I sighed, and then grimaced apologetically at the woman in front of me who half-turned in reproach at the noise.Clearly someone needed more coffee in their morning.
Not something which could be said about me, I realized, as three large cups suddenly made their presence known.As quietly as I could, I set down the tablet I’d been making notes on and slid to the end of the row.
The hall’s door was mercifully well-oiled and didn’t creak embarrassingly as I left; better still, there was a restroom just across the corridor.As I hurried over, I noticed the coffee station was still set up - albeit down to just a couple of urns now - and made a mental-note for when I was done.Something told me this would be a four-cup morning, at the very least.
There were two other guys in the bathroom; I recognized one from Chuck’s group of hangers-on at the gala, though I couldn’t remember his name.Nodded at him in wordless greeting, as I took the far urinal down from him.God, it felt good to pee.
“Looks like you’ve got yourself pretty well set up there, buddy.”
Hearing him speak made me jolt in surprise.“Sorry?”I asked, confused.Talking with random guys in the restroom doesn’t usually happen, something I was totally fine with being the case.
He chuckled.“That hot piece of ass you brought along last night.I’m not gay, but jeez, even I can see you scored well with that one.”
I turned back to the wall.“Oh, right.”The topic of conversation was about as uncomfortable as the location.
I heard him zip up, and then the sink running.“I mean, fuck.What is he, 23?24 at most?I bet it’s the same as the girls, they’re just horny little bunnies at that age, right?Yeah, you’ve got yourself a sweet thing set up, that’s for sure.”
I’d finished, but I was standing there still in the hope that he’d dry his hands and leave.No such luck.Inwardly sighing, I zipped my fly and crossed over to the sink.
“Man, I’m surprised you even bothered coming down this morning,” he continued.“Not sure why you’d leave some hot twenty-something ass all alone.”
He winked at me in the mirror; I grit my teeth.
“So it was you, with that kid?”The other man, the one I didn’t recognize, was slowly drying his hands.Looking at me over the rim of his glasses, with an expression that wasn’t quite curiosity.
I felt my face flush.“Yes.I mean, no.He’s not a kid.”
The way his eyes tracked over me, assessing, left my skin prickling.
“Still.”He made a face, a flavor of disapproval I could remember from childhood.“It feels a little...cheap.Bringing someone like that along for a work event.”
I wanted to ask what ‘someone like that’ meant, but I didn’t get a chance.Distracted by an arm flung around my shoulders, as the first guy leaned in.
“Come on, man, you’re telling me you’ve not thought about trading in the wife for a younger model?”
If he noticed the temperature in the room dropping by handfuls of degrees, he didn’t seem to think it worth remarking on.
“My wife and I have been married almost thirty-five years,” the older man said, voice clipped.He cast a sidelong glance at me.“We have children who must be the same age as your...friend.”
A laugh, from my other side.“Sure, and I bet your kids wouldn’t argue with some sugar daddy action to pass the time, yeah?”He nudged me in the ribs.
“It’s not just sex,” I protested.Hated myself at the same time, for even bothering to engage with him.
“Right, right.But no strings, nothing serious.Nobody complaining about the fact you’ve got nothing in common, and nobody saying you’ve got to put a ring on it if you want some goddamn head in the morning, yeah?
His crude smirk on my left, and radiating disapproval on the right.Any response I could make felt like threading an impossible needle.“I should...get back.”
A big belly-laugh at that; I realized, a split-second too late, that he probably thought I meant to Tate, not to the presentation.Before he could settle down and respond, I dumped my handful of paper towels in the trash and slipped out of the door.
Part of me wanted to just leave, to skulk off somewhere quiet where I could simply avoid anybody.I’d left my bag in the conference hall, though, and my tablet, and that meant I needed to pick them up and - if I was really going to escape - make a second, all the more conspicuous exit.Something that seemed needlessly rude.
Instead I crept back to my seat, but my heart wasn’t in the rest of the presentation.My brain replaying the conversation; the clear suggestion that nothing between someone like Kai and someone like me could ever amount to more than a convenient fuck.
I gave up trying to force myself to take notes, and pulled out my phone instead.
“How were the pancakes?”I sent.A minute or so of nothing, and then the blinking dots of Kai typing.
“Waffles.And they were good.If anyone asks, the syrup stains were already on the bedspread.”
