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“This,” Tyler opened the storage room door, “Is your first job.”
Richie stared at the room incredulously, his mouth hung wide open.
Tyler snorted at his reaction, “You might want to close your mouth. I know you have cobwebs in your head but I don’t think you want them in your mouth.”
His jaws snapped shut and he glared at Tyler, “You have to be kidding me.”
“Like hell, I am,” Tyler turned on the light and waited for the dirty yellow lights to flicker on. The room looked even worse in the light. Shelves upon shelves of file stood, blanketed in dust. Tyler stuffed a clipboard and pen into Richie’s hands. “Here, I want you to organize everything in this room and take stock of it.” He flipped a couple pages to show a printed list of magazines and documents, “Everything that’s on this list should be in here and more.”
“What if it’s not?” Richie asked.
“Label it missing,” Tyler answered curtly.
Richie took another look at the room and groaned inwardly, “What’s the point of this room anyway?”
“Reference,” Tyler said, “We see what’s been done, what hasn’t been done, what we can bring back, and what we should never bring back thanks to this room.”
“It looks like no one has stepped foot in here for years.”
Tyler shrugged, “We’ve been playing it by ear these past few years. It’s a good thing you came.” He clapped Richie on his back and left him to the mess.
Richie groaned but got started by taking out box after box of documents. An hour later, Richie was sitting on the ground, in the middle of a mountain of papers. He was so immersed in what he was doing that he didn’t even hear the knock on the door. The door creaked open slowly behind the unaware Richie and Nancy poked her head in.
“Richie?”
He jumped and turned around. “Nancy,” he smiled, “God, you scared the life out of me. What’s up?”
“Nothing,” she drawled while looking around the place, “Just checking on you. I’m starting to think you were right. He can’t like you too much if he’s locking you in here for the whole day.”
“I don’t really mind,” Richie said cheerily, “It’s actually fascinating to look into the past and see what worked then. I’m getting thousands of ideas every minute that I spend I’m here.”
“Oh,” she seemed surprised, “I’m glad you’re taking this so well. I would have been livid if he made me do this.”
“I’m actually having fun. Like look at this,” Richie shoved a document into Nancy with hardly hidden excitement, “It’s a document describing a billboard from the 1970s. And this,” he held up a magazine, “there’s a Dallas-Miller ad in this 1983 edition of Vogue. And there’s more, like, like…”
He was interrupted by deep laughter coming from outside the door.
Both Richie and Nancy were frozen by a distinctive shock as they watched Tyler laugh.
Tyler glanced up at their shocked expressions and shook his head dismissingly. “Sorry, you just reminded me of my son with his Legos with all those papers around you. Does it help kids like you to think when you make a mess of things?”
Richie retorted, “Does it help your self esteem when adults like you look down on people?”
Tyler smirked tauntingly, “Nah, it just gives us a good laugh when we get kids like you riled up.”
Richie ignored the strange twist in his gut at seeing Tyler’s playful smirk and glared at him, “Are you always this irritating?”
Tyler shrugged, “Only when I’m in a good mood.”
“Then you must be ecstatic right now,” Richie replied.
Tyler chuckled, “I admit, you’ve managed to make me fairly amused.”
“I’m glad I could do you that service but if you don’t mind, I have to continue doing the job you gave me to do.”
Tyler smirked again, “Sure, I’ll let you get back to your toys, sorry to interrupt.” He closed the door and strolled away.
“Okay, now I’m positive that he doesn’t dislike you,” Nancy announced, “In all my years of working with that man, he hasn’t laughed once. He barely ever cracks a smile.”
“So he laughs at me,” Richie said bitterly, “That doesn’t mean much.”
“It means you can make him laugh,” Nancy informed, “And if you can make him laugh, he can’t help but like you. He even said you remind him of his son.”
“Great, I’m being compared at a, what? Five year old?”
