Chapter Seven

If there was one thing in the world that Eggsy hated, truly hated, then it was bullshit.

He'd dealt with nothing but bullshit his entire life, from family to teachers, and he was tired of it.

That was why he hated Harry fucking Hart for being so unnecessarily cryptic and he would be damned before he let Charlie do the same thing to him.

He'd tried, he really had, to let Charlie figure out his problems on his own but he and Eggsy were supposedly linked now, and the things Charlie was going through inadvertently affected him and Eggsy had given him long enough to sort himself out but nothing had changed. Now he was pissed, and he wanted answers.

Eggsy ran his pantheon of questions through his mind as he ignored the disapproving look of the doorman when he jabbed the lift button a little harder than necessary.

Were they still together? Why had he been ignoring him? Who beat him up? Not to mention Eggsy's personal favourite: what the fuck is going on?

Eggsy knocked loudly on Charlie's door and bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for the door to open.

He half-feared that the editor was going to slam the door in his face the moment he saw him but as the seconds ticked by and Eggsy lost the adrenalin rush that had brought him there, he started to doubt if he would even open the door at all.

Just when Eggsy decided to abandon his mission, the door was opened and Charlie was stood there.

He looked immensely better than he had done the last time Eggsy had seen him. His face actually had a little colour in it and the bruise on his eye had turned from an aggressive purple to a mottled brown. He was smiling softly and suddenly looked exactly like his own self again.

"Eggsy," he said, "I'm...glad you came round, actually. I've been meaning to call."

Eggsy let out an internal sigh of relief. Maybe he'd just been imagining things? Perhaps all Charlie really needed was a few days on his own to heal and to come to terms with what had happened.

Eggsy shut his eyes in embarrassment as he realised his mistake.

"Sorry," he found himself saying when he opened them and looked up at Charlie, "I've...I've had a stressful couple of days, I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I really, really appreciate it." He said, opening the door wide to allow Eggsy to walk inside. "I'm sorry I've been so distant these last few days...I was just trying to gather myself."

Eggsy leant gingerly against the couch as Charlie shut the door behind him and followed him into the living room.

"What happened?" Eggsy asked after a moment. "Who hurt you? I've never seen you so freaked out about anythin' before."

Charlie gave him a shallow, embarrassed smile as he itched the back of his neck, probably more for distraction than anything else.

"Listen, Eggsy, I don't really want to talk about it..."

"I get that." Eggsy interrupted him quickly. "I proper get it, trust me, but maybe you need to talk about it, yeah? You can't keep yourself cooped up in here all day on your own, it ain't healthy. You were attacked."

"Who said he was on his own?"

Eggsy's eyes widened as he turned his head to the source of the noise, an attractive young man with nothing but his underwear on walked out out the open bedroom door, slipping an arm around Charlie's waist and grinning cockily at Eggsy.

Charlie's face fell into his hands and he didn't react to the arm around him.

Eggsy stared at the scantily clad man for several long moments, mind completely blank, until Charlie looked tentatively back up at him through his fringe.

It was something Eggsy had always found adorable but now it only served to make him feel sick.

His stomach twisted painfully and a wave of anxiety cascaded over him but he forced himself to stand his ground, thrusting out his chin and crossing his arms.

"You've been seein' someone else?" He said quietly.

"Actually, Darren and I have been seeing each other for a few months." Charlie replied, voice wavering as he spoke.

Eggsy bit his tongue, hard, to stop the moisture from gathering in his eyes as he turned quickly and bolted for the door.

"No, Eggsy, wait...!" Charlie called after him.

Eggsy turned back to see Charlie wrestling his way out of 'Darren's' grip and slipped out of the door before he could catch up to him.

He covered his face with his hands as he heard the apartment door open and close and suddenly he and Charlie were stood alone in the corridor.

"Eggsy, please," Charlie began desperately, "I really, really like you, and we were just having some fun, I didn't want you to find out this way."

Eggsy whipped around quickly, startling the older man.

"Just fuck off," Eggsy said loudly, "and stay gone. Don't ever fucking come near me again."

Charlie remained silent as Eggsy thumbed the lift button and stepped inside. When he was alone, he allowed himself to fall against the cool metal of the lift and the pain in his stomach suddenly became unbearable.

He clutched at his abdomen as hot, fresh tears slid rebelliously down his cheeks.

He attempted to scrub his face dry as he stepped out of the lift and walked passed the door man.

He stuffed all the raw pain deep inside of himself as he made his way home, refusing to make a scene out on the street and wishing for the comfort of his own flat where he could shout and scream and no one could tell him to stop.

The relief Eggsy felt when he rested against his door was short lived as the horrible feeling washed over him again before he could stop it.

