Chase, Part 2

Chase

The entire department got together in the conference room. I saw him before he saw me. He looked good in a suit. I sat down in one of the chairs. Shannon and Frankie sat next to me. I watched him talk to our editor-in-chief Kerri and his smile still made me melt.

I had so many thoughts running through my mind. How had this not come up during the date? Was I really that guy that didn’t ask his date what he did for a living? What the job is he moved for?

What would happen now? How would Chase and I do this? Do we keep what happened yesterday a secret? Can we even continue seeing each other? I can’t sleep with my boss, now that I know he’s my boss. Can I?

I couldn’t believe his naked body was lying next to mine only a few hours ago. I had been inside of him last night. He took control very naturally during sex, so I was sure he would be good at leading a department as well.

Just as a smile came to my face remembering the hot sex we’d had last night, I noticed Chase made eye contact. I saw instant fear in his eyes. A forced smile and a slight nod followed. He seemed as unsure of what to do as I was.

Chase

Kerri decided to get this morning meeting started and immediately introduced Chase, who got the chance to say a little bit about himself.
“Hi everyone, I’m Chase O’Reilly. I just moved here from Portland. I live in this cute house in Walnut. Left the Portland Gazette after three years, I was Head Digital there too. And I’m really excited to get to know all of you and get started!”

Chase did not make eye contact with me throughout that little speech.
“Why did you leave Portland to come here?”, Jessica wanted to know.
I noticed she was leaning forward, her elbow on the table. It almost seemed like she was trying to flirt with him. Chase chuckled and looked down. He glanced over at me, before looking back at Jessica.

“My… my boyfriend works for Shea Homes, he was promoted to a job in the head office here, and…”
My stomach dropped.
“… and I was happy I found you guys so quickly. John is still finishing his final week of work before following me here. So I did all the heavy lifting in the new place!”
Chase smiled shortly before looking down again.

Fuck.

“That shut Jessica up”, Shannon leaned back to whisper in my ear.
I smiled at her. Inside I felt like crying. Had I been too quick to think about a follow-up date and a possible future romance? Or had Chase been intentionally quiet about his relationship status?

We were going around the table so that everyone could say their name, their job title and how long they had been working for the Observer.
“Frankie Choi. Social media manager. Since June of this year.”
“Ravi Patel. Social media manager. Worked here now for four years.”
The eye contact with Chase made me feel so many things. I was happy when everyone turned to look at Shannon.

I felt warm. Like my face was shining with sweat. I wanted to get out of this conference room. But we weren’t done yet. Kerri spoke up again.
“So let’s give Chase an idea of what our current digital presence is. Vinny?”

Chase

As Vinny talked about the website and everyone looked at the large screen, I tried to calm myself down. I wanted to not look at Chase, but I had to. He had a seat near the screen anyway, so he was always the tall handsome man in the corner of my eye.

Instead I looked down in my lap. Chase asked Vinny questions about his views on if certain features could be added to the website. I took deep breaths and noticed my own bulge. Chase had been sucking my cock only the night before. I had to get these thoughts out of my mind now.

“Ravi?”
I looked up at Kerri.
“Our social media presence.”
“Oh. Right. Sure.”

As the screen showed the paper’s Facebook page and then the Twitter page, I talked about how often we were sharing articles and that we had designated times where we hoped to get the most views and interaction. There was a different protocol for breaking news stories.

I was on autopilot, talking about how the comments sections had become the biggest part of the job, and I gestured to Frankie.
“So I was very thankful to get a new co-worker on that job a few months ago.”
I realized I did mention to Chase during our date that I was a social media manager. If only I had said where.

Chase

“And how do you deal with commenters sharing disinformation?”
I couldn’t believe Chase could keep a straight face, looking at me, asking me a question. I was caught off guard for only a second.

“There is protocol on that as well. Sometimes there’s a thin line. Commenters are welcome to question an article, or its research. But sharing easily disproven articles presented as facts will result in those comments being hidden. Of course we keep track of all of those we hide, remove, and the users we end up blocking once it keeps happening.”

