The Boyfriend Experience (7 page)

“Yeah. I’m fantastic,” Nate answered with a sleepy grin. It hadn’t been the roughest sex they'd had, but he was tired. He shivered as his sweaty skin began to cool.

“Come on, let’s get under the covers.” Darren pulled at the duvet under them.

Nate heard the old grandfather clock on the main floor chime midnight as they got comfortable under the blankets. He looked over to Darren and said sleepily. “It’s Christmas Day.”

Darren chuckled. “Yeah.”

“I never did ask you what you wanted for Christmas,” Nate said.

“I’ve already got what I wanted right here.” Darren leaned in and pressed his lips gently to Nate’s. “Merry Christmas, Nate.”

“Me too. Merry Christmas to you too.” Nate smiled as he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Nate knocked on the frosted glass door before pushing it open slightly to peek in.

Darren looked up from the file he was reading. “Nate! Come on in.”

“Here’s the file you wanted. I think I’ve caught everything.” Nate dropped the file on Darren’s desk before sitting down on the sofa in his office. “There were a few spots that could use some clarification. I added my comments.”

“Thanks,” Darren said. He pushed away from his desk and moved to sit down next to Nate. “So? What do you think of your first week?”

“Pretty good. I mean, I don’t really get to interact with very many people but the ones I’ve met were pretty nice.” Nate smiled as he motioned for Darren to sit up straight so he could fix his tie. “You need to stop fiddling with your tie.”

“But it’s uncomfortable,” Darren complained. “You know, I never had to wear a tie until I was at Harvard.”

“Am… I interrupting something?” Kyle’s voice almost made Nate jump in his seat.

Nate had been helping Darren with paperwork ever since they got back from the Hamptons. Originally, Nate was a little uncomfortable with the idea since most of the files that came through Darren’s desk were the confidential, top secret, eyes-only type. Even though Darren had said he trusted Nate, Nate still wasn’t sure it was a good idea.

It all changed when one night, Nate found Darren still slaving away past midnight. Darren’s company was poised to go public in the next month or so, which meant that everyone, the president included, had extra homework to do.

After Nate had spent a week helping Darren out at home, proofing and error checking documents and generally putting his prior education to good use, Darren decided that it would be far more effective if Nate were to work for him during the day as his personal assistant.

And the rest, as they said, was history.

“Depends on your definition of something,” Darren quipped, folding his arms in front of him. “What is it?”

“Nothin’,” Kyle shrugged. “I’m on order from my lovely wife to make sure you weren’t abusing Nate.”

“I would never! Nate, you tell him!” Darren scoffed with an incredulous look on his face, causing Nate to burst out laughing.

“Please tell Kate I’m doing okay, and thanks for checking up on me,” Nate said when he finally got his laughter under control. “I appreciate it.”

“Just keep doing the good work, kiddo.”

“You know, I’ve never seen Kate take to someone this quickly,” Darren said, shaking his head.

“I know, right?” Kyle commiserated. “I feel totally left out, and I’m the husband!”

“What can I say? It’s all part of my charm,” Nate quipped with a smug grin and a shrug. “Anyways, I gotta get back to work. I’ll get the summary on that stack of financial numbers to you later this afternoon.”

“Wait, you’re forgetting something,” Darren said as Nate was about to get up from the couch.

“What did I forget?” Nate frowned.

“This.” Darren pulled Nate close by his tie for a kiss before letting him go.

“Geez, guys, can you at least wait until I’m gone?” Kyle rolled his eyes. “This is still business hours the last time I checked.”

“You only say that because you’re jealous.” Darren grinned unrepentantly. “Right, Nate?”

“I’m not getting into this.” Nate chuckled as he left the room.

* * *

“Hey, Darren?” Nate called out to Darren as he sat cross-legged on the floor with spreadsheets all around him.

“Yeah?” Darren answered, yelling so Nate would be able to hear him over the range hood.

“Who’s in charge of the Anderson account?”

“Uhm… I can’t remember. I’ll have to check with the accounts department. Why?”

“There’s a discrepancy here…” Nate hummed. “And here, again. And there.”

“Hold on, give me a second.” Nate turned to see what Darren was doing but he couldn’t from where he was sitting. Turning off the stove, Darren strolled over to the living room. “Where’s the discrepancy?”

