Tuesday Staff Meetings - 14. Not Alone

Liam and I arrived to work on Wednesday morning around the same time. Someone joined us at the elevator in the parking garage, so I figured we would behave ourselves on the way up. That was when I felt the auburn-haired man slyly reach a hand down to cop a feel. When I looked up at him, he had a teasing half-smirk on his face. I scrunched up my nose at him in a petulant manner and was nearly caught with such a childish face by the man in front of us as he turned towards his department.

I was about to head out the doors after him, but Liam blocked my path and gave me a quick kiss that I felt all the way down to my toes. The elevator doors almost closed on me by the time I snapped out of it and walked through them. He kept surprising me, that one.

As I passed Kathryn, she wafted a file folder towards my face as if to fan me. “Hmm, and here I thought Liam couldn’t make you blush any harder after he finally got you to date him,” she mused out loud.

“Hush, you,” I huffed as I ducked into my office and tried to will the blush away.

Though Wednesdays usually were slow days, that particular Wednesday was a bit busy. I even had to take a later lunch due to a conference call. I entered the break room just when Liam and his team were getting ready to leave. They greeted me as they passed by and I returned the gesture. Liam lingered a bit longer, giving my hand a gentle squeeze and a kiss when before leaving with the rest. I shook my head and ate my lunch in generally peaceful silence.

The rest of the work day went by slower than the first half. On our way back to our cars in the parking lot, Liam said he’d pick us up after he changed at home to go to the bowling alley. During the drive back home, I heard a song on the radio station that made me think of him.

“Big bro!” Michael greeted as I walked through the door. He was already dressed and ready to go in a pair of white jeans and a dark purple shirt with tribal designs on it in silver.

“Little bro,” I returned as I took off my shoes at the entrance. “Hey, can you help me figure out the name of a song? One of the lyrics is ‘anywhere I go, there you are.’”

“Vance Joy’s Fire and the Flood?” He questioned. “I can upload it to your phone later if you want.”

“Yeah, I think that’s it!” I responded. “Thanks.”

“Should I set it to Liam’s ringtone?” Michael teased.

“Actually, yes,” I admitted as I fought down yet another blush.

Michael made pretend gagging noises. “You two are gonna give me cavities.”

“Mm hmm, keep playing around like that and we won’t bring you with us,” I warned.

“H-hey now, I said I’d be good,” he pleaded. “Most of the night, anyway.”

I shook my head as I headed towards my room. “I’m gonna go shower and change.”

“The clothes better involve jeans of some sort and a graphic tee!” Michael called after me. “We’re going bowling, not to a fancy restaurant.”

“We’ll see!” I replied.

After I came back out to the living room in my chosen clothes, Michael had a deep set frown on his face.

“What?” I questioned.

“You are so not wearing that,” Michael insisted as he took hold of my wrist and led me over to his room.

“What’s wrong with this?” I countered.

“You are not leaving this house with that ridiculous belt, shapeless jeans, and a buttoned polo shirt. We’re going bowling, not golfing.”

“Ok, then what-” I was cut off when he tossed a pair of pants at me. I gaped at them. “Michael…these are a pair of skinny jeans.”

“Exactly, they’re perfect,” Michael stated. “And they’re the stretchable kind, so they should fit your big booty just fine. Put ‘em on.”

I drew my lips into a thin line as my brother dug for a graphic t-shirt of some kind. With a deep breath, I unbuckled my belt and changed into the dark blue skinny jeans. I was afraid that it would be a great struggle to pull them on, but they were a size larger than I thought. I was very careful when I zipped them and buttoned them, but I was quite surprised that they fit well.

Michael then handed me a large, black shirt with Marvel characters printed on them from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. The shirt was loose and long enough to cover half of my backside, which made me feel a rush of relief. Though I was certain that Liam would have appreciated the view, I wasn’t as vain as I was in the past and didn’t feel like flaunting.

“Much better,” my brother appraised. “Now you’re ready.”

The sound of the doorbell urged us both towards the door. When I saw that Liam wore a pair of slim green cargos and a darker green shirt, I realized that Michael had a point. I grabbed my phone, wallet, and house keys while my brother rushed out ahead of me. He gave Liam a fist bump as he passed him and headed towards the ginger’s car.

