Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2014 05:11:29 +0700
From: Robert Glass <robxglass@gmail.com>
Subject: The Virgin Joseph part 29

All right reserved. Any unauthorized use is prohibited. This is a
fiction. Any resemblance to people and/or events is coincidental. If
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you, please do not read on.

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PART 29


If it wasn't for the costume he was wearing, Joe would've stayed at Tom's
place. He was in Lucy's rambunctious annual Halloween party. It was fun but
it was too much. She was Leeloo from The Fifth Element and her husband was
Korben Dallas. Seeing that last year she was doing Tron, Joe started to
wonder if Lucy actually liked doing cosplay.

Joe himself surrendered to Tom's persuasion to actually participate this
year but he was left on his own. Tom had already have a plan to do a
group's costume with Nick and Alice, as slutty Superman, Batman, and Wonder
Woman. On the other hand, Amy was Elvira, mistress of the dark. It was hard
for Joe to talk to about her preparing a demo for Norah when her boobs were
hanging out.

Jake was a revelation. He was a 70's cop, with a moustache, chest hair and
all. His wife was also a cop, wearing the same level of skimpiness as her
husband. Joe's once biggest crush was teasing him with an unforgettable
spectacle. Joe was staring. If Tom didn't come over to nudge Joe and
whispered, telling him to save it for a jerk off session later, Joe
would've make a bee-line towards Jake and lick his face.

Tom was cool with Joe gawking at other men, just as Joe urged Tom to
appreciate the beauty of other people, male or female. Tom didn't mind
listening to Joe's dirty, raunchy fantasies, too, even if it involved the
two of them, Nick and Jake. Joe had that dream once, where he had sex with
Tom, Nick, and Jake. None of them wore costumes in that dream; in fact,
none of them wore anything.  This Halloween party was the closest Joe would
be to that erotic dream.

Why didn't that dream include Paul as well?

Seeing Paul at that moment made Joe think that. The boss was late, which is
a progress from him not showing up last year. Paul was wearing a very tight
fitting, sheer, black, button-up shirt, and a pair of leather pants. On his
shoulder Joe could see a blue tube-like thing. As Paul stepped closer, Joe
could tell that it was a caterpillar. That outfit, saving the stuffed
animal, showed off Paul's delicious looking chest, insanely broad
shoulders, ridiculous looking abs, and that coveted bubble
butt. So. Fucking.  HOT.

"You're a mock turtle?" Paul asked Joe after he parted the sea of flesh and
made his way towards his employee.

"Yeah! You know?" Joe asked, genuinely surprised.

"I know!" Paul said as excitedly.

Joe couldn't help but to get excited. None of his friends knew what he was
supposed to be. Joe was wearing a cow overall and a turtle shell on his
back, matching the description in Alice's Adventure in Wonderland
book. Paul recognised that. Paul knew the book well, Joe thought.

That book, huh?

"Oh my god!" Joe exclaimed. The meaning of Paul's costume just dawned on
him. "You're caterpillar's hookah!"

"Yes I am!" If Paul's face didn't shine before, now his pale glory beamed
as brightly as an LED headlight.

"You're a hooker, with a caterpillar." Joe laughed out loud, which was
virtually muffled by the rowdy crowd. Paul had a terrible, terrible sense
of humour... and an embarrassing sense of pun. "I know the book is filled
with puns, and I know you're trying to make something punny. But I have to
tell you this: you're bad at it!"

"What are you talking about? This is a 'smart' costume?"

"You're a prostitute with a plush toy. How smart is that?"

"Okay, okay." Paul laughed. "I may have overthink this and not taking too
much time executing it."

The two of them suddenly engaged in a discussion, ranging from the book
they were referring, to dreams and surrealism, and eventually about nothing
at all. Joe wondered why he had never seen this side of Paul in the
office. Paul was always serious and stern while Lucy was the relaxed and
cool one. This Paul in front of him seemed like a guy he would hang out
with, never mind he's over 40 years old.

