“Out where? I was worried about you, and I tried to call you, but you didn't answer. How would I have gotten in touch with you if your mom had an issue at the hospital?”
“Didn’t have an issue, and besides, the hospital would call me first, anyway,” he rationalized, moving past his ex-boyfriend into the kitchen and pouring himself a glass of water.
Benjamin jumped to his feet and followed Sebastian through the house, anger growing with each step. Rather than unleash his pent up frustrations, Benjamin pasted on a sweet smile. “I know, but just in case, it would be best if I could contact you and best if you answered the phone when we weren’t together.”
“No.” Sebastian finished his glass of water and continued down the hall.
“No?” Benjamin blinked. The word was foreign to him.
“Yeah. No. If the hospital needs me, they will call me,” Sebastian repeated.
This time, Benjamin sighed. “I wouldn't take the kind of risk with my mother's life. We've been together for so long. It's not out of the realm of possibilities for the hospital to call me instead of you.”
“We're not together,” Sebastian reminded him, pausing at the door to his bedroom and looking back at Benjamin. “We’re not together, so there's no reason for the hospital to call you, and there will never be a reason for the hospital to call you, either.”
“What do you mean?”
Sebastian shook his head. “Nothing. I’m going to bed. It’s an early day tomorrow, and I'm exhausted.” He stepped inside his room and closed the door behind him.
Sebastian showered, fell asleep, and woke the next morning with a raging hard-on and a throbbing headache. He had no time to deal with either, and prowled around his dark room, tugging a t-shirt over his head and a pair of jeans up his legs. He drove to the hospital while still wiping sleep from his eyes, and he called his boss on the way. The message went directly to voicemail, and he left a brief message explaining the situation.
At five o'clock on the nose, the surgeon wheeled his mother from her room, leaving Sebastian to his thoughts as the murmurs of an episodic soap opera played behind him. At first, he dozed, giving the world time to wake up around him, and once the sun beamed into the hospital window, he dug his cell phone from his pocket and texted Jude.
He thanked him for the previous night and gave him an update on his mother’s condition. She was still in surgery, but nothing was out of the ordinary.
Jude sent back a smiley face and prayer hands.
With a smile, Sebastian tucked his cell phone away and closed his eyes again, opening them as the surgeon wheeled his mother back into her room.
It was nearly noon.
The surgeon gave Sebastian a rundown of what happened, promising him everything had gone well and assuring him that her healing process would be relatively short.
As the surgeon left, Jude knocked on the open hospital door. “Knock knock,” he teased and poked his head inside.
“Hey. Come on in.” Sebastian smiled.
“How is she?” he asked as he placed a paper bag full of paper food containers on the counter and loosened his skinny, pastel-colored tie. He shrugged his blazer off his shoulders and hung it in the shallow closet between the counter and Sebastian’s chair.
“So far, so good. She got out of surgery a few minutes ago.”
“Perfect timing then.” Jude smiled. “I didn't bring flowers today, but I brought you lunch, and I brought her the latest release from her favorite author.”
“How do you know her favorite author?”
“Oh, she told me last time I was here. We talked at length about books and classics and all sorts of things.”
“Should I be worried that my mother and you get along?”
Jude smiled. “I don't know, should you?” With that, he untied the bag and presented Sebastian with a brown-colored to-go container and a wooden fork. “It’s from the little place down the street. I've been meaning to try it, and both Eleanor and Cassius gave it a five-star rating.”
“Thanks,” Sebastian murmured. “But you didn't have to bring me anything.”
“I know. I wanted to.” With another smile, Jude sat down next to Sebastian and opened his own container. “I got you a veggie bowl with edamame beans and cashew sauce. It’s high protein.”
“Edamame?” Sebastian asked as he popped the container open.
“The little green ones. They are soy, I think, and they have very high protein and are very good for you. I figured you preferred high-protein meals because you are quite strong.” Jude poked at his food as a little color swathed his cheeks.