I followed along after closing up. Liam gave me a kiss as a greeting and then threaded his hand into mine as we headed towards his car. Michael was already seated in the back.

Liam asked Michael general questions during the drive there and my brother volleyed the questions right back at him.

“…but, on the bright side, we have a big selection of clothes to borrow from each other in a pinch,” Michael said. “You learn to share the hard way when you’re one of four. Doesn’t hurt to be the youngest and the cutest, though.”

“Not as a baby, you weren’t,” I teased. “You were quite the grumpy little thing.”

“That I was,” he agreed. “Good thing I grew out of it.”

“I’m an only child, but I had a lot of cousins growing up,” Liam admitted. “It seemed like every weekend and every couple of months, different aunts and uncles would come over with their kids. We lived near all the parks, though.”

“I’m guessing that over the summer your house was jam packed, then?” I mused aloud.

“Absolutely,” Liam confessed. “It’s like we were a hotel or something. As a kid, I would actually look forward to going back to school since the house would finally be empty again, ha ha.”

“Do you still keep in touch with your cousins?” Michael wondered.

“Oh yeah, they text me all the time and whenever I visit them, some even keep the music on my phone up to date,” Liam replied.

I let out a snicker. “He’s not kidding. His phone even has a bunch of Shawn Mendes songs.”

“I love Shawn Mendes songs!” Michael piped up.

“You and my cousins would probably get along great, then.” Liam replied with a laugh.

We found parking without any difficulty and were relieved to see that the bowling alley wasn’t as crowded as it usually was over the weekend. We paid for the rentals and were assigned a lane. Michael was quite eager. He switched out his shoes the fastest and ran off to find a bowling ball. Liam showed me a few pictures of his cousin on his phone and then stood up to find a bowling ball for himself.

When I came across a picture of Liam’s parents, I smiled and closed out of the gallery. A text came in from one of his cousins and as I closed out of it, his other texts were shown on a list. Recognizing one of my own texts, I clicked on it and was surprised at the screenname he had chosen for me. I quickly closed out of it and set it down as I blushed for the umpteenth time that day. The Future Mr. Lux? Seriously?

Seth Lux…it actually didn’t sound all that bad, not that I couldn’t have it hyphenated to Seth Slater-Lux. With a snort, I grabbed my own cellphone and changed Liam’s nickname to The Possible Mr. Slater because, damn it, Liam Slater didn’t sound all that bad, either. I tucked my phone away and stood up to find a bowling ball, hoping that my face was no longer a pink hue.

:::

“Liam, I don’t like you anymore,” Michael whined as he ended up with his fourth split immediately following Liam's strike.

I couldn’t help but laugh, hoping that my game wasn’t thrown off as I swung my ball down the lane. To my surprise, the pins slowly trickled down into a strike. “Ha!” I exclaimed as I raised two fists in the air in victory.

“Yeah, yeah,” Michael commented with a petulant pout. “Probably just a fluke.”

“Oh, how the haters do hate,” I teased him with a grin. My score was the lowest out of the three of us, but Michael had yet to get a single strike.

The game continued on and it wasn’t until Michael’s second to last swing that he finally landed a strike.

“Woo!” My brother cried out as he danced in place. “Finally!”

The three of us were in high spirits as we got ready to leave. Liam tossed me the keys to the car so Michael and I could get settled while he returned our shoes.

“That was fun,” Michael admitted. “Not the losing part, mind you, but hanging with Liam’s not bad.”

“Then it was all worth it,” I concluded aloud. I didn’t dare mention the fact that he didn’t bring up any embarrassing stories even once because I didn’t want to jinx the ride home.

“Oh, one of my shoes is untied,” Michael stated as he knelt down on his side of the car to tie them.

As I pressed the button to unlock the car, I heard a voice behind me.

“You changed your phone again,” rumbled a familiar and aggravating voice. I turned around and, sure enough, it was Kris.

His hair was pulled into a mid-ponytail. The clothes he had on looked like clubbing clothes. I recalled a club that was about a block away from the bowling alley. I didn’t know if he was stalking me or not that night. But, the sight of him made me feel tired and weary.

