3. Milo #2
Milo nodded. He then ran through Patrick’s schedule and explained how he’d moved things around to accommodate the urgent meetings he’d had to deal with this morning.
After they were done, Milo went back to his desk, which was just outside Patrick’s office in his own separate area that could be locked.
It was away from the action of the newsroom, but Milo could still hear the hubbub.
He enjoyed being close to the action, but didn’t want to be in it.
Milo loved writing, but wasn’t sure journalism was where his future was, as he preferred writing fiction.
Despite what people might think, journalism needed to have a kernel of truth in it if you didn’t want to get sued, and with writing, Milo loved to let his imagination roam free.
The week had dragged, and Milo couldn’t have been happier when Friday rolled around.
It had been a while since he’d done five days in the office, but it had been one of those weeks when Patrick had needed to be in.
He’d not asked Milo to be in every day as well, but Milo knew it was appreciated.
He was even more delighted when Patrick told him to head off early at three o’clock, given how much he’d worked this week.
Milo wasn’t about to argue, and by four o’clock he was walking into his flat with two bags of food shopping.
He’d stopped by the supermarket on his way back from the Tube station.
Milo was looking forward to having the place to himself for a while, given all his flatmates had jobs they couldn’t do from home, although they all worked in the city.
Kieran was a tattooist, Hassan was a doctor, and Liam worked as an investment manager for a private equity firm.
He earned a fuckload of money, but it was his dream to move back to his hometown and run his parent’s bakery when they retired and have a family of his own.
This was his way of setting himself up financially for life.
He had money invested everywhere, and lived frugally, although he wasn’t tight with his friends.
No doubt when he moved to the sticks, he might find the right guy to settle down with.
For now, he was still conducting extensive field research.
“What are you doing home so early?” asked Kieran, pouncing on Milo before he’d even got up the stairs.
What the hell was Kieran doing here on a Friday afternoon? He’d almost given Milo a heart attack.
“Patrick said I could leave early.”
“Did you talk to him about tomorrow?”
“He doesn’t go to protests, Kieran. You know that. He has to stay neutral.”
“How can you stay neutral on something like this? Sounds like a coward to me.”
Milo prickled. If there was one thing his boss wasn’t, it was a coward, but Kieran saw anyone who went against his opinion as the enemy. He wasn’t in the mood for a debate the minute he walked in the door, so he pushed past with his shopping and went into the kitchen.
“Have you seen online that Edward Chivington is going to be the next prime minister? That has to be a fucking joke, doesn’t it? That he’s becoming prime minister without an election? The entire system is a fucking disgrace.”
“At least Chivington would be better than Hargreaves.”
“What?” Kieran shrieked. “Have you heard something?”
Fuck! He shouldn’t have said that out loud. There’d been no mention of it online, so he’d only heard it from Patrick. The speculation online was that Chivington was a certainty.
“Just a joke. You know. Who could be worse than Chivington?” he said, hoping he sounded convincing.
“Oh, thank fuck for that. Could you imagine? Don’t joke about shit like that. We’d have to leave the country if that happened. I can live on a Greek island and find myself a nice local man to look after me. Imagine being surrounded by hairy men all the time?”
Milo snorted. Body hair was Kieran’s catnip, and he liked older guys as well, but they had unique tastes, so were never in competition for the same guy.
Milo put his shopping away. He always picked up his food on Fridays.
They went in together on shared things like milk, butter, and bread, but they worked different hours, so it wasn’t possible for them all to eat together all the time.
They tried to do it one night a week, but it had been a while since that had happened.
“Are those lasagna ingredients?” asked Kieran.
“Thought I’d make the sauce tonight and then put it together tomorrow. We’ll be hungry when we get home, and it’ll keep until Sunday if we end up going out.”
Kieran clapped his hands together like an excited seal, causing Milo to laugh.
He wasn’t a skilled cook, but his lasagna was something everyone complimented him on.
There was no special sauce; it was all about patience.
He’d be cooking it tonight, knowing it would be at least tomorrow before he could eat some.
Few people had that kind of willpower once the garlic, tomato, and meat smells spread throughout their flat.
Once everything was put away, he took a shower.
He needed an evening at home given that tomorrow was going to be a full-on day.
If Kieran wanted to go out, Milo would have to say no.
Surely he’d understand, especially as the six o’clock thing was still happening.
Kieran had been furious to learn Lexie wasn’t going to arrive until close to the start time, but Liam had reminded him who the protest was about, which had shut him up.
Besides, it was a protest rally. People were going to be milling about all day.
Emotions would run high. Patrick had warned Milo to be careful in case things took a turn.
They knew there was at least one anti-protest happening at the same time.
Hopefully Kieran wouldn’t do anything stupid and antagonise anyone.
In the shower, Milo’s mind wandered to SilverFoxSubDL and whether he’d be online tonight.
Did it matter? Milo wasn’t going anywhere.
He needed to catch up on sleep, not fuck some anonymous guy in a dark room.
Even though they’d only exchanged a few messages on a hookup app, Milo felt a pull to the mystery man.
He’d thought about him every day this week, and he didn’t even know what he looked like. How was that possible?
Once he was out of the shower, he noticed Kieran had gone back to his room, probably to argue with someone on social media.
The other two were still at work, so Milo got dressed in his joggers and T-shirt and set about making his lasagna sauce for the weekend.
He popped some music on, closed the kitchen door so he wouldn’t disturb anyone, and got down to business.
As he chopped up the onions and garlic, he kept glancing at his phone and shaking his head. He needed to focus on cooking.
Once he’d sautéed the veg, he browned the mince and added some red wine before the passata.
It was all coming together when the door opened.
It was Liam. He had a mandated five days in the office, but they had a four o’clock finish on a Friday, which Liam always took advantage of.
Even with the money, Milo wasn’t sure if he could do that five-days-in-the-office slog every week.
How he’d done it before the pandemic was a mystery, but he’d been younger then.
“That smells gorgeous. Is it for tonight?”
“You know I like to let it sit. It’s for tomorrow when we get home.”
“I’m getting my back blown out tomorrow night. Can’t I have some now?”
“Thanks for that imagery.”
Liam gave zero fucks, and Milo had learnt far too much about the different varieties of foreskin from his flatmate’s Sunday morning anecdotes.
“I won’t be assembling until tomorrow, so I’ll save you some for Sunday,” said Milo.
“You’re such a food tease. Who else is home?”
“Just Kieran.”
“Did he rant at you about Chivington?”
“As soon as I walked in the door.”
Liam snorted. “It’s all he’s been going on about this week, and then it leads into us needing an elected head of state.”
“He didn’t get that far with me.”
“Ooh, did you tell him to piss off for once?”
“No, he was banging on about how Patrick staying neutral made him a coward.”
“Ouch. Just ignore him. He’s been proper on one this week. You’ve been working late, so you missed it all. The guy needs to get fucked or something.”
Milo immediately thought of his DL sub guy and wondered what he was doing tonight. Before he could overthink it, he grabbed his phone, opened the app, and sent a message.
TwinkTop8: Are you around tonight?