“Here, I’ve circled it.” Nate handed Darren the piece of paper.

“That looks like business expenses,” Darren frowned as he studied the lines of information. “That’s the code for travel, food… yeah, looks like expenses.”

“Ten grand is a bit high for expenses,” Nate said, flipping through the stack of paper in his hands. “They don’t match up with the reports from accounting. I see the money disappears here and reappears somewhere else. This has been happening regularly.”

“Hmm.” Darren pursed his lips as he continued to study the sheet. “Talk to Linda in accounts tomorrow and see who’s responsible for that account.”

“Yeah, sure.” Nate shrugged, rubbing his eyes. He’d been staring at those spreadsheets for too long.

“In the mean time, you are officially done for the day. You’ve been working too hard.”

“I’m not done—”

“I’m the boss, and I say you’re done for the day.” Darren snatched the papers away from Nate’s hand. “Up.”

“—yet.” Nate sighed when he lost the hold on the spreadsheets. “Fine.”

“Come on.” Darren pulled Nate to standing and ushered him to the dining table. Nate looked on with interest when Darren lit a pair of candles that were sitting between two place sets.

“Darren?”

“Hmm?” Darren hummed as he set two plates of salad down.

“What’s going on?” Nate smirked as Darren pretended to be a sommelier as he poured the wine.

Darren gasped dramatically as he sat down, which made Nate chuckle. “You don’t remember?” Darren asked.

“No…? Did I miss something?” Nate frowned. He was usually good with dates.

Darren let out a long sigh. “Two months.”

Nate almost yelped when he heard Darren say ‘two months’. “Oh my god, I totally forgot about it. I’m so sorry—”

“Hey! Baby.” Darren reached across the table to hold Nate’s hand, calming Nate down. “It’s okay.”

Pulling Nate’s hand close, Darren pecked a kiss on the back of his hand before letting go. “You were busy. We both were. It’s okay, really. We cool?”

Nate nodded.

“Good. Now, eat, before the food gets cold.” Darren grinned. “Probably not as good as what you make, but I’ve been told I make a mean steak.”

* * *

The ruckus coming from one of the cubicles told Darren exactly where he would find his lover. There was a thick crowd gathered around the cubicle, looking on with an array of expressions. Darren didn’t have any problems navigating through the crowd though; as soon as his employees saw him, they simply cleared a path for him to the source of the spectacle.

“What’s going on here?” Darren asked. He frowned when he saw Nate’s bloody nose and disheveled appearance as he sat on the floor. Darren reached out a hand to pull him to standing. “You all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Nate pulled away and carefully created some distance between them once he found his footing.

A man was kicking and screaming, struggling as two security guards held the man back. “Don’t you dare do this to me, you whore!”

Darren could see Nate flinch as the man called out more insults.

“I know all about you, you fag whore!” the man continued, despite the security guard’s attempt at convincing him to shut up.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Nate said, emotionless. Darren could tell that Nate was trying to keep his voice calm, but Darren could hear the uncontrollable shaking as Nate spoke.

“Get him out of here!” Darren ordered, and watched the two guards drag the man to the elevator. He made sure they were gone before he turned to the crowd around him. “What happened here? Someone better have a good explanation for this!”

“Uh…” A guy from the cubicle on the opposite side of the wall spoke up. “Well, Mr. de Luca came to ask Randall a question. I didn’t hear what it was, but all of a sudden Randall started yelling, throwing punches. Sally called security as soon as that happened.”

“Sally?”

“That’s me.” A middle-aged woman standing next to Nate gave Darren a small wave as she pulled a tissue from her desk and gave it to Nate. “I was just getting back from the break room when I heard Randall Bartlett start yelling. Nasty language. And then he punched poor Nate here, so I called security.”

“Thank you, Sally.” Darren gave the woman a polite smile. “You two, I want an incident report on my desk before the end of the day. As for the rest of you, don’t you guys have better things to do?”

The crowd dispersed as soon as Darren made it clear that they should not stick around.

“Nate, you’re with me,” Darren said as he began making his way back to his office.

As soon as they were back in Darren’s office, he shut the door and pulled Nate into his arms. He buried his face into Nate’s neck, breathing deeply to take in the man’s soothing scent to calm himself.