I was looking straight at Chase as I was saying all of this. I felt like sharing my experience and expertise as he asked me questions was my way of showing his omission didn’t affect me. Showing I was strong and he was missing out. No idea if that was coming across, but it was making me feel slightly better for a while.

“What about LinkedIn?”
I sighed.
“We’ve considered it, but we’re not sure if we would have a large enough audience to make up for the extra amount of work.”

I saw Chase nodding.
“Interesting. Thanks for that.”
I smiled at him, wanting to be everywhere but here.

The meeting was finally over.
“You OK?”, Shannon asked me.
“Yeah. Just a little warm. I’ll go freshen up in the bathroom.”

I didn’t actually need the bathroom. I just took some time to process all that had just happened. I flushed nothing and walked to the sinks. I saw myself. OK. I looked good. That was a small comfort. I realized I had to talk to Chase, but there was no way that was happening in an office setting. So I just had to get through this day.

All I could do was go work. Frankie next to me couldn’t stop talking about how hot Chase was, so I had to tune him out.
“Are you not into him?”, he asked me.
I shrugged.
“Not really”, I lied.
“I like how you can just tell he has a massive dick, the way he walks so confidently.”
I chuckled, though Frankie didn’t know why.

Chase

Meanwhile, every time I saw Chase in the corner of my eye, I had to check out his ass in his slacks as he walked by. I wanted to ignore him completely, but his ass had a hold over me.

Although I was hoping I would have some sort of interaction with Chase, some time to talk privately, I only saw him walking around the office a few times. When it was time to go home, I didn’t run into him in the elevator or in the parking lot. But it was probably safer to message him anyway, to avoid people from work seeing us.

I parked in front of my apartment, and before even getting out of the car, I went on Grindr. However, I was surprised to see his profile was gone.
“Fucker”, I whispered out loud.
I didn’t have Chase’s phone number. Now I was really annoyed.

When I made it to my apartment, I was exhausted. I ordered some food in and ate on the sofa as I binge-watched a show. I had two thirds of a bottle of wine. When I went to bed I found Chase’s briefs. I held them in my hand and sniffed them. I pictured how good he would look in them. He likely wore briefs under his suit today as well.

I couldn’t believe Chase didn’t tell me he had a boyfriend. They were living together as well, so it must have been a while. Was I just someone to let off some steam with until his boyfriend would come here? I could have sworn it was more. To both him and me.

I threw the briefs against the wall. I didn’t understand. I was disappointed. Grumpy. Angry. Lots of things. I was surprised I managed to fall asleep as my mind was working overtime.

The next morning, I had a hard time getting up. Partly because of the wine I’d had, partly because I was so not looking forward to being around Chase again without being able to tell him how I felt or get some sort of explanation.

While I got ready, I decided I couldn’t let Chase affect me this much. I liked my job, I had fun co-workers, and he wasn’t going to take that away from me. When I was about to leave my apartment, I stood up straight and painted a smile on my face. A deep breath and I opened the door. I had decided I was going to make today a good day.

I stopped on the way to get donuts for everyone in the department. Frankie, Shannon and I chatted as our computers were booting up and we had our donut. I forgot about Chase for just a little while.

Chase

“Oh Chase?”, Frankie suddenly said.
I looked back. Chase was on his way to his office. He looked amazing. My mouth may have dropped open a little. Fuck.
“Yeah?”
“Ravi brought donuts for everyone.”
“You did?”, Chase looked at me.
I nodded silently.
Chase took a step back and looked in the box. He took one donut out.
“That looks really good. Thanks so much!”
He continued walking.

I felt Frankie’s eyes burning into me.
“What was that?”, Shannon asked.
“This guy”, Frankie said, clearly referring to me, “said he wasn’t into Chase. I think we have our proof that his pants are on fire in more ways than one.”
We all chuckled. I didn’t respond.

