It was whisper soft, so soft that Sean thought maybe he’d dreamed it, but the tingling on his lips told him otherwise. Then his heart skipped a beat as Jason took his hand.
“Is this okay?” Jason asked.
Sean could only nod. Hand in hand, they headed back the way they came. But now everything felt different—so very different.
3
“Come on,spit it out. I want to hear all the juicy details.” Roger folded his arms and leaned on the table, not unexpectedly hitting Jason up about the night before.
Jason should have been prepared but struggled to hold Roger’s eager gaze. He glanced around the cafe where they were grabbing some lunch and, even though he didn’t spot any of their co-workers, he didn’t have the urge to share many details of his evening with Sean. It was something so new, so tremulous. Instead, he tried downplaying the events of the night, because even though nothing much had happened between the two of them apart from conversation, itfeltimmensely significant.
“There’s nothing much to tell.” He shrugged. “We had dinner. I walked him to his car. I went home.”
Roger huffed. “What? That’s all you’ve got? Come on, man, you can do better than that!”
Jason mightn’t have had a boyfriend recently, but he’d had a few hook-ups and had never hesitated to share the details with Roger in the past. They laughed over some of his encounters, commiserated over others, and generally shared the tragic details of each other’s love lives, but this time it felt wrong. He wanted to keep the details to himself—how much he’d enjoyed the dinner and Sean’s quiet company, and the fact they’d ended the evening with a walk and a simple kiss.And holding hands, for God’s sake.The relationship was so new, and he didn’t want to jinx it before it had really started.
“It was a nice night, Rog, that’s all. He was so easy to talk to; the time just flew by.”
“So you enjoyed yourself then?”
Jason couldn’t hold back the smile. “There’s something about Sean that makes him different from the other guys I’ve met recently. I’m so over the shallow, self-centred, what’s-in-it-for-me types who’re all I seem to meet lately. Sean’s the exact opposite. He’s… shit… I don’t know… caring, I guess. He was actually listening to me and seemed genuinely interested in what I was saying. It was nice, you know?”
As he said those words, he realised Seanhadspent most of the night listening to Jason’s silly stories, and they hadn’t spent a lot of time talking about Sean himself. He hadn’t learned very much more about his—his colleague, his friend, his potential boyfriend? than he’d known before the night started.
Roger nodded, and Jason breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t about the get the third degree.
“So, you’re going to see him again?” Roger asked, sitting back in his seat and picking up his coffee cup.
Jason studied his friend; Rog knew him well enough to know that if things followed their usual pattern then a second date was most likely not on the cards, but Jason sensed Roger understood things were different this time. Regardless, he decided to give him shit. “Of course. He’s hard to avoid, given he works a few desks away.”
Roger rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. You’re not avoiding the question, are you?”
“Never.” Jason chuckled. “I know I wouldn’t get away with that with you on my case.”
“Well then?”
Jason sighed. “Yeah, I am. At least I think so. He said he wanted to see me again, anyway.” He couldn’t even muster any embarrassment at the dopey grin he was sure was on his face.
Roger laughed as he leaned across and gave Jason’s arm a playful nudge. “Oh mate, you’ve got it bad.”
“Okay, well, enough about me and my love life—”
“Yourlovelife?” Roger raised a brow.
“Yes, my love life.” There was no point arguing that it wasn’t romance he had on his mind, and damn Roger, he knew it, too. “We can either talk aboutyourlove life or change the topic completely. I heard you might be getting serious—”
“Okay, okay.” Roger gave in, holding his palms up in mock surrender, quickly turning the conversation to work-related matters, or more accurately, office gossip.
They finished their sandwiches and lingered over coffee—anything to keep them out of the office longer just that little bit longer—but eventually rose from the table and headed back to work.
Jason sat at his desk and booted up the computer. He opened his personal calendar, grimacing as he studied the full schedule.Isn’t the weekend supposed to be about rest and relaxation?His upcoming weekend was busy: indoor soccer on Saturday followed by drinks with friends, lunch with his parents on Sunday, and washing, cleaning, and shopping to get ready for the week ahead. He swallowed his disappointment as he realised he’d have to try to arrange the follow-up date with Sean for next week.
He began composing a text message to Sean.
* * *
The meeting wrappedup a few minutes early, which was surprising given they usually ran over. The four members of Sean’s team gathered up their notebooks, laptops, and assorted paraphernalia while Joanna removed the huge sheets of flip-chart paper from the walls. They’d had a productive and successful brainstorming meeting and had come up with some solid ideas for improving sales in the next quarter before discussing the potential impact of the upcoming merger. Not one for missing the opportunity, Joanna stopped Sean as he started to follow the others out of the meeting room.
