Another Rainy Monday

Legal Note From The Sarcasm Department

Do not read this story if:

You are not over 18 years old (or the legal age where you live).

Reading this story will land you in jail (unless you're into that type of thing).

You don't want to read about men touching other men in somewhat inappropriate places.

You are prone to masturbatory spraining.

This story is completely fictional. It is not meant to represent or reproduce any person or situation. If this seems to mirror your life in any way, you're a lucky bastard.

Enjoy!

Another Rainy Monday - Chapter 12.5 ===================================

Reconciliations ===============

My second outing with Sinjin went far better than the first, much to the surprise of both of us.

The morning after our first date started with my usual ritual of angrily slapping the snooze button on my alarm clock. Never a big fan of times that ended in "AM", I was likely to do anything and everything to avoid showing up to work on time. Luckily for me, I had worked out a delayed work schedule with my team and usually didn't have to be at work until 11.

I glanced at the clock, squinting dazedly at the unusually small numbers displayed there. My clock's job was to remain silent until needed, at which point I would grudgingly allow it to pipe up. To my sleep-addled brain, this interruption of my dreaming time was an infraction worthy of murder. Who in their right mind wakes up before 10 AM?

Those who have early morning staff meetings, that's who.

Though my mind chose to ignore reality, my body remembered that I had to be up earlier than usual. I tried desperately to cling to the last remaining shreds of slumber's peace, but my legs grew restless and I just tossed and turned for several moments. With a great sigh, I finally heaved my legs over the side of the bed and stumbled into the bathroom. Muttering curses under my breath, I turned the shower on and performed my morning ablutions.

Even more vehement cursing trailed from my lips as I fought with morning traffic. What should have been a 10 minute drive always stretched into 20 minutes or more as idiotic drivers treated surface streets like freeways until faced with the presence of police cars, at which point they made it a point to drive at least 5 miles under the speed limit. Thanks to their actions, I arrived at work with just enough time to rush into the meeting room and take a seat before the meeting was started.

As I had expected, the meeting was dominated by the agenda that I had assembled for my boss with very little deviation. Since I was already privy to the information that was put forth, I pretended to look interested while my mind wandered. Thoughts of my night with Sinjin were interspersed with fanciful visions of my boss growing a horn in the middle of his head and other such nonsense. As the meeting dragged on, I started thinking less about specific items and more about abstract concepts. What was I going to do about Sinjin? What should I eat for lunch? Would there ever be a word that rhymed with orange?

My boss finally called for an end to the meeting, just as I was about to start a fourteenth game of Solitaire. I slapped my laptop back into its bag, slung it over my shoulder and slowly trekked back to the building I called home. Our campus was actually fairly large, and consisted of several buildings surrounding a lawn the size of a football field. Since most of the management types congregated in one building, most meetings of any consequence happened there. My department was relegated to one of the smaller buildings, which unfortunately happened to be at the opposite end of the field. As I walked, I glanced at my watch and was not at all surprised that the meeting had gone on for more than two hours. The arch enemies of my often limited attention span, meetings at our company seemed to be rated solely by length and not by content.

As I walked through the makeshift arrangement of cubicles that was the hallmark of my department, I felt a familiar sadness. I passed by each desk, pausing to glance for the millionth time at pictures of smiling families, happy dogs and triumphant children. My area had always been a stark contrast to my surrounding coworkers. My walls were bare except for a calendar that featured boring pictures of landscapes and a few generic certificates of company achievements. I always wondered whose job it was to print up certificates that proclaimed mastery of the basic Excel arts and the conquering of middle management training. I spun around slowly in my chair, wondering yet again if this job was really where I was supposed to be. My coworkers liked me, I never got any grief about being gay, and the pay was damned good. Why was it, then, that I came to work most mornings feeling unsatisfied?

A short ring snapped me from my thoughts. Without even glancing at the caller ID, I tapped the button for the ringing line and immediately launched into my habitual greeting.

"GameTex Help Desk, this is Jeff. How may I help you today?"

"Hi Jeff, it's Marjorie. Someone just dropped off a delivery for you."

That struck me as somewhat odd. I received packages on a nearly daily basis, most of them being shipments from various hardware vendors. The odd part was that the guys from the mail room normally brought anything that was delivered straight to my desk. In the 4 years that I had been at GameTex, I had never once had to pick anything up from the receptionist's desk.

"Thanks, Marjorie. I'll be right down to pick it up."

