Of course, I’d called him—
“What did you say to him?” Devin gave me a long stare as I shrugged. “Eli generally doesn’t start it unless he thinks someone he likes is being attacked. What did you do?”
Like it’d been all my fault.
“I told him to go stand on his street corner to get attention and not try to get it from me.” No point in hiding the insanity now.
Devin’s eyes about bugged out of his head. “You called him a hooker?”
“Several times.” The look on Devin’s face made me want to defend myself. “He’s unprofessional in shoots. He’s not just wearing the clothes, he’s turned on and aroused with his hard dick swinging at everyone. It’s ridiculous and insane. I don’t care about how popular he is or how sexy he looks in the damned panties. I was hired to photograph clothes, not porn stars.”
Devin chuckled but was still shaking his head. “So he’s a whore because he likes being watched and the panties turn him on? Isn’t that kind of his job description?”
Fuck.
“There’s a difference. The other guys who are really into it don’t make it seem like they’re begging every guy to fuck them. Eli’s behavior was over the top, and the brat thing is too much for work. I wanted him to be professional.” Devin didn’t seem to get it, so I kept going. “He walked around nearly naked last week because some guy online dared him to. What kind of person does that at work?”
“Someone who’s raising money for a youth center,” Devin said in a deadpan voice. “The guy online made the bet just to drive you crazy, and then other people pitched in. Eli managed to donate over five thousand dollars to the center last week, just by doing that dare.”
What?
So maybe the fact that it was a bet to donate money to the center made a little bit of a difference—but not that much. “He was practically naked for a week just to make me uncomfortable. I think that negates any good the money might do. In any other company that would be grounds for sexual harassment. They’re like this big family that doesn’t have boundaries or common sense.”
Devin winced. “Are you going to sue or something?”
“No. Not because I’m wrong, but because I have no desire for any more notoriety. When I gave Preston a similar answer, he thanked me and gave me three months of severance pay.” Eli might not have been able to see past his own cock, but Preston had seemed to understand the bigger picture.
“I’m just wondering how many other people Eli’s tortured into quitting because they didn’t fall at his feet and worship at his dick.” Maybe the words were harsh, but that didn’t explain the way Devin’s mouth dropped open. “What?”
“I’ve never heard of anyone who hated working there. I think there were a few people when they first opened that weren’t a good fit, but I’ve never heard anything like this before. We wouldn’t have worked with them if I’d heard stories like that from other people.” Devin was shaking his head, and it seemed like he couldn’t believe the picture I was painting. “Eli’s always been a flirt, but I’ve never met a harder worker. I don’t think he’s even dated anyone else at work, much less made it seem like he wanted to have sex.”
“I guess I was just lucky.” I shrugged, not really caring. “He had it out for me from the first day when I didn’t fall all over him. Who greets a new employee almost naked?”
Devin choked, trying not to laugh. “No one explained that later?”
At my confused expression, Devin continued. “They have every prospective new employee either sit through a shoot or meet the models like that so they can see who would be a good fit, and who just sees the guys as sex objects. They’ve had a lot of people over the years completely fail that portion of the interview. Some guys couldn’t keep their hands to themselves or made overly suggestive remarks, but they usually explain it once you’re hired.”
“I got no explanations. All I got was a nearly naked slut who made suggestive comments and talked about getting spanked in an interview. When I didn’t appreciate hissense of humor, evidently, it only got worse.” Leaning back in Devin’s chair, I took a sip of my now-cold coffee, trying to ignore the anger that was starting to build.
“I’m sorry you felt that way.” Devin seemed torn. “Did you ever talk to him about it, confront him or something?”
“No, I needed the job. I thought at one point things were changing, but they got worse. Now, I’ve only got a few months to figure out how to build up my business again. And without any connections besides you, I’m sunk.” And also without any ideas about how I needed to go about growing it again. It’d taken years to build it up the first time, but I wasn’t going back to working a thousand dead-end jobs while I tried to get it off the ground.
He winced. “My couch is always available.”
“Which is just sad, man. Why don’t you have someone in your life?” I was done talking about me.
He gave a careless shrug that seemed to be hiding what he was really feeling and took a long drink of his cold coffee. Yup, hiding something. “I work too many hours. It makes meeting people almost impossible.”
Bullshit.
Trying to lighten the mood, I gave him a stern look. “Well for god’s sake, don’t find someone now; I might need that couch in a few months.”
The look on his face said I might’ve already lost the couch. But when he didn’t volunteer any information, I didn’t push. If he wasn’t comfortable sharing, I’d give him his space for a while. I had enough problems in my life. I didn’t need to add alienating my only friend to the list.
Devin gave a low laugh and nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind. And I don’t mind helping you out, but what are you going to do about the business?”
“I’m not even sleeping on the couch yet, and you’re already bitching about me moving out.” Grinning to show I was teasing, I tried to think of a good answer. “I don’t know. The photos I’ve been taking have turned out great, but I’m not sure about going back to the stuff I was doing before. It doesn’t seem to be a good fit anymore.”
