Someone Like You

by Max Hudson

  “It just kind of happened. I don’t know why.” He groaned in frustration.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know.” Killian shook his head. “There is just something about this guy. If I get too close, I lose my mind.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  She frowned. “What do you think it is?”

  Killian sighed. “I don’t know.”

  “You can’t honestly think that you’re in love with this guy. Love at first sight doesn’t exist.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  Erika gave him a pointed look. She wasn’t going to have any of his nonsense. He should have known that already. She wasn’t the type to suffer fools. And he was acting like a fool. “I’m sorry, but I don’t believe that. You know what you’re feeling and you’re crazy for it.”

  “I’m sorry.” He frowned. “I can’t help it.”

  “You absolutely can help it. You’re an adult and he works for you. Do you have any idea how much trouble that can get you into? What if something happens?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like what if you two break up and then it ends up with him suing you or something.”

  He crossed his arms, ready to stand up to what she was telling him. Normally he didn’t get defensive, but this conversation was definitely bringing it out in him. He hated it but wasn’t going to stamp down those feelings. “Do you really think that’s likely to happen? Come on. He’s a good guy. I would say that he’s a great guy.”

  “You don’t really know him.” She wasn’t backing down.

  “I think I know him better than you do.” He snorted.

  “Neither of us really know him.” She snorted and waved her arms around in a vague fashion, trying to indicate the entire world around her. “This is America. People will sue over literally everything. You’re in a position of power over him and it’s not cool for you to do any of this.”

  “What do you think we should do?” Killian frowned. “I don’t even know how to fix this. Do I just back off?”

  “That’s exactly what you need to do. You’re his boss. You can’t be seeing one of your employees.”

  Killian frowned. “I’ll talk to him.”

  “You do that.”

  “He’s working late tonight.”

  “Good. Talk to him, clear all of this up. Explain that you can’t date employees, that it isn’t fair to anyone.” She nodded as she was listing all the things that he was doing wrong. He reminded himself that she had been hired because she was very good at her job. “You need to step up and do something about it. I can’t fix this problem for you.”

  “Shouldn’t we focus more on the fact that we just had a break-in?”

  “We should leave that to the cops.” She shook her head. “That’s their job.”

  “I can’t ask him to leave now. We have to fix all the stuff that they broke.” He shook his head. “I’ll talk to him after we finish all the work involved.”

  “Don’t get to close to him in the meantime.” Her lips were pursed with anger.

  “I’m not going to. I’ll talk to him. Maybe we can find some sort of solution for this.”

  “Sure.” She nodded. “You need to do something soon, though. You can’t keep avoiding this. It’s going to bite you in the ass.”

  He was taken aback. She didn’t curse at him. “I just seem to be disappointing you left and right lately.”

  “I know, I shouldn’t be yelling at you like I’m your mother.”

  “You make a great mom, though.” He cracked a smile, hoping that he could make her laugh.

  It worked and she smirked. “Yeah, I know, but I would have to have time to date.”

  “I give you time off.”

  “I know, but Mom has been having trouble in hospice.”

  “She still sick?” Killian frowned.

  “Cancer came back. She’s living with me now.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “Because I still need to work.”

  Killian sighed. “So that’s what’s got you in this mood. If you need the time, take it.” He shook his head and she walked out of the room without much more to say. He felt bad for the young woman, but he had other things on his mind at the same time. He wanted to help her out but knew that the best thing he could do was talk to Jared.

  He checked his watch. It was starting to get a little later, about time for most of the crew to take off for the day. That meant that they were going to break for an hour or two to eat and relax then come back in to work all the extra hours that fixing the damage was going to take. He sighed. It was time to talk to him. He had to go see him. Maybe he could catch the man before he left the theatre to go pick up food.

  Killian left the office and made his way through the hallways of the theatre. These were places viewers didn’t get to see and it let him navigate the area quickly. He liked that about the theatre, so many hidden parts to make the entire thing run smoothly, people could be running around fixing things while the play was going on and the audience would never know. There was always so much activity around when it was going on. He stopped for a second in the middle of a thin hallway that led from the offices behind the ticket area and into the backstage area. He could go back and forth and never have to see a member of the audience once. It had been used many times over the years and that showed in the walls that had been worn smooth by age and the old carpet that you could trace the trail of people walking down.

  He snapped back to attention as his hand brushed against the wall of the theatre that he loved. He was on a mission. He had to do something before it was too late to take the action that needed to be done.

  The workshop was mostly empty except for the sound of a single hammer. Killian snaked around the half-fixed set pieces toward the sound. He worked up some sort of excuse in case it wasn’t Jared there, but didn’t end up needing it. Jared was there, working on that staircase that he had already lovingly crafted once.

  “Hey.” His voice was quiet and unsure.

  “What’s up?” Jared looked up with a smile. He must have already recognized the man’s voice.

  “I think we need to talk.”