We got to work and as I looked through my e-mails, I wondered if I could ever tell Frankie and Shannon the truth. It would help me in dealing with this situation. Though I would fear the entire office would soon know and it could endanger my job.

The final e-mail I saw was sent right after I had logged off the day before. 6:23 PM. Chase O’Reilly.

‘Hey,

I am sooo sorry. Please meet me for lunch tomorrow so we can talk about this. 12:30 at Russell’s on Fair Oaks Ave? Thanks.

Chase’

I looked around to see if anyone could see my screen but I was in the clear. I replied to the e-mail.

‘OK.’

I clicked Send.

I had trouble focusing for the rest of the morning. When Chase walked by, I continued to ignore him. Except for checking his ass out though, there was no way I could stop doing that.

Shannon stopped by my desk to talk about this week’s newsletter and asked if I could promote the newsletter on socials. All I was thinking about was sitting across from Chase again and what I should say.

I told Frankie I was having lunch with a friend, which was such an obvious lie, he went “Oooohhhh” and winked at me.

I drove to Russell’s, which was really too close to the office to think about what I would say. Also because so much would depend on what Chase would say to me.

Chase

I walked in and saw him sitting at a table. He looked so good. He got up and I could tell he wanted to hug me. I looked around the restaurant for a while but then sat down. As much as a hug from Chase would feel good, it would maybe cloud my judgment. And I enjoyed how he quickly sat back down. He was now the one looking awkward and unsure of how to behave. Not me.

“Ravi”, he started. “Thanks for coming.”
I nodded.
“I owe you an explanation.”
“You really do.”

“Hey guys! My name is Jerry, I will be your server. Are you here for lunch?”
“Yeah”, I said.
Jerry gave us menus and explained what the specials were. Then he asked if we wanted to start off with drinks.

Once he finally left, Chase looked at me.
“I am so sorry. I… Well, first off I can’t believe we work in the same place now.”
I let out a chuckle.
“Yeah, how did we manage to not talk about our jobs?”
“We talked about more important things, I think. Our lives, our friends, our experiences.”

There was silence. I could feel him looking at me. I looked at the table. Chase had omitted such a large part about his life. There had been plenty of opportunity. That’s what I wanted to say. But didn’t.

“Ravi”, he repeated. “I never thought I would feel the way I do. About you. That day, it was… so beautiful. And the night even better.”

I looked up. I could tell there were tears in his eyes.
“I was so confused. I was lonely, yes. But I thought I was just making a friend. And then all that happened. Our connection was instant. And there was no way I could…”
 

Chase

He stopped, like he had just realized something.
“In hindsight, there was no way we would be friends by the end of that day. I either would have had to never speak to you again, to not risk my relationship with John. Or do what I did. But I didn’t want to make either decision. So I put off the decision while spending more time with you. Until we walked out of that coffee shop. And I couldn’t resist.”

I wanted to say something, but I let Chase finish.
“And for that I am sorry. Because I knew it would get messy for me. I accepted that. But now that we share an office, it’s also messy for you. And you don’t deserve that.”

Jerry returned to put our drinks down as we looked at each other in complete silence.
“Were you able to decide what you would like to eat?”
“Not yet, sorry”, Chase said.
“No problem. I will be right back.”

“It would have gotten messy for me regardless.”
I had finally spoken up. By Chase’s expression I could tell he didn’t understand what I meant.
“I felt the feelings too”, I clarified. “This was not just a hook-up for me. It’s been a while since I had a date like that. A night like that. This isn’t Portland. There’s no gay community here. I’m 35. You already were in a long-term committed relationship. When we met and we had that chemistry, you neglected to tell me that.”

Chase looked down. He seemed embarrassed, but I wasn’t done.
“We talked so much about our lives and you left out an entire boyfriend. I don’t know what that says about your relationship, but I deserved to know regardless.”

Suddenly I saw the tear drop from his eye.
“You’re right. I am sorry. I fucked up.”
I was angry. He dried his tears with the napkin.
“Can we… Can we try to be friends?”
“I guess we’ll have to”, I replied.

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