Personal Assistant (Ryden)

Chapter twenty-six

It's been almost three months since Brendon first met Ryan. Brendon sits by the fire, staring at the glow and remembering the first time he kissed Ryan. He was sitting there and Brendon was sitting here, and he kissed him and then he fainted. 

Brendon has gone back to treating him the way he did before, rude and kinda cold. He can't let Ryan know that he has any sort of feelings. No one can know. If anyone found out, it could be the end for his reputation.

"Hey," Dallon says, so Brendon looks up. He sits down on the end of the log. Ryan and him were a lot closer. 

"Hey," Brendon replies. 

"You should be in bed," Dallon says, but so should he. 

"I know," Brendon says and Dallon smiles. 

"Ryan's doing good at his job. Interviewers have been going crazy since you hired him, everyone wants to interview you now. He even let a student ask questions for a school article, and that article has been shared everywhere now. Everyone's loving you," he explains.

"Because of interviews?"

"You've been letting Ryan ask more personal questions. People are... they're understanding you more. You aren't just some mystery anymore, you're this nice, cool person with a background instead of a face on the screen or a voice on the stereo. You're someone they can relate to and know better," he says happily. Ryan didn't know that Brendon doesn't like personal questions. Brendon didn't know that he did either. 

"He's good," Brendon says and Dallon looks at him. A faint smile appears on his lips as he stares at the fire. "Ryan is. And not... not just at his job, he's so... good. He's a mystery, yeah, but I'm starting to get him. His dad was abusive, his mom left, his grandma died, and yet he still tries his absolute best to make sure everyone is okay. It's like he is so used to being sad that he... he just doesn't want anyone else to feel that pain." 

"He's a good person," Dallon says, nodding as he agrees. 

"He deserves someone equally good. I mean, he's this... guy, this wonderful guy who hardly cares about himself and doesn't realize a lot of things about himself. Like, how he's really cute and nice and how he works way harder than he needs to and yet he continues to do it, how he looks so fragile and soft when he's sleeping. You just wanna kiss him all the time, you know?"

"No, I can't say I do," Dallon says, smirking. "You like him, don't you?" 

Brendon's face heats up despite feeling freezing cold, and his eyes widen. His body tenses and he looks at him.

"N-No, of course not. He's just my assistant, that's it. I'm just saying that he's good at what he does," he says.

"Like looking really fragile and soft while he's sleeping?" Dallon raises an eyebrow and Brendon swallows nervously, looking down. "I know you like him. You do, don't you?"

"Okay, shut up, I don't want the whole team knowing," Brendon says, tensing up completely as fear settles in his stomach. Dallon laughs.

"You do!" He says, still laughing, and Brendon's face heats up even more. He looks down awkwardly and swallows hard.

"Okay, yes, I do... l-... I... I do, yes."

"Oh come on, you know you wanna say it," Dallon teases.

"I..."

"Come on."

"I li-..."

"Come on, I know you've been wanting to say it since you two hooked up."

"I like- wait, what?" His eyes widen.

"What? Oh, and by the way, you only hooked up once. Ryan told me the whole situation. No, the only time you guys had sex was when you guys got stuck in the blizzard," he tells Brendon, causing his heart to sink.