Toby sat up and rubbed his eyes. He caught a whiff of Richie’s subtle spicy cologne and pressed his palm to his chest. He yawned and stretched. If he’d been alone he would have taken a long nap and slept most of the afternoon. He glanced at a small clock on top of the TV and saw that it was after six o’clock.
He hadn’t eaten since breakfast. “I guess we should start thinking about dinner.”
Richie removed his feet from the coffee table and leaned forward. He reached for the small vase and started to rearrange the flowers. “We’d better see if we can order something up. The refrigerator is empty.” When he realized he said this, he gaped at Toby and said, “I don’t go snooping around in there. I just wanted to see if there was anything to drink this morning.”
Toby laughed. “Calm down. I don’t care. And I’ll be the first one to admit that I’m not the most domestic person in the world. I hardly ever eat at home. And when I do it’s always take out.”
Richie pushed the vase to the left and stood up. “I’ll get the menu to the Chinese take out around the corner. I hear they never close, not even in the worst weather.” Toby thought it was interesting that Richie knew where Toby kept the take out menus. But he didn’t want to embarrass him so he didn’t say anything. He figured that Richie probably ordered take out with Brad sometimes. Toby had come home some nights and he’d smelled Chinese take out, but he hadn’t seen any cartons or dirty dishes.
They ordered more food than they should have and there were tons of leftovers. Toby insisted on paying and Richie insisted on setting the table and washing clearing the plates when they were finished. During dinner they talked about people they knew from the office and laughed about the night Richie knocked on the doors and Toby couldn’t figure out how to let him into the office. Richie admitted he’d thought Toby was a little dumb that first night.
Toby threw a fortune cookie at him and said he wasn’t dumb he was just tired. After dinner, they went back to the living room and turned on the TV again.
While they were watching Ed Sullivan, Richie asked, “Does it bother you that Brad and I are together as a couple now?”
Toby almost fell sideways. The poor guy didn’t have a clue that Brad was screwing around on him, too. “Why should it botherme?”
“Well, I know you and Brad were doing something the night I knocked on the doors. It was kind of obvious, if you know what I mean. You’re lips were a little swollen.” Toby cleared his throat and said, “You have nothing to worry about, trust me. I have no interest in Brad Lindsay and I never did. Whether or not we ever did anything together doesn’t matter. If we did do something, it happened once and it was fast. It meant nothing to either of us, and it was over before it even started. Brad and I aren’t even good friends. I only see him at the office.”
“I thought you were good friends,” Richie said. “You’re letting him use your apartment.”
“It was an arrangement that I agreed to,” Toby said. “But we’re not close and we never socialize outside the office.”
He wanted this to be clear, without being too obvious about his feelings about Brad. He wasn’t sure he could trust Richie yet and he didn’t want to bad mouth his boss. “I’m glad to hear that,” Richie said. “I’d hate to think you had feelings for Brad and here he is in love with me and planning a future with me.”
Toby rolled his eyes. This was downright pathetic.
“Don’t worry. I couldn’t care less what Brad does. But I am curious about a few things.” He glanced at the flower vase.
“Does he bring you flowers all the time?” Maybe Brad did have at least one redeeming quality.
Richie waved his arm. “Hell no,” he said. “He doesn’t bringmethe flowers. I bring the flowers. Brad is way too important and too busy to have time to think about flowers.
You have to understand those things when you’re with a busy man like Brad. I get them at a small grocery store on the way over. And, to be honest, I don’t really bring them for Brad. I sort of bring them here for you as a thank you for letting us