling thoughts, but the annoyance with myself lingered no matter how much I tried to stomp it out.

The Travis incident on Friday unnerved me more than I’d let on to Henry. I’d never seen Travis drunk before, and he’d never been so blasé about taunting me out in the open like that. There was no doubt Henry would have stepped in if things had spun out of control, but thankfully the worst thing Travis had done was spit on me and slap me a couple of times.

Nothing I haven’t endured many times in the past, and I was sure I’d encounter it again in the future.

It wasn’t my fault that a lot of men seemed to take issue with other men wearing stylish clothes, makeup, and jewelry. I knew I’d be laughing thirty years down the track when, thanks to my skincare routine, my skin wasn’t sagging and the only lines on my face would be laugh lines from a life well lived.

Fuckers.

Drunk men, however… They were unpredictable, dangerous, and combative. Not a good combination to come across during Pride month, but I usually only had to contend with those types of idiots out and about in public.

It’d been a while since I’d faced this type of bullying at work. The last year working at Eckersley’s had lulled me into a false sense of security, and I’d let my guard down enough to think it would be okay to change and get ready at work instead of wasting time going home only to come straight back to the city.

I wouldn’t be making the same mistake twice.

At least I’d met Henry through that experience. I only hoped I could find him again. He had a calming effect on me, like his quiet nature softened the constant loud noise in my brain. In the rare instances where I’d felt similar reactions to other people in the past, like Amy, it had never happened so instantly. It usually took at least a few weeks to feel that familiarity with a person, but most of the time, it never took at all. Those were the friends that were destined to move on relatively quickly, whereas the ones who calmed me became incredibly close friends for years. It’d taken a full week for Amy to burrow her way in, and here we were, almost a decade later, still the best of friends.

I wanted to see if that feeling continued with Henry when I wasn’t being smacked around, or if it was a new form of self-care I hadn’t experienced before. I wanted to know if it would even happen again, or if it was just a one time thing. Most of all, I just wanted to see Henry again for no other reason than that I liked him.

Sure, he was shorter than me. Sure, he didn’t have the same immaculate dress sense I had. But there was something about him, something I couldn’t define, that intrigued me.

I wanted him.

But first I’d need to find him.

“So…” Amy said musically, sticking her head around the desk dividers to stare at me curiously before looking at my monitors. “What are you doin’?”

I minimized my tabs, knowing it was far too late. She’d already seen too much. “Nothing.”

She raised a singular, perfectly shaped eyebrow and stared at me. “Uh huh.”

“What?”

There was a long enough pause that made my insides curdle. “I don’t believe you,” she sang.

“I swear to God, you’re using me for practice,” I muttered before turning to face her fully. “Your evil mom-guilting-powers won’t work on me! Be gone, foul fiend, lest I get the holy water out!”

She snorted and kindly changed the subject. “Meant to tell you earlier how much I love the new color.” She motioned at my hair. “The chunky jade jewelry sets it off well.”

I preened, my fingers absently fidgeting with the necklace she was referring to. “Thank you. I’d actually forgotten I had this until last night.”

“That honestly doesn’t surprise me in the least,” she said. “You’ve been buying stuff like that for how long now?”

I felt my smile slip from my face. “Uh… It’d be coming up to eleven years now.” Letting go of my necklace, I dropped my eyes to the desktop, allowing the memory of my first purchase to wash through me.

I’d just started college and was living in the dorms when I’d had a massive argument with my father on the phone and had gone for a walk to cool down. I’d come across a small second-hand store that catered to low-income workers and found myself captivated by the modest collection of jewelry in the glass cabinet under the single register. The memory of that day, and the silver earrings and jade necklace I’d purchased, were all etched in my mind as a defining moment—my first proper step into adulthood and the choices I could make in determining who I was as an individual. Whether I’d bought that necklace in direct defiance of my father or not was something I still struggled with determining, even now, over a decade later.

Amy didn’t know that I’d sourced all my jewelry from second-hand stores. Or the clothing I took so much pride in. Almost everything I owned was used because I couldn’t afford to buy anything new. The semi-regular appointments where I got my hair color updated were one of only two luxuries I allowed myself. Seeing the splash of color in the mirror every morning had always given me a boost that would linger for the rest of the day. That was something I wasn’t willing to give up, even if it meant I needed to pull back my spending on other things.

Which was one more reason getting my lunch stolen was so infuriating. Other people could afford to buy their lunches regularly. I couldn’t. The vast majority of my wages were going directly to rent, food, and utilities. Even the skincare products I prided myself on using every day were bought wholesale, on extreme markdown, or were simply samples I could pick up at different stores. If I wasn’t on the poverty line, I was dancing on the tightrope above it. One wrong step, and everything would come crashing down.

