No copyright infringement intended.
The title of this is stolen from the song by Adele, I think it's very fitting for what's going to happen. I hope you enjoy it.
"How much have you had?" Syed stumbled with Ben as they walked, his arm around Ben's waist supporting him in his drunken state.
"Just a couple of pints," Ben chuckled at his blatant lie. "It's Friday, Syed! Got nothing else to do anyway, not now Hannah's left me. You know Syed, I tried, I tried so hard. Always asking how her day had been, buying her flowers, what more could I have given her?"
Syed prepared himself for the same speech from Ben, which he'd already heard several times since he'd broken up with his girlfriend. He and Ben were good friends; they'd been working together in a property development company since Syed had moved back to London a couple of months ago. The pair of them had spent the evening in the pub with their fellow colleagues and now, as the night approached, Syed was making sure that Ben got home safely after his copious amount of drinking.
A light drizzle was now beginning to fall as they made their way down the high street, and the damp pavement made Ben canon into an expensive looking car as he tripped on a loose slab.
"Hey!" yelled an unamused voice behind them. "You better not have scratched my paintwork."
Syed turned around to see a tall man approaching them in the darkness.
"Maybe you shouldn't have parked your car on double yellows, mate." Ben slurred his words as he grabbed Syed's wrist, "Run!"
Syed had no choice but to be pulled along by Ben, who somehow managed to stay upright as he ran up the road.
"Slow down, Ben," Syed panted, "he's not following us."
Ben skidded to a halt and threw his arm back around Syed's shoulders; his body slumped against the other man's. They turned right at the end of the high street and began making their way towards Ben's home in the next road. The rain was falling heavily now, the sound of it drubbing in Syed's ears, and deep puddles were beginning to form.
The two men stood and waited patiently for a bus to pass, followed by a gleaming black car.
"Aaah!" Syed shrieked as the car splashed through a puddle, covering the two of them in icy water. As they both leapt back, Syed caught a glimpse of bright white teeth as the driver flashed a smug smile at him and then accelerated away.
"That was him, wasn't it?" Ben shivered next to Syed. "The one whose car I fell into. Bastard."
"It was definitely the same car," Syed confirmed. "Some kind of Merc."
"I'm freezing. Come on, probably got something you can change into back at mine."
x-CS-x
Syed was woken the next morning by the sound of his mobile ringing on the bedside table.
"'Ello," he squinted as he turned on the lamp and light flooded the room.
"Did I wake you up? Oh God, sorry!" Syed smiled at Pete's apologetic tone, only his boss would ring him at eight o'clock on a Saturday morning. "Look, I know it's the weekend and you've probably got plans but would you mind coming over to mine? Just for an hour or so. I need to go over the new project that you're going to be in charge of, the client's now decided that he 'needs' it to be finished earlier and I need your help with the plan changes."
"When do you want me?" Syed stifled a yawn as he stretched out his limbs and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"Around twelve okay? We can have a bit of lunch too; I want to hear all about those blokes you've pulled recently!"
"Don't get your hopes up, there's nothing much to say…"
"Alright Mr Coy, I'll see you later."
x-CS-x
Syed arrived at Pete's sprawling country mansion to find papers scattered all over the island worktop in the centre of the kitchen. He looked to Pete for an answer.
"Folder explosion. Stupid bloody thing, binders broke. Just ignore it; we can sort it after lunch, drink? I've just made some coffee."
"Sounds good. What's for lunch?"
"Syed Masood, can you not smell the wonder that is my legendary vegetable soup?" Pete walked over to the Aga and pulled the lid off of a large saucepan, giving the contents a quick stir with a wooden spoon.
"Is that what the smell is?" A cheeky smile played on Syed's lips as he replied.
"Oi! Right, eat first and then we've got to sort out the mess!"
The two men had exchanged pleasant banter as they enjoyed their lunch together. Being part of a relatively small team where they worked, they'd quickly become more than just a boss and his employee when Syed had joined the company. Like Syed, Pete was also gay and they'd found common ground on the issues that they'd both had with their families coming to terms with it. Whilst Syed's family certainly weren't comfortable with the way he was, they tried their hardest to accept it and his sexuality was no longer the elephant in the room.
"So, anyone new recently?" Pete smirked at Syed's annoyed expression as he gathered up their bowls. "That bad eh? I'll have to set you up with someone."
"No! No setting up, especially not with any of your friends. There was one guy actually…" Syed blushed as he spoke.
