Chapter 11
Casimir
Today I was asked if I was rainbow enough to join the LGBT Chamber of Commerce or if I was just a little colorful. Should I have gotten offended or just answered the question? I’m kind of on the fence.
How had that come up in a conversation?
What had he said at work to prompt someone to ask him that?
Frowning at my phone, I quickly typed out a reply as I sat in the car in the driveway.
That’s going to be situationally dependent. Is the guy usually a dick?
From what Atlee had told me about his schedule, he should’ve been heading into a meeting any second, but his reply came back quickly.
Yes but it’s generally unintentional. He’s blunt and awkward which is a terrible combination.
Atlee knew the weirdest people and really didn’t seem to understand how crazy they all were. But I kind of appreciated looking so normal compared to the rest of them.
“Hmm…” Taking who he attracted into consideration, I shook my head as I typed out my reply.
Then I would probably be slightly offended but not enough to call him out. If it gets worse you need to tell him to stop as long as you like the guy at all. If he’s competition for something then let him sink his own ship.
Atlee took a moment to type back, but I was pretty sure that was because he was trying not to smile and didn’t know what to say. He was so polite sometimes it was adorable. “You must’ve been confused to ask me about it.”
He’s the sink-his-own-ship type, so you’re probably right about how to handle it. Okay. I’m off to my meeting but I wanted to tell you that I’ll get the current round of paperwork back to you tonight. I had to work over lunch. I’ll talk to you later.
Again.
He’d worked through lunch again.
Once he gave an ending statement like he’d see me later, I’d learned he’d completely tuned out his phone, so I didn’t bother texting a reply as I got out of the car. Atlee’s mental shifts weren’t just strong during a scene, they were a big part of his personality in general.
Without experiencing the good side, it might’ve bugged me, but I loved seeing how he was throwing himself into understanding his submission better. My only issue was that he seemed to have an unhealthy relationship with failure, but that was something we could talk about in the long run.
Nothing that he was doing at the moment seemed too unhealthy for him, but if he stopped communicating about it, I’d push more. While he was clearly explaining his thoughts, and at least attempting to understand my point of view, I wasn’t going to be a pain in the ass.
I’d pull that out later if it became necessary.
Rolling the options around in my head, I climbed out of the car and shut the door before heading to grab the mail since Atlee wouldn’t be checking his until late. It was silly but I liked doing it at the same time. I wasn’t going to obsess over it, though.
I had other more fun things to obsess over.
“Casimir.” The slightly frustrated tone of the voice calling my name had me trying not to laugh but I couldn’t quite control my smile. “Casimir.”
Gerald and his sidekick Paul.
Somehow the two men were just as nuts as their wives but were in complete denial about it. Normally, people living like ostriches drove me crazy, but they were accepting and entertaining, so I let them ignore reality as much as I could.
“Hello, gentlemen.” Pulling out my mail, I did my best to look pleasantly neutral as the two men scurried down the street like they’d just escaped prison.
They’d managed to get away from their wives.
“I need to be able to run errands again.” Paul’s starting point wasn’t logical to anyone but him, so I just nodded vaguely as they tried to catch their breaths.
“I haven’t had an uninterrupted dinner in two weeks. What are you doing?” Gerald made a bit more sense but only because I knew his wife. “I can’t take this much longer.”
I loved my street.
Blinking, I shut the mailbox and cocked my head. “What’s going on with your dinner? Is everything alright?”
Ha.
They both sighed like I was an idiot.
“We have five minutes tops. You were supposed to be home ten minutes ago and the girls didn’t get distracted at the bookstore as long as we expected.” Gerald seemed offended by everything going wrong because he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me. “They’re almost here.”
Lord.
“Then you have to ask better questions.” There wasn’t enough time to fuck with them and keep them on my side, so I had to behave.
I hated it when they took the fun out of gossip.
“Why have you been going out to dinner with Atlee so much?” Gerald’s question didn’t make any sense and he must’ve realized that. “We know you’re going out on dates. That’s not what I mean. Valerie came over to try to talk the girls into having coffee.”
Oh, that was a fun new twist.
“We need to know what to tell her and we need you to stop doing interesting things around dinner.” Paul shifted to glaring at me the same way Gerald was. “Switch up the timing because we haven’t had uninterrupted meals in two weeks.”
They were insane.
“Take them both out to eat tonight because Atlee has a late meeting. You can tell them I complained about it when you ran into me.” They might’ve had a point with fucking with everyone right about dinner time.
“Shift errands to the middle of the week during lunch because we both work regular hours.”
They really hadn’t thought this through.
“You’re both retired.” Duh. “Stop trying to take your wives out on the weekends when there’s more to watch.”
Going still, they blinked and I could almost see light bulbs flashing bright over their heads. They really would make good anime or cartoon characters because they were both wonderfully stereotypical old men.
When they seemed to have gotten it, I glanced between them. “What else? We’re on a schedule here.”
They really needed to get to the point faster.
“Are you okay?” Gerald’s brain came back online faster. “Atlee is polite but he’s…not…he doesn’t…”
And his brain stopped again.
Paul’s had turned on, though. “He doesn’t have as much personality as you and he’s very serious. Are you happy? You don’t date someone just because they’re lonely and on the rebound. You can’t be that nice. You’re important too.”
Aww.
They were insane and cute.
“We started just slowly getting to know each other after his divorce. You’re right. He was lonely and too focused on just work. But he’s very sweet and it’s nice to have someone stable.” That was more important than I’d realized.
“I’m not sure why Valerie couldn’t appreciate that.
” As they started to nod, I played my trump card.
“He’s like you guys. A good partner. You’re helpful around the house.
You look after your wives. Look at this conversation right now.
You were upset you couldn’t take them out on dates. That’s sweet.”
Bingo.
They both stood straighter and nodded more decisively as Gerald cleared his throat. “Those things are very important in a relationship, so I’m glad he knows that.”
Frowning, Paul sighed. “Valerie just didn’t appreciate a real man. She likes drama and ridiculousness.”
And teenagers, evidently.
“We’re going to watch out for Atlee, though.” Just in a variety of different ways. “Valerie is still poking around and trying to drag out her chaos.”
And time to give them a little snippet of gossip.
“Did you know she’s convinced his mother they’re getting back together? She’s trying to plan a second wedding when he’s fighting to get the first over with.” Their eyes went wide but they’d officially run out of time because Gerald’s phone pinged.
It had to be warning him about his wife getting closer because they both sucked in a breath before turning around and scurrying back to their houses.
They were adorable and ridiculous, and faster than I’d expected, because we all made it inside before Betty pulled into the driveway.
I managed not to laugh until I was safely behind my front door, but it was a close call. They were all just so much fun, it was all I could do to keep a straight face somedays. “Okay, now I have to figure out how to run into the girls and see what happened over coffee.”
Those nosy men needed to learn how to budget their time better.
“And I have to figure out plans for the weekend so everyone knows when downtime is.” That clearly wasn’t as obvious as I thought it would be, so changes needed to be made. “I could complain more when Atlee has to work late but I don’t want people to think I resent his job.”
I’d have to think about that.
“Alright, shower…dinner…downtime and then I’ll stalk my cutie.” I’d gotten used to seeing him as much as I wanted, so needing to be patient was painful. “Oh.”
No, I had a better plan.
Shower…downtime…stalking and then pizza for my cutie.
It really was sad that I didn’t do dirty pictures because showing him how clean I could get in the shower would’ve been a fun way to get attention from Atlee.
“Work now and tease later.” Once I got the checklist back. “Ugh. He’s teasing me by making me wait.”
I was going to have to get back at him about that at some point.