In fact, that night Joe pretty much interacted with only Paul. Before his
boss arrived, Joe would hide behind Tom or Amy, or stand in the darkest
corner of Lucy's home. He didn't greet a stranger and no stranger
approached him. That was fine with him. That was the best possible
outcome. Until Paul appeared that is.

Paul excused himself from the heated debate about the plot of "Planes,
Trains and Automobiles" to chat with Lucy's husband for a moment. When he
returned, Paul was asking Joe to come with him.  Joe had to spot Tom first,
and warn him about his being missing, although Tom was a little too tipsy
to comprehend anything. After that, they left.

"What is this place?" Joe asked when they arrived in a hidden spot on the
second floor.

"It's Mike's game room." Mike being Lucy's husband.

"They surely are geeks."

"I know!" Paul said, seemingly frustrated by his partner. "You have to see
their comic book collection! When they got married, they sold tons of comic
book doubles and probably got what I pay you yearly. They're insane! And
Mike have this stupid room! And Lucy hosts these parties! You know how long
she's been telling me about her Halloween party? Since last Christmas!"

"It doesn't help you didn't come."

"I know!" Paul repeated.

The reaction that Paul gave tickled Joe. It was a truly different side of
the scary boss he knew. This guy was just like any other guy; warm,
engaging, and normal.

"What are you laughing at?" Paul asked.

"Sorry, but it's you," Joe answered truthfully. "You're not so... scary
this way."

"Alcohol," Paul replied quickly.

Paul only had two small doses of vodka, he surely can't be that drunk. Joe
knew alcohol. Paul is a big guy, that much drink wouldn't even get him
tipsy, only good buzz. Besides, a guy as pale as his employer would have an
obvious giveaway when drunk, which was a red face. Paul was still white as
ever.

Joe dropped it, of course. He may be clueless, but he's not tactless. Not
anymore, that is.  Joe knew who he was talking with. As idiotic as Joe was
at reading situation, he knew his limits.

Actually, they both collectively dropped it. They proceeded with playing
games. That room would make Sam envious. It was filled with every console
that Joe knew. From Atari to PS4 and Xbox One.  From PC to
Ouya. Everything. There were even several board games there. Wow, what a
bunch of geeks Mike and Lucy are.

Not only that, it was especially designed for enjoyment. A fridge full of
drinks, a soft and comfy rug, a queen sized bed; things that would overflow
Joe's tiny apartment. There was a large and comfortable couch at the centre
of the room, facing a 60-or-so-inch display, with endless rows of machines
below. The TV was tucked between two shelves of more recent games. Joe
didn't want to know where they stored the older games. There had to be
another room just for that. Wow, what a bunch of rich geeks Mike and Lucy
are.

Paul and Joe were no longer engaged in a debate about movie plots, they
were fighting... through characters. They played several games, including
Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Tekken. They were toe to toe, but Joe had
the more edge. They spent more than an hour talking shit to each other
while the crowd was getting louder outside. Joe checked his phone several
times, finding that his worry was useless. Nobody was looking for him. He
was safe to play all he wanted.

At Paul's eventual win at Tekken, they stopped. Joe didn't mind giving it
to Paul. If Joe were to admit to himself, he would say he was
competitive. However, it was obvious that Paul was the more competitive of
the two. There was no need to push another win when Joe had won overall. Of
course he didn't tell his employer that.

"I'm beat," Paul said.

"My fingers hurt," Joe replied.

"Mine are made of wood. This has nothing on me," Paul said as he raised the
PS3 controller.

Joe was relaxed. The game may have strained his neck muscles and destroyed
his hands, but the satisfaction was worthy of a high. He stayed there,
buried into the cushion, eyes on Paul's whorish get up while the mind
wandered to an unknown and obscure remote location. That location is Paul's
personality.

"You're staring," Paul said. "Why don't you pay so you can see more?"

Joe blushed and laughed. The joke was funny and his action was
embarrassing.

"No, it's not that," Joe started.

"What I'm not hot enough for you?" Paul was obviously teasing the boy.

"Stop it," Joe grew redder.

"You're so cute, you know that? No wonder you landed Tom."

