Confounded: Part II - 52. Chapter 52

CHAPTER 52 --==Kit’s POV==--

“Can you do the noose?” Tom growled.

Dressed in a mid-gray herringbone track stripe suit, Tom Ford if my eye didn’t deceive me, and a light-blue shirt, he came over with a dark blue Grenadine tie, throwing his jacket on the bed. His hair was still wet from the shower and he smelled very nice! It was a scent I hadn’t smelled before, some new cologne he’d gotten with Taylan on their shopping spree.

Taking it, I had him move in front of the mirror and slowly showed him how to do it, then undid the knot and had him do it himself. Pretty good on the first try, just get the lengths balanced better. The second try was almost perfect but he got a dimple under the knot and he didn’t want that. The third was perfect.

“God, you smell wonderful. What is that?”

“Armani. Diamonds.”

I chuckled.

“You didn’t get that on your own.”

He blushed.

“Tay took me to a store. Smelled like a fuckin’ boudoir in there.”

“He’s got great taste. Got any others?”

He rattled off a few names; Bvlgari, Gaultier, Dolce & Gabbana.

“Don’t wear them two days in a row. Switch.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s nice to smell differently every day. Keeps people guessing, too. Kind of a mindfuck; that should appeal to you.”

He grinned.

“Keep em guessing?”

“Exactly. You don’t wanna come into a room and people know you by scent. And I hate it when people alway smell the same, every day. The same with clothes; don’t wear the same, two days in a row.”

“No chance of that; I can wear a new one every day of the friggin’ week.”

He sought my eyes in the mirror.

“Do you think I should go back and apologize? To Antoine, I mean? I was kind of a dick to him.”

He seemed uncertain.

“I wouldn’t have gotten half of these threads if he hadn’t picked them out and showed Taylan.”

“Dude…Antoine is great! And yes, you definitely should. Once he knows your own taste, he’ll actually send you a message when new stuff comes in and he sees something you might like. I got lots of stuff that way. Sweaters, shirts, suits, even underwear.”

“Really…”

“Ahuh,” I nodded.

“Ugh, I can’t stand those pranci…”

I covered his mouth with my hand before he could finish speaking.

“Shh…don’t judge. Taylan is as flamboyant as he is; you know that. And Antoine’s very good at what he does. Look at what he did for you. Tay is good; Toine is awesome.”

Returning his eyes to the mirror, he looked at his image, turning this way and that. Then he grudgingly nodded.

“Alright, alright; I'll apologize.”

“We’ll go over during lunch. He sent me a text last week, to come in anyway; got a new batch of pink shirts.”

His eyes glared at me when I grinned back; if only he knew.

“Asshole.”

I padded his behind.

“Maybe later. Now move. I still need to do mine.”

Moving out of the way, Tom went to put on his jacket while I finished up.

**********

“Jesus,” Taylan commented when he came in as we were finishing up breakfast, “what did I walk into; the wet dream department of Gigolo’s ‘R Us?”

“Morning!” I greeted, followed by a somewhat recognizable grunt from Tom.

“Morning. Behave, you,” Dad chuckled, accepting a kiss on the cheek, “there’s coffee left in the thermos.”

“Thanks. When will you guys be home?”

“Usual time. You got any plans today?”

“Actually, yes. I’m gonna go car shopping.”

“You just got a new car,” Dad frowned, “something wrong with it?”

“Not for me, Alp; for the munchkin,” Tay responded, nodding towards Tom, drawing a miffed ‘Hey!’ from him.

“Ah, of course, I forgot, ” Dad replied. “Yes, yes, yes. Make sure it’s serviced before they bring it?”

“Yes, my liege,” Taylan bowed.

“You don’t have to get me a new car…” Tom piped up.

“Oh, it won’t be new,” Tay snorted, “get real. But yes, you do need a car. And it’ll be a lot better than that deathtrap of your mom’s. It’ll work, for one.”

Hear, hear! Definitely. When I saw the pictures Tay sent me, I pretty much told him to not let him drive it.

“I can’t afford a car…”

“So? Consider it a loan. Work for it.”

