On The Surface

Photo-Shoot

"So it was a date?? How do you know?" Lisa was stillwearing her nursing scrubs at the breakfast table. Her eyes werelined with deep circles from the night shift, but she put on a tiredsmile for Waylon.

"Well, he paid for the dinner...we both dressed up?"

"Did you guys do anything else that people do when dating?"Lisa asked suggestively taking a large bite of her cereal.

"Uh..." Waylon had promised to tell Lisa everything, but deepdown he didn't feel she was ready. He decided to lie to spare herfeelings. "No. Come on. It was a first date."

"No kissing?"

"No," Waylon lied with a flat stare at his ex-fiance. "Nothinglike that." He flushed remembered kissing Eddie. Hopefully, Lisawould mistake it for being shy about the question.

"So gay first dates are as boring as straight first dates?" sheteased.

"It would appear so," Waylon said.

He drove over to the shop early that day, a bundle of nerves writhingin his stomach. He couldn't get thoughts of Eddie out of his mind.His warmth, hit taste, his smell. Waylon wanted more. And yet he waspetrified with fear at their first discussion post date. Seeing ablack Mercedes outside of his shop when he arrived did nothing toassuage those nerves.

"Mr. Park," said Jeremy Blaire in his usual black suit/black tie."I hope you're settling in alright. That's a lie. I don't give ashit. Were you able to access your account with the company?"

"Yes, sir," Waylon said, going to unlock the door of his shop.He'd gone with the modest title "Park's Computer Repair and UsedParts Depot." The sign looked slightly crowded. Waylon was no goodwith names. Lisa had only rolled her eyes. Jeremy Blaire followed himinto the shop and looked around, unimpressed.

"You obviously don't have anything to do today Park, but I do. Icame to make your day," said Jeremy reaching into his suit andpulling out a sealed yellow envelope. "Consulting contract.Generous terms. It's work that should be easy for someone with yourexperience. I'll be brief. We have been experiencing some securityanomalies. We need a new software engineer that we can trust outsideof our usual team, in case one of them is the culprit. You'requalified and already passed the background check. Everything else isdetailed in the folder. I just need you to sign your non-disclosureagreement and your clearance will be upgraded by the end of the day.A guy like you with all this free time on your hands should have itdone before the weekend." There was hardly a pause for air duringhis speech. Waylon was left staring with his jaw slightly dropped.

The envelope was pressed into his hands while Jeremy stood lookingbored. Waylon quickly opened the envelope and pulled out a stack ofpapers. Murkoff's logo was all over the pages. The top page was theNDA in question. "Oh uh, can I read this over before I agree?"

"I have to have that agreement signed before I can even entertainmore questions. Sign it so I can get out of this...shop seemsgenerous," Jeremy Blaire kept his arms tucked to his side as thoughafraid of brushing against any of the parts and computers litteringthe shop's cheap shelving.