"Well..." Joe still didn't know how to handle compliments, be it sincere or
a tease.

"Relax, I'm not flirting with you," Paul said, sparing Joe from further
embarrassment. "Actually, I was, but let's blame the alcohol for that."

"Yeah, let's."

"You're wondering why I'm so different, aren't you?" Paul asked, never
leaving the pace to slow down.

"Are you going to blame alcohol again?"

"Probably." Paul grinned.

That grin. Holy mother of God, Joe thought, Paul was so adorable. Why the
hell was he still single?  He was probably the most traditionally handsome
guy at the office. He was rich, mature, funny; everything anyone would want
from a guy. Yet, he was the only single guy at the office.

"You are so... attractive," Joe blurted while sober. Why the fuck did he
say that?

Paul raise his eyebrows, amused. He really didn't expect Joe saying that,
or Joe's panicky movements after saying those words. "What makes you say
that?"

"I don't know," Joe said, giggling now.

"I guess I have to say thank you, for that." Paul laughed along. Then the
fun died and the silence arrived

"Sorry, if I made it weird," Joe said.

"No, don't be. It's a good ego boost, actually," Paul replied. "I just
wished it came from a single woman, instead of a guy with a boyfriend."

"Um..." Now Joe didn't know how to react to that.

"Now I'm the one who has to apologize for making things weird." Then a
nervous laughter.

"Yeah." Joe chimed in with yet another nervous laughter.

Paul was uneasy on his seat, shifting about as though the cloud-like
pillowy texture of the sofa was a bed of nails. He glanced at Joe once or
twice, doubtful. He just had to let it out. "Mind if I make it a bit
weirder?"

"I don't think this can go any worse. Shoot."

"Well, you're the third man tonight that has given me a compliment."

"With that outfit..." Joe let his words trail.

"I guess I look like a gay prostitute."

"You do." Joe laughed.

"I thought maybe I could finally make someone attracted to me. I did,
actually, but not the ones I prefer." Paul sighed.

"I don't understand. You're so damn handsome, and charming, and funny, and
fun."

"Lucy said I look like I'm angry all the time."

"You do." In the office Paul does. Joe was scared of Paul sometimes. He was
so stoic and cold. Of course he had seen Paul's smiling face, but the
occurrence was rare.

"She said I should smile more, but when I smile I look like this."

The stupid face that Paul gave sent Joe to a laughter override. It was so
pathetic, the smile. It was as though Paul was stretching his face
sideways, just to show all his teeth and gum. His eyebrows arched like they
were sad. His eyes almost disappeared, pushed by the contriving cheeks.

Goofy. So different from the face Paul was making right then, when he
laughed along.

"You only smile when you feel like it, don't you?" Joe asked.

"I guess so."

"You feel like it now," Joe commented, seeing the not horrible version of
the grin. Paul shrugged, having surrendered to his fate. Now, what to say
next? "I don't know what to tell you. I would tell you to try to smile
more, but there's no point of smiling if it's not sincere. I can tell you
not to change because you'll find a woman who would think you're attractive
even when you look pissed off, but that's too idealistic."

"I don't know if you're being pessimistic or realistic," Paul commented,
flashing them pearly whites again.

"A bit of both." Joe smiled a bit. His pattern could be easily
distinguished, even by Paul whom he had interacted not as often as the
other's. "To me, you're attractive this way."

"I know, I know. You said it." Paul laughed.

"No, I mean... like this. You're being vulnerable and honest; and probably
brave because you're talking about personal stuff to your employee right
now." The last bit made Paul laugh. "Why are you telling me all this, by
the way?"

"Because you're the third guy who told me I'm attractive tonight. That, and
you're the only one out of the three that I actually know.

Joe laughed, for seemingly no apparent reason. "Come on, Paul. You're not
that desperate."

"It feels nice to have someone think I'm attractive."

"Man, if you were gay, you'd have men lining up on your front door."

Paul laughed, the variant that was nervous. That statement enticed him to
bring forth yet another facet to the surface. "I slept with men, you know."

The smile on Joe's face ran away and a disbelief replaced it. "What?"

