Double Standards // ziam

Chapter 3

In less than a half hour he was going to walk into their Grosse Pointe mansion again. Memories of his humiliating weekend at their elegant home fourteen years before invaded his mind. The first day had not been bad; she had spent it virtually on her own. The awful part had begun just after lunch on the second day. Carter, who was a teenager at the time, had appeared in the doorway of Zayn's bedroom and announced that his mother had instructed him to get him out of the house because she was expecting some friends and didn't want them to see Zayn. For the rest of the afternoon, Carter had made him feel as miserable, insignificant and frightened as he possibly could.

Exhausted and dispirited, Zayn pulled up in front of the Sinclair' three-story classic mansion. He unlocked the trunk of his car and removed his suitcase. He had driven twelve hours straight in order to keep his appointment with Sophia Sinclair that afternoon. He had been through two job interviews, fallen down in the dirt, spoiled his clothes and met the most handsome compelling man he'd ever seen. And by deliberately flunking his tests at Pay-co, he had ruined his chances of working near him...

Tomorrow was Friday, and he would spend it looking for an apartment. As soon as he found one, he could leave immediately for Fenster to pack his belongings. Sophia had not mentioned when she wanted him to start working for her company, but he could be back here ready to report for work two weeks from Monday.

The front door was opened by a paunchy uniformed butler. "Good evening," he began, but Sophia Sinclair interrupted him.

Striding into the vast marble foyer his relative exclaimed, "Zayn, I've been worried to death about you! What's kept you so long?"

She looked so anxious that Zayn felt terrible for not contacting her earlier, and even worse for letting her down by not trying harder to get a job at Pay-co. In a few words he explained that things had "not gone very well" with his interview. Hastily he sketched in details of his fall in front of the Global Industries Building, and asked if he had time to freshen up before dinner.

Upstairs in the room the butler showed him to, he showered, changed into more casual clothes and he went back down.

Sophia stood up as he approached the arched doorway of the drawing room. She said, leading him over to his husband, whose glacial personality he recalled so well. "George, I know you remember Zayn."

Despite his personal prejudice, Zayn had to admit that with his broad shoulders, tall lean body, masculine jaw and silvery grey hair, Georges Sinclair was a handsome old man.

"Of course I do," George said with a pleasantly correct smile that didn't quite reach his matt brown eyes. "How are you, Zayn?"

"Obviously Zayn is very well, father," Carter Sinclair remarked, grinning as he politely got to his feet. His lazy, sweeping glance covered everything about Zayn, so maybe he was not the only gay man around!

Zayn kept his expression neutral as he was reintroduced to his childhood tormentor. Accepting the glass of sherry Carter had poured for him, he sat down on the sofa, eyeing him warily when he sat beside him instead of returning to his chair. "You've certainly changed," he said with an admiring grin.

"So have you," Zayn answered cautiously.

He draped his arm casually across the back of the sofa behind his shoulders. "We didn't get along very well, as I remember," he mused.

"No, we didn't." Zayn flicked a self-conscious glance toward Georges, who was observing his son's little flirtation, his eyes cool and inscrutable, and his expression regally aloof.

"Why didn't we get along?" Carter persisted.

"I, err, don't recall." Zayn feigned ignorance; he was the cause of a very chaotic dinner before they went back home fourteen years ago.