"Fiji?!" Maggie exclaims a couple of days later as she follows Michael into his office with a sheaf of papers to go through and his office diary.
"They're sending me there for a marketing retreat."
"Oh. Nice. So this is all work, no play?!"
Michael shoots a look in her direction. Luckily they understand each other perfectly and have always worked together well, so she ignores him which is completely what he was expecting. The amount of times Maggie has covered up for him when he's been otherwise occupied, she should get a raise.
"Hey, you got a minute?" Bruce asks, walking in with a quick knock on the door.
"Yeah, we're just planning my trip."
"Well, you'd better hold off, I'm sending Craig instead," Bruce takes a deep breath. "I need you to go home."
"If you'll just excuse me for a minute..." Maggie says, leaving quietly with her papers having seen how serious her boss's boss's face is. He shuts the door firmly after her.
"This is just until this whole harassment thing is over," He explains to Michael.
"Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?"
"Look, the people at Dragon Air are very conservative. What would they think if they found out that their account exec was involved in a gay sex scandal?"
"You mean they wouldn't mind a straight one?!"
Bruce ignores Michael's objection, "I've also spoken with Legal, you're going to be seeing a rep from Human Resources and there's going to be an outside investigation followed by a tribunal with an impartial mediator..."
"When's the hanging?" Michael interrupts, as he struggles to comprehend the size of the complaint.
Bruce puts his hands in his pockets and looks at the floor before speaking, it tells Michael everything he needs to know about exactly how serious this has become. "If I were you I'd get myself a good lawyer," He replies quietly.
~~~
"I told you not to fuck him!" Calum tells Michael at the diner that evening.
"Have you ever noticed that when your Mum's not waiting on us the portion sizes shrink by approximately one third?" Michael asks, ignoring Calum, holding a hot chip up for evidence. "I said chips, plural?!" He barks at the waitress behind the till.
Calum takes the chip Michael is holding up and pops it in his own mouth. "Are you even listening to me?"
"Yeah, I shouldn't have fucked him."
"It's like my boss fucking me..." Sam tells them, shuddering as he pulls a face from the other side of Michael where he's been silent so far, listening to Michael ranting on.
"Your boss is like 72!"
"Do you mind?!" Michael objects. "I was trying to eat!"
"You know what I mean! You don't prey on the help!"
"I didn't prey on him! He went after me!"
Calum sighs, trying to cheer Michael up. "Look, let's go to the gym. You'll feel better after you work out. You coming?" He asks Sam.
"Nah, the gym isn't the same without my work out buddy."
"We'll be your work out buddies," Michael offers.
"Corey would let me get away with murder, you guys will make me sweat."
Calum grins as he shrugs his jacket on, "So we'll see you at the Fox later on?"
"Nah, the Fox isn't the same without my beer buddy there... pointing out all the cute guys and spilling drinks all over me..."
Michael rolls his eyes behind Sam, as Calum looks at Sam with some pity, he knows what it's like to lose your best bud for a while.
"We'll spill drinks all over you!" Michael offers, not completely joking.
"You know Corey can't commit to anything...a guy...a new conditioner..." Calum tells him gently, sitting down next to Sam again.
"He'll tire of this too, you'll see..." Michael whacks Sam on the behind with his now redundant briefcase in an attempt at cheering him up.
~~~
"So there we were the other night watching the game, I'm trying to teach him football!"
"She is," Jim confirms, grinning around at the group. "Can you stand it? I'm hopeless!"
"Yeah, you are. But anyway, there I am trying to explain the offside rule yet again when all of a sudden we start to look into each other's eyes."
"The next think I know, we were kissing! With tongues and everything! Can you stand it?!"
"And now...well, you tell them hunny!"
"We're engaged!"
Corey's mouth drops open in shock as the group holler and applaud around them before he startles and joins in with the clapping.
"You see the power of the work we're doing here?!" Claims the group leader. "Don't let anyone tell you that it isn't possible, that you can't heal! I want to hear success stories from each and every one of you! You can do it, you can do it, you can do it!!!"
Corey stands outside later, after the meeting has broken up, shrugging his jacket on when a woman comes up to him.
"It's inspiring isn't it? Seeing people change their lives?"
"Yeah, it gives us all hope that one day we too can be a success story!" He agrees. "God I wish I was one!"
"Me too! I'm Elisabeth."
"Corey!" He takes her hand, shakes it then grimaces as he gets it back, god that is one strong handshake. "Ow! That's a very...erm...firm handshake!"
"Sorry! I'm working on that. So, you're new here huh?" Elisabeth follows Corey down the steps.
"Yeah, couple of weeks. You?"
"Six months."
"Has it helped?"
"I'm getting there...but it's a long road. I first lost sight of the Light back at University. I fell in love with a girl called Jenny, I taught her how to play golf and my parent's country club and then one night it just happened, we made love on the 18th green. God! I still remember that hole." Elisabeth looks wistful as she remembers. "Anyway, she ended up getting engaged to a golf pro and moved to Queensland," She briskly carries on.
"Sorry."
"When she left I thought I would die. And I tried to get over it by going from woman to woman and I started to wonder how I ended up in such darkness. And that's when I started to find my way back to the Light!" She finishes, gesturing at the building behind that they've just walked away from. "What about you?" Elisabeth asks enthusiastically.
Corey screws his face up, "I made a promise to God."
"Oh far out! I mean I really think He hears us, you know?"
Corey nods, trying to be as enthusiastic as she is.
"So, what do you say me and you go out together some time?"
"You mean like on a date?" Corey asks tentatively. "I don't know, er..."
"I thought you wanted to be a success story?!"
"More than anything..."
"Well then let's go for it! Tomorrow night, I'll pick you up at eight," Elisabeth punches Corey on the arm in what he supposes is a friendly manner.
"Alright! But, um, aren't I supposed to pick you up?!" Corey punches her back in what he hopes is the same manner.
"Oh! Right!" Elisabeth rolls her eyes, she's never going to get the hang of this.
A/N - Another quick heads up - Hot chips in Australia are the same as chips in the UK and fries in the USA but tend to be thicker like the UK chips, not thin like fries.
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Queer as Muke
Fanfic"The thing you need to know is, it's all about sex. It's true. In fact they say men think about sex every twenty-eight seconds. Of course that's straight men. With gay men it's every nine." Twenty nine year old advertising executive Michael Cliffor...
