A lot had changed in the last few months. Charlie had announced he was moving in with Sebastian. Jason wanted to be happy for his best friend, and he was, but he’d miss Charlie being there every day. They shared their deepest secrets with each other. Jason loved all his brothers, but Charlie was his person. The one who he knew would always be on his side, no matter what. Langdon was also having long-winded foreplay with a guy at work. At least he could rely on Paolo and Gregory to stay single. Jason hated any form of change that disrupted his routine, but he couldn’t say that out loud. It would look like he wasn’t happy for his friends. His heart was delighted for them, but his brain wanted everything to go back to how it was at the start of the year.
The advantage of his birthday always being close to London Pride was that his brothers had no excuse not to come out with him. They were all going to Madame Hoes, which was the bar Langdon worked at, so there’d be no excuse for him not to join them for one drink. Jason knew Langdon’s boss, and he’d always had a soft spot for Joey. He also gave off daddy vibes, but nothing like Patrick. Joey would be a nurturer, but Patrick wouldn’t hesitate to give you a spanking if you were being a brat. He hadn’t seen the hot daddy for three months, but he was never far from Jason’s thoughts. If he was with a guy who was all about himself – which was most one-night stands – he would think of Patrick and be shooting his load in seconds. What Jason wouldn’t give for one night with that man, but he wasn’t an arsehole. He didn’t do repeats, and a man like Patrick wasn’t into casual fucking. It was a shame, but Jason would never lead someone on like that, especially given he was friends with Charlie’s beau. You don’t shit in your own back yard.
He had the day off work for his birthday, which was a benefit offered to employees. It was something Jason had worked to bring in when he’d joined. You’d think having an extra day’s holiday would have been something people appreciated, but you always had moaners and idiots.
“What if my birthday falls on a weekend?”
“What if I’m already on holiday?”
“Do I get an extra day because it’s my thirtieth?”
“Can I tell my team they can’t have their birthday off because we’re too busy?”
“I don’t celebrate my birthday, so can I have the money instead?”
Ahhhhhhh!
This was an average day for an HR person. People who were just stupid, and would argue about something for the hell of it. Or he had to deal with leaders who were paid several times what Jason was, and they didn’t have a fuckingclue what they were doing managing other people. He loved his job because no two days were the same, and he got bored quickly, but he was happy for a long weekend, especially because it was his day and his brothers had to do everything he wanted. They were having an early dinner at KC’s, because it was the best, and then going home to watch a film of Jason’s choice. He was going to have so much fun winding Langdon up later.
First, it was breakfast, and time for his presents from his brothers.
“Here,” said Gregory, thrusting a large box at him before scurrying back to the kitchen.
“Ooh, is it sex toys?”
Langdon snorted. Jason tore off the wrapping paper to find a nondescript box inside. He opened it and got choked up. Gregory had bought him a new laptop.
Jason had brought his old one with him when he’d moved back to London, and it had been loyal to him since university, but it was secondhand even then, and now it really was on its last legs. Jason had attempted to get a new one a million times, but the choice was too overwhelming. He knew Gregory would have bought him the right laptop, because he said little but he was always listening. Jason wanted to play with his new toy straight away, but setting up a laptop took time and patience – not a virtue of Jason’s.
“It’s all configured, so you don’t have to worry about setting it up. I’ll show you how it all works later.”
Jason leapt up and barrelled into Gregory, who froze, and then reciprocated the hug, albeit reluctantly, but he’d take it. A hug from one of his brothers was better than any present.
Next up was Paolo, who was his usual sweet self. It was sketchbooks and top of the range coloured pencils. Jason had no desire to be an artist, but found it helped his scattered brain when he was stressed.
“Thank you. My book is almost full.”
“I noticed,” said Paolo, with one of his kind smiles.
He had been drawing a lot lately. Perhaps some Patrick-inspired imagery, which he would show nobody.
“Here you go,” said Charlie with a smirk.
“What have you done? And why is Langdon going last?”
“Just open the present, Jason. Some of us are working today,” said Langdon, but there was no heat in it. His big brother was up to something.
“Oooh,” said Jason, after opening the present
There were three new T-shirts, which were all XS, so would be nice and tight. He cracked up at the slogans on them:
“I’m not a photographer, but I can picture us together... in bed.”
“I’m not flirting, I’m just extra friendly.”
The last one was the best:
“Mr Right doesn’t make me moist... Give me Mr Do Me Right Now!”
