AJ hit the end meeting button, waited to make sure that the camera turned off, then closed the program. He took a deep breath, held it for as long as he could, then let it out slowly. He did this three times before he got up from Ian's desk, running his fingers through his hair.
The gel he'd forgotten he'd used to tame his corona-long hair was tacky and he pulled his hand away quickly, then wiped the goo on his pants. He then tried to wipe the goo off his pants, instantly regretting wiping half-dry gel on his good suit pants.
Ian had made fun of him for wearing them, saying he didn't need pants for a conference call. He wasn't going to take the risk, even if Ian was theoretically correct.
He took two more breaths before he opened the door to Ian's office, half expecting Ian to have been standing there, but he wasn't. AJ closed his eyes again and took another breath, trying to calm the panicky feeling in his stomach. As he walked to his bedroom he began overthinking each and every interview question, which just tied his stomach up in more knots.
He changed, then decided he wanted to shower the gel out of his hair, so he did that, then got redressed into a pair of sweats and an old t-shirt. He opened the bathroom door, then squeaked in surprise.
"Shit, Ian!"
Ian snorted, leaning against the wall, his eyes still down on his phone's glowing screen. "Why're you so jumpy?"
AJ shrugged, switching the bathroom light off. He walked past Ian towards the kitchen. Ian followed behind him, his attention still on his phone. "I always get like that. Like, I'm cool under pressure, but afterwards I do all the falling apart that I would've done in the stressful time or whatever."
"Sounds like a good skill to have."
He sniffed. "Unless you're me, then you stress about it for the next five months."
Ian chuckled. "How'd it go?"
"Oh, yeah. Hey, thanks for letting me use your computer, I think the whole 'not having a camera' part of my laptop would've defeated the purpose of a video call interview." He opened the fridge and surveyed the contents, then closed it again, disappointed that something didn't immediately call out to him. "Do you think that we're all just in a really big RPG and every time we open the fridge we save our game?"
Ian hopped up onto a clean space on the kitchen counter. "Hardly. First, it would be the most boring game in the history of games. Second, the fridge is like Pavlov's dog or something, right? Like, we train ourselves that the fridge has something inside it that will make us feel better. A stress response, since we no longer fight off wolves and bears or some shit."
"I guess it would be a super boring game. I mean, it's the Sims, but even more boring. At least the Sims had jobs and stuff."
"So the interview didn't go well?" Ian asked, looking up for the first time. How was he so freaking handsome? It wasn't fair, but AJ wasn't complaining. Ian was his, at least for now.
AJ shrugged, then sat down at the overly cluttered table. "Eh. Like, sure, I think it went well, but, like, I dunno. I thought it went well while I was doing it, but now I'm wondering if I didn't do as good as I thought."
"What'dya mean?" Ian asked, his full attention on AJ making him feel squirmy.
"I dunno. Like, I coulda had better answers or something."
Ian snorted, then returned to his phone. "Listen, it's a warehouse job. If you get it, good, you can start making money again until this all passes by and we can go back to our regularly scheduled lives. If not, then whatever, right? You won't be any worse than you were before your interview."
"Yeah, you're right, I guess. I just, I wanna help out, financially. I don't have enough money to pay my half of the rent again next month yet." AJ looked down at his hands, feeling guilty.
"We went over this, it's fine. I don't care. Like, we need to take care of each other, right. Best friends, right?"
AJ was suddenly filled with very conflicted emotions. He couldn't explain it, but even though it wasn't how Ian meant to say it, taking care of each other and best friends in the same statement made him sad somehow. Like, they should be more than best friends. What was more than best friends? He didn't know, but he knew he wanted more. Just, he didn't really know what he wanted more of. Maybe just Ian.
"Yeah," he agreed, still glum. "Just, I'm glad, I mean, thanks. Like, a lot. You, I mean, I, like, owe you so much already."
Ian jumped down off the counter, then put his hand on AJ's shoulder. His touch sent AJ's heart to his throat and he tried not to show how much just being close to Ian was messing with him. "I'll always be here for you, AJ," Ian said. He squeezed his shoulder firmly, then left his hand there for another few seconds before he headed out of the kitchen. "Wanna watch something on Shudder?"
His phone vibrated somewhere in the middle of a trippy, confusing movie called Mandy that had Nicolas Cage basically playing himself, but maybe on acid or something. He'd never done acid, but this seemed like what it would feel like. The interruption was welcome, this movie was making his head swim, though Ian seemed to be enthralled.