“Right,” Sebastian chuckled. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” Jude’s container was a far lighter meal, full of vegetables and almost-translucent noodles, and he stood at the counter, twisting the noodles around his wooden fork.
Sebastian mixed his food together, took his first bite, and then regarded Jude again. “So, you and my mother read the same types of books?”
Jude laughed. “Not hardly, but my mother likes those dime store romance novels as well, and I know the authors from her.”
“Ah.” Sebastian nodded.
“I'm much more of a science fiction, action-adventure kind of person, myself.” Jude shrugged. “However, my dad is fairly convinced that I secretly read fashion magazines when I’m supposed to be studying the stock market.”
“Do you?”
Jude laughed again. “Not at all. If it weren't for my personal stylist, I’d be wearing jeans and a T-shirt every day.”
“Well,” Sebastian shrugged. “If it weren't for my lack of a personal stylist, I’d be wearing suits and ties every day,” he teased.
Jude laughed. “I like your jeans and T-shirts. I especially like your work coveralls.”
“Oh yeah?” Sebastian laughed. “Most people do.”
“Well, don’t you know how to make a person feel special.” Jude chuckled.
Sebastian ate another bite of his meal, and then the door to his mother's suite opened again.
“Seb, I bought you lunch,” Benjamin announced immediately. “I stopped by your favorite restaurant and got you a hot plate.” He strolled down the shallow hallway, still yammering about the restaurant until he saw Jude and paused.
Jude looked up from his bowl of noodles and offered Benjamin a pleasant smile. “Oh, hello.” He rubbed his hands down with a heavy paper towel and extended his hand to the other man.
Benjamin placed a crumpled fast food bag on the counter next to Jude’s containers and breezed past him, approaching Sebastian and leaning against the standard-issue hospital chair. He rested a heavy hand on Sebastian’s shoulder, and Sebastian’s jaw tightened. “So you must be Jude Johnson, the owner of Stryker and Johnson, Inc.”
“The very same,” Jude smiled, wiping any annoyance from his features.
“I've heard so much about you.” Benjamin rubbed his hand down Sebastian's chest and brushed his lips along Sebastian’s temple. With a frown, Sebastian ducked his head and focused on his food, guiding another bite to his mouth.
“Have you?” Jude lifted an eyebrow while still maintaining his almost obnoxiously pleasant expression.
“Indeed, the current company I worked for styled their whole office production format after yours. Even down to the four day work week and allowing employees to leave when they're finished with their work rather than keeping them to strict hours.”
Sebastian tilted his head. “Is that why your office building was mostly empty the day I came?”
Jude nodded and shrugged. “If your work is complete, there’s no reason to stay. So I let my employees leave once they finish their work for the day.”
“It's quite innovative,” Ben commented, but then his expression soured, and he looked back at Jude. “However, for us, it ended up promoting laziness and low-quality work.”
Jude shrugged. “One of the keys to making my method work is having employees who respect you. If the employees won't work hard, the likel
y reason for this is because the upper management doesn’t work hard, either.”
Benjamin blinked, jerking his head back, and Sebastian stifled a chuckle, putting his hand to his mouth as he coughed and fixed his attention anywhere but Benjamin.
“Upper management?” Benjamin tilted his head, his features only growing sourer by the minute.
“Upper management,” Jude confirmed. “No employee wants to work harder than his or her boss, and it boosts morale to see your boss working just as hard as you, so if there is a lack of productivity in the business, it can usually be attributed to the habits of the C-level employees. This is why innovative hiring techniques are important, as well.”
“Makes sense,” Sebastian suppressed a grin.
“Fine,” Benjamin scowled and regarded Sebastian again. “Are you going to eat what I brought you?”
“Maybe later, when I'm hungry again. Jude brought a healthy meal from this local restaurant.” He motioned to the container of food in front of him.
“So he did.”
“My apologies. If I had known you would be here, then I would've made other lunch arrangements,” Jude added. “At any rate, may I ask what you do, Benjamin?”