My dwindling nights out with friends were the only other thing that kept me sane. Not one of them knew, and that was just the way I wanted it.

I’d borne witness to too many friendships destroyed over class differences. I refused to lose my richer friends just because of money or how little I had of it.

Glancing at the monitor, my fingers twitched to get back to my search for Henry. I thought I was being subtle, but obviously not enough.

“Ooh, I know that look,” Amy said, rolling her chair around the desks to bump up against mine. “You’re researching something. Come on, tell me. What is it?”

“It’s work.” I arched an eyebrow at her. “We’re at work. Why wouldn’t it be work?” I mentally grimaced at the overuse of the word work .

She smirked. Yup, I’d been busted. “I know it’s not work related, because you wouldn’t be trying to hide it from me.” She used her chair to bounce mine out of the way, even though I scrambled at the edges of my desk to stop myself from moving.

I flailed, trying to stop her from gaining control of my mouse. “What do you—It’s not—”

She shouldered me out of the way, making me yelp as my chair rolled away from my desk, working quickly to bring up my tabs. “Ah… What do we have here? Who’s Henry ?”

Wiping my hands down my face, I groaned in defeat. “That’s the thing. I don’t know .”

Amy leaned forward to squint at the screen. “Why are you looking for a Henry in the internal Eckersley’s staff directory?”

I drew a slow breath in. Would it really be bad to tell her what happened? I huffed the breath out, resigned to my fate. “I had a run in on Friday night with he-who-shall-not-be-named, and someone named Henry was there.”

Fury filled her face. “What did the fucker do this time? And he had help?! ”

My eyes widened as I realized I’d inadvertently thrown Henry under a bus. “No! It’s not like that! Hold on. Let me explain. Jesus.”

Amy’s face relaxed minutely, but the heavy frown remained. She crossed her arms and tapped her index finger repetitively against her arm.

I rolled my chair back to smoosh her into the small space behind my desk. “Henry was a witness,” I explained quietly, leaning into her personal space so what I was saying wouldn’t travel. “He stayed with me afterwards to make sure I was okay.”

The frown darkened on her face, and her finger stopped tapping. Instead, it began clawing at her arm. “Tell me why he needed to stay with you afterwards in the first place.”

I pursed my lips and matched her frown with one of my own. “It’s honestly not that big of a deal. Fucker was just a bit drunk and mouthed off a bit. That’s all.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re leaving something out?”

“Why do I get the feeling that you’re being obnoxiously overbearing?”

“Because I care about you, you dingbat.” She reached out and flicked me on the forehead. “And sometimes you forget that.”

I leaned back from her, rubbing at the spot she’d flicked. “I don’t forget.”

She sighed like a disappointed mother. Damn, she was nailing this. “Yes, you do.” She turned back to the monitor. “So, you’re looking for Henry because…? You wanted to send him a thank you gift basket filled with puppies and rainbows?”

I scowled at her. “Don’t be ridiculous. Where would I even find rainbows small enough to put in a gift basket?”

“Hm, true,” she said absently, scrolling through the tabs I had opened. “Plus, we don’t even know if he likes dogs.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Um, when did this become a we situation?”

“Um, when I approached you in our first year of college and told you to get that stick out of your ass and help me with an experiment.”

“Oh, yes. The one where you sent me , the most obvious gay guy in the history of gay guys, to ask a woman out on a date.” I shook my head at the memory, even though a smile was returning to my face. “How’d that work out for you?”

She sighed happily, looking up into the middle distance. “Perfectly. Sharon and I spent all that night getting to know one another in the most intimate of ways.”

“Eww. Gross.” I scrunched my nose up teasingly, only for her to playfully shove me, which ended up with both of us laughing loudly.

When we got shushed by one of our colleagues, we quieted down and she returned her focus to the monitor. “There are six Henry’s here.”

“Mm,” I said, nodding. “And frustratingly, none of them have images.”

“To be fair, none of the entries in the staff directory have pictures.”

“Not helping.” I pointed at the screen. “Each of the Henry’s work in a different department of Eckersley’s. Pharmaceuticals, research and development, engineering, cleaning, finance, and shipping.” I looked at her with wide eyes. “I didn’t even know we had a shipping department. What the hell would we ship that would warrant an entire department?”

She cocked her head to the side and blinked at me like an owl. “Focus, Blue.”

“Who are you, the fun police? Jesus.” I rolled my eyes at her, only to have her scoff at me. “ Anyway. Like I was saying, there are apparently six Henry’s that currently work for Eckersley’s. I’m assuming that my Henry is one of the six, considering that he was in the lobby on Friday night. Ooh! Plus, there was this guy who came by later, who Henry called boss .”