“Doin’ what?”

“Do dishes for the first year, to start? I dunno…”

“Ahem,” I said, pointing at one of the bottom cabinets, “we have a dishwasher?”

“Shut it,” Tay said, sending me a glance, “I’m making a point here.”

I grinned, raising my hands in surrender.

“We’ll work something out. Maybe have Mitchell dock your pay or something.”

“Wait; I get paid?” Tom replied, his eyes widening.

“Duh,” I said.

Of course he’d get paid! What did he think: that Dad wasn’t going to do that? I got paid. Why wouldn’t he give Tom his due?

“Really?”

He seemed pretty flustered all of a sudden. It was kinda cute, the way he was staring at dad in disbelief, who seemed surprised.

“Yes, Tom…of course you will be paid. I run a business. You’re my employee. That means you’re getting paid.”

“Oh sweet!”

“Which is where I come in and swipe it from you,” Taylan grinned evilly. “Show me the money!”

“Like hell you will. My money!” Tom returned, grinning, clearly relieved now. “But you can have half.”

Wow, he’d just part with half of his wages, just like that?

“Pffft! At least 75%, kiddo. I don’t run a charity.”

“Fine.”

Seriously? Come on!

“Stop teasing the munchkin,” Dad chuckled, earning himself a glare from said munchkin. I suddenly liked that nickname. It clearly irked him. He didn’t dare say something against Dad, though. “Relax, Tom. You need a car and we already discussed it. Your birthday was three months ago. You didn’t want to celebrate it, your mom told us, and you didn’t get a gift. This will be from all of us; Tay, me, your parents…”

“And me,” I chimed in.

I loved the idea. Awesome!

“You? You’re skint like Larry Flint. Still waiting for the dough on that PlayStation. And your car. And your…,” Taylan huffed, using his fingers to count off the items he felt I owed.

Pfft…I’ve always worked for it and he knew that.

“Shut it,” I fired back, interrupting him, returning the same comment he’d given me a minute ago.

“Ass.”

“Love you!” I grinned, blowing him a kiss.

It earned me a wink. Then Tom did something I totally didn’t expect; he got up and went over to Taylan, and gave him a fierce hug.

“Oomph! Hi!”

“Thank you.”

Taylan smiled, hugging him back.

“You’re welcome, kid. You earned it.”

Letting him go, he went over to Dad, who was still sitting down. He also received a hug and a thank you. Then he went back to his seat, about to sit down.

“Hey!” I frowned, “Bring it here. I need a hug, too!”

He grinned and came over; but he didn’t hug me. Instead, he grabbed my face and planted a nice long kiss on my mouth. Ha!

“Thank you.”

“Sheesh,” Taylan mumbled, “I wonder what he’ll do when you buy him a house.”

“Shut it,” both Tom and I said at the same time.

“Wow…seriously. No respect. But; payback is a bitch. I saw a neon-pink BMW over at our dealer the other day. I think I’ll get him that one.”

Dad guffawed at that one.

“You’re not getting me a Barbie car,” Tom replied gruffly, returning to his seat and finishing his coffee.

“No? Watch me.”

“I’ll drive it off the closest cliff if you do.”

Tay rolled his eyes.

“And I’m a drama queen?”

**********

Once we arrived at work, Dad sent Tom to HR, to register all his details and such, motioning for me to come with him.

“That was a nice surprise for him,” I said, following Dad into his office. “The car,” I clarified, when he raised an eyebrow.

“Ah, yes. Taylan showed me the pictures of that…thing. What was he thinking, that it'd still work?”

“I told Tay I’d kill him if he let him drive it.”

Dad chuckled.

“Good man.”

I kinda felt proud then, hearing him say that. The 'man' part.

“Slattery’s need to be protected against themselves,” I grinned.

Another chuckle.

“Very true. Alright, let’s get this day started. I’d like Tom to go sit with Ed when he returns from HR, to get him up to speed with the warehouse overhaul. Tell Ed to go easy on him; no overloading him with technical schematics; but not too easy either; I wanna see how he swims. Not the deep-end yet, but also no kid gloves. If he’s half as bright as everyone says, I’m expecting something good.”

