His daughter’s dance school was incredibly picky about things like tights, and Justin had promised that he would get her some so she could go to the class today. That was important, but so was going to work. Still, there was a shop that sold dance supplies near enough to Lester’s office, so he could just drop by there, snag the tights, and go see what Lester wanted before he got into any more trouble.
Some days, most days, even, he felt like he was walking a tightrope—like the slightest misstep could send him plunging down to utter ruin. Today was worse than some, but he tried to remind himself that Lester was just a dick. There was no reason to believe that he was actually going to do anything rash. The songs that Justin wrote, and had written, for the band, they were always hits.
So really, what was he worried about? Only there was something that hovered over him, something like a thick cloud that he couldn’t seem to get out from under, no matter how much he tried to logic his way out of it. Something bad was going to happen. That was just how today was going.
Sighing, he put his phone back into his pocket and started the car. Now, he had even less time today than he thought he did, only a few hours while Jade was in school to get through all of the stuff he needed to do.
Somehow, though, he’d get it all done. He always did.
* * *
It didn’t end up working out nearly as well as he could have wished, though. The traffic was a nightmare, and his car, as the months went by and got warmer, was starting to make a strange noise. It seemed to be prone to overheating, and he supposed he was going to have to bring it into the shop to get it looked at.
Just one more thing to add to the list of things that needed time. Time, which was something that he just didn’t have. And on top of that, there was a huge, long line at the dance shop, because, of course, it was recital time for all of the other young dancers in town, too.
So he was already running late, unacceptably so, when he pulled his overheated car into the blessed coolness of the underground parking lot. There was one elevator that only went to the ground level, but it had a sign on it proclaiming itOut of Order, so he swore viciously to himself as he took the stairs two at a time, panting by the time he got to the top.
Glancing down at his phone, he swore again when he saw the time. Almost eleven o’clock, and very, very late. The air conditioning blasted him, but it couldn’t dry the haze of sweat on his brow, and not just from his mad dash up the stairs, either.
It wasn’t the first time he’d been late to meet with Lester. Not by a long shot. Lester was always deeply annoyed by that, but what could Justin say? He didn’t tend to share with people that he had a child, and even if he had told Lester, he didn’t think that would change anything.
Well, there wasn’t much that he could do, other than getting there as soon as possible. At this time of the day, the office building lobby was pretty much dead, and there was finally something like luck as Justin jabbed his finger at the shiny chrome button to summon the elevator. The light around the edges of the button lit only briefly, then went dark again as the elevator slid smoothly open. The car was already on his floor, and maybe he wasn’t going to end up being even later.
Even though he knew there was no point, Justin thumbed on his phone, then glanced down at the glowing screen as he stepped into the elevator. His nervous eyes settled on the time again, and so he really had no way of knowing what was going to happen, no way of protecting himself against the human cannonball who flung himself into the elevator behind him seconds before the doors shut.
In fact, Justin had little time to do anything but glance up, startled, into the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen, eyes exactly the shade of the ocean which was only a few blocks away from this very building. He’d always struggled, and him being a wordsmith, too, with trying to describe those eyes to himself. Were they green, or were they blue?
It wasn’t a question that he was going to get to answer today, though. All he could do was half raise his arms just in time for an incredibly large, strong, energetic young man to blunder right into them.
The issue of what would happen next was never really even up for debate. Ken outweighed Justin by at least fifty pounds, all of it muscle, and was taller and broader than him, too. Justin might as well have tried to stop a speeding car with just his hands, and he felt the breath blasted out of his lungs as he stumbled back and onto the grimly elevator floor.
He barely noticed the pain as his elbow slammed into the mirrored wall. He didn’t noticed as the elevator doors shut silently, and when the elevator started to rise, the swooshing sensation in the pit of his stomach didn’t seem to have anything to do with movement but everything to do with the young man on top of him.
“Ken,” Justin gasped, hoping that the younger man would think that Justin had just had the air knocked out of him by the fall. And he had, but he swiftly recovered from that and focused instead on the large, strong, hot body pressing down against his.
Was it the first time that he’d touched this man? Other than maybe a handshake when they’d first met, Justin was sure that it was. And the contact, the touch, was full body, a gorgeous, fiery, beautiful young man on top of him, both of them looking at each other directly in the eye.
It was also—Justin thought—maybe the first time that Ken had actually, really, truly looked at him and seen him. Though surely that was just wishful thinking? All Justin really knew was that he couldn’t look away and that he wanted this to never, ever end.