Amy’s face perked up, and she cracked her fingers above the keyboard like she was about to go to battle. “That would help narrow the search parameters. What was his name?”

I frowned as I thought back over the interaction, then cursed. “I don’t know,” I whined, running my fingers through my hair. “Why is this so hard?”

“That’s what he said,” Amy muttered automatically, letting her hands settle in front of the keyboard. She chewed her bottom lip. “Well, at least you have a starting point. You could always email each of the Henrys and ask them if they were in the lobby last Friday night.”

I choked on air. “I can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

“Because!”

Utter disappointment flooded her face. “As much as I agree with simplifying our results to get the point across to those not as scientifically minded as us, I find your oversimplification in this instance frustrating, to say the least.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you use far too many big words sometimes?”

“All the time,” she said, tossing her long hair over her shoulder. “The loudest and most common culprit is sitting next to me right now.”

I grinned at her cheekily. “Eh, you love me.”

“I do.” She beamed at me and bumped my shoulder with hers. “Seriously though, what do you want to do if you don’t want to email them?”

“Is quietly stalking each department from afar until I find the right Henry completely off the table?”

She tilted her head to the side as she contemplated my words. “I mean, it’ll get the job done, but wouldn’t it be quicker just to email them?”

I huffed. “Quicker, but way less fun.”

“Yes, well, you’ve already accused me of being a member of the fun police, so I guess that I’m proving your hypothesis by suggesting the simplest solution, aren’t I?”

I nodded, grinning like a loon.

“Ugh.” Amy deflated. “I never used to be like this. Motherhood has changed me.”

“Changed you for the better, you mean? You’re exactly the right person you need to be at this point in time and space.” I hauled her into a long hug, waiting for her to relax before I pulled away. “You’re perfect, Amy, just the way you are.” I looked up at the sizable clock on the wall. “Come on, wifey, it’s lunchtime. Let’s go eat.”

“Only if I can continue to point and laugh at all your ludicrous attempts to stalk multiple Henry’s at the same time.” She got up and pushed her chair back to her own desk.

I sighed theatrically, letting my head fall backwards. “ Fine .”

We made our way to the lunchroom, and I cast my eyes around the space to see if Travis was there. It wasn’t something I normally did, but he’d rattled me on Friday, and seeing as this was my first workday for the week, I was a little more cautious than usual.

Which is why I was shocked to discover Henry sitting in the corner eating his lunch.

“What the fuck…?” I froze and blinked in his direction, vaguely aware that Amy had stopped too and was now looking at me curiously. “Henry?”

Amy’s eyes widened, and she followed my gaze across the crowded room. “Henry? He’s here? Who is it?” She scanned the people in front of us, rising to her tiptoes a couple of times as if that would help her see over the already seated patrons.

Seeing that he was sitting alone, I forced my feet to move and led Amy across the room.

Halfway there, he looked in our direction and his face lit up. “Blue!”

“That’s a good sign,” Amy murmured happily behind me, then prodded me in the lower back to keep walking.

We were two or three steps away from him when he stood up. His hands lifted slightly, like he wanted to reach for me, but he then thought better of it and dropped them to his sides. “How are you? How was your weekend?”

“Good!” I beamed at him so hard that my cheeks hurt. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to find you again. You work for Eckersley’s, right?”

He chuckled; his sparkling gaze still locked on my eyes. “I do. One floor up in the engineering department.”

“Engineering…” I repeated quietly, before turning to raise an eyebrow at Amy. “One floor up, he says…”

She smirked at me, then thrust her hand out to shake Henry’s. “Hi. I’m Amy, this one’s general babysitter. How’s things?”

He startled as if he suddenly realized he and I weren’t alone. “Oh, hi Amy. Nice to meet you.” He shook her hand firmly, but not aggressively so.

Letting them talk amongst themselves, I took a moment to let my eyes drift over Henry to compare my memory of him to what he looked like right now, standing in front of me.

Just as I remembered, he was a couple of inches shorter than me and a little stockier, but it worked for him. He had dark brown hair that was just going grey at the temples, but it was far more noticeable in his full beard, where a large patch covered his chin. There was an adorable cowlick poking up from the back of his head, even though the rest of his hair had been combed meticulously into place.

He had a small black gauge in each earlobe that matched his black wardrobe. Much like what he wore on Friday, he was wearing a lightly faded black hoodie, black jeans, and black sneakers. Everything was well worn and completely odd to see on someone who worked at Eckersley’s, where the vast majority of people wore smart business casual. Although it wasn’t what I would choose to wear for work, his completely relaxed style appealed to me for being different in its own way.

