Working Early A Short Story by Wharfy -- stokeheights@hotmail.com
I loved being in the office before anyone else. Not because I could get more work done, not even because it would look good to the boss. Walking that long walk through the darker zones of East London, the aftermath of late opening bars and smouldering cars. The only boy in jeans and a T, shoulder to shoulder with thousands of commuters arriving at London's Liverpool St, heading for various Banks along the mile. When I arrived each morning, at eight in the morning, our little glass cube office was a haven of tranquillity. Raised up above the swarms in the street, the fumes, the trains, the coffee brigade, I could swivel back into my desk chair, smell the leather and stare out with my feet up on the window sill. It was my promotional gift- the seat next to the glass wall. Perfectly placed to survey the rest of the army from my little corner of the empire.
It's a kind of funky company, run by young Dot Com kids. People work hard, but play hard too- rarely does anyone leave the complex before seven and the bar before midnight. Being the only Gay guy here didn't matter so much as elsewhere, nobody was traditional or old school enough to care. Infact, it gave me the extra `edge' I needed to land the job, designing web sites for lifestyle brands. Of course I was no better at it than the next guy, but my occasional camp side brought out the best in presentations with no real logic besides the ambiguous rules of marketing fluff. To be honest, for the first few weeks, I hadn't thought about it at all. The guys would use me as a sounding board- "Why does my Girlfriend think this ....?" And the girls would use me as a mirror "Does this shirt make me look too flirty ....?" In many ways, I was the neutral ground, the one they all trusted and showed off like a new pet to their investment banking mates in the club. Work was the one place, I felt comfortable and could prove myself without compromise.
But one morning the regular clockwork of my morning shifted. I got out the life as usual, balancing my drink using my elbow while I fought to open the iron gate across the lift-shaft, strolled down the corridor, and fumbled for the office key at the door. Twisting the key into the lock, I nearly fell through as the door swung freely open. Stumbling forward, spilling the coffee on my arm as I did so, I almost landed on a guy kneeling over the front desk. "Hi, sorry mate, didn't expect anyone to be in." I said, wondering if he was one of the landlords staff or a cleaner (after all, he only had a loose fitting white shirt and blue jeans on). "Oh hi, sorry, didn't mean to scare you, I didn't know what time people started around here. Thought I better make an effort and all." He had a voice that didn't quite fit with his boyish face, deep, strong, reassuring.
Over the next half an hour or so, him sitting like a client on the sofa while I booted up my machine, I learnt that his name was James and he had joined the company for a month to learn the ropes of the design side, before joining the parent company in New York to work with their new projects. All the time he talked I could sense a sort of newbie anxiety, very unlike the usual guys that worked there, where you were expected to be boisterous and cock-sure as part of the company approach. Although his words didn't echo it, his face looked lost, big brown eyes and raised eyebrows, pulling together as he spoke. I tried not to look straight at him, casually responding to emails as he explained his story. "Fuck, I can never get this thing to open attachments." I moaned as the machine ground to a halt as it always did. "Mind if I have a go ?" He stood up from the sofa, came and leant across me to the keyboard. In a few twitches of the mouse there was my image, a badly focused shot of my mates on holiday, me in the middle, beer in my hand and shorts half way down my legs. "Shit, sorry, didn't know that's what they were sending me, sorry, we were so pissed that night." I tried to close it down, knocking over my empty coffee cup, James behind me, chuckling as I pressed every button, none of which altered the image on the screen. "Don't worry mate, you should see the ones of my holiday, the bastards took a whole film of me in bed with sunglasses on and not a lot else." I couldn't help thinking how much I would like to see that and grinned a little.
