“We should wait to work on the servers,” Caleb said. “The power could go out again for all we know.”
“Gee, ya think?”
Caleb glanced at Oli balefully, who’d accompanied his lover to the QFindr office not even thirty minutes after the power had returned to Manhattan. I’d never spent much time around either of them beyond the occasional social function, but they were a handsome couple. Caleb with the silver streaks in his hair and poor attempt at casual clothing with his light-blue polo and blue cuffed slacks with pointy-toe shoes, and Oli dressed like James Dean in all black with his hair slicked back and damp from a shower.
“You really didn’t need to run over here,” Aiden said from where he was leaning against the wall. He seemed grumpy about the arrival of his half-brother and business partner. “We weren’t going to rush into a server surgery after a full night of—”
“Fucking?” Oli guessed, tossing a wink my way.
Caleb glared harder. “Will you be appropriate?”
“Why?” Oli looked from Aiden to me before meeting Jace’s eyes. He was stretched out on the floor with his Kindle. “Jace, was there fucking?”
“Lots.”
Oli grinned triumphantly at Caleb, and laughed when his lover gave a mournful headshake. For a minute, I was embarrassed. But then I noticed the way Aiden was pushing his shoulders back, all ready to defend himself, and I intercepted faster than a Russian number calling the White House.
“Besides fucking, we found out your IT guy is a bigot Twitter troll. What’re y’all gonna do about that?”
The grin was wiped from Oli’s face, Caleb’s mouth dropped open, and I spent the next few minutes rehashing what I’d found on Travis’s iPad. Even after regaling them with all the hate speech, they poured over it themselves until Oli reddened, his eyes narrowing, and Caleb had gone pale.
“I should have listened to you,” he said miserably, after turning to Aiden. “You are such a better judge of character than me.”
“Yeah, that’s why you’re with Oli,” Jace called from the floor.
Oli flipped off Jace, who blew him a kiss.
“He has to go,” Aiden said. “Like yesterday.”
“Right. Of course.” There was an undertone of anger in Caleb’s voice that I’d never heard before. “We’ll tell him as soon as he returns from his trip. We’ll have his things all packed.” Caleb was looking around the room like he was ready to throw the dude’s shit out the window. “My God. I’m so embarrassed. How could we have been so oblivious?”
“It’s more than embarrassing,” Oli said, holding up the iPad. “There are things about us on his social media. About the company.”
Clearly, I hadn’t investigated that deeply before being interrupted, because all I’d seen was the usual troll viciousness. Now, I frowned. “Like what?”
“He doesn’t name us on his time line, but he went off on a series of rants about a queer company raking in millions for doing nothing more than aggregating data to help other queers get laid. And that they pay their ‘normal’ employees like shit.”
“Fuck his hetero tears,” Aiden growled. “Little bitch. His salary is commensurate with other salaries in the field.”
I nodded in agreement, but something about Oli’s tone was off. There was tension in his shoulders that hadn’t been there before, and I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. Jace had sat up straight, as if his sense for danger was going off.
“What else?” he pressed.
Oli’s eyes flicked between us again, then forced a smile. “There’s some more detailed chatter in his DMs about the company, but it’s nothing. I’ll have Clive look at it on Monday.”
“Lawsuit material?” I asked.
“Maybe.”
He clearly wasn’t going to go further into detail, so I backed off. If there was a potential lawsuit, he probably didn’t want to tell us everything, since he likely knew it could get repeated to our growing crew of friends. Jace crawled over to us on his hands and knees, quizzical but less alarmed, before coming to sit between where Aiden and I stood.
“So, does my boo get the bigot’s job?”
“Jace,” I hissed. “Cállate.”
“What?” he asked innocently. “I’m just asking. We know you guys already wanted to hire him.”
Aiden reached down to run his fingers through Jace’s hair, smiling fondly. “I was going to wait to ask until we get the servers and the firing sorted.”
“Guys,” I muttered. “Chill.”
“Why wait?” Jace got to his feet and draped himself all over me, smiling. “If you hire Chris as soon as possible, douche-canoe will be out the door and Chris in his spot to take care of the servers while on salary. I’m basically an HR genius.”
I covered my face with my hands, but peeked through my fingers to see Oli smiling slightly, despite his obvious preoccupation with the iPad, and Caleb nodding seriously.
“Chris, you were my original choice for this position. Would you be interested?”
My eyebrows shot up. No interviews or résumés? Was this what happened when you had connections? “Seriously?”
“Absolutely. I’m not very good at jokes. You’re highly skilled, have several years of experience, professional anytime I’ve worked with you whether it was about testing or the shoot—”
“Dude,” I said, interrupting him. “I’m standing here in gym shorts, and I spent the night screwing your brother and his husband in your office. I’m not exactly professional.”
The blood rushed to Caleb’s face, but he bravely continued. “Right, well, that is certainly unorthodox but given the situation . . .” He gestured vaguely, maybe reaching for an explanation. “Well, it wasn’t as though it was a work day.”