“Are you all right?” Darren asked softly after letting Nate go. He brought his hand up and gently caressed the side of Nate’s face with his fingers. Nate flinched when Darren’s hand neared.

Darren was furious. He was angry with that Bartlett guy for hurting Nate, but he was more angry with himself for allowing this to happen.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Nate said, pulling away from Darren to sit on the couch after grabbing the box of tissue off of the coffee table.

“What happened?”

Nate poked at his reddened cheek, hissing as he answered, “I managed to track down the source of that discrepancy I showed you the other day.”

“It was Bartlett?” Darren sat down next to him.

“Yeah. He was taking money out of the account and putting it back in, but I found out a few entries that wasn’t returned. If it hadn’t been for that, no one would’ve noticed it.” Nate sighed, leaning his head back against the cushion, pinching his nose. “I went to ask him about it… and the rest, you already know.”

“You should’ve came to me first, Nate.” Darren sighed.

“I know, I should’ve. I honestly didn’t expect that. I was only going to ask him for his expense records,” Nate answered quietly. “I’m sorry, Darren. I messed up.”

“That’s nonsense.” Darren reached over and forced Nate to face him. “You couldn’t have known this was going to happen.”

Nate didn’t answer.

“I’m going to have to bring the cops in on this,” Darren said after he thought for a moment. “Come on.”

“Where’re we going?” Nate asked when Darren pulled him up from the couch.

“Home.” Darren watched as Nate’s shoulders slump before adding. “This is not a reprimand, silly. We’re just going home. And you need to ice that eye, or you’ll turn into a big panda by tomorrow.”

After they got home, Darren sat Nate down and made sure he iced the bruises. As the adrenaline began to wear off, Nate fell into a light doze on the couch.

Darren sat on the edge of the couch, watching Nate as the younger man dozed. His face still looked bruised but it wasn’t as bad as earlier in the day. He reached to gently caress Nate’s bruised cheek.

He brushed a few strands of hair away from Nate’s face. The younger man kept saying he was going to get it cut and colored, but Darren secretly wished he wouldn’t. He liked Nate’s natural strawberry blonde hue with a dusting of auburn. And he liked the length, too; it was just long enough to slide softly through his fingers whenever he played with Nate’s hair.

Darren withdrew his hand when Nate muttered and turned in his sleep. He didn’t want to wake him.

The winter sun had long since set, and the only light in his apartment came from the soft yellow glow of the three pod lights in the living room.

Darren kept thinking back to that afternoon. Even though he knew nothing would’ve happened, he couldn’t help worrying about it. He didn’t want to see Nate hurt, ever.

He’d heard what Bartlett called Nate. The fact that he was gay and the fact that he and Nate were bumping boots were open secrets in the office. What the others didn’t know was Nate’s true profession. He’d seen the way Nate flinched at those insults. Nate had behaved like he hadn’t heard the words but Darren knew how much it must’ve stung.

He wished he could shield Nate from it all. He suddenly felt selfish for asking Nate to give him a hand around the office. He should’ve known better.

“God, you have it bad for him,” Darren muttered to himself. He could no longer deny his feelings for Nate. He had fallen hard, probably since they first met. But did Nate feel the same for him? It was a question Darren didn’t have the answer for and didn’t dare to ask.

He leaned down to press his lips softly at Nate’s temple. “What am I going to do with you?”

* * *

Nate sat alone in Darren’s apartment. He had his laptop opened to a webcast site where the camera was pointed at a glass podium with logo and the words “Chase Sommers” on the front.

He didn’t know why he was nervous. Darren and Kyle would be the one making the speech and taking questions from the reporters, yet Nate felt nervous.

Today was the big day. The day for the big announcement of Darren’s company going public with their plans for initial public offerings.

There was some feedback from the microphone and a bit of a scramble as everyone got into position. Nate watched anxiously as Darren strolled onto the stage to stand behind the podium in his usual charming swagger.

“I’m sure all of you have heard about the recent incident involving one of our former employees. Let me assure you that everything has been dealt with and taken care of. At Chase Sommers, we are all about doing what is necessary, especially when it came to our clients,” Darren began. “I’m happy to announce today, that after so many years of hard work by our employees, Chase Sommers will finally be taking the next step in expanding our operations. We will be releasing our first block of initial public offerings over the next week.”