Sebastian's ex-boyfriend puffed out his chest. “I am the recent founder of a marketing company that specializes in LGBT businesses and social media influencers. I've always wanted to give my expertise back to the community, and I finally found a way to do it.”
“That's wonderful. One of the first things I did when I started my company was create a growth mutual fund for one of our local high schools.”
“Of course you did,” Benjamin muttered under his breath, but to Jude, he offered a smile. “It’s important to give back to our community, you know?”
Jude took another bite of his food. “It is also insane how unfortunate public schools can be. I attended a private school, and I had no idea public schools did not have as many extracurricular programs as we did. So my desire for giving back stems from wanting all children to experience learning the same way I got to.”
“Admirable of you,” Benjamin hissed. “I bet you also rescue baby kittens on the weekends,” he continued in a tone only Sebastian could hear.
“What was that?” Jude prompted, lifting his dark eyebrows in Benjamin's direction.
“Oh, nothing.”
“I see. Well.” Jude repacked his lunch, even though he had barely eaten any of it, and stashed it back in the paper bag. “I should be getting back to work. It's Monday, so I have a lot to get finished to put my week on a positive trajectory.”
“Is that so?” Benjamin now wrapped his pale arms around Sebastian's shoulders. “I start my work on Sundays before Monday to make sure I have everything prepared for a positive and productive Monday morning.”
“I'm glad you have a production schedule that works for you,” Jude replied, dismissing Benjamin politely. Finally, he looked at Sebastian. “I will see you. I'm glad your mother's doing well.” Without another word, he slipped out of the hospital room, leaving Sebastian alone with Benjamin and his still sleeping mother.
“I don't like him,” Benjamin announced as soon as the door closed. “He thinks he's better than everybody else, and he’s incredibly arrogant.”
“You don't have to like him,” Sebastian said, “but you’re not going to be mean to him, either.”
“I wasn't mean to him. We were having a conversation.”
“Uh-huh.” Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Jude is a nice person, and if you’re going to come around here, you are going to treat him with respect.”
“He wasn’t respectful to me.”
“Yes, he was.”
“How are you going to decide if he was or wasn’t respectful to me? Are you me?”
“He wasn’t disrespectful, and I'm not going to go in circles with you. Either be nice to him or leave.”
“Leave?” Benjamin questioned.
“Yeah, go back to where you came from. Leave. I didn't stutter.”
Benjamin untangled himself from Sebastian, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don't know why you even like him. He seems simple and materialistic, and he’s not the type of guy for you.”
“Again, that's not really your problem. My point is if you’re gonna be here, you have to be nice to him. Listen, Ben, I appreciate you being here and I appreciate you helping me out with my mom, and I appreciate you bringing me something to eat, but you're not going to be mean to my friends because you've decided you don't like them. Alright?”
As Sebastian spoke, Benjamin's features went from manufactured unpleasantness to steaming. “Are you sleeping with him?” Benjamin crossed his arms over his chest. “Is that what this is about?”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Sebastian grunted. “This isn’t a conversation to have right now.”
***
Chapter 5
Sebastian
After having his advances shot down, Benjamin found the hospital suite boring and left soon after Jude, and with both of them gone, Sebastian relaxed in his mother's hospital room. Benjamin's presence had given him a lot to think about, and with him hovering over Sebastian whenever he was at home, it was difficult to have a moment to himself.
When he had first separated from Benjamin, his heart had ached for him, and being alone had been an adjustment. But years later, and with a second chance, he found that he didn't miss his ex-boyfriend as much as he thought he would. He found himself craving Jude's company more and found himself frustrated with Benjamin's presence. Even the high tenor sounds of Benjamin's voice grated Sebastian's nerves.
When the surgery sedatives wore off, his mother cracked her eyes open and peered around the room, gathering her bearings before fixing her attention on her son. She gave him a loving smile.
He returned it, and they sat silently in the room, him to his thoughts and his mother to hers.