She shook her head at him, “Richie, it seems to me that you’re holding a bit of a grudge against him.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his short blonde hair, “Maybe you’re right. It’s just that he kind of hit a button with what he said yesterday about me running away from my problems.”
“He was right?”
Richie nodded, “I’m pretty pathetic.”
She smoothed down his hair and smiled, “I don’t know what happened at your old job but whatever it was, getting away from it doesn’t make you pathetic.”
He returned the smile with a hint of shyness, “Thanks, Nancy.”
“No problem,” she pecked Richie’s cheek, “I should get going, I just came in to check on you. See you later, Richie.”
“Bye, Nance.”
Once she closed the door, Richie smiled quietly to himself and murmured, “Just my second day and I already have a straight best friend.”
—– —– —– —– —— —— ——
{So how’s it going, Richie?}
Richie collapsed on the couch and held the phone between his ear and should as he took off his shoes. “It couldn’t be any better. My boss thinks I’m incompetent, I nearly got into a car accident today and I’m talking to you instead of sleeping.”
{Oh, I’m glad everything is going well.}
Richie chuckled, “So how’s it going over there, Ced? Does anyone miss me?”
{You know we do. Without you, there’s no one here to cook for us.}
Richie rolled his eyes, “You guys only think of your stomach.”
{You say that as if that’s a bad thing.}
“No, I wouldn’t expect anything else of you guys. So, um,” Richie cleared his throat but he didn’t even need to ask.
{The Andreas kid?}
“Yeah.”
{I heard that he was enrolled in the elementary school so he’s here to stay. I guess Sy’s parents finally decided to let him clean up his own shit.}
“Oh,” Richie said thoughtfully, “I see. I guess it’s for the best.”
{So how’s work?} Cedric asked in a weak attempt to change the subject.
“Other then my boss thinking I’m incompetent?”
{Exactly, other then that. How did that happen anyway?}
Richie stood and paced around his apartment, “According to my observations, he looked at me then felt hatred rise from deep in his gut.”
He heard Cedric laugh, {You’re exaggerating.}
“No, well, maybe, yes,” he admitted, “But he was still mean for no reason.”
{God, Rich, you sound like you’re five. Usually nothing people do can get under your skin. What’s different about this guy?}
“He’s not getting under my skin.”
{And you’re in denial.}
“Okay so maybe he’s getting under my skin a little bit but it’s like he didn’t even give me a chance to prove myself before marking me down as a screw up. He doesn’t even know I’m gay.”
{So, basically, if he was a just another homophobe, you wouldn’t have taken it personally?}
“Exactly.”
{What if he just has a killer gaydar and does hate you because you’re gay?}
“That can’t be it because he doesn’t really hate me…” Richie slowed to a halt as he said that. He managed to shock himself with his own words. “He did say that I reminded him of his kid. I don’t think a homophobe would ever say something like that.”
{Wait, this guy has a kid? How old is he?}
“Early thirties and yes, he has more than one kid, I’m not sure how many though.”
{Wow, you picked some guy to crush on.}
“Crush?” Richie exclaimed, “What do you mean crush? The guy is rude as hell and he thinks I’m a joke. How can I have a crush on him?”
{Relax, Richie. I was joking. I just never heard you talk about anyone with so much emotion. I had to mess with you.}
Richie exhaled, “Well it’s not funny.”
Cedric laughed, {Whatever. I got to go, I need to get this lesson plan ready for tomorrow. I’ll talk to you later, Richie.}
“Alright, night, Ced.”
{Night} Cedric hung up and left Richie to talk to himself. And he talked for hours with no one there to listen. It made him feel better to hear someone’s voice, even if it was his own. He didn’t realize that once he moved, he’d be so irrefutably alone but that’s what he got for running away. He could hardly believe the effect his ex-boyfriend had on him. The effect he was letting his ex-boyfriend have on him.
“Richie, are you okay?”
Nancy joined Richie on the bench in the small break room, the smell of coffee suffocated everyone who stepped in. Richie had his head between his legs and a grimace engraved on his face.
