Unbreak My Heart (18+, ManxMan)

Chapter 8 Zoinks

Chapter 8

Benji

"What are you doing Boo?"  I walked by Ajax's office for the second time in half an hour and he was sitting staring at nothing.  He looked up, startled out of his thoughts.

"Take a drive with me?" He asked.  It was Sunday, early afternoon and I had no plans.  Finn had gone off to wander around some museums or galleries or something…I think he just wanted to get out of the house for a bit on his own.

"Of course, where to?" I asked as he stood up, making his way to the door.

"Still making up my mind," he whispered mysteriously before kissing my nose.

"I can work with that," I joked. "Come on Scoob, Fred's taking us on a mystery adventure," I called behind me to no one in particular.  I grabbed a bottle of water for each of us and followed Ajax out to the car.

"Wow! You've really updated the Mystery Machine Fred," I deadpanned as I look around the black 2009 Aston Martin Vantage V12 Ajax had picked up on a whim recently.  It was slick, I had to give him that and the previous owner had only put about 15,000 miles on it, barely broke it in.  Ajax told me when he saw the car sitting at the dealer he went weak at the knees and knew he had to have it. I wish I had been with him, I'd loved to have seen that, usually I'm the one with the jelly legs, especially after…

 "Benji!"

 "Wha…yes, Sir?!"

 "I said your name five times, where were you?" he chuckled.

 "Umm…my mind was in the gutter…it involved me on my knees…"

"When is your mind not in the gutter babe?"

"Hey, I don’t always only think about sex…when you're not around I can sometimes think about important things…World Peace, Health Care Reform, How to get a stain out of a white shirt…"

"What type of stain?"  My face was awash with heat as I felt my face turn red, I opened my mouth and closed it a few times trying to think of a comeback…but nothing came.

"Touché."  My man knows me too well.  "So where are we headed?" I asked after we had been driving for about 30 minutes.

"Santa Monica."

"Nice, nice…oh!"  I turned my head quickly and looked at Ajax. "Are we going to see…"

"Nico?  Yes." I waited with my eyes trained on my sexy Spaniard, wondering if he would elaborate.  Neither of us spoke, he continued to drive and I continued to gaze at him…who would break first.  I was determined to hold out for an explanation, even if it took me the entire drive.

"Okay, tell me," I sighed, "what's going on?"

"Nothings 'going on,' I just wanted to go see him.  After I talked to him yesterday, I had the distinct impression he was going to take off on me again and I just want to try to figure out what's going on in his head.  I called Santos and he confirmed that Nico's thinking about pulling anchor in the next day or two, I want to make sure that doesn't happen just yet."  He turned his head to me and a look of concern crossed his face, "I'm worried about him Benj, I thought he'd be getting better at some point…but each time I see him, I…he's just…he's not the same anymore.  It's like he's half there and…so damaged."

"I didn't think he looked very good when I saw him yesterday.  He's gotten thinner and his face is all drawn, not the same man I met four years ago…that reminds me, did you talk to Finn, I forgot to ask you about that?"