“No problem at all, boss man,” I assured him.
Boss man?Colin mouthed. I grinned, hoping the annoying nickname would catch on. It was an easy way for me to get under Joey's skin. Almost immediately, I felt like a dick because Joeyhatedit when I called him that and Colin seemed really excited about getting the job. He shouldn’t suffer because annoying the fuck out of people was one of my main hobbies.
The phone started ringing, and I ducked behind the counter before Joey could whine about how no one around here respected him. From what I’d seen, there was a reason for that. Colin disappeared to the back of the dining room, ducking into the bathroom to get changed for work.
The entire time I was on the phone with a sweet old lady with a million questions, I could feel Joey staring at me, hovering right behind me to give me shit. To further annoy him, I took my time on the call, answering every question the customer had in great detail, trying to upsell her on everything I could think of.
Joey took a deep breath, the type that sucked his nostrils together, then let it out just as audibly. A few seconds later, he huffed and stomped his foot. As I made sure the woman didn’t need anything else, Joey made a series of progressively more disgusted sounds. He and his dad argued frequently about whether it was a good business practice to get people to buy more than what they called order. The family had better hope the old man never died because I was confident Joey could mismanage the business into ruins within months.
Eventually, I had no choice but to end the call. I pretended I didn’t notice him behind me, chatting with the cooks as I passed to keep him from starting a conversation. Joey followed me to the warming tables where I started packing my first delivery for the night. “Can I help you with something?”
“What's going on between you and the new kid?” He crossed his arms over his chest and puffed it out in a pathetic attempt to look tough. Chase, the world’s sweetest, least intimidating guy I’d ever met, scared me more than this tool. I didn’t answer him; he didn’t deserve to know shit about my life outside these four walls. “Well? Are you going to answer me? If not, I may have to take a look at scheduling.”
“Not that it's any of your business, but there's not a damn thing going on between us.” I insisted, maybe a little too quickly and my voice was definitely too loud. The guys on the pizza line glanced over, all work ceasing. It was no secret that Joey and I didn't get along. I took a step closer, towering over him. “And we both know you can’t do shit about the schedule. Fuck with me all you want, but if you fuck with him, I’ll lay your shit out.”
At first, I worried he was going to find a way to get me fired, but one of the other managers assured me that wouldn't happen. The only reason he would eventually take over the business was because there was no one else. Since then, I'd made it my life's mission to irritate Joey as much as possible. But Colin was off limits. I wouldn’t bring him into our little rivalry. I didn't want Joey giving him a hard time because of me.
“You sure about that? You seem awfully protective of someone you claimed to barely know,” Joey observed. It was only my need to have an income that wasn’t connected to my dad that kept me from smacking the smirk off his bloated face. He was quickly escalating from a thorn in my side to a pain in my ass. “Don’t think I missed the way you were watching his ass as he walked away. That’s twisted, man.”
“You don't know what the hell you're talking about,” I scoffed. That exchange plagued me the rest of the night. It would have been so easy for me to insist I wasn't gay, the same as I’d done a million other times, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do it.
The truth was, I didn't know what or who I was. It was getting harder and harder for me to believe the lie that I was straight. No matter how much I wished for it to be accurate, now that two of the guys I lived with were haunting my mind whenever I tried jerking one out, I had to admitstraightwas something I would never be.
Everything at work seemed to be going fine, at least for the first two hours. Because he was brand-new and no one had time to train him, Colin spent the entire dinner rush at the make table helping assemble pizzas to go into the oven. Watching him banter with the other cooks, you’d never have known he was the new guy. Colin held his own through the worst of the rush and tossed slices of pepperoni at Dustin when he gave Colin shit about slowing them down. It didn’t even matter to Colin that he was the manager for the night. He seamlessly fit in with the crew.
The orders came in fast enough that I was rarely in the store more than a few minutes before I was headed back out to my car with another set of deliveries. Unfortunately, dinner rush came to an end, and Joey the Wonder Slug agreed to let his buddies take off at the same time as him, not realizing or giving a damn that it meant leaving the assistant manager alone with someone who had been working there a total of three hours. Once it was time to belly up to the bar, Joey didn’t give a single shit about anyone but himself.
Colin did his best, and to his credit he picked everything up quickly, but there were still little quirks with the archaic computer system that stumped him. I was almost out the door when I heard him call my name. Former dickhead me would have kept going, pretending to be oblivious, but I couldn't do that to him.
As hard as it was going to be to work alongside him every night, I was getting a glimpse of Colin’s authentic personality, and I was quickly growing addicted. He was different here, more confident and outspoken. When I turned around, I could see the frustration carved into the lines in his forehead and the way his shoulders were hitched up almost to his ears. “Can you help me out for a second?”
I tossed the warming bag on the table and rushed to his side. I couldn't afford to be late. One of the stops on this run was one of our regular customers. When the drivers were on time, he was an excellent tipper, but even a couple minutes late and you could kiss any tip goodbye. With my determination to go out over the weekend, I wanted to pull in every dollar I could tonight.
I stopped myself from pushing Colin out of the way and taking over the call. I’d already spotted where he was getting tripped up, but he needed to learn how to do this on his own, especially if he wasn't going to speak up and point out that he wasn't ready to be on the late-night skeleton crew.
“What have we got going on?” It pained me to let him explain it rather than butting in, but I wastryingto do the right thing instead of just thinking about myself.
One of the other drivers shoved his way past on his way out the door. I stepped closer to Colin, so I didn’t get run over by my coworker, but didn't back away once the coast was clear. In a fit of temporary insanity, I placed my hand at the small of Colin’s back and held my breath, waiting to see how he would react.
If I was going to take a step out of the closet, I wanted to do it with someone safe and, even though we didn't know one another well, nothing about Colin seemed to be a risk. The muscles in his back tensed before his entire body relaxed as he explained the issue. I leaned in closer, pointing to where he needed to click to get to the menus he was looking for. After reading back the customer's order, he glanced over and smiled, nearly knocking me on my ass.
That woke me up. I practically jumped back, needing to put some space between us before I did something stupid, like kiss his full lips in front of everyone. That would be one way to prove to everyone I’d been lying earlier when Joey asked me what was going on between us.
“You’ve got this,” I assured him with a very manly thump on the back. “I… I need to…” I hitched my thumb toward the door. “Yeah, I need to…”
Fuck. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d been rendered speechless, and not one of those times had been because of a guy.
Colin chuckled, waving me off. “Go. Sorry for making you late. If anyone calls, I'll tell them it was my fault.”
“No need to do that,” I reassured him as I gathered everything I’d dropped so I could help him. “Most people are pretty chill this time of night.”
“Yeah, but they should know it’s not your fault,” he argued as he followed me out the back door, carrying the bottles of soda I’d asked him to tuck under my arm. Our fingers brushed as he handed the bottles to me and my cock twitched.
Definitelyneeded to get laid. Otherwise, incidental contact would wind up with me begging him to show me what I’d been missing my whole life. Hell, maybe I’d try it and hate it, and then I’d know for sure there was something defective about me.
Colin didn’t turn away as I got into my car. The corner of his mouth quirked up as I fumbled trying to put my key in the ignition. It was stupid, but I felt as if I was under some sort of spell that made it impossible for me to look away from him before he turned to go inside. Because I hadn’t yet made enough of an ass of myself, I rolled down my window and leaned out. “This is probably my last run for the night. You want to ask Dustin if it's okay for you to take off?”
“Is that allowed?” He glanced over his shoulder as if expecting the manager to burst out the door at any moment.
