Glitter

Chapter Eleven

Henry

I didn’t have to wait long.

Travis walked in almost as soon as I’d got everything sorted on my phone, and I quickly hit record whilst still swiping about an inch away at my screen to make it look like I was reading or playing a game or some other innocuous thing.

He headed straight to the fridges and opened each one until he’d found Blue’s lunchbox. Laughing obnoxiously, he pulled it from the shelf and turned around to face his colleague, letting the fridge door self-close behind him.

“See? I told you that bitch would have something for me today!” he crowed, a little skip in his step as he sauntered over to the table his colleague sat at.

I swallowed a smirk that he had felt no weight difference in the lunchbox. That had been one of my biggest concerns, and seeing him not even look at the box curiously made me preen a little.

“I don’t know, dude.” His colleague shifted a little in his seat, toying nervously with his cutlery. “It feels risky.”

“Oh, quit your moaning. It’s fine. I told you; it’s been months and I’ve never had an issue,” Travis said as he settled into his seat, grinning like a maniac. His fingers played with the edges of the lid before he flexed them and began lifting. “Let’s see what I’ve got tod—”

As soon as the lid cleared the base, the mechanism kicked in and everything did exactly what I’d designed it to do.

And it truly was a thing of vengeful beauty.

Glitter started flying out of the lunchbox in a spiral pattern, coating everything in its immediate vicinity with a fine layer of colorful dust. Both Travis and his colleague shouted as they jumped back from the table, their chairs flying out from underneath them and their cutlery falling noisily to the table as the glitter descended.

“What the fuck?!” Travis yelled, dropping the lid to the table in his effort to get away from the tiny particles that were still flying out and hitting him and his colleague first in their torsos, then in their crotches as they quickly backed away from the table.

I watched as the lid fell upside down, leaving the pen camera completely exposed to record every bit of video footage and audio that was about to transpire. The air pump’s rotation was whirring away, loudly enough that I could hear it from where I sat, still valiantly trying to spread the glitter far and wide. The dowels that had popped up to start the whole mechanism going had also sent an automated text to Blue to let him know the trap had been triggered—an added feature I’d been able to work in yesterday without his knowledge.

I expected to see him dashing into the lunchroom at any moment.

His colleague’s hands flew up in the air, surrendering to what was happening to him, but he couldn’t stop his amused look at Travis. “I told you, dude!”

If looks could kill, Travis would have slaughtered his colleague with the glare he shot his way. His face turned a deep scarlet as he returned his focus to the now sparkly table and glared at the offending lunchbox. He tried to sweep the glitter that clung to his clothing off, but it was useless. The fine particles were there to stay for the next hundred years. No amount of washing was going to get rid of what was on him. “That fucking shit! How fucking dare he?”

His colleague began laughing at how worked up Travis was getting. “Dude, this is classic!”

“What?!” Travis squawked, the single word rising in pitch until I was sure only dogs could hear it.

“Oh, come on, Trav! You should be thankful he’s only used glitter to retaliate.” He wiped his hands a couple of times over the table to get as much glitter off them as he could, but quickly gave up when he realized how much of a lost cause it was. He then shrugged and placed his dust covered hands on his hips and shook his head, still laughing. “If he’d gone the Carolina Reaper route, you’d be chugging milk until midnight.”

“That’s not—What—” Travis spluttered. “This is such bullshit! How the fuck am I supposed to get this shit out of my suit?! I paid five thousand for this! I’m going to beat that punk ass bitch up so hard he won’t know what day it is, I swear to Christ. I’ve already done it once—”

“Oh, settle down, dude. It’s just glitter,” his colleague said, still trying to placate him.

“Don’t tell me to settle down! He’s ruined my suit with this fucking stunt. Ruined it! I’ll never get the fucking glitter out! I’ll fucking kill him!”

Of course, that was the exact moment that Blue barrelled through the door of the lunchroom, his fingers clutching at the door frame as he came flying around the corner. He scrambled to a stop as he saw the glorious glitter carnage covering the table and both men, and an exquisite smile lit up his face.

“You!” Travis snarled; his lips drawn back as he pointed an accusing finger at Blue. “You did this!”