By the time he reached his bed, he was crying again. Loud, racking sobs he was unused to.

He buried his face into his pillow to try and calm himself until he felt movement beside him and something started licking at his hand.

Eggsy lifted his head slightly and saw JB nuzzling into his fingers, he smiled through his tears as he clambered into a sitting position and gathered the small creature onto his lap.

Eggsy stroked up and down JB's soft back as the torrent of tears began to thin out and his breathing slowed considerably.

As he calmed, he considered phoning his mother or Roxy for support but immediately decided against it because the last thing he wanted to do in that moment was talk about what he'd just seen.

He couldn't pinpoint what was upsetting him the most, the fact that he'd really cared about Charlie and now he'd lost him, or the fact that he'd been made a fool out of, that he'd allowed himself to be vulnerable and all of his affection had been thrown back into his face.

His stomach gurgled uncomfortably and Eggsy sighed loudly, aware of the subsequent irritable bowel pain that was surely to follow.

After a few long moments of listening to his stomach complaining at him, Eggsy reached across the bed and grabbed his diary.

He opened it immediately but as he looked down at the blank page he realised he had nothing to say.

He wasn't capable of the words needed to express the level of shit he felt in that moment, and suddenly the diary in his palm seemed to become a mascot of his loneliness rather than a cure for it.

He put the diary back on his bedside table and cuddled JB closer before closing his eyes.

Eggsy didn't leave his flat once that weekend.

He knew it probably wasn't healthy, isolating yourself in the way that he was, but he supposed a wounded ego deserved a few days off.

He had simply resolved to settle on the living room floor with his duvet cover and marathon-watch 24.

He ordered pizza but if he were being totally honest with himself, he'd ordered more ice cream dessert than actual pizza but no one had to know that. He was halfway through a tub of mint chocolate chip when his phone began to ring.

His stomach flipped as he worried for a moment it might be Charlie trying to get a hold of him but was relieved to see that it was only Roxy.

"Hey," he said when he'd picked up, shoveling another spoonful into his mouth.

"You sound really bloody cheery," she said accusingly from the other end. "Is everything okay?"

Eggsy toyed with the idea of telling her what had happened but realised that he didn't want to think about it at all, let alone put her through it.

"No." He said. "Bored, that's all."

"Oh, okay. I was just wondering what was going on with the new manuscript. Merlin was telling me he needed source material but according to David the thing hasn't even been edited yet, the deadline is in a couple of months. I'm not fucking doing 'a day in the life of' again."

"I don't know, Rox," Eggsy replied glumly, "I haven't heard anythin' about it. I s'pose we'll find out at the staff meetin' tomorrow."

"Yes, I suppose. Oh well. I wanted to try and get some work done today, at least. It hasn't been a very productive week. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow." Eggsy replied before he hung up and put his phone down.

He rubbed his tired eyes as he contemplated whether or not he would have to find another job because of what had happened with Charlie but the thought made him feel instantly sick.

Dear diary

have decided will not quit job, short of Charlie firing me I'm gonna stay where I am

I love my job, wouldn't leave it for the world + I got myself in this mess for shagging the boss in the first place, will just go on as I am

will suck for a bit but will have to find a way to deal with it

have lived through worse

….

The ingenious plan the assistant advertiser had come up with to try and get over Charlie's betrayal was to put as much distance between himself and his boss as he possibly could until his stomach stopped growling at him every time he thought about it.

He realised that that probably wasn't the best game plan he'd ever come up with but he couldn't very well spend the rest of his life in his flat being depressed and eating ice cream. It wasn't healthy, physically or emotionally, and would probably result in the law forcing him to trade in JB for a litter of cats.

Besides, sometimes time was the best healer, that's what his mum had always said, and he supposed he just had to have faith that everything would work out somehow.

Although even Eggsy had to admit that his distancing tactic hadn't gotten off to a smooth start when the first thing he'd done on Monday morning was attend a staff meeting.

He and Roxy grabbed a couple coffees and walked together to the conference room, as they always did, and took their seats next to the two sales and marketing representatives Eggsy still didn't know the names of.

He said hello to Maggie and to Sheila and his eyes lingered on the empty seat next to Merlin for a moment until Charlie walked into the room.

Eggsy's eyes hit the floor as Charlie took a seat at the head of the table but quickly realised that he couldn't spend the entire meeting staring at the fibres in the carpet.

Charlie looked a little worse for wear and Eggsy liked to think perhaps he was paying for losing the best thing in his life, but the main thing that struck his attention was the fact that his black eye seemed to have disappeared.

Either he had regenerative qualities or he was covering it with make-up.

