Chapter 8 #2
“Are you sure you want to be here, Dexter? You can have as much time off as you need.”
“I appreciate that, but I need to keep busy, and I promise I’ll be a hundred per cent committed when I am here.”
“I never doubted you wouldn’t be. Thank you for sharing that with me. I know it couldn’t have been easy given the shaky start we’ve had.”
Dexter couldn’t help but snort.
“What’s funny?” asked Simon, but he was smiling.
“Sorry, I’m just thinking how bizarre this is given how snarky we usually are with each other, and then . . .” He looked over at the wall he’d been kneeling at on Friday night. “Well, sorry . . . it’s all just a bit of a mind fuck.”
Simon chuckled. Was that the first time Dexter had ever heard him laugh? The guy was even more handsome when he smiled. That should infuriate him, given how he felt about Simon, but with how he’d been during this conversation, Dexter was seeing him differently.
“Let’s agree to park the other conversation until things are more settled for you. It stays between ourselves, of course.”
“Haven’t told a soul,” he said, doing the Boy Scout sign.
Simon smiled. “Me neither. Let’s keep it that way.”
“Yes sir,” he quipped, with a mock salute.
Simon tried to look sternly at him, but the quirk of his lips gave him away.
“And on that note, I’ll get back to it.” He stood up and then remembered something. “Can we move our catch-up, as I’ll be at the hospital?”
“Of course. How about tomorrow morning, first thing? I’m always in by seven.”
“Seven works for me.”
“I’ll move it now. And Dexter . . . the offer to take more time off stays on the table. You just have to ask, okay?”
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”
He left, not being able to stop himself from smiling.
He closed the door behind him and then jerked in shock when he saw Harriet looking at him.
She was sitting at the desk opposite Simon’s office, which wasn’t her usual spot, but then, she liked to move desks a lot.
Dexter was a creature of habit and liked to have the same desk each day.
It was part of the reason he got in so early, so he could get his desk, and besides, it was in the recruiter DNA to be in early.
If you weren’t a morning person, then recruitment wasn’t the career for you.
“Morning, Dexter. What do you look so pleased about?”
“Pleased? It’s half past seven on a Monday morning. What is there to be pleased about?”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Are you feeling better?”
“Huh?”
“You were off sick, weren’t you?”
“I have a family member in hospital, so I needed to be with them.”
“Oh, Simon said nothing about that,” she said, frowning at his office door.
The guy went further up in Dexter’s estimations, but he wasn’t sure what her problem was, and he didn’t want to get into it in case she asked more questions.
She was his peer, but he’d never been able to get a read on her.
That was his thing. Being able to read people was how he was so successful at hiring talent.
After the conversation he’d just had with Simon, he needed to get some fresh air so he could clear his head.
He knew going into his office that Simon wouldn’t refuse him the flexibility he asked for.
The guy might come across as an arrogant fuckwit most of the time, but he wasn’t heartless.
What he hadn’t expected was to spill his guts about his mum to the man and have no regrets about it.
He actually felt better after sharing it with him.
That was something he needed to get his head around before he got into the day and caught up on what he’d missed last week.
“I’m going to grab a coffee,” he said before turning away.
“Oh great. I’ll come with you.”
He rolled his eyes, then turned back to her and smiled through gritted teeth. So much for getting some quiet reflection time.
The rest of the week flew past in a blur of work and hospital visits.
Each day his mum was getting better, and they were even talking about moving her to a regular ward, although that was said with caution.
The probability of infection was much higher in the main wards, but it was the practice of intensive care to get you out as quickly as possible so someone else could use the bed.
It was a tricky balance, and he didn’t envy the doctors having to make these decisions every day.
Simon had been nothing but supportive all week.
They’d gotten into a habit of chatting each morning when they were the only ones in the office.
Sometimes it was about a pressing work issue, and other times it was Simon asking after his mum.
He’d shared more of her history, and of growing up with just the two of them.
Simon had a sister, and a niece and nephew, who lived in a village in the Midlands.
His parents lived abroad. How he’d gotten on such friendly terms with Simon he wasn’t sure, and now he was on his way to meet Gabriel and Jason.
They would probably want to have a “slag Simon off” session, and if he didn’t go along with it, they’d be suspicious, but after this week, it wouldn’t feel right to take part.
They hadn’t spoken about what had happened between them – twice!
How had he not remembered it was Simon who he’d sucked off in the toilets at Mickey’s?
He wasn’t even sure how it had happened, and it wasn’t something he could bring up with Simon as it would mean they’d have to have the talk.
Besides, he felt embarrassed he couldn’t remember it at all. He was never getting that drunk again.
He walked into KC’s Café on Old Compton Street.
Jason and Gabriel were already there. It was the first time he’d seen Jason in person in six weeks, since he’d walked out of his job and never looked back.