I nodded, making notes on my tablet.

“Then I want the three of you to come up with a rotation roster that’s more healthy than the one they sent us on Friday; I don’t like that one. Four nights, two off and then evenings? No. That needs to be better. Try to have something on my desk by Wednesday. Actually, get Kelly in on this. I want her opinion on this as well.”

“Got it. Anything else?”

“Yes. Promotions. I want to look at…

**********

Tom proved himself right off the bat. He came up with a roster that even had Kelly look at him with admiration and in less time than it took the previous people to come up with one.

He made an excel sheet in quick fashion, using code I had no idea where he might have picked that up; it was kind of amazing to see, while he did it on the fly with the three of us watching.

“Where’d you get this kid?” Kelly whispered to me, leaning over as we stood watching over his shoulder.

Alright; I swelled with pride. I’ll admit that. His hands flew over the keyboard, swapping sheets, entering code and then seeing the results fill in on yet another one.

“Nepotism; he’s my boyfriend,” I whispered back, grinning when she pulled a face.

“Always the cute ones,” she whispered back. “Damn shame. He’s good.”

“He can hear you,” Tom spoke up, somewhat distracted. “Get out. No, not you, Kelly.”

I snickered, seeing Ed’s face going ‘WTF’ while Kelly took his seat next to Tom. I motioned for him to just get out of their hair.

“He’s very smart,” Ed said, walking with me to his office, “but he could do with more people skills.”

“He’s a Brainiac,” I answered, trying to not sound too defensive. Even I knew that hadn’t been okay, telling us to ‘get out’. He might be my boyfriend but that was not okay. I’d have to talk to him about that. And tell Dad, of course. “I’ll talk to him.”

“Mhm, good. But he said something about the schematics that made me wonder, though…do you have time to look over them? I got an idea…”

“Sure.”

**********

“So…” I said, steering us out of the parking lot during lunch break, “you got a running head start; Kelly’s already half in love with you.”

Tom grinned.

“She’s cool. Not afraid to tell if she doesn’t know something. I like that. And she’s a big fan of yours.”

She was?

“How so?”

“She said she had the hots for you, when you came in the first time.”

Ha! I already knew that. She’d asked me on a date in my first week. I had to tell her I'd prefer her brother, if she had one. We still went on that ‘date’ and had a blast.

“Hehe,” I chuckled, steering us toward Armani, “yeah, I remember.”

“She told me you went out?”

I glanced sideways. There was something in his voice just then.

“Yeah, we did. We had fun.”

He went quiet for a minute.

“When?”

What!?

I had to pay attention to traffic so I couldn’t really respond then but, once in the right lane, I spared another glance and I caught him watching me. Wait a minute…

“Are you jealous?”

He didn’t acknowledge that.

“When did you go out with her?”

Oh man…that felt so good! He was jealous! I grinned, then banked it when I noted his eyes narrow.

“Few weeks ago. When you were grounded.”

“Did you kiss her?”

What?

“No!”

I couldn’t really keep looking at him, having to pay attention on the road, but I could feel him watching me. I reached over, grabbing his hand and putting it on the gearshift, mine covering his.

“We didn’t do anything. I swear. She knows I'm gay. We just had fun. Nothing else.”

“Good.”

I risked a glance his way.

“You are jealous!”

His expression told me enough and I laughed.

“Awww…”

“Shut up!”

Definitely not.

“Oh, come on; I already told you that you were my first.”

He sent me a soured look, clearly realizing he was being a moron. I squeezed his hand underneath mine.

“Hehe, I love that you’re jealous.”

“Fuck off.”

“Don’t be a dick. It’s a compliment. Means I’m number One for you.”

I couldn’t feel any better than right now and risked another glance. And when our eyes met, a corner of his mouth went up.

“Right? Riiiiiiiiight? I’m number One! Woohoo!”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Ahuh. And number One. Woohoo!”

He began to laugh and nodded.

“Yeah, yeah…number One.”

“Woohoo!”