He spent Monday night in the hospital, and returned to his house on Tuesday morning, dressing and showering for work as Benjamin danced around him. After their tense words at the hospital, Benjamin's presence had become heavy, and the unsaid words between them lingered in every interaction.
Besides having a slew of work to catch up on, Sebastian's Tuesday was uneventful. He spoke with his brother on his drive to work, and he checked off his to-do list steadily throughout the day. A sense of accomplishment accompanied him as he collapsed in his vehicle at half-past five in the afternoon.
He reluctantly drove home and spent the rest of his evening on the couch, listening to Benjamin recount his day. As Benjamin spoke, Sebastian let his thoughts drift to Jude. With Benjamin, he couldn’t get a word in, and he didn't try, and by the end of the night, he retired to his room and collapsed in his bed, grateful Ben had given up on anything more than a platonic relationship.
Sebastian spent Wednesday morning at his mother's side and the evening driving around the city, still catching up on tasks leftover from the previous day. It wasn’t exciting, but it was necessary. After a quick stop at the hospital on his way home, he entered the small house and kicked off his work boots.
Benjamin had already made himself comfortable on the couch, his laptop over his pale thighs, and his eyes glued to the television, completely immersed in the latest reality show.
“Hey,” Sebastian grunted, unzipping the front of his coveralls and emptying his work pockets, adding an assortment of small supplies to an already cluttered side table.
“Shh. I'm watching the last part of The Bachelor.” Benjamin waved his hand, and Sebastian rolled his eyes, moving from the living room to the kitchen and grabbing a beer from the refrigerator. He cracked it open as Benjamin groaned from the other room, cursing the television and the contestants. As he sipped his beer, his mind wandered to Jude again. They had sent a few correspondences over the last couple days, but nothing serious.
In fact, he hadn't heard from Jude all day, which was disappointing but not unusual. As he opened the refrigerator again and stewed over dinner plans
, his cell phone chimed from the other room.
“Your phone,” Benjamin started, but his words cut off.
“I'll get it in a second,” Sebastian replied, still nursing his beer in the kitchen.
“No need,” Benjamin responded, entering the kitchen and presenting Sebastian's cell phone to him. “It’s Jude, and he's asking about cock cages and chastity belts.” Benjamin offered Sebastian the device.
Sebastian took it and glanced at the screen, studying Jude's bright avatar and his grammatically correct message. It read:
I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm curious as to the difference between cock cages and chastity belts.
At first glance, it could have been construed as innocent, but the smiley face emoji ruined that theory. Sebastian couldn't help a grin as he unlocked his phone and typed a response.
Benjamin stared. “I can't believe this.” He tossed his hands in the air.
“What can you not believe?” Sebastian looked up from his message.
“I can't believe you're responding to this right now. What kind of person asks a stranger about cock cages and chastity belts?”
“Who said we were strangers?”
“Oh, so you’re not strangers?” Benjamin tilted his head. “What are you then? Enlighten me.”
“What we are is none of your business.” Sebastian returned his attention to the cell phone, finishing the message and sending it. It was a brief and cheeky response, and Jude replied instantly with a blushing emoji.
Sebastian chuckled, and Benjamin's anger grew like a puss-filled pimple.
“You’re childish,” Benjamin scoffed. “You know, I was fine with the idea of us just being friends, but I never expected you to throw a new relationship in my face.”
“It’s not a relationship.”
“Right, right. Whatever you choose to call it, but let me tell you something, Sebastian Ward. No one will ever love you like I loved you. I loved you from the beginning when you were a poor little boy with some half-cocked dream and no money.”
Sebastian flicked his gaze up, honing in on Benjamin’s defiant features. Sometimes Benjamin spoke to hurt, and other times he spoke his truth. The difference was always in his eyes. They were cutting and sharp, icy blue when he was throwing stones, but when he was serious, his blue eyes were as clear as the sky.
The Billionaire's Agreement (The Billionaire's Proposal Book 2) Page 3