Letting go of the door frame, Blue slipped a couple of steps into the lunchroom and, once he had his balance again, he crossed his arms in front of him. The reason for him stumbling became clear when Amy and a guy in a suit squeezed past him into the lunchroom. Blue sucked his lips in a desperate attempt to stop himself from laughing. “I can honestly say I did not.”

Amy wasn’t so polite, instead laughing uproariously when she took the sight of two glitter covered men in. “Oh, this is too good!”

The suited man that had come in with Amy simply shook his head in a disappointed headmaster type of way.

Blue swept his eyes around the lunchroom, stalling when he saw me filming the event.

I shook my head ever so slightly and brushed an index finger against my lips. Anyone else seeing me do it would have thought I was just scratching an itch, but Blue’s eyes lit up in understanding when he saw that I still had my phone up and aimed in Travis’s direction—he knew I wanted to remain hidden. For now.

“Hey, Matthew?” Blue asked, turning toward the man in the suit standing next to Amy. “Is this enough evidence to get Travis sanctioned for stealing people’s lunches?”

“Now wait just a God damn fucking minute,” Travis snarled, stalking towards Blue, his finger still raised. “I’ve never touched anyone’s fucking lunches and I strongly dispute the implication that I have.”

I glanced at his colleague, whose smile slowly dropped from his face. I think he knew as well as I did Travis was about to throw him under the bus.

Sure enough…

“I’d like to point out that there are two of us covered in this shit,” Travis said, his raised finger swinging around to point at his friend.

“What the fuck, dude?” his colleague said incredulously, his humor about the situation now completely gone.

“See? You can’t prove shit.” Travis glared at Blue with a triumphant smirk on his face.

Blue simply waited for a response from Matthew, who I now presumed was his manager.

Matthew’s brow furrowed and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Blue. What Travis said is right. If you can’t definitively prove that it was just one culprit, there’s nothing I can do.”

Blue chewed his bottom lip and nodded as his eyes narrowed in thought, while Travis’s eyes lit up in victory.

“Expect a letter from my lawyer, you little shit,” Travis snarled at Blue, not caring who was still listening. “You’ve ruined my ten-thousand-dollar suit, and you’ve slandered my name in public. Get ready to lose everything.”

I raised an eyebrow at the increase in the value of his suit. It shouldn’t have surprised me that he was laying the groundwork to try to sue Blue for more than what the suit was valued, but it did.

Ever so calmly, Blue tilted his head to the side as he let Travis talk himself out, his arms still crossed in front of him, but an index finger was tapping away on his arm, showing that his clever, clever mind was running a mile a minute. “Okay.”

“What?” Travis asked, brought up short in his rage.

Even Amy looked a little alarmed at Blue’s reaction.

Blue’s head tilted the other way before he walked effortlessly to the table where the glitter bomb still sat and picked up the lid. He smiled when he saw the camera was still attached. He spun in his spot and held the lid up for Travis to see. “You see this, Travis? This is a camera, and it’s been recording everything for the past couple of hours. Visual footage, of course. But also audio .” He tapped his chin while he acted completely innocently. “What do you think I’ll find, huh?”

Travis’s eyes bulged. “What the fuck?! I didn’t consent to being recorded! How dare you!”

“How dare I?” Blue finally cracked, snarling back at Travis. “How dare I? How dare you! For months you’ve been stealing my lunches and laughing at me when I’ve grabbed my box, only to discover that my food had already been eaten!”

“Oh, fuck you!” Travis said scornfully, throwing his hands up in the air. “I’ll add hearsay to the ever-growing list of things I’ll sue you for and I’ll win!”

“Not to mention that little incident in the restroom down in the lobby a couple of weeks ago,” Blue continued, as if he hadn’t heard Travis talk at all. His eyes narrowed to slits as he stared down his nemesis.

“Wait—What?” Amy asked, her eyes narrowing. “I knew there was more to the story than what you were letting on!”

“I didn’t do fucking squat to you, you piece of shit,” Travis snarled, his face turning an angry scarlet. “Including stealing your fucking lunches. You can’t prove anything.”

