In Bed With The Boss Page 0,39
thing we stayed late to work, otherwise no one would have been able to get inside and clean the office tonight. I’ll bet it was Harvey in accounting playing one of his practical jokes again.”
Richie frowned. Though he’d flunked out of high school in the tenth grade, this comment didn’t even make sense to him. Someone had shoved that metal shim between the doors to keep people out on purpose. There was no way anyone could have done it from the outside to play a practical joke. And from the confused expression Richie saw on Toby’s face, Richie had a feeling he knew why. It was obvious that cute little Toby and good old Brad had been fooling around after hours and they didn’t want to be disturbed. Though Brad looked as cool and calm as usual, Toby’s face was still red and his lips were swollen from sucking dick. Richie might have had a thick Bronx accent, and he didn’t know Shakespeare from Jack Benny, but he had good instincts when it came to men and he could spot a cock sucker a mile away.
Richie stepped into the reception area with his cart of cleaning supplies. He smiled at Brad and said, “I’m sure glad you were here, Mr. Lindsay.” It was better to play dumb and pretend: Richie knew the deal. It would have been bad enough if Brad Lindsay had been fooling around on his wife with women. But fooling around with a man made it downright dangerous; it wasn’t something to joke about. Richie had seen it all by then with these guys in suits and he’d learned to look the other way. Discretion was the magic word and the key to survival with his bosses. When it came to the married guys who worked in these office buildings, there was always some kind of sneaking around going on with women and men.
Toby fumbled with his shirt and tucked it back into his pants. He regained his composure and glanced down at the shim in his hand. “I can’t imagine why anyone would want to stickthisbetween the doors.”
Richie looked down at the floor. Toby wasn’t a very good actor. Brad laughed and patted Toby on the back. “Well, no use worrying about it now. It’s late and I’ve got to get home before my wife kills me. See you on Monday, buddy.” Then he looked Richie up and down fast, smiled, and headed down the hall to the elevator without giving either of them a backward glance.
When he was gone, Toby wiped a bead of sweat from his cheek and said, “I guess I’ll be going, too. Sorry you couldn’t get inside.”
Toby seemed to have trouble speaking, as if he couldn’t connect his sentences. Richie shrugged and said, “No problem. As long as I’m in and I can work now.”
Toby ran his fingers through his hair again. Then he nodded too fast and said, “Well I’ll be heading out in a minute. I just stayed late to finish up some work. See you later.”
After that, Richie noticed Toby more often. He saw him in passing once or twice a week. He’d see Toby getting off the elevator, or walking to the conference room, and they’d always smile and exchange glances. But it took a while for them to actually speak again. And that’s partly because Richie had been so preoccupied with more pressing matters that fall.
After the night Richie had been locked out of the office, Brad Lindsay started turning up in the most unlikely places. Richie would be pulling a mop and pail out of the men’s room and Brad would show up as he was leaving. Or they’d run into each other in the service elevator and Brad would use the excuse that the service elevator was faster and that’s why he was using it. Richie knew what Brad was doing; he wasn’t dumb; none of the guys in suits ever used the service elevator. It was as if Brad had Richie’s scent and he was on his tail. Once Brad actually followed Richie to the subway platform and pretended to bump into him by accident.
Richie had no doubts that Brad was following him; he trusted his instincts, especially with the married men who liked to keep it quiet. Richie knew how to throw out the bait and reel them in, too. He wasn’t exactly an amateur. Whenever he ran into Brad Lindsay, he always gazed into Brad’s eyes with an innocent expression and