Chapter 4 – Leon #2
“That’s a lie made up by Big Laundry Detergent to get you to do more loads. I don’t have fucking time for that,” Leon said, slamming the door closed and starting the wash.
He stood up and, as had been the case more and more recently, tried to ignore how tall Hailey had gotten. He could still remember when she barely came up to his chest. Now she was practically at his chin.
He slid his hands into the pockets of his joggers, pressing his fingertips into his thighs to try to get some feeling back in them. “Is Trina really upset with you over the dorm and professor?”
Hailey’s arms loosened before falling to her sides. “No. She never gets upset with me for anything. Not for losing her favorite pen, distracting her in class, or picking the wrong dorm. She never even got mad at me for crashing my car with her in it.”
When Leon had been a child, probably only three or four, the city had been repaving the sidewalk in front of his house.
His dad had taken him outside before the cement had a chance to harden and told him to step in the corner of one of the squares.
His little toddler shoe had left a small imprint, barely even noticeable, but then his dad had stepped down next to him, with his massive worker’s boot.
The imprint had been deep and firm, showing the exact tread and pattern of wear.
For the rest of Leon’s childhood, long after his dad had died, he’d step into that footprint, tracking the passage of time and the distance from that loss with the size of his shoe.
As Leon stood there shaking, his chest felt a little like that boot print. Caved in, with the clear delineations of where Hailey’s size seven ballet flats had kicked in his solar plexus.
“That’s…good…” he managed to choke out.
Hailey hummed, lost in thought, and Leon grabbed onto the opportunity with both hands. He headed into the office, under the guise of trying to find Yarmen, and was disappointed he found him almost immediately, asleep with his head on Leon’s keyboard.
God, he missed James. Even though he complained about Leon’s clacky keyboard, he had offered to fight HR if they gave him any grief for installing one in his office.
For some reason, the sound or maybe the sensation of clicking the keys helped Leon focus.
Yarmen had a love-hate relationship with the thing.
Sometimes, the sound of it would lull him to sleep in Leon’s lap, but other times, his back would arch, and he would swipe at it until Leon distracted him with toys or locked him out of the room altogether.
James had never worked from home with Leon, claiming it would be far too distracting.
If he ever did, Leon could always dampen the keyboard noise while still keeping the tactile feel.
It hadn’t been an issue thus far, since he didn’t game or work when James was around, but they had been spending more and more time together recently.
Leon had purposefully bought a keyboard with a dampening setting so if their schedules ever aligned, he could still get his work done without disturbing James.
Just that week he’d begun looking for a second desk he could install in the office, as a way to tempt James to stay over on a worknight.
Having his soft, sweet, warm darlin’ in his bed was a surefire way to scare away the nightmares, or at the very least guarantee he had somewhere safe to land when he woke up.
He also just liked spending time with James, and he wanted to spend as much time as he possibly could with the people he loved.
Which was why, when Hailey poked her head into the office and asked if he and James wanted to get dinner with her and Trina, he should have said yes.
They’d shared meals before, usually when Hailey invited herself and Trina into Leon’s house, but they could totally go out to dinner.
In fact, maybe it could even start a habit of them meeting up for dinner while Hailey was away at school.
What college student didn’t want free food?
It would be so easy to say yes. It was just three little letters, one minuscule syllable. James would most certainly agree. He was always encouraging Leon to spend more time with Hailey.
Leon wanted that. Truly, he did. He wanted to keep Hailey in his life, and Trina was sweet, with a dry sense of humor he appreciated.
It was also good for James to socialize.
He’d spent far too many years acting as his mom’s selfless caregiver.
He deserved to go to fun restaurants, and Hailey always talked about random pop-ups and ghost kitchens she wanted to try.
All he had to do was agree. He could just nod or grunt, and she’d probably take that as permission to come back in a few hours and bother him. Just one small movement or utterance of breath…
But all he could do was stand frozen, his chest caving in and his hands trembling so hard he accidentally bumped Yarmen in the face.
He let out a startled yowl, nearly falling off the desk.
“Oh, kitty!” Hailey cried, rushing around Leon to gather his cat up in her arms.
He yowled again, really hamming it up for his favorite next door neighbor.
God, when she left, how was he going to console Yarmen when he couldn’t even console himself?
Leon’s chest hurt so bad he could have sworn his ribs were fracturing, breaking off and stabbing through his lungs, so he had to sip at the air like he was breathing through a straw. He pressed his buzzing fingers into his sternum and turned away from Hailey, right as someone knocked on the door.
He had never moved so fast in his entire life. One moment, he was cowering in his office, and the next he was ripping open his front door to throw himself into James’ arms.