When Cory had asked me to stand in as his date at the church barbecue, I had immediately turned him down, and I’d done it for the same reason that Landen had stated earlier. I liked working here, and I liked the friendly banter that flowed around the place. Me dating someone here could easily disrupt the vibe in the department, and I’d never want that. That’s the reason that it’d been so easy to turn down the requests for dates, and it was the same reason that the guys had taken my rejection in stride. No one was ignorant of what dating me could mean in this place, even though a few of them had given it a shot anyway. Even though I had also entertained the idea with Landen.
Still, when Cory had explained that it was more than just getting his mom off his back, I had listened. When he’d been done explaining, I had changed my answer. While I thought that it was unfortunate that he felt like he still needed to hide his sexual orientation in this day and age, I understood it. Families were a tricky thing, and if Cory wasn’t ready to come out to his family, who was I to force the issue with advice about a topic that I knew nothing about. I had no idea what it was like to feel as if I couldn’t love freely, so instead of acting like I knew what I was talking about, I had agreed to go with him. What I hadn’t expected was for Landen to get stupid again.
“What this time?” I sighed as Landen shut his office door behind him. Now, while this wasn’t the first time that I’d been behind closed doors with one of the supervisors, it didn’t happen often.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he hissed. “You’re seriously going to go out on a date with Cory?”
“Stop being stupid,” I chided. “We just explained to you what was going on, Landen.”
“So, what? You’re just going to start passing out personal favors to the mechanics when they ask you?” he asked, still hissing.
“Well, since I’m not a gullible fool that follows people blindly, or the type of person that caves to peer pressure, that’d be a no, Landen.”
I watched him run his hand through his hair, and it really sucked that he was so damn hot when he was riled up. There was just something about a man that was in his feels, no matter what society claimed about male aggression. Still, now was not the time to be getting turned on.
“I don’t like it,” he finally said, and I could feel something shifting between us.
“Well, that’s too bad,” I told him, ignoring the warning apprehension swirling in my gut. “Cory is a good guy, and I see no problem with helping him out.”
Landen’s head jerked back a bit, and he looked rather pissed off if you asked me. “You’re fucking me, but you don’t see a problem with walking around at a church function, holding hands with Cory, cuddling up to Cory, letting everyone believe that you’re a couple?”
Though it was beginning to sound a lot like the fat lady was singing, and I was winning our little battle of the sexes when it came to friends-with-benefits, I was too offended to bask in my almost-win. “Well, since no one knows that I’m fucking you, I don’t see how that matters,” I fired back. “Plus, Cory has no problem with us telling people at work the truth about why I’m going with him to this thing.” I cocked my head, then put my hands on my hips. “What is your problem?”
“So, then you’re okay with me masquerading as some other woman’s boyfriend?” he asked, his voice almost sounding like a growl.
It was hard to admit, but the next words out of my mouth were both the truth and a lie. “You’re not my boyfriend, Landen,” I reminded him. “We are not dating. We are fucking. We are friends-with-benefits. We have an arrangement, but if you want to be with other people, then I’m okay with that. Those were the rules, right? All we had to do was let each other know ahead of time, correct? In fact, your only stipulation was that I didn’t date anyone onyourcrew. Well, Cory isn’t on your crew.”
“Don’t throw those fucking rules at me, Skylar,” he snapped.
“Then what is this?” I asked, doing my best to keep my voice down. “You’re acting ridiculous.”
It didn’t make any sense that Landen would be jealous, but that’s how he was acting. Still, after a month of meeting up almost every night, he still only called me baby in bed, and we still hadn’t woken up together in the morning. We’d been sticking to the rules, so I wasn’t sure what this was.
“We agreed that we’d be monogamous while we were doing this,” he pointed out. “You going out on a date with Cory doesn’t sound monogamous to me.”
“I’m not going out on a date with him,” I almost shouted. “I’m only going with him to keep his mother off his back. I’m hardly going to follow him back to his place afterwards and start riding his dick.”
Landen’s entire body locked up, and the look that he shot me would have had a lesser woman running away. He looked pissed, but I still didn’t understand why. If he was jealous, then he should be man enough to say so, then we could talk about what it means. Instead, he was acting like an asshole.
Then, in a voice that sent dark shivers down my spine, he said, “Says you.”
That got my back up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Who’s to say that you don’t have such a great time that you don’t end up following him back home?”
If I were the type of person to think of only myself first, I would tell him that Cory was gay. Telling him that Cory was gay would kill this entire conversation. However, I wasn’t that type of person. I was not about to announce to the world that Cory was gay. He had confided in me, and that’s where it was going to end. I was not about to share the man’s story, even if it would benefit my situation with Landen.
“Then I’ll be sure to send you a textbeforeI get to his house, informing you that I’ve moved on, and it’s with someone that’snoton your crew,” I replied coldly.
Just then, a knock on the door interrupted my impending murder. Landen looked like he wanted to kill me with his bare hands, and it was clear that this thing between us was over.
I turned around and opened the door, and it was to see Franklin standing on the other side. “Sorry,” he muttered.
Donning my best smile, I said, “Not a problem. We were done discussing the new grid charts anyway.”
Franklin smiled back, his shoulders softening with relief. “Oh, okay. Good.”
I looked back at Landen, and he still looked pissed. “Sincewe’re donehere, I’ll let you get to it,” I said, and those grey eyes of his narrowed at my double meaning.