Jace snickered. “You’re so cute, Caycay.”
He was, but I was hung up on . . . everything. My mind was going at a hundred miles an hour because as soon as the words had left Caleb’s mouth, I’d realized that I really did want the job. The glass cube with the sleek furniture in the fancy purple office with the shower and workout equipment. The queer-friendly environment where I’d get to see people I genuinely liked every day. Where I’d get to collaborate with them on something innovative and cool. Replacing a racist-ass fuckboy was the icing on the cake.
“I want the job,” I said quickly. “But I need to give my current job notice. I can’t just walk out after all this time.”
“See?” Caleb beamed. “Professional.”
I held up my hands to thwart him from going off further. “There’s more.” Looking over at Jace’s thrilled expression, then Aiden’s quietly proud smile, my heart thrummed in my chest. I thought about what Jace had said in the lobby, what Aiden had said earlier this morning, and Raymond’s drawl in my ear. “What if—” I stammered. “What if . . . I’m with . . . one of my bosses? How does that work?”
Aiden straightened.
“What do you mean?” Caleb asked, cocking his head. “‘With’?”
Oli looked at his lover with exasperation. “Darling. Really? Really?”
Caleb blushed again. “Oh. I get it.”
I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing. I kept laughing when Jace pulled me into a lamprey hug, and when Aiden hovered by my side as Oli dragged Caleb away from us.
“Let’s give them a minute,” Oli said, walking farther down the hall. “And we’ll work something out,” he called back to me. “After all, I’m fucking the founder.”
Caleb said something chastising to him, but by then I was burying my face against Jace’s neck as Aiden put a hand on both our shoulders.
“Christopher, are you sure?” he asked, low and serious. There was almost a warning in his tone. “Or are you talking about the casual—”
“We were never casual,” I said sharply. “Not for a few months, anyway. So quit saying that shit.”
“Agreed.” Jace looked up at us. “But can we take this time to nail down what with entails while all three of us are here?”
My heart had been slamming into my rib cage as soon as I’d blurted it out to Caleb and Oli, but as my two men looked at me with hope and trepidation written all over their lovely faces, calm washed over me. They were nervous because of me. They were waiting for me. I wasn’t the only one who was desperate for this to work.
“For me, it means . . . no more random booty calls or sexy weekends. It means we’re together. For real. Sleeping together, eating together, spending time together for more than just fucking . . .” Aiden was squeezing my shoulder so hard I thought he would crush the bone. I took a deep breath. “But . . . I can’t do it if y’all are fucking other people. I know it’s what you’ve always done, but I don’t have your history. I haven’t been through more than half a lifetime being confident that you two love me like you have with each other.”
Jace jerked me against him, hugging me so tight it was hard to breathe.
“You already know what I think. I want us to do this.”
Aiden, who’d not been prepped on that part of our lobby hookup, moved his hand from me to clamp both on Jace’s shoulders. The hope that filled his face matched what I’d felt as soon as Jace had said the words downstairs.
“God,” he breathed, closing his eyes for a minute. “You have no idea how this feels.”
“How what feels?” I asked, looking into Aiden’s eyes over Jace’s shoulder.
“The relief.” He shook his head slowly. “Are you both sure? I want this so bad, I’m fuckin’ afraid that it’s a dream.”
“It’s real,” Jace said. “He’s ours. We’re doing this.”
The word ours lit me up like the sky on the Fourth of July. I smiled, big and dorky, and for the first time, I felt no doubts. No fears.
A smile spread over my face. “Can we celebrate with booze and food and sex and UFC? It’s fight night.”
Aiden pulled me and Jace to him, grinning his rakish grin. “We can do anything you want. But you may have to slow me down because I’m ready to cab it to South Jamaica, pack your shit, and bring you home.”
“Let’s start with the job,” I said, laughing even though the possibility of someday living with them nearly caused my heart to explode. “Then we can figure out everything else.”
“Okay, but your lease is up in July,” Aiden said. “So, y’know. Fate.”
“And . . . how do you know that?”
“I keep track of the important things in my men’s lives. And I’ve been thinking of you that way for quite a while.”
I sagged against Jace, but Aiden moved around us to sandwich me between them, propping me up. Between the feel of his strong broad chest at my back and Jace’s slight form pinned to my front, I felt complete.
This was real.
This was really happening. To me.
“This isn’t some kind of fucked-up fever dream induced by the blackout and heat wave, is it?” I asked suddenly. “Because that would be really messed up.”
Jace burst out laughing. “No, Chris. It’s real. We turned the electricity back on with the power of a public blowjob.”
This time it was me snickering slightly hysterically.
“I missed something,” Aiden said. “Something I really didn’t want to miss.”
“We’ll tell you later,” I reassured him. “After we talk to Caleb and Oli. We have plenty of time.”
Jace grinned up at me as Aiden kissed the back of my neck.
“That we do.”