CJ’s smile only broadened. “I told them my best recommendation was to fire Eddie North and put out a statement as soon as possible that they removed him from the company.”
A jolt coursed through Percy, a sharp itch down deep that he honestly hadn’t expected. “Fired?”
CJ nodded. “I don’t know if they’ll accept it, or if they’ll come back with some other plan, or if they’ll pay me my fee and tell me to fuck off.” He sat down on the bed next to Percy, still grinning like crazy. “But my god, did it feel good to lay it out like that. Fuck that dude. Well, not fuck him. I hope bad things happen to him, though.”
“Are they going to be okay if they fire him?” He swallowed hard. “Areyougoing to be okay?”
His smile softened a little, eyes warming up. He reached out for Percy’s hands, not pulling them close, but held onto them while they rested there in Percy’s lap. “The company is going to be as fine as they can be, given the situation. Honestly, it’s an approach that I would have suggested in the first meeting if anyone had seemed even a little open to it. And if Eddie had taken a bathroom break so I wasn’t bringing it up to his face.” CJ rolled his eyes. “Our relationship started out pretty…fraught. I may have called him a homophobe with my first sentence.”
Percy chuckled, squeezing against CJ’s hands. “And you?”
“Worst case scenario, some low-powered indie game developer with a shitbird in a position of power says some bad things about me. They don’t have much in the way of influence to swing outside the game dev sector, and so far they’re the only game company I’ve worked with. So I’m not worried at all about my bottom line. Hell, I’ll probably be able to point to them as an example of what happens when you don’t listen to me.”
Percy nodded, and the tension slipped from his chest, slackening his spine. He hadn’t even realized how much he was worried after hearing that, in spite of CJ’s clear joy and calm. The reassurances, though, pushed his mood back up and he sighed. “How likely do you think it is that they’ll just take your solution whole-hog?”
CJ shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. Most of this meeting involved very little of my input, and a lot of infighting.” He released Percy’s hands, then brushed his fingertips up and along Percy’s exposed collarbone. “All I know is I’m free for the day. They can call me tomorrow.”
Percy chuckled, and as he shifted in place, plastic crinkled under his ass, and he remembered the first problem: not letting CJ know about his Christmas present early. He had to come up with some sort of solution, just to get CJ out of the room for a second or two.
“Do you want to go out? Celebrate? Walk by the riverside?”
“I had some different exercise in mind.” His hand slipped from Percy’s neck, down his back, resting in the little divot just above his waist. “If you’re up for it.”
Percy was. In spite of his need to handle his wrapping supplies, his cock throbbed from the weight of CJ’s hand on his back, and he wanted almost nothing more than to give in and figure out an explanation for the open package of tissue paper when it came up naturally.
Percy leaned over, pressing his lips to CJ’s, and that hand slid lower still, past his waist, trying to work its way under Percy’s ass. Before he could say anything to stop it, the plastic crinkled again.
CJ pulled back, barely far enough that Percy could see his grin. “What are you sitting on?”
There was no hiding it, then, so Percy sighed and got up, pulling the package out as he did. “Tissue paper.”
CJ’s brows knitted briefly, but then he chuckled, low in his chest. “Christmas present?”
“I was really hoping you’d take a pit stop at the bathroom or something so I could hide it. Then you’d never know.”
“Well, I know now.” He shuffled back on the bed, sitting cross-legged, and held out his arms, fingers clasping and unclasping. “I’m not good with patience, so come on. Show me what I’ve got.”
“It’s not Christmas yet?” A weak attempt, but an attempt nonetheless. If his giftwasn’treceived well, he wanted as little time as possible to have to sit in that awkwardness.
CJ threw on an exaggerated frown. “Come on, don’t be a stickler for the rules.”
Percy’s chest tightened, and instead of just going for the gift bag, he looked down at CJ. “You can’t be annoyed about it, okay?”
“Annoyed?” CJ shook his head, that grin maintaining. “Unless you got me a mug that says ‘CJ smells like egg farts,’ I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be annoyed that you got me a Christmas present.”
Well, there went that. The emotions mixed and fought with each other. He did, of course, want to give it to CJ. That was the point. But it had a lot more landmines than a totally average gift might.
Percy marched to the closet anyway, sliding it open and reaching into the back corner. He came back out, carrying the metallic green bag, stuffed with white and gold tissue paper, and gently deposited it on the bed next to CJ.
CJ was not nearly so gentle, tossing paper out of the bag like a kid on…well, a kid on Christmas. It was frankly pretty adorable, but Percy still couldn’t shake the worry. He was opening himself up to some definite rejection potential.
CJ reached the end of the paper he could toss around and reached inside gingerly, withdrawing the book. A hardback, the dust jacket bearing sweeps of embossed, metallic purple around a cowled figure. A large, serpentine dragon swirled around the spine and the back, framing the back cover copy.
“Fang and Spine.” CJ nodded, then put the book down and looked up at Percy. No judgment in his eyes, at least so far. “A favorite of yours? Or you just know that I like fantasy?”
He likes fantasy. That’s a good start. “Um, neither. Actually.” He headed for his small pile of riches from the mall, and from his trip through town the day before, and extracted a hardback book from within. Metallic purple sweeps, a cowled figure, a serpentine dragon. His own copy of Fang and Spine, picked up the day before. “It’s a couple years old. The third book is coming out in a month or so, I think.” Time to deliver the big news. “I don’t want long distance to be any more of an obstacle than it has to be. I like you. I like being around you and talking to you and watching you smile. And fooling around.” He huffed harshly, trying to steel himself through the rest of this conversation. “I thought, if we could at least read the same book together, that might help our chances.”
All on the line, there. CJ at least didn’t hate fantasy, so his answer wouldn’t be shrouded in any mystery. If he didn’t even want the commitment of basically a book club together, he certainly didn’t want the commitment of…more than a book club. This all would have been a fun trip, a story to tell if it wasn’t too painful to remember.