"Really? Tell me more!" Pete quickly spun around from his position at the dishwasher.
"Don't get too excited, it was just some guy that I met in a bar. Tall, brown hair, quite muscly -"
"And?" Pete interrupted him.
"And nothing, we just chatted for a while, that's all. I gave him my number, but he hasn't rung since."
"Well you're still doing a lot better than I have recently. Anyway, let's stop depressing ourselves about our lack of men. This job is starting to turn into an absolute nightmare. The deadline's been cut by a week, he's decided that he now wants carpet in the living room, not wooden flooring, which is ridiculous because it's open plan downstairs. So that messes up all of our plans with the carpet fitters because they thought they'd only be doing three bedrooms. Oh, and he wants a fireplace in the living room too. I don't think he understands that a fireplace has no place in a warehouse conversion, especially when he wants to put it in the solid brick wall. I've tried to convince him otherwise but he's insistent." Syed listened with his head in his hands as Pete ranted.
"And I'm going to working with this man? He sounds like a pretentious nightmare."
"No, he's -", their conversation was disturbed by the sound of the doorbell. "Sorry, probably Jehovah's, give me a sec."
"Do you mind if I use your bathroom?"
"Go ahead, you know where it is." Pete breezed out of the room as Syed headed to the toilet.
Syed returned to the kitchen to find the most disconcertingly good-looking man he'd ever seen, leaning against the Aga, his arms crossed in front of him. His face was tanned, emphasising the whiteness of his teeth. His biceps bulged out of a tight-fitting grey T-shirt and his long legs were clad in simple denim jeans.
"Syed, meet the 'pretentious nightmare', and my very good friend, Christian Clarke."
A devastating grin spread across Christian's face as he extended a hand to Syed.
"Lovely to meet you," Syed felt as though an electric shock went through him as his hand touched Christian's, when he breathed in he smelled a mixture of natural musk and aftershave. Christian lingered on Syed's face as they broke their contact.
"You know, something about you reminds me of something…"
Pete tittered and rolled his eyes, "You really are unbelievable, Christian. You've only just met the guy and you're already chatting him up."
"I'm being serious… for a change." But Christian's laugh said otherwise and Syed wasn't sure whether to believe him or not.
"Anyway, I only popped in to say that I've changed my mind about the carpet in the living room. I don't want you to have an aneurism so we'll stick with the wooden flooring, it better be good quality wood though." Christian was addressing Pete now, who exhaled an obvious sigh of relief. He now turned his attention to Syed, "I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of each other." The playful glint in his eye suggested he was well aware of the double entendre. Syed was also aware of something else happening, when Christian looked at him it felt as though all of his attention was on him, when he spoke to him it seemed as though all he cared about was Syed's answer.
Good trick.
Of course, it was also the sign of a champion seducer. Syed could imagine Christian never had any shortage of men.
Christian turned for a final time as he left the kitchen, with a wink he spoke, "See you soon, Syed."
After he'd gone, Syed said, "Well he thinks he's God's gift, doesn't he?"
Pete looked amused. "Christian's alright. To be fair to him, most of the guys round here treat him as though he's irresistible. He'll make a play for you, don't worry about that. Don't get your hopes up though; you've got no chance of having a relationship with him. Strictly no-strings. There are so many notches on his bedpost that there's barely any bedpost left."
As if Syed would ever be attracted to Christian anyway. He wasn't his type at all. Syed said bluntly, "Believe me, there's no chance of me going anywhere near him. Especially if he uses chat-up lines like -"
The kitchen door swung open and Christian re-entered the room. He raised his hands apologetically.
"Sorry, sorry!" From the grin on Christian's face it was obvious that he'd overheard every single word. "It's just that I've realised where I recognise you from." He was looking at Syed now. "Your friend threw himself over the bonnet of my car."
"Oh God." Syed mumbled under his breath. "That was your car?"
"Yep, my brand new, just out of the showroom, car." Christian's toned was that of feigned annoyance.
"Hey, don't chastise me; I'm sure Ben didn't do any damage."
"Is Ben your boyfriend?" Christian had a cheeky twinkle in his eye.
"Why do you assume that I'm gay?" Syed was well aware that his tone and body language were borderline flirty, but he realised that he was beyond caring.
"I'm a very clever man."
Syed let that comment go, "Anyway, you got your own back. Splashing us with the puddle."
"I'm very sorry for that. At least you know now that I wasn't spinning you a line. I knew I remembered you from somewhere."
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