I hung up the phone and left the meeting room. As I stood in the elevator lobby, the all too familiar sounds of our in-game music assaulted my ears. The elevator lobbies were quite small, and walled off from the other areas by a security door, so the fact that whoever was in charge of the music felt the need to play it at nightclub volume had always perplexed me. Even worse was the fact that the music only got changed every 6 months or so, so everyone was forced to listen to the same 10 songs day in and day out. We licensed hundreds of songs a year for our games, yet I still was tormented with the worst of the worst.

Even though I nominally despised all of the songs that were played, I still ended up humming one to myself as I walked from one wing of the building to the other and entered the main lobby. Marjorie was on the phone when I arrived, so I took the opportunity to peruse the deliveries that sat on the counter. My eyes widened when I saw a massive bouquet of flowers on the floor behind the desk. Sinjin had screwed up royally the night before, but that kind of apology was way too over the top. If that was his way of apologizing for something stupid, I was scared to think of how he would apologize for something important!

Marjorie's voice cut through my musings.

"Jeff, do you want this package or not?"

The slightly cross tone of her voice let me know just what she thought of me. I turned to look at her and grinned.

"Why hello to you too, oh maiden of sweetness and light!"

"Sweetness and light my ass! Take your crap and get out of my face!"

I walked around the counter and gave her a hug. She planted a peck on my cheek and handed me a small package.

"How's life on the 5th floor?"

"Oh not bad... a little different now that it's back to being an all boy's club, but we find ways to manage."

Marjorie had been one of our technicians for a long while, but had left the department after she had had twins. Our schedule tended to be somewhat hectic at times, and the fixed hours of the receptionist position made sure that she got to keep her tenure with the company and spend as much time with her children as she could.

"Sounds like it's your dreamland, buddy boy! Tell the guys that I said hi, OK?"

"Will do, Marge. You sure those flowers aren't for me?"

"Yeah, those are for 'Pretty, Pretty Princess' Meloni on the 7th floor. Besides, what the hell have you ever done to deserve flowers, Jeffrey?"

"More than that bitch ever has, that's for damned sure! You should spit in her stupid flowers... show her who's really the boss."

"And what makes you think that I haven't already done it?"

Marjorie's eyes sparkled as she grinned. Anna Meloni was the scourge of the Help Desk... dumber than a box of hammers and possessor of an undeserved sense of entitlement. She seemed to make a point of asking at least 3 stupid questions per week. Anna was the type who would call the Help Desk to complain that her PC wasn't working, only to later be told that the power switch on the monitor was not the same as the power button on the computer. For most people, that wouldn't be an issue, but she had worked her way up to being the vice president of the Marketing department at a technology- focused company while retaining the comprehension of a lab rat. No, scratch that... lab rats could actually learn which buttons to press and when. It was lucky for Anna that she was just needed to be the public face of the company at press events and such. I was honestly surprised most days to find that she could even manage to put her shoes on the correct feet. Technically she was Terryn's boss, but she spent all of her time in our building with the studio big-wigs so he hardly ever had to deal with her.

Marjorie's phone started to ring again, so I waved goodbye and headed back upstairs to my office. Curiosity got the best of me as I rode the elevator, so I looked for a sender's name on the package. There wasn't any to be found, and I didn't recognize the address. Nothing on the outside of the package indicated what was inside, and shaking it didn't help either. The second I got back to my desk, I tore off the packing tape and peered inside. A slightly smaller box was inside, along with a handwritten note. The note just said:

Check your email.

-Sinjin

Inside the smaller box was a large crystal paperweight. It was a beautiful translucent rose, and I was astonished as I pulled it out completely out of the box. When Sinjin first told me that he worked for a large jewelry and gift company, I had made an offhand remark that their jewelry was only so-so but that their crystal work was beautiful. It was also frighteningly expensive, so I had never bothered to purchase any of it. I hadn't been fishing for free stuff, just letting him know that I was familiar with the company, so this expensive gift seemed just as weird as the thought of him sending the huge floral arrangement.

I turned my PC on and started to browse through the mass of unread email that sat before me. I passed over messages from the other techs, disgruntled users and a couple of emails from Terryn before I saw the message that Sinjin had sent:

Jeff,

My sincerest apologies for what happened tonight. I could launch into all the excuses in the world, but what I'd rather do is to try to make it up to you. I'd like to take you out to lunch tomorrow if you're free, and I promise that the cell phone will not be coming with me. Again, I'm really sorry, and I hope that you'll say yes.

