Work Text:
Eduardo’s cell phone rings as he’s leaving campus. He looks at the display and smiles as he presses answer. “Hi.”
Mark says, “Hi. Where are you?”
“Sorry? And shouldn’t you be in bed right now? Or am I getting the time difference wrong?” Mark’s been in Asia for the past three weeks; he’s in India at the moment.
He can hear the amusement in Mark’s voice. “They cancelled the last meeting yesterday. I thought I’d get an earlier flight back.”
“Oh.”
“I’m not expecting you to pick me up from the airport, Eduardo. I was just letting you know so you could come to the house. Unless you’re there now?”
“I’m actually… look, I’ll be there in a few hours, okay? I’m just in the middle of something right now, and I need to drop by my apartment on the way back.”
Mark is silent for a moment before saying, “Sure. I’ll see you later then.”
“Yeah, of course.” Eduardo hangs up.
Tony and Amy are grinning at him. Tony says, “Uh oh, the boyfriend’s back. Quick study session this afternoon then.”
“Do you mind?” Eduardo asks. They had already moved the study-session because Eduardo had to meet James from his internship on the day before. He feels bad but: “It’s just…”
“It’s just that it’s been three weeks,” Amy says. “We know, we know. Come on then, late lunch called on account of billionaire boyfriend. Can we at least get some good coffee before we have to go through the presentation again?”
It’s been not quite three weeks, because Mark was supposed to be home tomorrow. Eduardo forces himself to nod and says, “Yes, of course, coffee first. I’m buying.”
They finish the prep work and Eduardo pays it his full attention because this is important. Then he tries to make a polite goodbye and presumably doesn’t fool anyone – he’s still ducking away from knowing smirks. Eduardo gets the bus back to his apartment and then a cab to Mark’s place.
Mark is on the phone, which gives Eduardo the time to walk through into the kitchen and put the stuff into the fridge. He had made plans.
He hears Mark saying, “Yeah, I’ve got to go now, Wardo’s here.” Mark glares at no one in particular. “Yeah, well, you too.”
Eduardo walks back into the living room.
Mark looks at him. “Hi.”
“Hi. Sorry about the… we had a study session for the presentation on Monday. Tony wanted to go over the PowerPoint. And I had all this stuff in my apartment, because I was going to cook you dinner tomorrow for you getting back and then-.”
“Eduardo.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s possible I missed you too. Now, were you still planning on cooking tonight or…?”
“Or. Definitely or.”
“Okay.” Mark reaches out his hand and it’s been eight months but sometimes it still takes Eduardo that half-second to remember that this is okay. Eduardo is allowed to grab hold of Mark’s hand and smile back.
Mark stands up and Eduardo tugs, just a little, so they bump together. Mark smells of himself, and of the airplane. The soft ends of his hair brush against Eduardo’s ear. It’s been almost three weeks and Eduardo feels like he should say the words. “I missed you.”
Mark smirks. “I thought we established that already.”
“Still,” Eduardo says. They’d spent a long time not saying the words, this is important. It’s important because Mark is hard against his thigh so maybe Mark had missed him too.
“Still,” Mark echoes, and pulls him towards the bedroom. “Follow me.”
It’s dark in here, and a little stuffy, though Eduardo has come by to water Mark’s few plants and to bring in the mail.
Mark looks at him. “I thought you were going to stay over here?”
“I said I might. It’s weird, without you here.”
Mark looks at him then, like he wants to ask more questions. He touches Eduardo’s cheek, cups his face. “I gave you a key,” is all he says, before they are kissing, finally. There is late sunshine, outside behind the blinds, and Mark is home early and this is one more day than he thought they would get. This is the part that matters.
They still get tangled together trying to get each other’s clothes off. They should be better at it by now but it’s always a mess: Mark is direct and focussed and willing to take his time looking; Eduardo is always in a rush, hunting for skin.
Eventually they are mostly naked and Mark looks at him. “So? What do you…?” Mark is still nervous about this part: asking Eduardo to do, or asking Eduardo to let Mark do.
There is no let but today Eduardo turns Mark over on the bed and kisses him, stupidly happy with the noise Mark makes. He’s never going to get tired of this.
Mark squirms and shifts underneath him. Eduardo says, “Miss me?” and means it as a tease but it doesn’t come out that way.
“Of course I did.” Mark blinks, confused.
Eduardo scrabbles in the drawer beside Mark’s bed. “Okay then,” he says. “Just lie there for a minute.”
