40. Freddie
Freddie
I arrive in the office with a big beaming smile on my face, bang on time.
Well, bang on time for me, which is thirty minutes later than everyone else.
Whatever, I’m still proud of myself. I got a great night’s sleep, I beasted my workout, and I put on that nice moisturiser that Sloane left in my bathroom so now I can smell a little hint of my girl all day.
“Freddie! Good morning, son, how are you?” Harry’s booming voice cuts across the lobby and I turn to see him walking towards me, coffee in hand.
“Morning, Harry. I’m great, thank you! How are you?”
“I’ll be better when today’s meetings are over with,” he says, falling into step with me as I head towards my desk. “Every time I think we’ve got everything we need with this case, he throws another hiccup our way. I swear the bastard pulls more U-turns than the British government.”
“Clients eh,” I say with a shrug. This one is especially bad, but we work in hedge funds – wankers are our staple food.
“True. Come find me in an hour? I’d like to go through it one more time before he gets here, ok?”
“You got it, boss.”
Even cockwomble clients can’t ruin my good mood today. Because I’m pretty sure I might now have both a girlfriend and a boyfriend. And even though a part of me is screaming what the fuck are you doing?! a much louder part of me is just excited to see what might happen next.
The meeting goes as smoothly as it can. Harry grits his teeth and smiles throughout a barrage of rude questions, and I bring up graph after graph of projections and figures. We’re debriefing in the kitchen when my phone pings in my pocket.
“Your girl?” Harry asks, nodding at my phone.
“Yep,” I reply, scanning the message.
“Look at that grin,” he says, a smile appearing on his own face. “It’s nice to see you loved up, Freddie. You deserve it.”
A flush of pride floods my chest. Harry’s opinion means a lot to me – it always has.
“Thanks, Harry,” I reply in earnest, before looking back at my phone.
I head back to my desk with a cuppa in hand and plonk down at my desk. Flashes of last night keep reappearing in my head. Everything with Cole was… fucking exhilarating.
I knew from that stupid dare a few weeks ago that there had been something there. Something unexpected. I thought it was going to be a stupid jokey kiss we’d all laugh about, but it quickly turned into something heated.
Despite my attempts to brush it off, the memory of that moment had been replaying at odd moments. I feel proud of myself for being brave and putting myself out there. There’s a lot at stake for both of us. But last night changed things.
I blow out a breath and scrub a hand over my face.
I think we probably need a beer and a chat.
I don’t want him to think I’m using him for extra blowjobs – I want to give this whole thing a proper go.
And I kind of want to make it…special? It’s Cole, for fuck’s sake.
He’s one of the most important people in my life.
God, I am being so impressively grown up about this. Funnily enough, the person who’d probably be most proud of me is the one I’m fantasising about kissing.