  “About what?”

  Killian sighed. “About us, I guess.”

  “Yeah? What about it? Did I do something wrong?” Jared’s face fell.

  Killian shook his head. “You didn’t but I did.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Things are a little difficult now. We know that. And it’s not right for me to be dating one of my employees. Or… you know, whatever it is you would call what we’ve been doing.”

  Jared stopped for a second and looked around the area.

  “It’s empty.” Killian knew what he was checking on and answered the question. “I’m sorry. I just had to clear some things up, you know?”

  Jared stepped a little closer. “I’m sorry if I put you on the spot.”

  “You didn’t put me on the spot. I put me on the spot. I’m supposed to be professional and this is my responsibility.”

  “So, what do you want to do about it?”

  Killian frowned. “I don’t know what to do about it, not really. I’m kind of stuck between two shitty choices.”

  “Between me finding another job so you can date me and me working here so that you can’t?”

  “Yeah.”

  “None of that really sounds like something I’d like to do,” Jared admitted. “I guess we need to talk about that.” He wiped his hands on a spare rag that was lying around. The man’s jeans were paint spattered. He must have been helping with a different set piece earlier. That was pretty common, leaving an individual project to help finish the last bits of another one. And the whole crew had been pulling together all day.

  Killian nodded. He had been thinking the same thing.

  “I guess we have to decide what we want more.”

  “I’m not going to fire you.”
r />   “I didn’t think that you were.” Jared laughed. He seemed to find the suggestion amusing at least. There was a certain sparkle to the man’s eye when he laughed. It made Killian want to melt away right there and screw all of the people that said the right way to handle employees that you were attracted to. “I really don’t think that you’re that kind of guy. And if you were, I know that I don’t really want to be with you anyway.” He shrugged. “I mean who would want to date a guy that fired him.”

  “I guess that’s right.” Killian nodded. “Do you have any ideas?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I can start looking for a new job. No promises that I’ll make one that pays the bills right away, but I’ll try.”

  Killian drew in a heavy breath. “And afterward?”

  “I guess we’ll see if we both feel the same way.” He glanced down at his feet.

  Killian looked away too. He wasn’t happy with the solution, but so far it seemed to be the best one for them. “I can give you a good reference. Maybe even ask around if someone is hiring?”

  “Yeah, that would be good. I kind of stumbled on this job, and I don’t want to just leave it. I kind of need to keep a job.”

  Killian nodded. “I wasn’t going to ask you to do something like that, it would be wrong.”

  “And we’ll just have to behave until I get a different job.”

  “Yeah.” Part of Killian didn’t want Jared to find a new job. As it was the man was around every single day, but he knew that it was just initial infatuation kicking in. He wanted to spend all his hours near Jared. If Jared was working there that was a possibility, but if the guy worked in another playhouse it wasn’t so possible.

  “Maybe you can find acting work.”

  “Maybe, but that kind of work is hard to get, and we both know that.” He frowned.

  Killian noticed the odd way that the man reacted to that statement and couldn’t help but ask about it. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “That’s a lie.”

  Jared turned back around to check the stability of the new work that he just put onto the staircase. “I guess I’ve just been thinking a lot about what you said. I really enjoy working with my hands, maybe I just want to go into set design.”

  “You’re pretty good at it, and it’s good solid work all over the place.”

  “I know.” Jared nodded. “From what you were saying, I was worried that fame just isn’t for me.”

  “You should give it a shot at least.” Killian shook his head. “I got burned hard, sure, but you may enjoy it. I didn’t mean to scare you about it.”

  “You didn’t. I just hadn’t thought about that before. I was so caught up in the dream, you know?”

  “Yeah, I get it.” Killian nodded. “It’s hard to realize some harsh truths about dreams. I know that I wasn’t prepared for it when my dream came true.”

  “But you still want to be close to it, right?”

  Killian nodded. “That’s why I went to the theatre. Sure, people still know me and stuff, but it’s not as hard when I’m not in a blockbuster movie every year.”

  “You were at the top of your game, that’s what everyone said about you. And then you just announced that you were retiring from the screen. I was actually kind of sad that I wasn’t going to see you on the screen anymore.” Jared smiled.

  “You aren’t the first one that I’ve heard that from.” Killian laughed. “I hear it all the time. And a bunch of people were still sending me scripts.”

  “Do they still do it?”

  “It’s slowed down a lot.” He shrugged. “People have accepted that I’ve retired.”

  Jared nodded and leaned against the staircase. The thing didn’t even creak this time. “Yeah. So. That’s the plan then? I’m going to look for a new job and then we’ll figure out where all of this goes?”

  “Sadly, I can’t go and leave my job, or I would do the same for you.”

  “You still own the place.”

  “I could sell it?” Killian didn’t want to sell it. He loved this place, but he was willing to make the offer. Part of it was a test to see how Jared would react.

