Outrunning Shadows

Chapter 14: Big Mouths

Chapter 14 – Big Mouths





The next morning, Andrew got to work and sat at his desk. He was on the phone with a client. After hanging up, Andrew was just leafing through some of his mail. He felt better than he had in ages. He felt more alive and vibrant that he imagined was possible. Betty walked up to his desk.


“Amanda, Darcy, and myself are taking a pool. We have a question for you. I want you to be honest with us. Are you ready?”


“Sure,” he glanced furtively at their excited expressions.


“Okay. This is a yes or no question. Did you have sex last night?”


Andrew hesitated. The startled look on his face gave them their answer.


“Ha!” Darcy called out, “I was right.”


“Wow,” Amanda chimed in, “You’re a fast operator. You been in town a month and you’re already screwing around.”


Andrew was feeling mischievous. “What’s the pot up to?”


“$75.” Betty replied, “$25 a piece.”


“I’ll match it and you go double or nothing if you can figure out who I had sex with. Are you game?”


“Hell yeah!” Amanda called out, “You’re on.”


“Can we ask questions?” Darcy asked.


“You get five yes or no questions and you only get one shot at guessing. You have until close of business tomorrow to figure it out or I win. Still want to? Pot’s at $225.”


“Okay. You’re on.” Betty said. She walked over to the others. The three women huddled for a few minutes. Andrew returned to work, but kept his eyes on them. About five minutes passed when the three women came back over to his desk. They all pulled up chairs and sat down.


“Are you ready?” Andrew asked, “Remember, yes or no questions only.”


“Question number 1. Is she native to this area?”


“Yes.”


“Question number 2. Does she work in a business on the same street at this one?”


Andrew reviewed his town geography quickly in his head. “Yes.”


“Question number 3. Does she have a lot of contact with customers?”


“Yes.”


“Question number 4. Is she well liked?”


“Yes.”


Darcy admitted, “We don’t really have a fifth question.”


Amanda piped up at the last second, “Did you have sex with a man?”


Andrew’s face completely froze. He wanted desperately to play it off, but it just wasn’t happening. His brain just wouldn’t kick into gear. He just sat with a look of disbelief on his face. They had their answer. Their eyes got big as they stared in shock.


“Holy crap!” Amanda blurted out, “I mean, are you sure?”


Darcy whispered, “You had sex with a man?”


“Yes.” Andrew croaked, the shame making his face feel as hot as fire.


“You’re gay?” Betty said in shock.


“Yes.” Andrew decided to be honest. There was no hiding it this time. They had him figured out. Women are really good at that.


Darcy whispered, “Did you have sex with Evan?”


Andrew’s face froze again. Once again, they had their answer.


“Holy crap,” Amanda said again, “I guess that explains why I’ve been trying since the 7th grade to bag that boy. You’ve been here barely a month and you’ve already had him. That’s impressive.”


“Evan’s cold as ice in the love department, you deserve a trophy or something.”


Andrew was so ashamed of himself. Evan had let his guard down for one second and trusted Andrew with something he never even trusted Grant with and Andrew went out the very next day and told three of the biggest gossips in town about their sexual relationship. He didn’t know if he could ever face Evan again knowing that he had just betrayed him like that. That was the only word to describe it- Andrew had betrayed the trust of a man he loved and whom he knew had a difficult time trusting anyone.


“You can’t tell anybody about this.” Andrew said to them, “Absolutely no one.”


They looked back at him Betty said, “Of course not. This is serious. You two could be in big trouble if that ever got around. So, we’ll keep our mouths shut.”


“You can trust us,” Darcy said.


“Just remember,” Amanda said, “it was your idea to get us to guess. Why did you do that if you didn’t want us to find out.”


Andrew hung his head in shame, “I guess I just got carried away. I don’t know why I did that. I shouldn’t have, but I did. I guess I figured you’d never guess who.”


“We’ll keep it quiet,” Betty assured him, “You have our word.”





                                                 #





11:00. The door opened and Evan walked in. He was dressed in a white shirt and black pants. That was his business attire for serious business meetings. He walked over to Andrew’s desk. Andrew was on the phone and motioned for him to sit down. While Evan’s back was toward them, the women were grinning at them. Betty made kissing motions with her lips. Darcy was doing a pelvic thrust. Amanda just looked embarrassed on their behalves for their childish and immature behavior. Mr. Jacobs appeared out of his office and they all snapped back to work shuffling papers like they were doing serious business. He walked over to Andrew.


“Mr. Garrison, may I see you in my office?”


“Certainly Mr. Jacobs.”


Mr. Jacobs ushered Andrew into his office and shut the door. Evan was left sitting at the desk alone. He had a shoulder bag with him and he pulled out some computer printouts covered in numbers and started reading through it.


“Mr. Garrison, how’s your work coming?”


“It going very well, thank you.” Andrew’s blood pressure had to have been dangerously high. He just knew that Mr. Jacobs had found out about Evan.


“I’m glad to hear that. You’ve been doing very good work so far, I can’t complain at all about your job performance.”


“I sense there’s a ‘but’ coming.”


“There is. You realize that the walls in this office are paper thin. I hear most everything that goes on out there; including the little wager that was going on. So, I heard what you said to the women about your little rendezvous last night. Now, what you do in the privacy of your own home with your own body is none of my business.”


“Yes sir,” Andrew felt like a defective subatomic particle.


“I make no secret that I do not agree with homosexuality. I don’t like it in the least, but I have no control over what you do at home. I do, however, have control over what goes on in this office.”


“But sir,”


“Don’t worry. Your job’s not in danger. As long as this doesn’t affect the quality of your work, your job is not the issue. The issue is that, whether or not you and Mr. Grayson are involved sexually or not, he is still a client of this firm. I cannot have you screwing his lights out at night and then work with him as a client in the daytime. I won’t allow that. I’ll have to reassign his account to Darcy who will handle it from now on.”


“Okay sir, I’ll let him know, then?”


“Yes. I’ll alert Darcy to the situation,” He picked up the phone and dialed her extension and explained his decision.


“Okay, Mr. Garrison, you may go.”


Andrew got up out of the chair and stumbled toward the door. Evan was going to want to know why he was being transferred to another person. He wanted to work with Andrew. What was Andrew going to tell him to explain his transfer to another person?


He went back to his desk to sit down.


“Mr. Grayson, your account has been transferred to Darcy. If you don’t mind, she’s waiting for you right over there.”


“Why am I being transferred? I want to work with you. Why is that a problem?”


“Mr. Jacobs decided due to workload distribution to reassign your account to Darcy. Please…” Andrew motioned towards Darcy’s desk. Evan collected his things, put them back in his shoulder bag and moved over to Darcy’s desk.