• Sinjin

P.S. - If you don't want to, I completely understand, but I hope that you do.

P.P.S - Who even uses P.S. anymore? I think we Brits are the only ones!

Sinjin's email brought a smile to my face. How could I be angry at someone who went to such lengths just to say that he was sorry? I was just about to pick up the phone to give him a call when I noticed another email that came from a cell phone number that I didn't recognize. The message simply said that Sinjin hoped I liked the rose and that he was sorry again. It was time stamped just a few minutes earlier, right before Marjorie had called. That meant that he must have known exactly when it was due to arrive. I picked up the phone and gave Marjorie a call.

"GameTex Reception, this is Marjorie. How may I direct your call?"

"Marjorie, it's Jeff again. Who delivered this package?"

"I don't know who he is! I'm not a mind reader, Jeff. He is really cute, though. If I wasn't married..."

I interrupted her in mid-sentence.

"Wait, what do you mean 'is'?"

"He's standing out near the other door on his cell phone. I've been watching him on the security guard's monitor."

I could almost hear the leer in her voice, even over the phone.

"Let me guess... about 5'10", purple eyes, has glasses?"

"Don't forget 'looks great in jeans' and 'waves his arms around a lot when he talks'. So you know this guy?"

"SHIT! Don't let him leave... I'll be down in a moment."

I slammed the phone down and dashed down the back stairwell. The exit doors lead to the back patio where Sinjin was standing with his back to me. I stood a few paces behind him as he hung up his phone.

"Stalk much?"

Sinjin jumped and turned to face me. His face flushed to a deep red, and he reached up to reset his glasses on the bridge of his nose. He stammered as he tried to explain his presence.

"Oh, god, Jeff... I didn't think I'd run into you. I dropped off your gift and was getting ready to leave when my brother called. I'm quite embarrassed, really..."

A small voice in my head was warning me about the possible dangers posed by someone who felt it appropriate to personally deliver an apology gift, but a much louder voice was fawning over how sweet it was. If I was going to give this guy a chance, I figured that my best bet would be to ignore the previous night and start fresh. With that thought, I paused for a second to release any pent up frustration and looked straight into Sinjin's eyes.

"Don't you have to go back to work or something?"

His face fell and he dropped his head in defeat. My foot was firmly inserted into my mouth, as usual.

"No, I took today off since I spent so much time working last night..."

I opened my mouth to take him up on his lunch offer, since neither one of us had immediate plans, but he started to quickly back away before I could get any words out.

"Look, I'm sorry... this was a stupid idea. I'm going to go."

"Then I'm going with you."

His head snapped back up to look at me with confusion.

"You did invite me to lunch today, didn't you? My watch says that it's about that time, and far be it for me to ignore a good meal!"

I grinned as relief washed over Sinjin's face.

"I only have one stipulation, though..."

"I know, I know... the phone is going off. See?"

Sinjin flipped open his cell phone and made a dramatic showing of turning the power off.

"That's not what I was going to say, dummy. What I was going to say was that I will be buying lunch."

"You can't do that... I invited you as an apology!"

I shook my head and stuck my tongue out at him.

"No way, jose. You're about $200 up in the apology column, mister... the least I can do is pick up the tab for lunch."

Sinjin chuckled and raised his hands in surrender.

"OK, OK, let's go."

I led Sinjin toward the parking garage and walked him to my car. As he stood next to the passenger door while I fished for my keys, he gave me a devilish grin. That one look was all it took to get me hard as a rock. When he wasn't busy feeling sorry for himself, Sinjin looked to me like a walking sex fantasy. The eyes alone would have been enough to do it for me, but when he smiled it was like his mouth was directly wired to my dick.

"You do realize that I only paid 40 bucks for that rose, right? Employee discount and all..."

I unlocked the doors, opened my door and looked him straight in the eye.

"Oh, then you're DEFINITELY buying lunch!"

Spring Has Sprung =================

True to my word, I did everything that I could to make sure that there were no distractions during our lunch. I knew that I would get flak from the guys at work for turning off my Treo, but I wasn't about to let work interfere with my personal life again.

After running the idea past me to make sure that I didn't have any objections, Jeff had driven to a small cheese steak shop about 10 minutes away from his work. The drive over had been silent, but not at all uncomfortable, and the food smelled excellent as we waited for our order number to be called. I had spent most of the morning thinking about how I was going to talk my way back into Jeff's good graces, but it didn't seem like he was that upset with me. I rested against the plush seating of the booth and let out a cathartic exhale.