Blue waved the lid of his lunchbox in his hand. “Let’s test that theory, shall we?” He placed the lid down and dug out his phone and presumably went to log into the cloud where the footage had been sent. “Matthew, if I have footage, that’ll be enough, yeah?”

“Absolutely,” his boss said, crossing his arms in front of him and watching the scene unfold.

Travis spun and scowled at Matthew. “You’d best be careful, old man. I’ll sue you into oblivion just as much as I will that whore over there.” He pointed at Blue, who was busy swiping at his phone. “Don’t forget, I’ve got enough connections in this building to get you both fired.”

“Is that so?” Matthew said calmly, a slight smirk on his face as he blinked slowly, like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Don’t fucking test me,” Travis growled.

“—ruined my suit with this fucking stunt—”

Everyone in the lunchroom stilled as the clear sound of Travis’s voice filled the air.

Travis was the first person to move, lunging at Blue to get to his phone.

“—it! I’ll never get the fucking glitter out—”

“I never consented to this! It’s a fucking conspiracy!” Travis yelled as he fought Blue for his phone, grappling for it even when Blue held it out of his reach. “You’ve had it out for me since the first day I worked here!” Travis gave up trying to get to Blue’s phone and instead started grabbing at Blue’s arm and swinging it wildly from side to side in order to make the phone go flying. The sound of them both grunting under the effort drowned out the recording.

Her eyes blazing, Amy took a step forward to get involved in the fracas and help Blue, but she was held back by Matthew by a hand on her upper arm. She struggled to get free of him, but he only held on tighter.

Finally, Travis got the upper hand because of his larger size and forced Blue to drop his phone, where Travis stomped on it like he was squishing a bug. The sound of Travis’s voice from the recording stuttered and died, leaving only the noise of Travis and Blue huffing from exertion.

“My phone!” Devastated, Blue sunk to his knees as he stared at his destroyed phone.

Travis leaned over and put his hands on his knees, still trying desperately to get his breath back. “See?” Gasp. “You can’t prove anything.” Puff. “You’ve got nothing.” Cough.

The look on Blue’s face as he stared at his shattered phone was soul crushing. Anyone else who was watching him would assume that he was upset about the recording. That wasn’t it at all. He knew he had everything still uploaded to his cloud. It was the loss of his phone that had toppled him. After hearing about Blue’s financial troubles yesterday, I knew he felt he had no way of buying a new one, which meant that one of his only outlets, his online makeup tutorials, had been stolen from him.

Silly angel. He didn’t fully comprehend the lengths I’d go to make sure he was happy. He’d have a new top-of-the-line phone in his hands by the end of the day.

Slowly, Travis stood up, so he towered over Blue. A menacing smile spread over his face as he looked down at Blue. “You’ve got nothing , little boy blue.”

Blue’s head hung lower as Travis’s words echoed coldly around the room.

“Well, actually…” I said, deciding enough was enough. “That’s not exactly true.”

Everyone in the room, except Blue, turned to look my way.

I waved my phone in the air, even though it was still recording and sending the footage directly to my cloud. “I’ve been recording this whole interaction, starting from when Travis entered the lunchroom.”

A slow smile spread over Matthew and Amy’s faces, while Travis stared at me in a very confused manner.

“Who the fuck are you?” he asked in exasperation, throwing his hands up in the air.

“Does it matter?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Travis glared at me. “I’d like to know who else I need to sue into oblivion.”

I shook my head sadly at him. “Honestly, Travis, you don’t have a leg to stand on.”

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, his arrogance astonishing. “Why on earth do you think that?”

“Well,” I began, stepping away from my table when I saw a new face at the door to the lunchroom pop up above several other heads of curious workers huddled around the entrance. “I have multiple recordings of you going into great detail about how you’ve been stealing Blue’s lunches for months. I also have recordings of you admitting that you beat Blue up.”

“What?” Amy said, her eyes widening even further than they had been, jerking her arm away from Matthew. “Is that what happened?” She looked over at Blue, who was still staring mournfully at his wrecked phone.

Travis scoffed. “If that’s all you have, fuckwit, get ready to lose everything, too. I’ll add you to my list. I never beat anyone up.”

