He nodded once. “I’m going in.”
“Good luck,” Jensen said and leaned over the center console to kiss him. Not wanting to let an opportunity pass him by, Daniel tugged at the front of Jensen’s shirt and deepened the kiss.
“I need a boyfriend,” Casey whined just as Jensen’s tongue swiped Daniel’s bottom lip.
Daniel pulled back and glared at his roommate. Which wasn’t difficult, since his face was still between the two front seats and only inches away. Casey looked unrepentant at his intrusion on what should have been a private moment.
With a sigh, Daniel slipped out of the car. It was best to get this over with as quickly as possible.
“Wait,” Casey said as he opened the back door. “Fit check before you go in.”
He scurried over and started patting down the arms of the black suit jacket Daniel had borrowed. When he was satisfied it wasn’t spontaneously hideous, Casey bit the corner of his bottom lip as he adjusted Daniel’s already perfect tie.
Looking down at his roommate of the past several years, Daniel couldn’t help but feel a wave of gratitude and confusion sweep over him. Casey was always nice to him, even when he was bitching at him for something. At his core, he was a sweetheart that would bring home treats for everyone and offer his ownpossessions up for Daniel’s use. But this was much more than borrowing an outfit or some shave gel. “Why did you do this for me?”
Casey shrugged and stepped back, finished with his fiddling. “You’re one of my closest friends, and you said you needed help, so …”
“You see me as a close friend?” Daniel asked, fucking flabbergasted. He didn’t think he’d done anything to warrant such a high status in Casey’s life. The man had a whole entourage of friends at his disposal.
“Uh, rude.” Casey put his hands on his hips. “I let you paint my toenails.”
“What are you talking about? You told me to.” Years ago, Casey had burst into Daniel’s room, shoved a container of nail polish at him, and informed him he would be painting toenails. He’d said it with such confidence and authority that Daniel didn’t question it. At the time, he hadn’t considered it a moment of bonding or cementing their friendship. But Daniel was beginning to think he didn’t actually know what true friends were.
“Yeah, and I don’t let just anyone touch my feet. And I didn’t even complain when you did it horribly. If that isn’t true friendship, I don’t know what is.”
For fuck’s sake. “I’d never painted anyone’s toenails before?—”
“That was more than obvious, sweetie.”
Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.
“Hey.” Casey put a hand on his shoulder, drawing his attention. “I’m serious. You’re my friend, and you never ask for help, so when you did last night … I don’t know. I wanted to help. I mean, you never need anything. You’re so self-sufficient and ready to take on the world. I’ve always been envious of that. I feel like I need constant babying. I can’t even go to the club withoutBrody because I don’t know how to tell people no.” He rubbed the back of his neck and averted his eyes.
Casey was envious of him? That made no sense to Daniel. He was struggling to hold on most of the time. Each moment of the day was spent just surviving. He had no money, no prospects, and no friends. Though, it turned out he was wrong about that last assumption. Casey thought they were friends. Close friends.
Maybe Brody thought the same—he had allowed Daniel’s boyfriend to wear his clothes because there hadn’t been time to do laundry or go shopping yet. And maybe Arlo wasn’t as uncomfortable around him as Daniel had originally thought—he had revised Daniel’s résumé for him. And all three of them had chipped in to cover Daniel’s portion of rent for the month.
It made Daniel wonder how many of the people in his life he thought were just mere acquaintances were actually his friends. And not just fair-weather friends like the assholes he’d paraded around with in college that left the moment things turned rocky.
“I don’t really have much to offer unless you need a good orgasm,” Casey continued, “but you already have your prim-ass boyfriend for that. So this is all I could do.”
Daniel smiled slightly at the mild insult of Jensen. Even in clothes borrowed from Brody, he still looked overly proper sitting behind the wheel of Casey’s car with his back straight. Fuck, he was cute.
“All you could do,” he repeated Casey’s words, then gestured toward the squat office building. “You got me an interview that could change my life. That’s not nothing.”
Casey puffed out his chest. “Casey Smith, altering lives through blow jobs and phone calls.”
“Hey, don’t sell yourself short,” Daniel admonished.
“Oh, I’m not. God already did that for me,” Casey said with a wink, then lifted onto his toes so they were the same height. “You need to get in there though. Don’t want to be late.”
Daniel blew out a breath and turned to fully look at the building that held his future behind its brick walls and glass windows. “Here goes nothing.”
In a moment that should have had more fanfare due to its impact on Daniel’s life, he crossed the sidewalk and pushed through the glass door marked “Butler Events.” Instead of trumpets playing or a choir detailing his courageous journey across the tiled floor and up to the black desk that might decide his fate, soft instrumental music flowed across the lobby.
The young woman that sat behind the desk smiled at him, her slicked-back ponytail swaying down her back as she looked up from her computer. “Good afternoon.”
“Good afternoon, I have an appointment with Janelle Butler,” Daniel said, trying his hardest to sound confident. If he acted like he belonged there, they might not throw him out on his ass.