His sleeves had been pushed up on both arms, revealing a random collection of tattoos. They’d been largely hidden on Friday, so I spent more time than I probably should have staring at them and trying to commit them to memory. There was a cross on the back of his left hand near his thumb and forefinger, a stunning, large black and red design of Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas on his right forearm, and a person in steampunk armor on his left.

But what had captured my attention on Friday the most, and again even now, were his startling pale blue eyes. Wide and expressive, they took in everything around them like a knowledge-hungry child. There was a mischievous innocence to them that made me think there was more to the quiet man than most people saw. Maybe even more than he saw in himself.

“Isn’t that right, Blue?” Amy asked, yanking me out of my reverie.

“Huh?” I tore my gaze from Henry, noting a tiny smirk on his lips, before I focused on my best friend, who was now sitting in the chair at Henry’s table. “Oh, are we sitting?”

“Mmhmm,” she said smugly, a trace of laughter in her voice. “I was saying how fortuitous it was that Henry, who’s been working here for four years now, was still around on Friday night.”

I was in the process of sitting down when her words registered, and I stumbled into my seat and stared at Henry in astonishment. “Four years? Really?” How on earth had I not seen him before?

He nodded, the tiny smirk growing larger. “And unlike your friend here, you’ve been here for one.”

My eyes widened and mouth gaped. “How…?”

His eyes twinkled under the generic overhead office lighting. “I notice things that interest me.”

My jaw slowly closed, and a thrilled smile bloomed on my face before I turned to Amy and raised an eyebrow in a can-you-believe-this-guy look.

She sat back in her chair and fanned her face. “Yeah, you sit here and catch up. I’ll grab our lunches.” She used my shoulder to leverage herself off the chair and patted it before heading to the fridges.

I turned my attention back to the man sitting opposite me and sat back in my chair, crossing my arms in astonishment. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

He took a sip from his drink bottle before responding with a tilt of the head, “Where else would I be?”

I leaned forward, my crossed arms now resting on the table in between us. “I was pretty sure you worked here, but I thought I was going to have to hunt you down. Did you know there are five other Henrys that work for Eckersley’s?”

He smirked. “No.”

“There are! And one of them works in the shipping department.” I cupped my hand around my mouth like I was telling him a secret and lowered my voice to a stage whisper. “I didn’t even know we had a shipping department.”

“Why wouldn’t we?” He seemed genuinely confused by my statement, even though his smirk remained firmly in place.

“Why would we?!” I threw my hands up in the air and sat back. “Wouldn’t most departments look after their own shipping?”

“Oh my God, are you still on that?” Amy asked, dumping my lunch box in front of me and taking her seat again. “Let it go, for fuck’s sake. Eckersley’s wouldn’t waste floor space on an unnecessary department. If they have a shipping department, there must be a reason for it. We don’t need to know everything that goes on in this place.”

Henry chuckled, his eyes crinkling at the corners as they flitted between Amy and me.

Before raising the lid on my lunchbox, I lifted it just enough to check the weight. I breathed a sigh of relief as it felt like it was full, then ripped the lid off to get at the leftovers within, wiggling a little in my seat. “Been looking forward to this all morning.” I lifted out the fork that I’d covered in cling wrap to protect it from the pasta salad within the box, unwrapped it and dug in, moaning at the first mouthful.

Amy rolled her eyes at me and dug into what looked like a thick chicken salad sandwich, while Henry stared at my lunchbox intently, like he was trying to work out a puzzle. He raised his eyes briefly to meet mine before he dropped them to the box again. “No stealing today?”

I swallowed. “Nope. Thank God. I don’t think I could’ve handled that after Friday.” My voice got quieter as the sentence went on and I pushed my fork around in the food a little, shifting in my seat from awkward nerves. I didn’t want Henry to make a big deal out of it in front of Amy. It’d only make her worry. I peeked up at him and let out a tense breath when he gave me a small smile and a nod.

“Maybe you could tell me—”

“I have an idea about that,” he said at the same time as Amy spoke, tilting his head toward my lunchbox.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Amy scowl at the missed opportunity to find out more about Friday night from Henry, but curiosity got the better of her. “An idea about the stealing?”

Henry glanced at her and nodded; his eyes drawn to my lunchbox again with a slight frown. “You said you needed concrete proof in order to report the thefts, correct?”

“That’s right,” I said, now intrigued myself. I shoved another forkful of pasta into my mouth and chewed while I waited for him to speak further.

“I can get you that proof,” he said quietly. “But I’d need your lunchbox for a few days.”

Confused, I looked down at my unassuming lunchbox, then back at Henry. “Huh?”

His sparkling, mischievous eyes flicked to Amy, then back to steadily meet mine. “Blue, what do you know about glitter bombs?”