Make me beg

5. Test dummy

Simon

When I met Ash in the lobby, he looked like he barely recognized me. He ran both hands through his messy black hair and seemed to be doing everything he could to keep from laughing. I gave him an exasperated look.

Yes, I know I don't look like my usual self. Yes, it's a suit. Get over it.

"Jesus, Simon, you look like you own this place," Ash grinned. "What the hell do you do for a living anyway? I thought you had a regular job."

"I'm a negotiator, but screw that now," I dismissed. "We can take my car."

It felt unfamiliar and strange to sit in my car, in my suit, with Ash next to me and drive to their apartment. I had never mixed the two worlds and hadn't planned to either, but now it was a fact and I realized that I was sitting and feeling ashamed that I was making so damn good money. After all, the only thing Ash had heard about my background before was that my family was weird and criminal and that my brother was in prison for drug dealing. That had been easy to say, because it was true, but it wasn't the whole truth. Hell, nobody knew the whole truth, not even Evelyn.

Luckily, Ash dropped the subject of money and work pretty quickly, so I felt relaxed when we got up to their apartment. Ash looked at me scrutinizingly and shook his head.

"You can't carry stuff in those clothes," he said and went into the bedroom.

When he came back out into the hallway, he had a t-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants with him that he handed to me. I gratefully accepted them.

"You can change, and I'll go down and meet the delivery service," he said, opening the front door. "Come down later!"

I quickly put on the borrowed clothes and took the stairs instead of the elevator, to get my muscles moving. Help with carrying. It was easy and good and stuff a friend might do. A practical thing to do that didn't require much thought and it suited me perfectly. When I got down to the street, however, I was stunned. Ash was standing there with two huge packages leaning against the front of the house and I just gaped. Were we supposed to carry those in? Was he out of his mind?

"What the hell did you guys buy?" I finally got out.

Ash pointed to one of the packages.

"Bigger bed," he explained. "Jamie bought it."

Then a grin spread on his lips as he pointed to the second package.

"Bed frame. I bought that one. Jamie hasn't seen it yet, so it's a surprise. It's kinda more rope-friendly, if you know what I mean. His old one was completely useless, there was nothing to attach to at all."

I firmly pushed down the immediate fantasies. It was a fucking piece of furniture. Nothing else.

"And just how are we supposed to get them into the elevator?" I said instead.

"Oh, come on now, mister suit guy, we're taking the stairs," Ash said, giving me a challenging look. "Or are you too weak?"

"Fuck you," I grinned back.

Sweat poured off me when we finally managed to get the packages up the four flights of stairs and Ash offered a beer while we sat on the bedroom floor and tried to figure out the assembly instructions. The bed frame was more complicated than I thought and that made me feel strangely relieved, the trickier it was to assemble the less I thought about anything else. And Ash didn't seem to have taken any hint from Jamie to talk sense to me, which I was relieved about as well. I just enjoyed his company and when he told me about his big brother and that he and Nathan had finally started talking to each other again, I was happy for him.