“I’m fine,” he grounded out, “I just didn’t get much sleep last night so I have a terrible headache.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she wrapped her hands around his waist and hugged him, “Why couldn’t you sleep?”
“I was thinking about my ex,” he admitted sadly.
“Oh, you still love them?”
He tried to shake his head but his migraine prevented him from doing so. Instead he answered quietly, “I don’t know. All I really know is that I’m still hurt. I used to love them but they cheated on me and,” he paused and swallowed, “the girl they cheated with became pregnant with their child.”
“Wait,” Nancy’s hands retreated slowly, “What do you mean with a girl?”
Richie didn’t hear the edge in her voice. “It was a guy.” He didn’t think much before adding, “I’m gay.”
“Gay?” Nancy jumped away as if he was diseased, “What do you mean gay?”
Richie looked up and finally saw her face distorted with disgust, “I mean what I said. I like guys, not girls.”
“Oh my god, that’s disgusting,” she took a couple of steps back, “Ugh, I can’t believe I touched someone like you.”
Richie furrowed his brow, “I’m sorry you feel that way but I never asked you to approach me.”
“Yeah, right, faggot. You put on that innocent facade to lure people in then hand them tickets straight to hell. I refuse to accept working in the same building as you.”
“Okay,” Richie said calmly, “I understand that you don’t accept my sexuality but we are working adults. I do hope that you can ignore my sexuality in order for us to work together.”
Nancy glared at him, “There’s no way I can ignore something so unnatural but don’t worry,” she smirked, “I’ll do something about it.”
Richie watched her leave with apprehension growing in the pit of his stomach.
Richie was weary when he showed up to work the next day. Sure enough, every person he passed started whispering and glaring at him as if he couldn’t see or hear them. Richie sighed. He had expected more from the working world. Now it was starting to seem like high school would never end.
When he arrived at the office, everyone froze and stared. Tyler looked up from a document he was revising in utter confusion once he heard the silence. It didn’t take long before he realized that all attention was on the new hire and growled loud enough to knock the room out of its stupor, “Back to work.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Delroe,” Nancy approached him with folded arms, “But I think there’s something you need to know first.”
Tyler almost rolled his eyes, “Other then no one is currently doing their job?”
“Yes. Your newest employee, Richard Manning, is gay.”
Tyler stood there silently, his eyes never left Nancy. After an awkward minute had passed, he finally asked, “And?”
Nancy’s eyes widened at the mild reaction, “What do you mean ‘and’? It’s a disgrace to the company. I refuse to be work with someone of that type.”
“Wait,” he massaged the bridge of his nose, “Weren’t you all gung-ho about him yesterday? I’m pretty sure his sexuality didn’t change in a single night.”
Nancy huffed, offended, “Well yesterday I didn’t know about his sexuality. I feel like it should have been announced at the time he was introduced.”
“Why do you care?” Tyler asked, frustrated, “It’s not like the company condones romantic relationships within the office. Actually, for you to take this much interest in his sexuality can be considered inappropriate. Now stop wasting my time. Even if I did want to fire him simply because of his sexuality, he’d have a legal case against not only me, but the company too and I need my job too much to allow myself to be fired for you. Now as I said ten minutes ago, back to work. Everyone.”
She stayed where she was stubbornly while the room came back to life. “So you don’t mind that he’s gay.”
Tyler sighed, “To be honest, I just don’t give a damn. As long as he does his job, I have no complaints.”
Nancy huffed but finally walked away while Tyler went back to reading and approving anything that came his way. Richie found himself walking towards Tyler without even realizing it. Tyler spotted him coming and watched him curiously.
“Um, sir?”
Tyler watched him carefully, “Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” Tyler smirked, “I said as long as you do your job. If you can’t do it then I won’t hesitate to fire you.”
Richie grinned, “Fair enough. What do you have planned for me today?”
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