I’m smitten for his stupid face. I could look at him all day.
As soon as we’re outside, I step into the thoroughfare alongside the building and pull him with me.
“Are you okay?” is the first question out of my mouth.
He chuckles. “Are you?”
“I … Well, I wasn’t expecting to see you here, and judging by the look on your face, you felt the same.”
“It was a surprise. I’m still confused how this happened.”
“Did Seth ask you for intern information for a friend?”
“No. But Cohen did, and they’re a package, so maybe?”
I hold up my hand. “I’m the friend. I guess it was like a game of Broken Telephone. I asked Seth, Seth asked Cohen, Cohen asked you …”
He glances around. “So we’re working together.”
“Looks like it.”
“What does that … I mean—”
And being faced with his uncertainty, I suddenly don’t want to hear that I was a mistake. A fun experiment? Fine. A mistake? Absolutely not. “Here’s what I propose.”
He lifts his eyebrows.
“We know each other from school. Your friends are friends with my friends. We’ve seen each other around, but we were never close, and no one needs to know about our hookup. Deal?”
“Ah …”
I glance at my watch and see we only have three minutes to go. “So no need for awkwardness. I won’t out you for one night of drunken fun, and I don’t expect anything else.”
“I wasn’t drunk.”
“Trust me, when you tell your future wife about it, the story will mention a bottle of tequila, and that’s okay. We can be colleagues, work friends, whatever. You don’t need to stress.” I start backing toward the building, and he follows. “Everything is fine. Totally fine.”
Just because I’ve jerked off to the memory of our moment together every night for two weeks means absolutely nothing.
I can totally keep this professional.
Probably.
Chapter 4
ROSSI
If Dad asks me how my first day went, I’m not going to be able to tell him. Company rules, guidelines, description of what I’m going to be doing over the summer? I have no idea. I might need to take orientation again.
It’s not my fault I couldn’t concentrate. My gaze kept going to Tyson, and my thoughts ran rampant. He genuinely seemed surprised when I walked in, and he claims he had no idea, but I can’t help thinking the blowjob two weeks ago was too much of a coincidence for him to turn up at my dad’s firm in Boston.
Though, logically, Dad’s name isn’t up there on the wall, so I don’t know how Tyson would have known. Dad’s best friends started this company, and he joined a few years later, so he has no equity in it even though he is one of the higher-up managers. He’s not the boss, but he is a boss. Which begs the question why Tyson would think hooking up with me would be any kind of advantage. I could have him fired.
Which means … this really is one big coincidence.
That makes the most sense. I suggested this internship to Cohen last year when he graduated because he had no idea what he wanted to do, but he didn’t go for it because he didn’t want to move to Boston. Then, a few months ago, he asked about it again for a friend of a friend. I gave him the details and didn’t ask questions.
Hockey players, man. We’re not the best at communicating.
I’ve been trying to figure out how working with Tyson is going to be. It was a shock to see him, no doubt, and I don’t think this is how one-off college hookups are supposed to go, but I have to at least admit that my gut swarmed with butterflies when I saw him.
That has to mean something, doesn’t it?
I don’t get butterflies after hooking up with someone. I just … don’t. I generally become friends with them, not want more. I took the “college is only four years, so have as much fun as you can” mantra a little too seriously, like most guys on the hockey team did.
Now though … This is the beginning of the rest of my life, and Tyson’s here by accident? I’m not a guy who believes in fate, but I also don’t believe in coincidences.
On the way home with Dad, he turns to me and asks the inevitable “How was your day?”
“Good. Funny story. I actually know Tyson from school.”
“He went to UVM, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, but my teammate is dating his friend, so there’s this whole six degrees of separation thing.”
“Is he a good guy?”
He’s good at sucking my dick. Yeah, don’t say that. “From what I can tell.”
“His first impressions might need some work.” Dad smiles.
“I think it was a shock to see me, is all. We both knew we were going to be in Boston. We didn’t realize we’d be working for the same company.”