There had been texts and calls, but it wasn’t the same when you were used to seeing someone every day.
Jason and Gabriel were engrossed in conversation and didn’t notice Dexter walk up to them.
“Can I buy you a coffee, cutie?” said Dexter in a deep voice.
Jason scowled and looked up before squealing, which got them attention from the other patrons. He bolted up, causing his chair to clatter on the floor.
“Dexter,” he shrieked, before rushing round and pulling him into a hug.
Jason might only be five feet seven, but he was surprisingly strong. And he looked great. The last time Dexter had seen him he’d looked close to the edge, which had been true, especially in the very dramatic and Jason way he’d quit his job.
Once Jason had let go of him, he gave Gabriel a quick hug, and they took their seats. The entire café had stopped what they were doing to stare at them, which was unusual for London, so they must have been making a lot of noise. Dexter could feel his face heating.
“How have you been?” Dexter asked Jason.
“I’m great. Daddy has been looking after me,” he replied, wiggling his eyebrows.
Dexter couldn’t help laughing. Patrick was in his forties, and was a Daddy, which he never thought Jason would go for, but the guy was so loved up it was wonderful to see. Jason had been a one-night-only guy for as long as Dexter had known him, but Patrick had turned his head.
“Have you started looking for a new job yet?” asked Dexter.
“I’ve just started putting out some feelers. I’ll be okay for a while. It’s not like I’ll get kicked out onto the street by my landlord.”
Jason lived in Soho with his four best friends, although he wasn’t sure who was still living there.
When Dexter had first met them, they were all single, and hot.
He had never seen such a good-looking group of friends.
Now they were all taken, and still hot. One of his friends was a tech genius and had bought the flat for them all to live in.
“What about you?” asked Gabriel. “Any closer to getting out of that place?”
“I didn’t get the Morley and Cartwright role, so I’ll need to look again.”
“What happened? I thought that was a certainty.”
“Mum’s back in hospital. I blew the final interview.”
There was no point in sugarcoating it. That was what had happened. They both gave him a sympathetic look, but it felt like pity rather than the understanding he’d gotten from Simon.
“Is she home now?” asked Jason.
He shook his head. “She’s still in intensive care. Has been for two weeks.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” asked Gabriel.
He looked hurt, but there wasn’t anything Dexter could do about that. They used to speak every day when they worked together, but that didn’t happen anymore. Besides, he knew Gabriel had his own stuff going on after having quit his job in anger because of a sense of solidarity with Jason.
“You know me. Just get on with things.”
“Do you have any more irons in the fire?” asked Gabriel.
“Getting a new job isn’t a priority right now. I have to be there for Mum. When things settle down, I’ll start looking again.”
“Makes sense. Rather you than me. I don’t know how you can still work with him and not want to punch something, though.”
Dexter laughed, but he felt his face heating again.
Jason quirked an eyebrow at him. That fucker didn’t miss a thing.
Thankfully, KC chose that moment to arrive and ask for their order.
He’d been here enough times that he didn’t need to read the menu.
It was a staple of Soho, and basically a second home to Jason.
It wasn’t unusual for them to come here for dinner before hitting the bars after work, although now they had a queer venue in the city.
“Have you been to Knights Corner since it opened?” he asked Jason.
“You mean the place owned by two of my brothers and the husband of another brother?”
Dexter smiled. It was true, in that the venue was definitely a found-family venture.
“I’ve been a few times, but I’ve not been in the city much.”
“Understandable. Do you want to talk about it at all?”
“Not really,” said Jason. “I have until mid-June to take them to the tribunal. I refused to sign a settlement, although they paid my notice and bonus.”
“You got your bonus as well?”
“Yep. Just dropped into my bank account.”
“At least they can’t say you didn’t get what you were owed.”
“Or Simon is just covering his arse.”
“I don’t think he would have wanted you to get screwed over.”
“Oh no, we’ve got a problem, Gabriel.”
“What’s that?”
“Dexter is defending Simon.”
“Piss off,” said Dexter. “I’m not defending him, but I have to work with him, and we’re getting on fine. I need to focus on my mum.”
“Well, now you sound far too rational,” said Gabriel, making them all laugh.
Jason explained he had no intention of taking JenSure to a tribunal, but he wouldn’t assure them of that. He couldn’t help but feel relief for Simon. What the fuck was that all about?
They spent the rest of their lunch catching up on what had been going on in their respective lives.
Dexter had nothing going on other than his mum being in hospital, and he’d already talked about that, so he was happy for them to do most of the talking.
Jason gushed about Patrick the whole time, and talked about his best friend Charlie’s wedding to a property billionaire from New York.
Gabriel was still pining for his latest straight-guy crush. There was no point in their giving him advice. In time, his crush would diminish and he’d be obsessed with another guy. Hopefully this one would like cock, although based on his history, Dexter wouldn’t hold his breath.