Office Christmas Party

ch 3

Arin, Dan, Suzy, and Ross had decided on pho for lunch. After they ordered and were sitting down with their food, Arin took immediate control of the conversation. "Ok, we have a lot to get done over the next week before we start our break for the holidays. Dan, I know you have NSP stuff you're doing Monday, but this weekend we need to get 10-12 hours of useable episodes. We've finished all the jingle grump episodes, but I don't want the holiday break to get us too far behind on recording." Dan nodded as he slurped up a noodle. "Then, when you're back on Tuesday," Arin continued, "we need to do a bunch of short clips and pictures for social media for the week of Christmas. Wednesday night is the office holiday party and filming for the Christmas eve power hour special. Thursday will be the social media new year's filming, and Friday we'll do the new year's eve power hour special. It's going to be a long week, boys and girl."

"Yeah, but then I don't have to see any of your ugly faces for almost two weeks," Ross smirked.

"That's right. And unfortunately we'll be missing out on your daily dose of sunshine," Suzy retorted, rolling her eyes and smiling back. "So, Arin," she said, turning to him, "it sounds like you won't really need me back in the office until Tuesday?" Suzy was the grumps social media coordinator and she already had the coming weekend's posts finished and set to publish, and if the boys were just going to be recording grump episodes, there wouldn't be much for her to do, but she always liked to double check with Arin.

"Yep, you're good, Suze," Arin assured her. "And Ross, since you always works on your own schedule regardless of what I want..." Arin trailed off, looking at Ross with a teasing glare, who responded with an impish grin and shrug, "so really it's just you and me alone all weekend, Dan."

Arin really enjoyed when he and Dan had the office to themselves while doing grump episodes. Not that anyone bothered them during the physical recording, but they seemed to be able to get into a slightly different headspace when there was no one else to talk to during breaks between episodes. It was like they were in their own little bubble. As much as Arin enjoyed the feeling, he tried not to dwell too much on why. Dan was his best friend and he was perfectly happy with their relationship. Even if he did wake up on occasion covered in sweat and his heart racing from a dream about dark brown eyes you could fall into and lips always begging to be nipped. But Arin didn't have time to think about that right now. There was way too much to do this week.

"Sounds good, bud," Dan replied. "We haven't had any 'alone time' in a while." He winked at Arin and laughed. Dan considered himself lucky to have Arin in his life. The least of the reasons being leap his career had made after the exposure Arin had been able to give him. No, Dan was most grateful for Arin just as a person. He's was 100% Dan's best friend. Their friendship had outlasted a number of both Dan and Arin's romantic relationships. Neither of them seemed to do well on the dating scene. But that was ok because they had each other and Dan got as much pleasure friendly flirting with Arin as he did from any of his short-lived girlfriends. He made a quick mental note to do something special for Arin this weekend. Dan had been so busy lately touring and wrapping up the latest NSP *and* Starbomb album, he hadn't really taken the time to remind Arin how much he appreciated him.

"Alright, so let's take the rest of today off, and I'll see you bright and early, Dan. 9 o'clock?" Well, 9am was early for Dan.

***********************************

Dan was pretty sure Arin was on a diet again. For the life of him, he didn't know why. He was a perfectly attractive man, in Dan's opinion. But Dan was a supportive friend, so he brought egg frittata with bacon and spinach for them to have for breakfast.

"Ar bear!" he called, as he opened up the main office door. "Room service is here!"

Arin stepped out of the bathroom. "What's that about servicing me?"

Dan laughed, "that will have to be later. Right now I'm talking about food." He raised his hand and shook the bag gently.

Arin's eyes lit up and he ran towards Dan. "Even better! I overslept and skipped breakfast this morning. My stomach is so happy, I could kiss you!" And indeed he did plant a wet, sloppy smooch on Dan's cheek.

"Oh my God, Arin!" Dan laughed and wiped his face with his arm. "How is your mouth always perpetually wet? It's so gross." He wrinkled his nose up in mock disgust, but that only lasted a moment before he bust out laughing again.

Arin grabbed the bag from Dan's hand. "Whatever, you're just jealous. Now let's eat and get down to business, Mr. Business." Dan couldn't help laughing once again as he followed Arin into the kitchen.

***********************************

The morning had gone well. Arin had grumped, Dan had not so grumped. They had ordered turkey subs from the sandwich shop Tucker had made Dan try a couple weeks ago. All was going well until they tried to pick up where they left off after lunch. The memory card they were recording on was full and Arin couldn't find any new ones, even though he was awfully certain he had just ordered a bunch of new cards a couple weeks ago.

"God damn, mother sandwich biscuit fucker," Arin mumbled to himself as he came back into the recording room after searching his office and every other place they were *supposed* to be stored.

Dan got up from the couch, walked over  to behind Arin, who was bent over looking through drawers in the desk next to the harddrive, and placed his hand on Arin's back. "Hey, big cat. It's ok," he assured Arin, gently rubbing circles on his back. "Come sit down," Dan guided Arin towards the couch when he stood and let out an exasperated sigh. "We can just Amazon Now a new card for this weekend, and Monday you can figure out what happened to the others or order more, or whatever you need to do."

Arin had sat back down and Dan was positioned behind him, now gently rubbing his shoulders and trying to get him to relax.

"I know," Arin said, leaning back into Dan's touch. "I'm just frustrated because I KNOW I just bought new cards. But I know, I know, just relax and we'll survive the moment."

Dan chuckled and dropped a kiss on Arin's head, enjoying, as always, the sensation of Arin's silky hair against his lips and the smell of Arin's shampoo in his nostrils. "Stay here, big cat. I'll go order some memory cards, they'll be here in 30 minutes, and we'll be back in business."