“None taken! Why don’t you give this a go?” Hector insisted as he tapped a knuckle on the chalkboard. “Found an extra tricky one for you this week!”
“Okay…” Milo handed Elio the box and he hurried to the nearest sofa and sat next to Carmen, beaming.
“He is going to crush this. Watch!” Elio whispered and nodded around him. “You’ll see!”
Milo cleared his throat pointedly, warning Elio to temper his expectations. “I’ll see what I can do.” He turned back to the board and pursed his lips, humming as he read and determined that it was the pieces of a Fourier Series for continuous versus discrete time and frequency. “It’s spectral modeling of audio,” he announced as he began to write and heard Elio cheer.
“I knew he’d crush this!” he boasted to Carmen and Milo shook his head at the board and pointed at the string he had written.
“In spectral modeling we usually deal with indefinitely long signals. Fourier analysis of an indefinitely long discrete-time signal is carried out using the Discrete Time Fourier Transform—DTFT…” he tried not to drone along too much as he explained the rest of his reasoning, stepping aside so everyone could see his work when he was done. “In all four cases, the Fourier transform can be interpreted as the inner product of the signal chi with a complex sinusoid at radian frequency omega.”
Hector clapped and pulled a gift card from his sleeve like a magician. “Brilliant work, Ashby! I don’t think anyone’s ever solved the Monday problem that fast.”
“The wizard does it again!” Chad declared as he raised Milo’s hand like they were in a boxing ring.
“The wizard?” Milo mouthed as the lounge erupted in applause and people chanted his name. “I like that,” he said to himself and Elio looked so pleased as he reclined with his arms stretched along the back of the sofa, smiling at Milo.
“I told you all he wasn’t mild,” Carmen said with a lift of her chin. “A real genius and a baddie doesn’t run his mouth or need attention. He handles his business and moves in the shadows so no one sees him coming.”
“That’s right,” Elio said and raised a hand so he could whisper behind it. “He isn’t mild bymystandards. In fact, I’d say that he’s the wilder one between the two of us,” he added, winking at Carmen and making her gasp.
“That’s my boy!” She clapped in Milo’s direction, sending him fleeing.
But Milo was smiling from ear to ear when he let himself into their office and waved at Seth. He had a cup of coffee ready for Milo.
“Looks like it went well out there.”
“I’m still not sure if this is a setup. You have to tell me if there are cameras and someone’s going to yell at me,” Milo said but Seth snorted as he woke up the touchscreen.
“Stressing you out only makes my day worse. The vibe gets…icky in here when you’re anxious and worried.”
“I concur,” Elio said as he pushed the door open with his shoulder, holding out Milo’s pastry box. “Seth and I made a pact: no surprises unless they’regoodsurprises and you’ve had adequate warning. No one gets past us if they’re up to fuckery.”
“Amen,” Seth said and passed Elio his coffee. “I also made a pact to make myself scarce when you get that look in your eyes. Think I’ll hang out in the cantina and see if anyone’s heard anything else about Brad’s mysterious illness and if Hector’s counting his lucky stars.”
“That’s probably a good idea.” Elio replied, watching Milo over the rim of his cup. He waited until Seth left them to prowl closer. “That was very sexy, Mr. Wizard.”
“I guess it was pretty cool,” Milo said as he leaned in so Elio could kiss his cheek. “But it’sthe wizard, Mr. Wizard was an American icon and I could never fill his shoes.”
“Agree to disagree,” Elio murmured in his lazy rumble, tilting his head and biting Milo’s neck, giving him goosebumps. “Want to step into the bathroom?”
“Maybe…” Milo chewed on his lip and checked to see if anyone was watching, reaching for the touchscreen and locking the door to be extra safe. “What did you have in mind?”
“I want to give you head and then I want you to fuck me likea baddie!” Elio whispered as he set his cup and saucer on the desk and pulled Milo into his arms.
“I can do that,” Milo said, feeling a rush of adrenaline as Elio guided them to the invisible door and used his elbow to push it open. Milo was hard as they kissed and he blindly swiped at the door until he found the lock and turned it.
Elio pounced immediately, pushing Milo against the wall and attacking his fly. “I love you, Milo Ashby, and I’ve always thought you were a baddie,” he said before he lowered and gave Milo’s jeans and boxers a tug so they were around his knees.
“You’re everything, Elio.” Milo traced Elio’s cheek and swept back his hair.
There was so much more to Elio than his bad boy reputation and Milo saw the universe in his eyes and on his skin. They spoke the same language and shared the same belief in a worldof infinite dimensions and time without limits. The odds of them proving it were too low to calculate but no one could challenge Milo more or push him to greater heights. Together, there was no telling what they could achieve and how far Milo could go with Elio by his side.
They were unstoppable and Milo truly felt like a bad boy as he stared at their reflection in the mirror.
That’s me? Gettingheadat work on a Monday morning?
It was hard to fathom but Elio was on his knees, lapping and sucking on Milo’s erection. Elio’s jeans were open and he had a packet of lube in his free hand. The studs in his lower lip scraped the underside of Milo’s cock as Elio’s head slowly bounced, a pleasant addition to the hot lushness of his mouth and tongue.