“And you’re out and about again,” I responded dryly. “Why do you keep bothering me? You don’t love me, you never have.”

“That’s not true, Seth,” Kris argued as he reached for my hand, but I took a few steps back.

“Don’t touch me,” I annunciated.

My refusal angered him and he grabbed a fistful of my shirt so quickly that I didn’t even realize what he was doing until I was tugged forcefully closer.

“I do love you,” He hissed as he slapped me in the face and slammed me against the side of the car. “God damn it, Seth!” He growled as he slammed me against the car a second time.

I felt an unpleasant shiver of fear running through my body and I braced myself for a fight, but a sudden noise drew both our attention towards Michael as he stood up.

“Heh,” Michael scoffed as he walked towards us with his phone out recording. “Don’t kid yourself, you crazy fucker. You don’t know what love is.”

Kris let go of me so fast that I ended up slumped against the door of the car. As the green-eyed man made a run for it, he bumped into Liam. He scowled at him and then ran off. I had never seen that expression of fear on Kris’s face before. It was damn surreal.

When Liam finally caught up to us at the car, the expression on his face was part concern and part fury. “What was he up to?” He all but growled.

“Looked like he was trying to get back into Seth’s good graces in his usual slimy manner,” Michael drawled as he saved the recording. “But, don’t worry. I have plenty on Kris. If the police won’t take his violence seriously, his workplace certainly will.”

He then opened the back door of the car and sat down. “After all,” Michael murmured. “They took it seriously last time.”

:::

The ride back home was tense, to say the least.

“You did what?” I questioned.

“I followed him one day and recorded him getting too rough with one of his boy toys,” Michael confessed. “The police didn’t do much of anything saying it wasn’t enough proof. So, I did the next best thing…I took it straight to the CEO of his entertainment group. The company didn’t like the idea of keeping a wild card like Kris around, so they fired him and warned other companies about him.”

“That’s why he was working at Ren fest! He wasn’t doing it for exposure or charity, it was because he couldn’t get another job,” I realized.

“Kris doesn’t know that I went to the police first,” Michael continued. “So, I told him that if he didn’t keep away from my brother, I’d show the police the recording.”

“And it worked, at least for a good few years,” I said as the pieces started falling into place. “But, then he saw me with Liam…”

“And his crazy ass started getting obsessed all over again,” Michael deduced. “I’ll talk to the police again. After all, this time I got proof of him getting rough with my own brother. You have no idea how hard it was to keep from killing him on the spot for slapping Seth like that. No way in hell was I gonna let him do anything else. I’m glad he didn’t notice me cause I got to record the whole thing.”

“That reminds me,” Michael added as he quickly took a picture of the side of my rapidly swelling face with the red print of Kris’s hand.

“Damn, Mike, blind me much?” I complained as I rubbed at my eye.

“He’s not getting himself out of a restraining order this time around,” my brother insisted.

“He’s right,” Liam agreed. “We can’t continue to allow him to stalk you like this…unless, you don’t want us to go that far. Seth?”

I shook my head. “You’re right. My past with Kris and my future with you...it's obvious which one is more important,” I confessed. “I don’t want to even look at him anymore.”

“…I’m also a witness to when Kris cornered Seth against his will at work,” Liam told Michael. “If you need me to testify, or for anything else, I’ll be more than happy to help.”

I felt tears gather in my eyes. They were a result from the stressful situation and the concern and care from my brother and boyfriend. I felt like I didn’t have to face it alone anymore. “Thank you,” I whimpered as I wiped at the tears. “Both of you.”

:::

When we arrived at the house, Liam gently led me inside. But, before he turned to leave, Michael took hold of his elbow.

“Liam…as protective as I am of my favorite brother,” Michael explained. “I still think it’d be better if you slept over tonight.” He shifted a foot sheepishly. “Besides, I snore and fart in my sleep…and sometimes I even kick. It’d just make things worse.”

Liam ruffled the top of Michael’s head in camaraderie and turned towards me. “How do you feel about it, Seth?” He asked.

I nodded. “Please, stay.”