Release(18)

She shrugged. “Just … easier when you know someone you like’s going to be there.”

Adam felt a genuine ember of warmth in his gut. There was nothing carnal or wistful or indeed wishful about Renee’s words. She meant it as she said it, simply, easily. It was such an unexpected rush that he found himself, again, absurdly, with tears in his eyes.

“Yeah,” he said, “I’ll definitely be there.”

He waved them goodbye and walked the length of the warehouse towards Wade’s office, feeling the best moment he’d had all day. If not shaking off Marty’s sting, then seeing how that might be possible as the day wore on. The feeling lasted nearly a full minute until Wade leaned out of his office door.

“Come in and sit down,” Wade said.

“Do I have to?” Adam said.

“Afraid so.” Wade looked surprisingly serious, so Adam slid inside. The office was so small he had to shut the door behind him before he could sit, and when he did, he and Wade were almost knee to knee, Wade’s khakis bulging in a way that drew the horrified eye right to it.

Adam pressed himself as far back in his chair as he could. “What do you want, Wade? I don’t have a lot of time.”

“Yeah,” Wade said, leaning back himself, putting his hands behind his head. The angle thrust the rest of him further forward. Adam had nowhere to put the left knee that Wade was now bumping. “That seems to be the problem with you lately, Thorn. Always somewhere to go. Always in a hurry to leave.”

“What are you talking about? I’m on time for every shift. I never call in sick. I work every hour you put on the schedule–”

“Yeah, but you don’t really do any more, do you? You don’t go that extra mile. The giggle twins in there will work until that inventory is done, no matter what the schedule says.”

Adam frowned. “You told me this company had no such thing as overtime.”

“Oh, they won’t be paid. They’ll do it for knowledge of a job well done.”

“They’ll do it because they’re afraid you’ll fire them.”

Wade cocked his head. “Aren’t you?” He leaned forward and put his fingertips on Adam’s knees, not in an obviously sexual way, in a way that could be explained later if necessary, but he still put them there when he didn’t have to. “Because I’ve been wondering when I’m going to see you going that extra mile?”

Adam tried to squirm back, but there was no room. Wade’s breath was a mixture of coffee and breakfast cereal. “I’ve got school,” Adam said, swallowing, annoyed that he was. “I have to help my dad at the church.”

“And that’s all well and good,” Wade said. He opened his fingertips so they brushed along the top of Adam’s knees. “But we need to know we have your commitment here, too.”

“Wade, that’s not–”

“We value you. I mean, I know you and I joke around and have our laughs–”

“I don’t laugh–”

“Seriously, Adam.” He slapped his palms on Adam’s thighs and kept them there, again in a way that could almost be written off as companionable, like an older gentleman encouraging the confidence of his younger charge.

But Wade’s face was closer now, close enough for Adam to see the beads of sweat in his moustache. “This store doesn’t want to lose you. I don’t want to lose you.”

Adam swallowed again. “Why would you lose me?”

“Budget cuts. The economy.”

“The economy is improving.”

“We’re going to have to let people go, Adam. I don’t want it to be you.” Wade’s hands hadn’t moved, but somehow they felt heavier.

“I don’t want it to be me either.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that.” Wade was still close, too close. Adam could smell his body now. Sweat, ageing cologne, something more intimate underneath that he didn’t want to think about.

“They’ve been talking about reducing your hours,” Wade breathed. “But I might be able to arrange something. If you can convince me you’re the team player I think you are.”

Adam saw that the bulge at Wade’s crotch had shifted, was now unambiguously larger, like a third person in the office. Adam had fended off come-ons from men – and not a few women – before. He was young and big and blond and, if not in Marty’s league of beauty, young and big and blond was more than enough for some people. There were men in the swimming pool locker room who seemed to have a hard time getting their trunks back on when Marty was changing near by. A woman on his paper route when he was thirteen had answered her door topless, not once, but three times, until he complained to his father. Even at the Christian summer camp, there was a counsellor whose private parts Marty had seen more often than normal averages would allow in the communal showers, the same counsellor who always “joked” about skinny-dipping.

Apart from the naked woman, it was always just on the edge of legality, could always be laughed off by the man, which no doubt Wade would do right now, right this very second– “I’m not going to have sex with you, Wade,” Adam said.

There was a flash in Wade’s eyes, brief, fleeting, yet clear enough that for a second Adam thought Wade was about to grab him, force him, rape him in this overheated little office– But then Wade leaned back. “You little bitch,” he said, in a near-whisper.