  “You’re not selling this place. You love it. This is your baby.” Jared shook his head. “The logical choice is that I find something else and we’ll figure out where we are since we can’t seem to keep our hands off of each other.”

  “I just want to make sure that we don’t have any bad blood.”

  “None.”

  “Good, because…” The retired actor thought about it for a second. “I guess I can tell you this. There’s an audition next week for a new play that we’re going to be putting on here. They could use a lead actor.”

  “I’m not sure I’m good enough to get that kind of part yet.” Jared shook his head. “But I’ll figure something out. Don’t worry so much. Things like this, they tend to work themselves out.”

  “Are you sure?’

  “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  Killian nodded. He didn’t want to walk away, but there wasn’t much more to be said. He knew he was going to leave before something else happened and they were interrupted by all the guys coming back from dinner. “Yeah. All right. Well, I’ll let you get back to work, ok?”

  “I should do that, yeah.” Jared nodded.

  They were stalling, trying to find the right way to say goodbye, but neither of them moved. Instead, they shared a moment of silence, like it was the end of a possibility, something that could have been great.

  Chapter Nine

  Jared paced in the living room. Harry wasn’t home yet, so he didn’t have anyone to talk to. Not that he even knew how to discuss this sort of thing. Everything about Killian was sexy and filled with everything that he wanted. But to do that, he was going to have to give up so much. He was going to have to sacrifice.

  It was a surprise when he came home to an empty apartment. He had worked until after eight in the evening trying to get the work caught up at the shop, and it had taken him over an hour to navigate the subway system and get back to his apartment.

  That meant that Harry had to be out doing something. He was probably out at the bar. The man had been going there a couple of times a week since he hadn’t been able to find a job.

  He checked his phone every so often, but he didn’t know if he was hoping that Killian was going to message him or not. There was a part of him on both sides of that internal debate. Killian could tell him that it was all going to be all right. That they would be able to figure it all out.

  The other part of him knew that it would be more difficult if Killian said those words. Or if Killian was going to make the decision to drop him and leave him without a job. He knew that Killian would be afraid of getting sued if he randomly fired Jared. Especially after what had happened, but Jared wouldn’t have sued the man. He couldn’t sue the man. There was nothing in the world that could change his mind on that. It was just wrong to do so. He had been a consenting adult and he felt strongly about Killian.

  He was certain that Killian felt strongly about him as well. He could see it in the man’s eyes. He could feel it in the way that smoldering touch lingered on his skin after they pulled apart both times. Even in the midst of the fear they had needed to touch each other more, holding each other for comfort as they spoke to the police.

  Jared was a little worried about that, but it didn’t seem to be a huge problem yet, they were still able to pay their bills.

  He didn’t look up from his pacing until he heard the door open. If Harry had been at the bar, the man must have come home early.

  “Hey!” Jared’s roommate was practically shouting as he walked into the front room.

  Jared played at cleaning out his ears. “What’s up?”

  Harry was grinning widely. It didn’t look like he would stop smiling if the world were going to inevitably crash down around him. “I got the call! The call!” Harry was practically bounding. “I got hired for that job.”

  “Oh, that’
s great!” Jared forgot all about his troubles. He could worry about that stuff later. Right now, he had to celebrate with his best friend. They embraced tightly. “I can’t believe it. What part did you get?”

  “Well, I got a supporting role, one with a decent number of lines and a few focused speaking scenes. So, it’s going to be awesome!” Harry grinned.

  “I can’t believe you managed to pull that off, man. That’s really solid. And so soon too.”

  “Mhm. It’s going to be here in New York, so I’ll be commuting a lot.”

  “Which playhouse?”

  “Well, the one that you’re working for.”

  That hit Jared like a kick in the gut. Everything that had happened came back to kick him in the gut. But it wasn’t the right time to talk about it. “We should go to celebrate. This is great news.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I don’t know. It’s your celebration. You pick whatever you want to do.” Jared forced a grin onto his face. He had to be happy. He would be a terrible friend to do anything other than that if it wasn’t a life or death situation.” Jared’s smile grew more real. “Did you want to go to that bar again?”

  “Nah, not there again. I would rather just order dinner in. I don’t feel like going out again.”

  Jared nodded. “Sure. What do you want?”

  “Pizza.” Harry nodded.

  “I should have known.”

  Harry laughed loudly. “I’m just a little tired, that’s all. It’s been a long day and a lot of paperwork and orienting to this new thing.”

  “But it’s awesome,” Jared smirked. “You sure you don’t want to go out and have some fun? I can stay home if you don’t want a wingman.”

  “Nah, I’m just kind of tired. It’s been a really long day.” Harry was still grinning though. The man was happy and excited about the way that his life had gone. Jared couldn’t find any sort of fault in that. “All right. How was your day? Any more time with the hot boss?”

  Jared sighed. “A little bit.”

  Harry’s smile faded. “What happened?”