Page 125 of Daily Grind
He would have, had Rob answered the voice mails or texts he’d sent. He leaned in a little. “Could you just… call him?”
She pushed away from the desk a fraction. “I’m sorry sir, but no. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“But I—” Maybe it was the tone of his voice or whatever expression he had on his face, but the security guard slid off his chair by the elevators and headed toward them.
“Sir.”
He held up both hands and backed away. “Sorry. I’ll get an appointment.” After hell froze over, maybe. He turned away before the frustration made it to his face or loosened the tears in his eyes and stumbled toward the door.
God, he was such an utter failure. His vision blurred, he rammed into some one, and lost his balance.Fuck.
“Whoa, easy there.” Hands steadied him and a familiar voice brushed over him. “Brian?”
He blinked and looked up. Dark brown hair. Blue eyes. Fond of espresso shots. “Todd?” Fazil’s husband. He had a messenger bag slung over his shoulder.
“Hey.” Todd relaxed his grip on Brian, but didn’t let go. He flicked a glance over Brian’s shoulder, then focused on him. “What are you doing here?”
“I was trying to see Rob. Robert. Ancroft. He’s—” His voice cracked. Boyfriend. Lover. Ex.Oh God.Brian gritted his teeth and tried to stop the shakes.
Todd’s voice was gentle. “I know who he is.” He pulled Brian over to the left. “Why don’t we go over here and we can sit and talk.”
They ended up at a small cluster of chairs, artfully arranged around a table with glossy magazines spouting all kinds of headlines that made no sense in Brian’s blurred and jumbled vision. He wasnotcrying. He blinked a few times and his sight focused.
Todd let him go at one of the chairs, and pulled another over closer, breaking the symmetry of the arrangement. Brian cringed at the scrape of metal on marble, and sank down to its hard black leather surface.
He met Todd’s worried gaze. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” Todd slipped his bag off and lowered it next to his chair. “They’re not going to let you up to see him, you know.”
Fazil must have told Todd about him and Rob. Or maybe Rob had. Wasn’t a surprise. Pittsburgh. Biggest small town in existence.
“Now I know that.” Brian tried laughing, but it came out as a choking sound as pathetic as he felt. “I’m an ass.”
“Nah, you’re not. I’ve been there, man. I know how it goes.” He cocked his head. “I take it you’ve called.”
“Yeah. And texted. No response.” He studied his hands.
A grunt. “How bad was it? The fight?”
Brian slumped deeper into the chair. “Take a guess.” He gestured at the reception desk. “Truth is, Iaman ass. And a hole as well.”
That garnered a laugh from Todd.
“I have no idea what to do now. I guess I’ll wait until the weekend and try to get up the nerve to go to his house.”
Todd shrugged and pulled out his cell. “So, when I started working here, they gave me this phone. Pain in the ass sometimes, ’cause I can’t help but look at the e-mails. Fazil has to take the damn thing from me at night.” He tapped on the screen.
Brian bit his tongue. He had no idea where Todd was going with this, but Todd’s sly smile kept Brian from interrupting.
“On the plus side, I have the entire CirroBot phone directory at my fingertips.” He grinned. “Give me a minute.” With that, he rose and stepped away, the phone at his ear.
Oh God. He was calling Rob. Brian’s fingertips itched. If this worked, he owed Todd—and Fazil—big-time.
Please, please let this work.
* * *
The ringingfrom his laptop startled Rob out of reading a design document for one of their next generation of medical robots. He glanced down at the corner of his screen and studied the incoming call indicator.Todd?He reached for his headset.