"In college. Experiments. I thought I was bisexual because it was easy for
me to admit that some men are hot. Turns out, that was the extent of it. I
did not like sex with men at all."

"Wow." Other than that word, Joe was speechless.

"I did it again a few years back. I thought maybe I hadn't explored it
enough. Long story short, I didn't need to explore any further. It was
simply not for me."

Joe was sitting stiffly amid the plushness of his surroundings. One short
glance from Paul was enough to make him aware of his gesture. He melted his
spine afterwards and slouched into the sofa. "Paul. You're full of
surprises."

"I'm not. We just haven't worked together enough."

"I look forward to that," Joe said sincerely.

"I'll have you under me next time."

"Is that a gay joke?" Joe asked, giggling like a stupid monkey. Paul can't
help but laugh.

"Thanks for listening, Joe. I get tired of listening to Lucy's or Mike's
perspective sometimes. You're a fresh point of view."

"No problem."

Paul rose up from his half lying on the seat. He pulled one leg from the
floor and fold it while facing Joe. He had something serious to say. It was
something he had been holding back. A thing that seemed to be perceived
incorrectly due to his everyday behaviour at the office. Paul was aware
that he had his serious face on, so he had to soften it with a gentle touch
on Joe's shoulder.

"I know I've been a little adamant about any kind of relationship within
the office, including yours with Tom. I just want to say that I'm actually
happy for you, despite my disapproving face."

"Thank you." Joe's once concerned expression changed and opened up. The
edges of Joe's mouth moved upwards. "I mean it. That's such a relief."

"And I have to say that the way you guys handled the break up was very
professional. I appreciate it," Paul added.

"You knew about that?"

"It was obvious."

"Amy or Lucy?" Joe asked, not buying Paul's power of perception.

"Lucy... via Jake," Paul admitted.

"Of course." Joe rolled his eyes. After all, Jake was the closest to the
bosses.

"I'm serious, though," Paul continued. "There was a couple, years ago,
before Nick even came along.  I only had Jake, another guy and a
girl. Those two was caught in... you can say a whirlwind romance.  It only
lasted three months and then it was a disaster. The girl quit and I had to
fire the guy because he was useless. That's why I'm against relationships
in the office."

"That made sense," Joe said, with a new reason for surprise.

"Well now, Nick and Alice are obviously going strong. You and Tom are
great, and you handled your personal problem very well. I like that."

"Are you sure? We didn't ruin anything?"

"No you didn't. In fact, I think you were more productive when you had that
problem. I saw the way you work at that time. You looked like you were
doing it with a vengeance." Paul laughed while Joe gave an awkward
facsimile of that. "Tom was a little mopey, but he got the job done too."

"That's probably because he's the sweetest guy on earth while I'm a
heartless robot," Joe joked, or at least attempted to.

"A cute one at that." Paul proceeded with pinching Joe's cheek.

Paul laughed while Joe rubbed his reddening cheek. Joe smiled, amused. "You
make an awesome husband, Paul."

"If only this works on women."

This has been a weird night for Joe. His own boss talked to him about shit
and stuff. Not the friendly Lucy, but the stone cold Paul. And he was
mostly sober while doing that. However strange it was, it felt really
good. It felt like Joe had made a new friend.


***


Drunk Tom was cute and all but it was no good for Joe. It's not even the
sex that Joe was complaining; it's the sleeping. Tom would snore and roll
around on the bed like he was fighting a school of eyeless fish in his
dreams. Sometimes Joe would get lucky and Tom would not steamroll him, but
even then Joe was forced to carry the weight of Tom's large arm or
humungous leg. Joe would always get restless all night.

And then there was the endless whining in the morning.

To avoid all that, Joe decided to leave early by himself and went to his
own apartment. The save haven, free from Tom's bad breath. It wasn't
necessarily all sunshine, actually, since he had a looming darkness
hovering above him from across the street. Sam doesn't really talk to
him. Joe's texts would meet short to no reply, his phone calls occasionally
missed, and Joe would find the light to Sam's room to be off. That guy was
still friendly with Joe whenever they met, but it was always cut short by
Sam's thousands excuses, be it early meeting, emergency at the office, or
that he was late. Oh please.

