Not Safe for Work(49)

His shoulders relaxed. “Okay. Good. I didn’t do much, really. I just sort of put the bug in Mitchell’s ear that it seemed like the two of you were putting in a lot of hours.” He shrugged. “Made some noise about how the human body could only take so much, and fatigue might lead to shoddy workmanship, and…” He waved a hand. “I guess he got the message.”

Laughing, I put my wineglass down and wrapped my arms around him. “Damn. I should’ve hooked up with you sooner.”

“Why?” He smirked. “So I could get you some days off?”

“Well, you know. Every relationship has its perks, right?”

“Though it benefits me too.”

“Still. You got me out of Purgatory.” I kissed his cheek. “I’ll make it worth your while. Promise.”

“You always do.” He touched my face, and his expression turned a little more serious. “And I know you’re exhausted. I don’t expect anything tonight. I just wanted you out of there. And I wanted to see you.”

I hooked a finger under his chin, turned him toward me and kissed his lips. “I wanted to see you too.”

“Can’t promise I’ll be as entertaining as the people you work with. Sounds like you all keep each other on your toes.”

“You could say that. But I’ll take your brand of entertainment over theirs any day.”

We both grinned.

“Seriously, though.” I gestured around the room. “This place versus a room full of tables and computers? Fuck yeah.”

“I kind of prefer it over my office too, believe me.” He sipped his wine. “Especially when I’ve been spending too much time there.” He looked around. “It’s funny. This place is definitely home now, but I never imagined living in a place like this. It’s, um, a bit different from where I started, that’s for sure.”

“Is it?”

Rick nodded. “One of the ways I knew I’d really made it was when I was able to buy my mom a new house so she could move out of the double-wide she raised us in.”

“Oh wow. So you really moved up in the world.”

He nodded. “Nothing motivates a kid to find a good living like spending his childhood hearing about what trailer trash he is.”

“Ouch.”

“It is what it is.” He shrugged. “My mom worked hard, and she bought what she could afford. Anything more than that would’ve meant working three jobs instead of two, and she didn’t want to spend less time with us than she already did. Even then, most of what she made went into just keeping that damned roof over our heads. Kind of ironic when the price of your living space is killing you.”

“That explains why you’re pushing so hard for low-rent housing and office space.”

He nodded. “Exactly. I’ve seen what it’s like for someone to struggle just to make ends meet. I didn’t make a f*ckload of money just so I could sit up on a hill and watch people kill themselves for minimum wage and still not be able to make rent.” He paused. “As it is, I think this place is a bit much. I might downsize at some point, but with as busy as I am with the company, it’s a lot of headache and paperwork that I’d just as soon not deal with at the moment.”

“That makes sense. It’s a gorgeous place, though. In your shoes, I’d probably hang on to it.”

“Oh, I love it. But, I mean, the sad thing is, I only use probably three or four rooms. There’s two on the third floor that are completely empty and have been since the place was built. Seems a shame for one person to take up this much space, but…ugh. Moving. Pain in the ass.”

“Yeah, it is. But why have something so big if you’re not going to use it?”

“I’ve asked myself that millions of times.” He scowled at our surroundings. “The house was fine when I built it because there were two of us. My ex liked having a lot of space, and we definitely needed space between us sometimes.”

“Trouble in paradise?”

Rick quirked his lips and then shrugged. “Not at first. He’s one of those guys who needs his space, and I didn’t mind giving it to him. We had other shit that split us up.”

“And he left you with the house.”

“Well, it was in my name. I offered to buy out his half, but…” Rick rolled his eyes. “He wasn’t having that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, he didn’t like the idea of taking money from me. I tried to explain to him that the house was a joint investment, and we could sell it and split the proceeds.” He waved his hand. “He was more interested in making it sound like I was trying to buy his love, or that giving him half the money from our house somehow cheapened our relationship.” Sighing, he shook his head. “Trying to make sense of it was exhausting. So he left and I stayed.”

“I guess that’s…marginally better than battling it out over divvying up every cent and scrap of property?”

Rick shrugged and took a deep swallow of wine. “Probably. I was just ready for the whole thing to be over.” He paused, eyes distant, and then met my gaze. “Like, if you’re going to leave, just leave so I can start getting over it.”

I studied him for a second. “Tough split?”