Chapter 5 #2
When he woke again, they had shifted in the night.
Forrest had rolled over, and Conrad was cradled in his arms with his back pressed to Forrest’s chest. Something else was also pressed against him, and Conrad breathed deeply and tensed for a few seconds because, damn, Forrest was big all over.
He was tempted to roll over, kiss Forrest awake, and see what happened, but Forrest moved away, and Conrad slowly rolled over to find him getting out of bed.
“It’s Sunday.” He really lost track of time while he was sick.
“Yes. But I can’t have Lizzie spreading the word at school that her teacher slept over at her house.” He leaned over the bed, giving Conrad a gentle kiss. “I’ll call you later. Okay?”
“Yeah, I get it,” Conrad whispered. He really did.
That sort of thing would complicate Forrest’s life in ways Conrad could only begin to imagine, and swearing Lizzie to secrecy was not going to work.
Kids her age talked about everything. “I’ll talk to you soon.
Okay?” He smiled and snuggled under the covers as Forrest dressed quickly and left the house.
Conrad lay still and regretted that Forrest was gone.
He had slept well and thankfully felt a lot better.
He checked the clock and realized Lizzie was going to be up at any time, so he forced his body to work and went downstairs.
On Sundays he usually made a really nice breakfast for them, but he didn’t have the energy, so instead, he found some toaster waffles and got them out for Lizzie between wishing that Forrest was still there.
DURING THE day, he spent much of his time on the sofa. His mom came over at noon and made him some lunch. She was also good enough to bring over dinner, and by Monday morning he was feeling okay… until he went into work and Lester was waiting at his desk.
“First thing in the morning?” Conrad asked. That must mean that something had happened and Lester was there to gloat or cause trouble.
“Jansen had issues with their systems over the weekend.” He was the on-call person, so he had taken the call.
“And what did you do about it?” Conrad asked. He’d had his phone with him, and even though he was sick, he had taken calls. Forrest had messaged and called to make sure he was okay
“It’s not my account,” he snipped. “What was I supposed to do?”
“Well, since you didn’t get in touch with me, you should have fixed it.
But I’m sure you didn’t know the first thing about it, so you what?
Just let it go? Figured I’d get to it this morning?
” He raised his eyebrows, and for the first time, Lester seemed flustered.
“That’s all you did.” He shook his head.
“This is the preparation of their month-end, and they have a great deal to do.” He logged in and searched for the issue before getting on the phone, ignoring Lester, who was worse than useless.
“What?” he asked when Lester still hadn’t moved.
At some point, he must have left while Conrad was ignoring him.
He got Tyler, the manager with Jansen, on the phone and apologized for not getting back to him.
“We’re dead in the water right now.”
“I saw that. But it looks like most things ran. There was an issue in posting.” He went through what he saw and helped Tyler find the answer.
Once he corrected it, the system finished running and the next process kicked off.
“It’s going to take the system some time to catch up, but you should be ready to roll in a few hours.
Tell your people to go ahead and work on their spreadsheets, and they can upload as soon as the processes are done. ”
“Thanks,” Tyler said. “The guy who responded this weekend was no help. I told him what we were up against, but he didn’t seem to care.”
“I’ll handle that on this end. But if you send me a note, it would help.”
“Consider it done,” Tyler added. “And thanks for getting back to me so early this morning.” He hung up, and Conrad went back to the other things he had to do.
Maybe half an hour later, he received the note from Tyler that he put in a folder for later use if it was needed.
He wanted to get the promotion to director on his own merits, but he was also determined, regardless of what happened as far as his promotion, that Lester wouldn’t get the job.
He was supremely unqualified, and if he were to be promoted to head of the department, there wouldn’t be a department within a year.
Still, he got back to his list of tasks and prepped for a client meeting later that afternoon.
So he was pretty heads down for a few hours, but once he came up for air, he found the office filled with tension, and it all seemed to be directed at him.
He went to the printer, noticing that eyes around the room followed him where he went.
“What’s going on?” he asked Janice, the receptionist and the keeper of everything juicy.
“Some nonsense about you and your daughter’s teacher.” She pointedly looked at a few of the other people in the area, and they lowered their gazes and returned to work. Janice was a force of nature. “Apparently you were out having dinner with him.”
“Yes. My daughter and I met him, and she invited him to dinner with us. He’s a nice man, but it’s just dinner.” He shook his head. “I think the real question is, why is Lester so interested in my love life?” He turned away and grabbed the papers he needed from the printer.
Maybe he was coming to understand some of the scrutiny that would be awaiting Forrest if their relationship became public knowledge.
He returned to work area. There was work he needed to do, and this was a distraction he couldn’t afford at the moment.
There were clients he needed to meet with, and that required him to be on the ball, not worried about whatever game Lester was playing.
He made phone calls and confirmed appointments.
At lunch time, he signed out of the office to eat and then spend the afternoon at client locations.
He was hoping to get some work from a potential new client who was installing a new accounting system.
They were going to need help configuring and setting it up.
That was the part of his job he liked the best—a new project and all the potential it represented.
But still, alone in his car with all the distractions of the office behind him, he took the opportunity to think of Forrest. Damn, he wanted him in his life.
He really did. But he kept wondering if the complications that would bring were something he was ready for.
He pulled away from the building and found he was smiling just thinking of Forrest and how content he’d been Sunday morning, when Forrest had been there when he woke up.
If he wasn’t Lizzie’s teacher, Conrad would probably go for it and let the chips fall where they may.
But his daughter was of supreme importance, and he didn’t need to mess up the relationship she had at school.
Maybe the best thing would be for him to step back.
That way Lizzie would probably be better off without the confusing situation of him seeing her teacher.
With his mind made up, he continued to his client, the smile long gone.