I tilted my head to the side. “Hm. Wrong again, Travis. See, I was there when you assaulted Blue. You should have checked the bathroom stalls before you physically and verbally abused him. I saw and heard everything . I also have footage of you threatening him with physical violence again. Not only do I have enough proof to have you fired, I also have enough that Blue could approach the police and request a restraining order, which I’ll be recommending as soon as we’re all done here.”

Travis’s face darkened until it was nearly purple, his brows lowered, and his eyes narrowed so much that I wondered how he could see anything. His fingers curled into his palms, more resembling claws than fists. “You…”

With that single word, and giving up all pretense of going for my phone like he’d done to Blue only minutes ago, he picked up the knife that his colleague had left on the table and lunged at me.

This time, however, he was already winded from his tussle with Blue.

And he didn’t expect Amy to intercept him.

As I stumbled back to avoid him, Amy grabbed his outstretched arm and swung him around, easily forcing him to drop the knife before climbing him like a tree and making him yelp while she took him to the ground. She wrapped a leg around his neck, tangling one of his arms in the move, and held on. His other outstretched arm was held firm under her armpit as he struggled to get free from her hold.

“What the—” Travis said before gurgling.

She leaned over him so she could look him directly in the eyes, his arm now held at an incredibly awkward angle that made him squeal. “Please fight back. I fucking dare you.”

Travis’s eyes bulged as his face grew even darker, before he slumped, the fight finally going out of him.

“Bet you never thought you’d be doing that move again so soon, huh Amy?” Blue asked quietly, still devastated about his phone. “Congrats again on your rise to black belt status.”

I raised an eyebrow at Blue’s words and glanced at Amy, who simply shrugged. “I went from brown belt to black belt yesterday morning at my jiu jitsu presentation.”

Travis groaned.

I smiled. “Congratulations.”

Amy shrugged again, this time with a cheeky grin. “Thanks.”

Finally, I pressed the button on my phone to stop the recording, then looked up to search for the face I’d seen hovering at the door, pocketing my phone as I did so. “You can come in now, Mr. Eckersley. It’s safe.”

The room went quiet at my words as everyone realized who was in attendance and what he’d probably seen.

Roman Eckersley, the head of Eckersley’s Institute, had seen and heard at least my interaction with Travis. It was highly possible that he’d seen and heard far more.

Travis knew it, too. His face paled as the full extent of his words and actions finally crashed down upon him.

Matthew grinned and turned to find Roman standing behind him. He held his hand out to shake Roman’s hand. “Thank you for coming, sir. I wasn’t sure if you’d see my email until later.”

Roman said nothing as he returned Matthew’s handshake and patted him on the shoulder, simply nodded at him with a tight press of his lips. He stepped around Matthew and approached Travis, still held fast by Amy, who wasn’t letting him go for anything. Just as Travis had done with Blue before, Roman loomed over Travis’s crumpled form on the floor, looking both furious and disappointed.

“This isn’t—” gurgle “—what it—” cough “—looks like,” Travis said hoarsely, his throat convulsing with every second word from the way Amy’s leg was wrapped around it.

The disappointment grew even further when Roman shook his head and folded his arms in front of him. He blinked, oh so slowly, and let out a long sigh before he lifted his face and looked at me. “I’d like a copy of that video sent to my office, as well as a copy of any other recording you might have of Travis’s…” Roman sneered back down at Travis, and with a jolt, I saw a distinct familial similarity between the two. “… indiscretions.”

“Uncle, please…” Travis pleaded as he flexed under Amy’s tight hold.

A gasp went through the room at the implication of his words.

Amy narrowed her eyes and pulled Travis’s arm back even further, making him whine again. She didn’t seem that shocked by Travis admitting that he was related to Roman, and neither did Matthew or Blue. I’d have to ask them about it later.

“You’ll have everything emailed to you by the end of the day, sir,” I said to Roman, who nodded his thanks without removing his attention from Travis. I motioned Blue over to me. “Including a copy of Blue’s recording, which wasn’t destroyed, as much as Travis would like to think otherwise.”