"Jeff, about last night..."

Jeff held his finger up as he took a swig of his soda. He set the cup back down on the table and shook his head.

"Condition number two: last night didn't happen. Chalk it up as a massive failure on your part and move on!"

The smug smile on his face made it plain that he was joking around with me. Never one to back away from a challenge, I leaned forward slightly and looked around conspiratorially.

"Well, that's fine by me, but if you don't let me explain what happened then I will be forced to withhold this supposedly wonderful sandwich from you until you do."

We locked eyes for a few moments as his brain processed the pros and cons of letting me have my way. From the little that I knew about him, I fully understood that he hated to lose but I also knew that missing a meal was an even more terrifying thought. He tried to stare me down, daring me to relent, but I held his gaze without wavering. Once he realized that I was serious, he narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow.

"Fine, have it your way. You're damned lucky that I didn't have time for breakfast this morning!"

I chuckled and gave myself an overly theatrical pat on the back.

"I promise I'll keep it short. I won't make excuses, but I wanted you to know what happened. After that, I'll never mention it again."

I gave him a brief rundown of the events that had transpired the night before. The story was so simple, and I couldn't understand why I had had such trouble being up front the night before. Jeff worked in the same field that I did, and it was nice to not have to dumb down any of the technical jargon while telling the tale. Once I had finished, he looked at me like I was a little kid that he was about to reprimand.

"Why didn't you just tell me that last night? I understand why you couldn't call beforehand, but would it have killed you to just say 'Jeff, tonight's no good. Can we do this another time?'"

I sighed and stared into my beer mug.

"Honestly, Jeff, I have no idea. Last night I couldn't seem to find the words, but today that answer seems totally ridiculous. I'm sorry, and that's the last about it that you'll hear from me. Deal?"

I stuck my hand out to him. He shook my hand and nodded his agreement. Just as I was taking a swig of my beer, he asked me a question that seemed to come out of left field.

"Why did you kiss me?"

I coughed and narrowly avoided spraying beer all over Jeff and the table. I could feel my cheeks getting hot as I swallowed. His face betrayed nothing, and I couldn't tell if he was upset about it or not. My voice was small as I responded.

"I told you... I just had to know."

His eyes were intense as he continued on.

"Had to know what? I mean, why me? Why then?"

I gaped like a fish as I tried to make sense of my reasonings. Thankfully, our order number was called and I hopped up to get our food. The scent of the sandwiches was heavenly, and my stomach started to rumble. I hadn't eaten breakfast either, so the food was a welcome addition. As I brought the sandwiches back to the table, I noticed that Jeff had his arms crossed over his chest and was simply staring at me. I had hoped to use the food as a distraction, but he didn't even glance at it as I set it down on the table and took my seat. His arched eyebrow made it clear that he was expecting an answer and pronto.

"Look, Jeff... I don't really know why I did it. Usually I'm not that impulsive, but I'd been thinking about kissing you for a couple days and it just happened. I knew that I had fucked up, and if you had walked away and I hadn't done it I would have regretted it. So, I took the opportunity when it presented itself."

I shrugged my shoulders and hoped that he would accept that explanation.

"Well, as long as it wasn't some creepy stalker plan to harvest my DNA I guess I'm OK with it."

"Wow... that's a rather odd scenario, don't you think?"

"Get used to it... my brain works in strange ways. Shall we eat?"

Rather than try to form a response to that, I just nodded my head and tucked into my sandwich. Jeff's assessment of the place had been spot on, and the food tasted just as good as it smelled. We ate in companionable silence, occasionally glancing and smiling at the other. I had almost finished the first half of my sandwich when I looked over at Jeff's plate. I nearly choked again as I noticed that he had already polished off his entire sandwich and was happily munching on his French fries. I finished swallowing the bite that was in my mouth and then laughed.

"You really weren't kidding!"

He looked embarrassed as he set down a fry.

"I told you! What was one of the first things that I told you about myself?"

"That you love to eat, and love to drink, but both in moderation. What you didn't tell me was that you had a mouth like a Hoover!"

The embarrassment faded and he gave me a wry smile.

"Usually guys don't find that out for at least 3 dates."

For once, I didn't let him catch me off guard.

"Then you must really like me if you're showing it off already!"

Victory! Jeff just grinned and resumed his eating. I was almost done with my sandwich and was starting to get full, but Jeff was hunting for fry crumbs in his basket. I chuckled as I lifted my basket and dumped most of my fries into his. He looked torn for a minute, but mumbled a quick 'thanks' and started demolishing those as well. As he finished, he leaned back and crossed his hands behind his head. He stretched upward and sighed contentedly. I could only stare at him and wonder how someone who ate like he did managed to remain in reasonably good shape.