Make-up, Eggsy reasoned.

"Now, listen, everyone," Charlie began, "I'm not sure how many of you have noticed but over the last few months, the company has...lost quite a bit of money."

Eggsy saw Merlin quite obviously roll his eyes at Roxy, who grinned back.

"Yes, we've all felt it." Charlie continued, having apparently missed the sarcastic exchange. "We've lost a few people in our advertising department and lost a couple of publication spots...to put in straight, we don't have the money to continue anymore."

There was silence around the table and Eggsy's eyes widened in horror.

"We don't have the money..." Merlin began, sitting forward. "What does that mean? Are you closing down the company?"

"Not at all." Charlie said quickly. "No, nothing like that. I'm just saying we cannot support ourselves anymore so...Hesketh Publishing is going to be working as a subordinate under another publishing agency, a bigger, more powerful publishing agency. I'll still be the boss, but there will be a higher authority that can affectively tell us what to do."

"And sack whoever they want." Maggie chipped in from across the table.

"Or just downright shut us down if they want." One of the sales guys chipped in.

"They're not going to do that," Charlie insisted, "I've had initial conferences with the editor and they've said they have no intention of shutting us down. If anything, this is a big opportunity for our esteemed publishing agency. Over the next few months, we'll work towards a merging of the two companies and I think it will really help to get everyone from every department involved. That is why I think it prudent, Merlin -" he turned to the senior advertiser as he spoke - "should represent us at their next company gala dinner."

Eggsy watched as Merlin's jaw set and it felt like a light bulb was going off in his brain. Ever since he'd started working at Hesketh, everyone had told him Charlie always palmed off his work to Harry in some way or another, Eggsy hadn't believed them or simply brushed it off but now Charlie was palming off his work to the next senior in the company, namely Merlin.

Eggsy felt a wave of hatred towards his boss wash over him and he suddenly realised that getting over him wasn't going to be as hard as he had thought.

Eggsy had once thought that Hesketh was a family, and he still did, but Charlie was not part of that family; Merlin was.

"Surely you should be doing that?" Eggsy found himself saying in a surprisingly hard voice.

Everyone sat around the table, including Charlie, stared at him. Eggsy kept his expression cold as Charlie's wavering eyes remained trained on him.

"I don't have the time." Charlie said quickly. "I have editing to do, now that I don't have an assistant with me, my work load has just doubled."

Eggsy wanted to say more, to ask the man what poor sod would really be doing his job for him and exactly who he'd be shagging when he was supposed to be working but he bit his tongue and crossed his arms.

Roxy sent a questioning glance in his direction and he raised his eyebrow in response, hoping it effectively conveyed a message of 'I'll tell you later.'

Roxy, Merlin and Eggsy stood together outside of the conference room and when everyone else had filed away, Roxy rounded on him.

"What was that all about?" She asked.

Eggsy looked at the pair of them staring intently at him and licked his lips slightly.

"Charlie is a dick," Eggsy finally voiced. "All he does is fuck people around, I got tired of lettin' him get away with it. Besides, it's not like he's gonna be our proper boss for much longer."

Merlin laughed as he clapped Eggsy on the back.

"I was wondering when you were going to see Charlie's true colours, I'm glad you're with the programme. I appreciate you standing up for me the way you did back there, I really don't want to represent us at a bloody gala dinner."

"Why don't we come?" Roxy voiced, gesturing to Eggsy. "I mean, why not? Hesketh together, and all that."

Merlin smiled gratefully at the pair of them.

"You wouldn't mind?" He asked.

"Not at all," Eggsy said immediately. "I mean, I don't even know what a gala dinner is but I'm sure we'll struggle through."

"And look damn good doing it." Roxy chipped in, causing the three of them to laugh.

"I can't believe Hesketh is going under, though." Eggsy voiced after a moment.

"I can." Merlin said. "Charlie had no fucking clue how to run a business, it was only a matter of time. But at least the company stays together rather than falls apart. This 'superior company' thing is actually a pretty good idea."

"How would that even work?" Roxy asked. "I'm not sure I understand."

"Basically, Hesketh would pretty much carry on as is, but we'd be a part of this other publishing agency. Kingsman, I think Charlie said. We'd get all of our manuscripts from them and work to their schedule. But it might be nice to be subordinate to an editor who knows what they're doing."

"Kingsman." Eggsy echoed, frowning. "Never heard of them."

"No, me either." Roxy voiced. "Are they new?"

"Not at all." Merlin shook his head. "Very high up, very esteemed. But old, probably why you squirts haven't heard of them before."

Roxy and Eggsy frowned in unison at being called 'squirts' and Merlin chuckled.