James wasn't pumped up, like the sales team who spent the mornings in the company sponsored fitness room, but he was toned. Even through his shirt you could tell he had a nice shape, rippled a little, with a hint of fair hair tufting out around his undone collar. "Would you mind closing it down for me, the guys will have a field day if they see this. Delete it or whatever." I said, moving my chair around so he could get better access to the computer. "Sure mate, no problem. But I wont delete it, it's a cool photo. You should be proud of it, look at that tan line, very `in'." It was the way he looked at me, leaning forward over my leg, half a grin curling his lips on one side, his chin showing the slightest little dimple. I don't know why I did it, I had never acted in this way in my life, but as he leant across, putting his face down to the level of the monitor, I reached out and touched his shoulder. Using him to pull myself up, I lost my confidence and jestured that he could have the chair. He pulled it towards him and sat down, closing down applications and opening folders. "Hey, come on, I'll show you how to do it... don't want you having to delete everything you receive in the future mate. Can you see ok?" I kneeled down one arm on his leg and watched him drag the image into the right area, rename it and remove it from the screen." He asked if I understood how to do it now, I nodded and he got up out of the chair. We both stood up at the same time and I turned to sit again, brushing against him, his leg still in the way of mine, he stopped me, took my hand and just stood there. "You know we have met before don't you ?" He whispered, my hand in his, nearly falling onto the desk. "No, what do you mean ?" I said, looking down at our hands, held almost like you would shake with a client when brokering a deal. "In Chelsea, months ago. I was at the table next to you, you were with the guys in that photo you just showed me. I didn't have the right change at the bar and you paid for my drink." It was true, I did remember, I had even pointed him out to my best mate sat next to me. I hadn't had the guts to talk to him, didn't even know if he was Gay (he was drinking with a women if I remember right). "I wanted to thank you then, but you left. Here..." He gently leaned across and kissed my cheek. I was stunned, didn't move an inch. This guy, who I wouldn't have had the confidence to even look at in a bar, was standing at my desk, holding my hand, kissing me. He put his other hand around the back of my neck and kissed me again, pulling me in a little towards him. We stood there, his slightly stubbled chin rubbing against mine, mouths slightly open, kissing each other for a good five minutes. Our hands didn't move. I could smell his fresh citrus and wood aftershave and felt his leg gently rubbing against mine. "Hey, we cant do this here." I looked at the clock, it was five to nine, any minute we would be the centre of attention. He followed me up to the floor above, where a fire escape led to an area of roof- I often came here to smoke when I needed some time away from the screen. Standing there, he held me again and kissed me. "Is this ok ?" He said. "Can I keep you ?" I said, sounding as stupid as the thought was in my head. Immediately I laughed at the words I had spoken and James laughed with me. "You can keep me for now." He said and leant in to kiss me again. Totally unreal, like a scene from a movie. I could feel my dick getting hard in my jeans, knowing his hand was there on my leg, so close to touching it. I pulled his hand in, and cupped him around the tenting jeans. He made a slight low growl into my mouth, grinning a little with his lips still on mine. He undid his shirt, and started to undo mine. I was so hot, I thought I was going to cum in my shorts, as he managed to undo buttons with one hand still rubbing up and down my cloth covered cock. All the time his eyes buried deep into me- I think I would have jumped off the roof with him at that moment, if he had asked me to. Suddenly, he had my belt off and was slipping one hand into the top of my boxers. I leaned back a little so he could pull my already hard dick out over the top of my Calvins. On one knee, he gently, very slowly licked my cock from head to base, over the top, across the back, around the tip, then, looking up at me, as if for permission, he took the whole head in, closed his lips and tongue around it and closed his eyes. Achingly slowly he pushed his head up towards me, taking the shaft in and out of his mouth, almost purring as he did it. I held onto the back of his head and gasped a little. Each time he reached the base, he would breathe, hot warm breath on my public hair. It didn't take long, I felt the pressure building up and grasped at his hair. He seemed to grin even more, with his lips still around my dick. His tongue pushed up under the cock head just as I let it go, streaming cum into his mouth. When I was done, he slowly withdrew, cleaning everything from my cock head and swallowing every bit, but a little trickle from the side of his mouth. He stood up and kissed me, before undoing his jeans and quickly pumping himself off. I offered to do it for him, but he just grinned and said "Rest." He shot over the side of the building, arching his back as he did it. Not a blemish on him. My new god. My boy. With his hand still on his dick, balancing on the edge of the roof, he turned to me, eyebrows arching in again, "You know, I think, If you wanna keep me, you can." I laughed and stood up, offering him a hand and his shirt. "Done deal.Er... Fuck knows how that happened. Sorry, cool! "
When we finally walked back into the office, my boss was there, with a couple of the guys from sales. He walked straight up, offering his hand out to James. "Chris, I see you have met your new assistant. Comes with flying colours from Kings College. With us for a month then he's off across the water. Treat him like your own till then. See you both at lunch."
We were together for exactly a month. James came down with the guys from work each night to the bar- every bit one of them, one of us. Not a soul was told, although I suspect some of my closer friends know, if only from the grin on my face and the fact James was always in the office before everyone else, just as I was. He stayed with me in my flat for the last two weeks before he left London. The very last night, we went up to the roof and we kissed for hours. "Still want to keep me ?" He said, holding me, the city below and behind as, his future thousands of miles infront of him. "More than anything in the world. James, I need you to be here." I began to swell up, nobody made me feel as real, complete and strong as he did. "I'll send for you." -- he left me there, standing in the cold, half of my heart on fire. The next morning he was gone and I went to work alone. Head down, everything cold, feeling more alone than I ever had in my life.
The next month a one-way ticket came.