50 Shades of James

The Boss and the Golden Boy

            Eddie was editing when Aleks came home at—he glanced at the clock—eleven at night.  His footsteps were soft, but there were too many of them to be just his friend. Was that the sound of heels? It was hard to hear with his headphones on, but he could make out the murmur of Aleks’s voice, a high pitched giggle immediately following…

            Half an hour later, the deafening female moans and screams from the next room over were impossible to not hear.

            Chef lay with her head on Eddie’s chest, disgruntled and keeping her owner company while he failed at blocking out the noise to sleep.

            “This shit is out of hand, mi perrito.” The Puerto Rican mumbled, one hand running over the pug’s ears. “Mañana, we gotta talk to Jordan. He’ll know what to do. Right?”

            His only answer was a low whine from the dog and the never-ending grunts and groans piercing through his wall.

            Jordan sighed and called James’s cell phone for the fifth time. “And you’re sure you lost it in the House?”

            James nodded, exasperated but distraught. “Yes, Hoardan, I’m sure. Goddammit, my mom is supposed to call today and if I don’t answer the phone she’s gonna flip o—“

            “Shut up!” Jordan hissed, eyes narrowing.

            James’s glare could have melted a lesser man. “You don’t have to be fucking rude—“

            Jordan waved his hand at James, tilting his head to look up the stairs they were standing at the bottom of. “No, no, shut up, I think I hear it!”

            James went still immediately, and—sure enough—could hear the buzz of something vibrating upstairs.

            “It better not be someone’s fucking dildo!” He shouted, taking the steps two at a time, Jordan close on his heels.

            James followed his ears, not even seeing where he was running, until—yes! He was kneeling on the floor, holding the lost phone, with Jordan’s name flashing on the screen.

            “Victory!” He cawed, turning around only to see Jordan frowning at him.

            The tall man peered inside the door James had blindly run through. “Why was your phone in Seamus’s room?”

            Sudden embarrassment flooded James, and he hoped he wasn’t blushing. Jordans raised eyebrows and pointed look at his cheeks told James that he was.

            “I was just, y’know, hanging out in his room the other day.”

            “Uh-huh.” Jordan had a teasing smile on his face, but didn’t question James further. “Good to know where you two stand, at least.”

            James could feel his face flush more; Jordan had no idea what had happened after their little ‘meeting’. His friend must assume he and Seamus had been together all this time. Well, he sure wasn’t going to tell him otherwise. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, right? Except that James was tuning out of his thoughts and back into what Jordan was saying and it was something about “…heard anything from Aleks lately?”

            “Wha-? No, why?”

            Jordan tugged on his signature red hat, dismay turning his young face into that of a  concerned father. “Sly called and said he wanted to talk to me about him. That he’s worried. Apparently we shouldn’t expect Aleks today anyway, because he was up very late with some girl from a bar.”

            A flash of hot anger, then cold guilt, then the lukewarm indifference James tried to tell himself he felt ran through his body. “No, I—he’s not usually the one-night stand type. But, uh, no, we haven’t talked lately.” Lie. The second part, at least. James forced his face into a distressed expression, looking to the side like he was trying to recall the past few days, so he wouldn’t have to look Jordan in the eyes.

            James could sense the deflation, though, when Jordan sighed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought, and you guys are pretty close, so…” He shook his head slowly. “I’ll go talk to him. After Sly tells me what’s going on, I guess.”

            A breath caught in James’s throat. Sly would tell Jordan what happened between James and Aleks, and Jordan would be pissed. As much as they play fought in recordings—all the time, really—there was no one, no one, who James hated to be mad at him more than Jordan. He had a way of giving off this air of a disappointed parent, somehow, even though he was younger than James. Either way, it always hit James hard when it happened. Maybe it was because his real dad had always been mad at him when he was a kid, up until the day he left James and his mom to fend for themselves. Maybe it was because Jordan was one of the oldest, closest friends he’d ever had, and it was so hard to make him genuinely angry. Maybe it was just because James knew full well he had done exactly what his friend and boss had asked him not to: “One thing that can’t happen, though, is for you to be fooling around with two people in the group. Because if that happens, then someone’s gonna get upset”.  

            Before he had even decided to do it, James blurted out, “I’ll talk to him.”

            Jordan had been about to walk out of the door, but now he put his hand on the doorframe and looked over his shoulder. “You want to?”

            James shook off his panicked worries and nodded. He’d (unconsciously?) made a decision, so he had to commit to it. “Yeah, uh, and I’ll handle Sly too. Like you said, I’m pretty close to him, right? And I know you’ve got a bunch of shit to do. So I’ll meet with Sly and talk to Aleks.” The words tumbled out of him, and for a second, James though Jordan looked suspicious, like he knew something was up.

            But no, the tall man just sagged against the doorframe in relief and smiled at James. “Thanks. Really. You’re a life saver for taking care of this.”

            But the only thought on James’s mind as he sat there on Seamus’s floor while Jordan walked away, was that he had doomed himself.

AN: So kinda shitty chapter but.

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