That room across the street was still lit that night when Joe was about to
reach home. With almost no pondering Joe defied the dying traffic and
marched across the road, through the open gate, and up the stairs towards
the third floor. He was determined to have a serious talk to Sam; it
doesn't matter if Joe was still in his turtle-cow outfit.

"What are you doing here?" Sam said. He obviously was in the middle of
wiping his makeup off. His face had little traces of white and black,
greyish around his cheeks. Perhaps he was doing skull face, Joe thought. He
was already wearing t-shirt and shorts, or maybe it was what Sam was
wearing for Halloween.

"I just want to... hang out, I guess."

"That's not what you're here for." Sam gave no hint of welcome; no stepping
aside even for just an inch, no obvious 'come in', nothing. He just stood
there at the doorway, blocking the guest from entering.

"Alright. I want to talk to you. We haven't talked in a while."

"We're talking right now." That was... curt.

"You know what I mean, Sam."

"There's nothing to talk about." Again, curt.

"This is what I want to talk about. I want to talk about us not actually
talking anymore."

"Very meta," Sam commented.

Joe rolled his eyes and sighed. "Aren't you going to let me in?"

"Actually, no, Joe. I'm not going to let you in, and I don't want to talk
about... whatever you want to talk about. I need to clean this stupid paint
off my face and I want to go to sleep. It's been a long night."

"Why are you doing this, Sam?" Joe asked. The malice was apparent even to
Joe. "If you have a problem with me, you can always say it to my face."

Sam slammed his head back and took a deep breath. The exhale was
accompanied by his moving Adam's apple, swallowing his impatience. When he
repositioned his head, Sam sported a pretty pissed off face; one that would
get across to Joe. "My problem is that you need me to say that I have a
problem with you."

"Huh?"

"Exactly," Sam said with a vengeful tone. "You have no clue about how I
feel, and sometimes I think that you don't actually care about what I
feel."

"I care, Sam." The reply had the same amount of passion as Sam's statement.

"Do you?" Sam was becoming a little madder. "I want to clean my face and I
want to sleep. You insist on talking. Is that your version of caring?"

Joe took a step back. Sam's point was coming across very clearly. He
detested everything about this one encounter. The reasoning? That was what
Joe was aiming for. "Okay, Sam. I'm an idiot. I get it. If you think that I
don't care about you, then I'm sorry that you feel that way, because I
actually do care about you."

"Really? You're still selling that?" Sam didn't tone his rage down. "You
know what? I'm going to tell you, for the last time. The reason I'm not
talking to you is because I can't stand it anymore. I fall in love with you
every time we get closer. I fell in love with you when we met; I fell in
love with you when you were dating Tom and I was dating Henry; I fell in
love with you again after I broke you guys up where we, you and I, had sex.

"But you've never loved me back. You always chose Tom. You even chose him
when he gave me the stupid fucking blessing to start pursuing you. Why I
fucking fell for that, I don't know. The point is, I don't want to talk to
you, or be friends with you, or ever see you again; because it
hurts. Because every time I start doing that, I fall in love with you and
we both know how that would end up: you not loving me.

"So, that's it. I love you, I'm happy that you're happy, and I need you to
leave me the fuck alone.  Understood?"

"Understood," Joe replied without even thinking, not that he still had any
brain cells left to do that.

"Good. Now go away," Sam said as he slammed the door on Joe.

Joe was fucking stunned. There was a long... lecture from Sam, if Joe
remembered correctly. A lecture that punched his brain and stabbed his
heart. Ten minutes ago Joe was sure that he would hang out with Sam, talk
to him, and find out the source of his avoidance. He was certain that
things would go well and that he would patch things up. Now he didn't feel
any trace of that confidence.  However disorienting it was, it felt really
bad. It felt like Joe had lost an old friend.


___
The Halloween episode.

Email: robxglass@gmail.com)
Blog: http://xglass.tumblr.com
Other story: http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/relationships/marc-and-luke/

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