He stepped into his room to take it, there was no caller ID on it. "Hello?"
"Ah, hello. Is Andrew Bryan there?" a woman said. Her voice sounded familiar.
"Um, yeah, this is him. I mean, me." He rolled his eyes at himself, irritated that he couldn't just speak like a normal human for ten seconds.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Bryan. This's Tracy from FedEx, we spoke earlier today?"
"Oh. OH. Yeah, okay. Hi," he stammered, flustered and suddenly nervous.
"I was calling to offer you the position as receiving clerk, if you were still interested?"
AJ's heart was in his throat, and his stomach was doing happy, yet nauseating somersaults. "Yeah, I mean, yes, please, that would be fantastic. Yes."
She chuckled. "Excellent. I'm looking forward to working with you. I'll process your paperwork, then send you an email with all of the forms you'll need to fill out. You should get it in a day or two, depending on how fast we can get this through the hiring queues and then through HR. Today is, let's see, Wednesday, so if you don't hear anything by Friday give me a call at this number and I'll see what's going on. When can you start?"
"As soon as possible," he said, pacing his room.
"Okay, so get that paperwork filled out, and once it's filed you'll get a date to show up for processing. Any questions for me?"
"Um," he stammered. "Ah, I don't think so?"
She chuckled again. "Well, if you do have any between now and then, you can reach out to me and I'll try to get them answered for you. I'm looking forward to working with you, Andrew."
"Me too," he said. "I mean, I'm looking forward to working with you, not me, um. Yeah. Sorry. Thanks, so much, I mean, I really appreciate this opportunity."
"I'll talk to you soon. Take care," Tracy replied, sounding amused.
"Yeah, thanks again. Bye," he said, then thumbed the red end call button harder than was necessary.
"Yes!" he whisper-yelled. "Yes!" He jumped up, then ran in a happy little circle before he forced himself to calm down. He was still pacing his room, talking himself through what he would need to start working again when Ian tapped lightly on his door.
"Sounds like good news in here?" Ian asked, pushing his door open without waiting for AJ's response.
"I got the job!" He was still pacing so he stopped himself, then turned to Ian. "I got the job!" He hugged Ian before he even thought about it. Ian tensed, then hugged him back, but that he tensed up first had AJ pulling away quickly. "Sorry."
"Oh," Ian said, sitting on his bed, "Well, that's good news then. When do you start?" The words were right, but his tone seemed wrong, kind of hollow. AJ couldn't put his finger on it, but Ian's body language reinforced his initial hunch that maybe Ian didn't actually think the news was all that great.
AJ bit his lip, his excitement dulling down a little. "They're gonna email me some paperwork, then I'll get a start date once that gets processed."
"Oh, cool," Ian said, again his tone just slightly off. Maybe AJ was reading too much into it. "Yeah, that's awesome. I'm real happy for you, AJ."
"Yeah, I mean, I dunno. It's just part time work right now, but if I do well there's lots of room to move up," he said, getting a little more excited again.
"Part time?" Ian asked, looking slightly relieved. Why was this bothering him? It was good news. Maybe he really was just reading too much into it. "Do you know your schedule?"
"In the interview she said it would be Thursday through Sunday, just weekends. Four to midnight. I'm super pumped, it doesn't feel real yet. I mean, I got the job!"
"Nice. Good job, AJ," Ian praised, but to AJ it still sounded half-hearted. Ian stood up, heading towards his door. His lack of excitement over AJ's good fortune was irritating him. "Wanna finish the movie?"
AJ frowned. "You don't seem, is something wrong?"
"Huh?" Ian asked, already in the hall. "What would be wrong?"
He followed him out. "I dunno. I mean, you seem, like, upset or something."
"Nope," Ian dismissed. "Not upset. Just, you know." Ian shrugged, but he didn't turn around. "So, you wanna watch the rest of this?"
"Nah," AJ said, still perturbed. "I'm gonna go get stuff organized. I'll have to make meals, like I can cook stuff while you're at work and then you can just reheat it for dinner when I'm working. Or I'll pack a lunch, and just make double for you. I need to go grocery shopping, and I need to get some new shoes, steel-toed, I don't have any. Maybe my mom can loan me some money..." he said, turning back to his room, talking more to himself than to Ian.
He had a hard time falling asleep that night, his body still filled with nervous excitement. Around eleven he heard Ian through the wall. It started soft, just quiet moans, but built up quickly. He and Ian both knew that the walls were thin, he knew Ian wanted him to hear.