"Lots and lots and lots of exercise, that's how."

My mental question must have been reflected on my face. I grinned and gave him a protracted head to torso look.

"You can turn it back on, you know. I won't hold it against you."

Yet another random comment from the king of randomness.

"Huh?"

"Your phone. You can turn it back on if you want to. You keep playing with it while you eat."

"What? I've just been eating!"

"No you haven't. Every minute or so you reach down and feel it to make sure it's still there. In fact, you were just about to do it again."

I opened my mouth to protest, but suddenly realized that my right hand was holding my sandwich and the left was three quarters of the way down to my belt clip.

"I... umm... wow! I never even noticed that I did that! I'm not turning it on, though. A promise is a promise."

"Oh come on, you know you want to. In fact, I'm willing to bet that it's tearing you up to not have your work lifeline handy."

How could he say something like that with such a great smile on his face? Most people would have been pissed off, especially given our recent history, but he was being so flippant about it. I took the last bite of my sandwich and wiped my face and hands with my napkin.

"Nope, not going to do it. The phone stays off, and that's final!"

Jeff gently kicked my foot under the table. I would have been upset, but all I could focus on was his ankle resting against mine after he was done. He smiled at me again and pleaded with me.

"OK, fine then... give me your phone. I'll turn it on and that way you don't have to feel bad."

By this point, I was thoroughly confused. Every expectation that I had about Jeff had been shattered by a combination of a disarming charm and seemingly random statements. As I tried to make sense of the whole situation, Jeff held his hand out like a petulant child. I finally sighed and handed him the Treo. He turned it on, made a show of pretending to browse through my email and then handed it back to me. As I took it from him, I checked to make sure that the phone was set to vibrate.

"What would you do if your phone rang while we were fucking?"

That was the last straw. If he wanted to play the shock game, it was well past time for me to play along.

"Oh, I could answer it without even breaking stride. Hell, I could answer emails and still make you cum harder than you thought possible!"

Jeff's face broke into the broadest grin I had seen yet.

"Now there's the Sinjin that I wanted to meet. It's about damned time! Let's get out of here... some of us actually have work to do today!"

What the hell had I gotten myself into? Every time I thought that I was going to take back the upper hand, he managed to one up me once again. Still feeling off-kilter, I dumped the contents of my basket into the trash and followed Jeff back to his car.

The ride back to his work was just as silent as the drive over, but for entirely different reasons. Jeff was quietly singing along with songs on the radio while I continued to struggle to make sense of his behavior. As we pulled into his parking garage, he sailed into his parking spot and hopped out of the car. I shook my head and prepared to head back to my car.

"Hey, Sinjin..."

Jeff had walked around the car to my side and stood just a few paces in front of me. I looked at him, wondering what crazy utterances were about to come out of his mouth.

"THIS is how you're supposed to kiss someone."

He leaned in, cupped both of his hands on either side of my face and kissed me soundly. Without thinking, I automatically wrapped my hands around his waist and pulled him in closer. I ended up leaning against his car, being ravaged by one of the most intriguingly bizarre men that I had ever met and I was loving every second of it. As he broke off the kiss, he stared into my eyes as we both breathed heavily. After a few moments I reluctantly let go of his waist and smiled at him. He grinned and gave me another quick peck on the lips before turning to walk away. I stayed there for a moment more, trying to get my breathing back under control while simultaneously trying to calm the erection that tented my khakis. Jeff glanced back over his shoulder and gave me a wave.

"You'd better call me later, old man!"

I blew a loud raspberry in his direction and it elicited a hearty laugh.

"We'll see, man child... we'll see."

=================== Author's Note #12.5 ===================

This chapter is a little bit later than expected, as I "cheated" a bit and started on the next section before I finished this one. So as not to freak anyone out, the next chapter will be the final chapter in this first arc of the story. The next arc will have a different title, but should be found in the same folder as always. The start of that arc will see all 4 of my guys consolidated into one story, as well as the addition of labels for sections to show who is speaking. Thanks again to all of you who have written me, especially those that have offered some great criticism and suggestions.

This story is dedicated to the perfect man in an imperfect situation... this story will always be yours...

Copyright 2006 by TehGenius. Comments and constructive criticism welcome at stories@tehgenius.com.