Blue picked up the pieces of his shattered phone and walked slowly over to me. I hugged him into me, tipping his head down so I could kiss his forehead.

“Are you okay?” I whispered to him, my palms on his cheeks.

Blue only nodded, his bottom lip trembling slightly until he chewed on it.

I took his hand, and we both looked at Roman to see what was coming next.

“Good,” Roman said, nodding once before catching himself. “Who should I be expecting the email to come from?”

I released a slight smile. “My name’s Henry Porter, sir. I work for Thomas Wigner up in Engineering.”

“Ah, yes. I know young Thomas,” he said, nodding again before he took a deep breath and squatted next to Amy, his elbows resting on his knees as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Travis, Travis, Travis. You and I both know this was your last chance.”

Travis’s eyes went wide, and he began squirming anew.

Roman turned his head to Amy. “You have him, Miss…?”

Entirely at ease, Amy barely moved. “Amy Greening, sir. I work with Blue for Matthew,” she said, her voice completely steady. “And this one’s not going anywhere.”

“Amy. Good.” Roman turned back to face his relative, his eyes narrowing as he lowered his voice. “This is how it’s going to go, Travis. First, I’m going to call the head of the family trust and remind them of the morality clause in your monthly stipend, and how you’ve breached those terms by what I’ve seen here today. I believe that means you’ll be cut off from the family fortune. I hope you’ve been saving your pennies.”

Travis’s jaw ticked as he shot daggers from his eyes, first at Amy for keeping him pinned, then at Roman for what he was saying.

“Second, I’m going to call your mother and let her know that my favor to her has run its course.”

Travis growled, his eyes narrowing even further at Roman.

“Oh, yes. You’re definitely fired. Effective immediately. I’ve already contacted building security to come and remove you. We’re just waiting for them to show up.” Roman lifted one of his hands to inspect his nails, ignoring Travis entirely. “I can only imagine what your mother will have to say about that. Military service with good old cousin Bradford overseeing you was the last option for you, wasn’t it? Somewhere in Iraq? Or was it Syria? Either way, I guess that solves your impending housing crisis. If only you’d purchased your own home and not relied on the family trust for everything in your life.”

If I’d thought Travis had paled before, it had nothing on what I was seeing now. The color drained from his face, leaving him a deathly white. “You can’t do that,” he croaked, his voice diminishing with every word.

“I think you’ll find that I can, Travis.” Roman tilted his head to the side. “You seem to have forgotten how much say I have in the Eckersley fortune, considering that I’m someone who not only helped create it, but still actively adds to it.” He leaned over Travis, his hand planted next to his head. “You’ve embarrassed the family name, boy. You’ll be lucky if you’re not disowned entirely.”

“Mr. Eckersley, sir?”

We all looked over to the door to find the building security officer Roman had called for hovering in the doorway.

“Ah, yes. David. Come on in,” Roman said, standing up and motioning him forward with a sweep of his hands. “If you could be so kind as to remove Travis Hafler from the premises immediately, it would be greatly appreciated.” He looked down at Travis, the hint of disappointment still lingering on his face, but there also looked to be some mild satisfaction in his eyes.

“Certainly, sir.” David stepped across the threshold and headed straight for Travis and Amy. He raised an eyebrow at the way Amy had Travis pinned, but it was a more impressed look than one of surprise. That assumption was compounded when he leaned into Amy and said, “Where do you train? Or teach? Do they have vacancies for new members? I’d love to learn how you did that.”

Amy chuckled and nodded. “I’ll drop the contact details to your desk later.”

“Much appreciated,” David said as they rolled Travis over and zip tied his wrists together.

“Travis,” Roman said as he kept a close eye on his relative. “I’ll forward all your belongings to your mother by the end of the week, as I assume that will be where you’ll end up. Whether you want to or not.”

I shivered slightly at the hint of a threat in Roman’s words.

“Come along now, Travis.” David lifted Travis to his feet with a grunt and hauled him out of the lunchroom, stumbling occasionally whenever Travis tried to drag his feet.

As soon as Travis was out of sight, Roman turned around and focused on Blue. His jaw ticked as he looked Blue up and down, forcing Blue to grip my hand harder. I squeezed back to let him know I was with him for whatever he needed.

