A prompt a week - 36. Bad Night, Interesting Day

“Would you, please, go to sleep?” Tristan looked in on the two men fighting on the couch.

“Hey, it’s only,” Ben glanced at his watch, “oh. Sorry, Tris. Didn’t realize it was so late.”

“How late is it?” Terry glanced at Tristan and then back at Ben.

“I’ll tell you how late. It is after three am! Three A in the M! I have work in less than three hours that I have to go to. If you two idiots weren’t fighting so loud I might still be asleep.” Tristan ran his hand over his face and shot a nasty look at the two men. “Damn it guys, it is only Thursday. The work week isn’t over.”

Terry and Ben looked guiltily at each other.

Tristan shook his head and walked down the hall back to bed. His housemates were nice guys, but he really needed some sleep. Between his job and the classes at the university, he really needed rest when he could get it.

It seemed as if Tristan had just fallen asleep when his alarm clock went off. Grumpily, he reached out and slammed the damn thing off.

“I’m going to kill those two,” Tristan muttered as he dragged his ass out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. After a shower, shave, and a chance to relieve himself, Tristan finally was feeling semi-human. He looked down the hall at the doors of his two roommates and sighed. He could hear Ben's snoring from where he stood. Once again he wished he could just go back to sleep. Instead he wrapped the towel a little tighter around his waist and headed into his own bedroom.

He dressed and glanced at the clock seeing he wouldn’t have time for breakfast. “I’m going to have to kill them and make it look like an accident.”

Tristan ran out the door and drove off to work. "No damn time for coffee, either. Going to be a long day."

Traffic wasn't so bad, and Tristan nearly flew to work. He didn't have to drive around like crazy, and surprisingly found a spot to park as he pulled into the job's private garage. He reached back for his satchel and then raced for the elevator. He was stuck listening to musiak and couldn't wait 'til the elevator finally arrived at his floor.

Tristan slipped into his desk and immediately started up his computer. They were a week away from inventory and everyone was dropping more and more work on his desk as things needed to be put into the system before the big day. He had just settled in with a file when Mary came stumbling by.

“Hey, Tris. I missed you at the office party last night. We were celebrating the new merger.” Mary’s eyes were red, her usually perfect makeup wasn’t, and she held a large cup of coffee as she talked. “I even got a chance to dance with the new guys.”

“I had school last night. I’m sure no one really missed me, after all I’m just one of the low level data entry guys. Besides, Andrew cleared it so I wouldn’t have to miss my class.”

“Oh, really?” She leaned forward, unsteady on her high heels. She tried to look over the top of the folder and instead ended up pouring her coffee into Tristan’s lap.

“Oh my GOD!” Tristan launched himself out of his seat, sending the coffee that hadn’t soaked into his slacks flying in all directions as he pulled the hot material away from his crotch.

Heads turned and those who were still coming in watched as Tristan made a mad dash to the restroom.

“Did I do that?” Mary asked, confusion apparent in her face.

Tristan dropped his pants as soon as he was through the doorway. He grabbed some paper towels and wiped at his legs and underwear that were presently wet with coffee. His legs were red and with a sort of fear he pealed his underwear back grateful to see nothing was scorched. Slowly he walked over to the sink to turn on the cold water.

“Nice legs, but I think if you are going to walk around like that you should have on pants at least.”

Tristan turned to find Mr. Roger Percy standing in the doorway, a smirk on his face.

“Sorry. I was burned and checking the damage,” Tristan hissed out, not caring how his boss took the news.

“What? Wait. What happened?” Roger moved out of the doorway and stared at Tristan’s legs and crotch.

“Sorry.” Tristan suddenly felt like he was on display. He turned to try to hide the burns, but Roger grasped his arm and turned him around.

Roger examined Tristan’s legs and could clearly see the red skin that stood out against the rest of pale fair skin around it. “Tristan, how did you get burned? God. I keep telling the board we should keep a nurse on staff here in the building. Are you alright? Do you want to go to see your doctor?”

Tristan blushed. “No, no. I’m sure I’ll be fine. It was all an accident.”

“What happened?”

Tristan just kept quiet and tried to wipe off his light tan pants that were now different shades from the coffee.

“Fine. I’ll ask around the office.”

“Don’t, Mr. Percy. It’s okay. I’m fine. Honest.”

Roger stood there and cocked his eyebrow.

Tristan sighed. “Someone spilled coffee into my lap. They didn’t mean it, but the goddamn shit was hot.”

“Hmm.”

Tristan realized he was still patting his crotch and Roger was watching.

“Who did the spilling?”

Tristan looked down and shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.”

Before he could think to say or do anything he heard the bathroom door click closed. Quickly he looked up and realized he was standing there alone. He grabbed his pants and walked over to the hand dryer and smacked it, in an attempt to dry his pants. As soon as he could he slipped them back on and went slowly back out into the office.

The office was busy and no one seemed to look or notice him. As he made his way toward his desk he did notice one major change. Roger Percy’s door was closed. In the time since he had been hired, the only time that door closed was for major projects – either a new client was in, an old client had a new project, or someone was being fired.