**********

We got to Armani and asked for Antoine, who was somewhere in the back. The manager, clearly remembering Tom, seemed somewhat apprehensive when we asked for him but he did go and get him. When he finally came, and recognized who was standing beside me, his pace slowed considerably.

“Kit, hello…”

Before I could return the greeting, Tom stepped toward him. Antoine took a step back.

“Hi, Antoine. I…ehr…I…"

It was rather funny, seeing Tom lost for words; I didn’t know him to be without any, but he was now. And there was no way I was gonna step in and help him. This was totally on him.

“Look, I ehr…well..I ehr…I wasn’t very nice to you, the other day.” Good….rough start, but good. Antoine didn’t say a word and the silence between them became somewhat uncomfortable. I heard Tom sigh. “Alright, I was an ass. To you, I mean. You didn’t do anything wrong, that was all on me. I got blindsided and I…well…”

“Oh for god sake, just apologize,” I hissed, softly under my breath. “Apologize.”

“I’m sorry, Antoine. You didn’t deserve that. I apologize.”

Better. When he took a step towards Antoine, the man at least didn’t flinch back. Then Tom held out his hand, going for a reconciliatory smile. Antoine hesitated, then approached and shook it.

“Thank you, ehm…”

“Tom,” I supplied, “Slattery. Tom Slattery.”

“Mr. Slattery,” Antoine reiterated.

“Tom. Just…Tom, please.”

Much better.

“Toine," I said, "you sent me a text the other day, about a new batch of shirts?”

Using his actually preferred name, his eyes lit up and he turned, already walking away.

“Ah, yes! Come long, they’re right here! Pink, right?”

I smirked at Tom, when he made some sound as I passed him. Alright…so I might’ve implied it was a joke, this morning. It wasn’t. That text from Antoine had been about pink shirts. Because I actually like the color!

**********

“Antoine, when we were last here, you pointed out some undies. But I actually prefer boxer briefs. Do you have those?” Tom asked, as the man was showing us the batch he’d texted me about.

He stiffened somewhat still, when Tom addressed him.

“Sir?”

“Tom…call me Tom.” He smirked. “Or jackass. You can call me that, if you hadn’t already, in your head.”

Something seemed to pass between them, some sort of mutual understanding. Ha!

“I do have those. Over here.”

Tom followed him. And then they got into a whole argument of ‘business dangling free’. Oh. My. God. I’d never had such a conversation but it was like I was watching old friends suddenly meet. Both seemed to now immediately bond over underwear, for god sake…

“Don’t you just hate that? I like it snug, tight. Mind you, personal preference but yeah! I agree! Like the fabric on them, always rolling up? I hate it!” Tom said and Antoine, enthused, chimed in, right there with him. Suddenly I was finding myself in a bromance between the two of them, bonding over undies? Seriously?

“Last time I was here, you had a few belts you showed, do you remember? You still got em?”

And there Antoine went, almost at a run, going to fetch the items.

“Should I be worried?” I whispered, smirking.

“Dude knows his stuff!” I got back.

“Told ya.”

“Ahuh! Man, I didn’t know you could talk to them this way. I always just went in, pointed at what I wanted and paid. This is way better, man! I thought I was the only one, thinking that shit.”

I laughed out loud then.

“I know, right?”

I nudged him.

“He’s not so bad, is he?”

“No! I just…”

“Didn’t know?” I helped.

“Yeah! Exactly. He didn’t know me. Like; I just told him stuff, and he goes ‘oh, no man, get these…I know they’re better’. And they are!”

I smiled.

“You glad we came?”

“Fuck yeah! And I just told him I didn’t mean it. All that crap I gave him.”

Good. Antoine came back then, carrying a few boxes and belts hanging on his arm, completely in his element.

Tom chose all of his recommendations and a couple of belts. I chose two as well, they were nice.

When it came to pay, I had him charge it to our account but Tom took out his wallet. At first I thought he wanted to pay on his own. But I did get a glimpse into the contents; it was all he had, and he took it out, giving it to Antoine as a tip. For his advice. And maybe, for his behavior.

“Thank you, Toine. No, keep it. It’s for you.”