“Blue, correct?” Roman asked, his fingers interlocked tight with tension in front of him, but he did not fidget.

Blue nodded, still clutching the pieces of his phone to his chest with the hand that wasn’t holding mine.

“Not only do I need to apologize for how Travis treated you, but I also need to apologize for how the Eckersley’s Institute has treated you. For how I treated you.” Roman bowed his head slightly in deference to Blue. “I received several reports about Travis’s conduct over the past few months, but his placement here was… delicate.”

I narrowed my eyes at Roman. He might be the head boss here, and he could easily fire me, but the lack of oversight he’d run on Travis had caused so many issues. As head of Eckersley’s, Roman needed to be held accountable for his role in the whole debacle.

It appeared that Roman could sense my displeasure as he lifted his head and stared at me with very little emotion.

Even though I was fully aware that I wasn’t wearing the standard business suits that everyone else wore at Eckersley’s, I stared back, not flinching at all under his powerful gaze. Blue needed me, and nothing was going to distract me from looking after him. We just needed to get away from all this chaos first.

Roman tilted his head to the side as he appraised me, blinked slowly, then he nodded once and returned his attention to Blue. “I’m truly sorry, Blue. For everything you’ve been forced to endure here at Eckersley’s.” His eyes dipped to Blue’s phone. “Let me know what type of phone you prefer using, and I’ll have a replacement brought to you by the end of the day. Alternatively, you can purchase your own, and I can reimburse you for the cost later.”

“Okay,” Blue said quietly, his tone wrecked. With his head down, it was obvious he was emotionally drained to the point of needing to be anywhere other than here.

Seeing such an outgoing, effervescent man reduced to this was breaking my heart in two.

“If it’s okay with you, Mr. Eckersley,” I said, gripping Blue’s hand in mine. “It’s been a long morning. I’d like to take Blue home so he can rest.”

Roman nodded, a soft smile finally appearing on his stern face. “Of course.” He turned to locate Matthew and called him over. “Matthew, Blue will take the rest of the day off on full pay. I’d also like to see him work from home for the rest of the week if he’s up to it. Is that achievable?”

“Of course, sir.” Matthew looked Blue over and frowned slightly when he saw how utterly defeated Blue looked. His hand rose to settle on Blue’s shoulder, squeezing slightly. “Whatever you need, Blue. Anything at all.” He waited for Blue to look up at him and slowly nod in resignation, before returning his own worried nod. He glanced at our joined hands and a knowing smile appeared on his face. “You said your name was Henry, right?”

Cautiously, I nodded.

“Look after him for us, please? He’s precious to us.”

“Of course.” I turned to look at Blue before squeezing his hand and saying quietly, “He’s precious to me, too.”

The slightest tinge of pink heated his cheeks as the corners of Blue’s lips tipped up for a fraction of a second.

“Come on, angel,” I said softly, turning into him and cupping his cheek with my free hand, which he leaned into. I rose up on my toes to press my lips to his in a chaste kiss. “Let’s go home.”

“Okay,” he said, still quiet and nowhere near his usual effervescent self. He held the broken pieces of his phone out to me, his sad eyes staring into mine. “Do you think you’ll be able to fix this?”

Chewing on my bottom lip, I looked hard at the pieces. “I don’t know.”

He sniffled and hugged the pieces back into his chest.

“But I can try, okay?” I wrapped an arm around him and drew him to me, the jagged edges of the phone digging into my sternum. “We’ll make it work. I promise.”

He let out a shaky breath. “Okay.”

With my arm still around his waist, I led him out of the lunchroom.

Amy followed us, telling us she’d clean up the glitter bomb and get Blue’s lunchbox back to him before she asked for my contact details. I rattled off my number and asked if she could gather Blue’s belongings for us. She nodded and dashed off to their office.

“Henry?” Blue asked softly.

“Yes, angel?”

“Can we please go back to your place? I could really use some Sir Cattus snuggles right about now.”

“Of course, angel. That’s where I was planning on taking you, anyway.”

“Oh.” He sniffled again. “Thank you.”

“Anything for you, angel. Anything at all.”