Tristan wondered if something had happened while he was in the bathroom. He got back to his desk only to see someone had been and wiped everything down.

“Tris,” came a whispered voice from behind him.

Tristan looked around and spotted his supervisor, Andrew Combs motioning him over.

“What is wrong, Andrew?”

Andrew looked at the office door and then pulled Tristan into his office. “I don’t know what the hell happened. A few moments ago Mr. Percy came out of the restroom and marched over to your cubical. I don’t know what he found but he walked over and asked Carissa and Tisha something. Next thing I know he grabbed Mary, took her into the office, and slammed the door. Then a janitor showed up and cleaned up your cubical. What the hell is going on?”

Tristan paled as he listened while Andrew explained what had been going on.

“Tristan, talk to me. I need to know if there are heads going to roll. Especially, if one of them might be mine,” Andrew stated as he stared at me.

“I don’t know what has Mr. Percy so upset.” Tristan bit his bottom lip. “Although—“

“Although, what? Tell me!”

“He found me nearly naked in the bathroom,” Tristan said with a sigh.

“Excuse me? What do you mean he found you naked in the bathroom?”

Tristan shook his head. “Nearly naked. Mary came over to my desk this morning and wasn’t completely, how should I put this? She so wasn’t over last night yet. She was carrying a large cup of coffee and while asking me a question proceeded to pour the cup into my lap.”

“Oh.” Andrew stood there for a moment. “Okay. I’m not sure what is going on in there,” he commented as he pointed to Mr. Percy’s office. “You should get back to work though. I don’t need either of us getting into trouble.”

Andrew had been Tristan’s mentor when he was hired here. It was only last month that Andrew had been promoted, but Tristan still considered him someone he could rely on.

Tristan had barely taken his seat when Mr. Percy’s door opened and Mary came out. Her face was blotchy and it was obvious she had been crying. She walked slowly to her desk, grabbed her pocketbook out of the drawer, and went right to the elevator. She didn’t look at anyone and nearly jumped into the elevator the moment the doors opened.

Tristan sat there for moment before he stood up and walked over to Mr. Percy’s door. He knocked, opened it, and strode in. “We need to talk.”

Roger stood looking out the window. “Do we?”

“You can’t just fire someone for an accident.”

“I agree.” Roger still looked out the window, his back to Tristan.

“I mean you … wait. What?”

“I agree with you. I can’t fire someone for an accident. However, I can send someone who is obviously hung-over home to sleep it off before she does something even more detrimental to the company” Roger turned to face Tristan. “Is that all?”

“Oh. Um.” Tristan stood there blushing and feeling foolish.

Roger smiled. “I don’t like seeing my employees hurt, but I am also not an ogre.”

Tristan nodded and hurriedly made his way toward the office door.

“I think you misjudged me.”

Tristan stopped and slowly turned. “I’m sorry.”

Roger smiled wider. “Then I think you need to make it up to me.”

“Make it up to you?”

“Tristan, let me tell you something first. I’ve been promoted. I move to the fifth floor next week. I will no longer be your boss.”

Tristan stood there for a moment and then nodded. He wasn’t sure where this was going.

“So you realize, what I am about to ask you is totally up to you. You don’t have to say yes.”

“Okay, so I don’t have to say yes. But what don’t I have to say yes to?” Tristan stopped and looked at Roger Percy. The man was massive, especially standing there with the city behind him. His shoulders looked like boulders, and his arms were just gigantic.

Roger took off his jacket and walked over to set it on the back of his chair. He rolled up his sleeves and Tristan noticed the tattoo that just showed below the pushed up sleeve.

“Dinner. I want you to go to dinner with me.”

Tristan could feel himself blush. He knew with his fair skin every time he got upset, his skin clearly showed it. Right now he felt like a glowing red light. “Oh,” he squeaked out.

Roger crossed the room and stood before Tristan. “So?”

“So?” Tristan looked into Roger’s brown eyes and felt like the floor opened beneath him.

“Dinner?” Roger laughed as he looked at Tristan.

“Oh, dinner. Right. Um, yeah.”

Roger stepped closer and took Tristan’s chin in his hand. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah,” he whispered as he looked at Roger’s face and noticed the slight grey hair in the dark waves of ebony. There was the smell of sandalwood and citrus that filled Tristan’s senses as Roger moved closer.

“Good.” He leaned in and gently kissed Tristan’s lips.

Tristan returned the kiss and found that it ended far too soon. “When?”

There was a laugh from Roger. “How about tomorrow after work?”

“Okay.” Tristan smiled and almost walked backward into the door. “Oh, well, I should, uh, get back to work.”

Roger laughed as Tristan walked out and closed the office door.

“You okay?” Andrew asked as soon as Tristan made it back to his cubical.

“I think so.”

“Good. I got the call from HR that Mary took today and tomorrow off. I’m surprised she wasn’t fired. Did you get into any trouble?”

Tristan sat there for a moment and thought about his day so far. “No, no trouble today. Tomorrow might be a different story.”

Andrew looked at him curiously, but Tristan just smiled and started working again.