Page 1 of Glitter

Chapter One

Blue

“Imean,noneofus believed Joy wouldactuallyget her fist up Eric’s tiny fucking asshole, but she proved us all wrong. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t witnessed it for myself. Disappeared up there really easily, too. Like she’d coated her hand in enough butter to cause a coronary and shoved her hand so far up it was like she was trying to scratch his tonsils from the inside. Made him sing and everything. I never would have thought someone as straightlaced as Eric would have been up for a public fisting, but it’s always the quiet ones that surprise you, isn’t it?”

My work-wife Amy laughed like I knew she would, tossing her long wavy brunette hair over her shoulder. She’d unfortunately had to miss the group outing to one of the local BDSM dungeons this past weekend as she and her actual wife, Tessa, hadn’t been able to find a babysitter for their two-year-old terror, Bailey, in time. Not that I think she wasthatdisappointed. Ever since Tessa had birthed Bailey, Amy had become a doting mom whomuch preferred to stay at home with the family than go on all-night benders.

She wasn’t alone. Over the past few years, a lot of our mutual friends had settled down and started popping out babies. It almost felt like it was unusual to go a single monthwithouthearing about another pregnancy or wedding announcement. Pride month seemed to be the only time of the year where a lot of us could get together and let our stylish, luxurious, and in some cases metaphorical hair down to party until the sun rose the next morning.

Alas, many other families had the same idea as us, and the demand for trustworthy babysitters during June had skyrocketed. This year, Amy and Tessa had left their search too late and hadn’t been able to source someone in time. Hence my current need to regale Amy on how Joy had made her boyfriend Eric dance like a puppet on our way to lunch this fine Monday afternoon. If she couldn’t be there in person, she could at least be there in spirit after the fact.

“I don’t know, Blue,” Amy said once her laughter calmed enough to draw a calm breath again. “Joy’s always loved a bit of exhibitionism. It’s not that much of a stretch that she’d eventually get Eric to crack, especially in a safe place likeE.N.”

My head bobbled from side to side as I mulled over her words. She wasn’t wrong.Exquisite Nights, orE.N.to the regulars, was a popular national chain of clubs and bars that catered to everyone, but our localE.N.was a multi-level building that also had restricted member access to floors like the BDSM dungeon I’d visited with Joy, Eric, and our other friends on the weekend. The restrictionsE.N.put in place for these special floors were some of the strictest I’d ever come across, which meant it was one of the safest places for a potential new submissive like Eric to stretch their wings.

“True,” I admitted when we pushed through the swinging doors of the communal lunchroom. “I guess I’m still surprised that Eric would have the courage, is all. Especially on such a busy night.” I looked around the crowded room, trying to find an empty table. “You want to eat in here? Or outside? I’m good either way.”

Amy looked around at our limited options as we both walked over to the fridges to get our lunches. “Outside? I think the weather should be okay for us to sit out.”

“Let’s do it.” I opened the door to the fridge, reached in to get my lunchbox, and knew as soon as I lifted it that someone had stolen my lunch.

Again.

“God fucking damn it,” I cursed under my breath and cradled my poor violated lunchbox to my chest.

“You’re kidding.” Amy’s frown mirrored my own before we both turned around to cast our eyes over the crowd of people sitting in the lunchroom, searching for the person we knew was the culprit. She let out a growl before up-nodding toward the way we’d come in. “There.”

My eyes immediately homed in on the person who’d made my life a living hell for the past year, and I snarled at the man grinning maniacally back at us.

Travis fucking Hafler.

We’d both been hired by the Eckersley’s Institute at the same time, so we’d been on the same orientation tours. Right from the very first day, Travis had been a thorn in my side, making snide remarks about anything he thought would offend me, whether that was the stylish clothing or jewelry I wore, the flash of color in my hair, the way I talked, or even the company I kept—nothing was off limits. It was like my very existence offended him.

I wasn’t naïve. I was well aware I was flamboyant and that wouldn’t be to everyone’s tastes, but that didn’t give anyone the right to belittle, taunt, or bully me.

Not anymore.

That didn’t matter to Travis, though. Whenever he got the chance to needle me, he took it. The only problem was that he did it cleverly. Never in front of anyone higher up the management food chain than either of us, and never in a way that could be recorded and used as proof of wrongdoing.

Most of the time, I let his words roll past me like water off a duck’s back. Growing up as a painfully obvious gay boy, I’d heard it all from both family and so-called friends from school, and I eventually perfected the comebacks I needed to survive, then thrive, to become the amazing and might I say popular man I was today. He hadn’t been telling me anything I’d not heard a million times before.

Eventually, he’d grown frustrated by my lack of physical or verbal response, so he’d branched out into finding other ways to annoy the ever-loving shit out of me.

His latest tactic? Stealing my god damned lunch.

For the past three months, my lunch had mysteriously been going missing at least once a week. There was no regularity to it; sometimes it’d be later in the week, other times earlier. He didn’t seem to have a preferred meal either, so it wasn’t something I could just stop bringing in.

Nope, it appeared that he was stealing my lunch purely out of spite and bitterness, then waiting around so he could watch my reaction to my lack of food.

A snarl in his direction was the only satisfaction I’d give him. It wasn’t worth getting any more worked up than that.

“Come on,” I said to Amy, elbowing her in the side when she continued to glower in Travis’s direction while we watched himhappily get up and leave the lunchroom. “It’s not worth it. Let’s just go.”

“Fine,” she huffed, pressing her lips together in annoyance before turning to poke me in the sternum. “But you’re telling Matthew again.”

Matthew was the boss of our small team of research scientists. Although he was the smartest man that I’d ever met and could confidently go toe to toe with the higher ups with anything science based, including sourcing research grants, his interpersonal management skills were somewhat… lacking.

“I’ve told him,” I said, leading her out of the lunchroom towards the elevator to go down the fifteen floors to get to the in-house deli in the foyer that catered to everyone who worked in the building. “He hasn’t been able to do anything about it before. I doubt he’ll be able to do anything about it now.”

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