Page 26 of Daily Grind
Rob coughed. “Yes, well. Ruined office coffee for me. I suppose I’ll have to fall back on my ancestral beverage.” He opened a cabinet and rooted around for a box of tea that wasn’t some berry-flavored dreck and found—of all things—English Breakfast. He brandished it.
Todd raised his mug. “Cheers.”
Both of their phones chimed at the same time.Shit.“Is it ten already?” Rob ripped open the tea package and pulled out a sachet.
“Yup.” Todd screwed up his face. “The Fortunlia call.”
The bane of all their existences as of late. Rob found another paper cup and added hot water. “They can wait a minute for me to get my tea.”
Todd smiled. “I don’t have that luxury.” He tipped his coffee to Rob, then hustled down the hall.
No—Todd didn’t. There was the divide between him and the rest of CirroBot—it bothered him to this day.Oh, suck it up. You’re the fucking CEO.He finished making his tea and headed back to his office.
He probably should mention his actual job title to Brian—but he wasn’t quite ready yet.
That always changed things.
He closed his door, sat down, and put on the damnable headset. They were chatting on the call already.
“Hello, everyone, it’s Robert. Let’s get started, shall we?”
As the call dragged on, Rob drained his tea and stared out his window. Other voices were chatting about features and schedules, but all he could think about was the feel of Brian’s lips and the way Brian had fingered his denim-covered shaft.
That memory merged with the wreck Brian had been on Saturday. Employees walking away were always hard to handle, even more so with a small company. Rob crossed his legs and stared at his foot while Fortunlia’s line manager reiterated the feature he wantedagain.
“We’re working on it.” That was Carter, his head of engineering. “We should be able to get it done by—”
Shit!Rob leapt for the unmute button. “The feature date proposals are listed on the road map.”
Silence.Good God. “We’ve been over this before. You know our drop dates.” Carter knew better than to say anything that deviated from the road map! Promising customers features that weren’t done was asking for trouble.
“Of course,” Fortunlia’s manager said.
“Is there anything else, or are we finished for this week?” He knew he sounded annoyed—he shouldn’t give that much away—but he was damn tired of coddling these people.
“No, I think that’s all for now.”
“Okay, then thanks, everyone.” He waited until more than half the people on the call dropped off before hanging up.
At the rate this week was going, he was going to have quite a head of steam to blow off over the weekend as well. With Brian, who’d never been with a man, but certainly wanted to be. Rob slipped off the headset. He needed to be careful. No pressure. Nothing that Brian didn’t want.
Honestly, spending the day with Brian would be its own reward. Photography, conversation, industrial ruins. If they didn’t make it into bed, that would be fine, too.
Most of all, he missed companionship. He couldn’t have that here at work, not sitting in this office. There was no one to go home to. No family to call. He missed that so much.
Sunday, he could slip off the CEO persona and beRobwith someone who didn’t want him for his money. Who cared abouthim.
That was wortheverything.
Chapter Six
By Wednesday night,Brian was hallucinating about pillows while he made three mochas for a group of high school students who’d come in to work on their homework. He now knew viscerally what the expressionbone-tiredmeant.
Still he managed a little coffee art on the top of the drinks.
He set the mochas out for the students—Dan, Jan, and Ev. “Here you go.”
Each took their drinks to the table they’d commandeered. Good kids, all of them. They even managed to do their work when they spent an evening in the shop. They’d rotate through the different coffee shops in the neighborhood, but recently, they’d been hanging out at Grounds N’at more frequently.