People think Mark’s expression doesn’t change, and they’re wrong, of course, but some of these changes Eduardo doesn’t want to share with anyone. He watches them as he opens Mark up and crooks his fingers.
Mark breathes wet gasps into the side of Eduardo’s arm, his hips jerking up. “Wait,” Eduardo says. “Just a little longer.” Because he can do this now. Take Mark right to the edge before saying, “Okay, okay.” And then: “I love you.” Mark says it back with a groan, right before Eduardo rolls on the condom and pushes into him.
They lie together on the bed afterwards, and Mark is clearly suffering from the jetlag but he turns to Eduardo again to say, “I did miss you.”
“Yeah,” Eduardo says. “Me too.”
Mark smiles and grips onto Eduardo’s hand, where it is resting on Mark’s hip. They doze like that for a little while. Mark gets up to order takeout – they eat it in front of the television and a movie, before going back to bed again. Mark falls asleep right away, tired from the travelling. Eduardo watches him sleep, while the numbers on the clock change slowly.
* * * *
When Eduardo wakes up, Mark is already gone. Eduardo smiles; he had wondered how Mark managed to come back to the house first yesterday.
There is coffee in the pot, though Mark barely drinks it, and a note stuck to the fridge: Back later Mx
It’s just gone ten and ‘later’ could mean anything between lunch and midnight. Eduardo showers and gets dressed, thinks about it for a moment, and grabs his books. It’s a short bus journey and a shorter walk afterwards.
At the offices, Eduardo is waved through security and Vanessa grins at him when he gets to Mark’s door.
Eduardo asks, “Does he have any meetings today?”
“Nope. We had been hoping he might wait until after the weekend to come back in to start harassing us again. But apparently three weeks without leaning over the programmers’ shoulders is three weeks too many.”
“Yeah?” Eduardo asks, smiling. “So why are you guys all here anyway?”
She shifts in her chair, looking away from him. They all pretend that Mark is the only workaholic here, but this place gets to you. Vanessa says, “There’s some follow-up to be done, after his trip.” As though there hadn’t been a team of other people, including Chris, out there with Mark every step of the day.
Eduardo gives up and goes to knock on Mark’s door before walking in. Mark is wired in, so Eduardo doesn’t disturb him. He just stretches out on the couch with his notes and his new laptop. (Eduardo had allowed Mark to give him that one, after the month Mark spent staring at Eduardo’s second-hand Dell and scowling.)
He’s startled when Mark touches his shoulder. “Hey.”
“Hi,” Eduardo says. “Did you get lunch?”
Mark’s tongue pokes between his lips. He says, “I was going to ask you that.”
Eduardo puts his notes aside. “I’ll go and get you something.”
“I can-.”
“It’s okay.” Eduardo heads out to the cafeteria and picks up sandwiches for Mark, and a salad for himself. He’s greeted every so often as he walks through the offices, both by people who know him from working here, and some of the new guys.
Dustin finds him on the way back. “Wardo!”
“Hey.”
“You know, if you only visit when Mark’s here, the rest of us might start to get a complex.”
“I saw you last weekend.”
“Sure, when I called you.” Dustin persists with his attempt at an outraged-yet-hurt expression but admits defeat after about twenty seconds. “Still. You know you’re welcome here whenever. I think Mark may have made that part of Facebook law.”
“Facebook has laws?”
“Sure. It’s like Google and ‘Don’t be Evil’, except for Facebook. So it’s all ‘Break as many things as possible, unless it’s the site, in which case you’re fired.’ ‘Never forget that Mark is CEO, bitch.’ Chris can kill you in your sleep and no one will miss you; Eduardo can do whatever the hell he wants.” Dustin spreads his arms out wide. “I wanted to add, ‘because he’s the boyfriend, bitch’, but Mark vetoed that.”
“Well,” Eduardo points out sympathetically, “he is the boss.”
“Psh,” Dustin dismisses that. “He’s been gone for three weeks and almost nothing was set on fire.”
Eduardo takes one look at Dustin’s serious expression and bursts out laughing. Dustin joins in. “Almost nothing?” Eduardo checks.
“No more than when we leave Mark alone with cooking equipment more complicated than a microwave. Or with a more than usually complicated microwave.”
Eduardo feels like he should probably defend Mark’s culinary expertise, but there’s really nowhere he can go with that one. Mark doesn’t seem to have the patience for cooking and he always thinks he knows better than the recipes.
Dustin walks him back to the office door and asks, “Hey, when are you done for the summer?”
“Three weeks. Which is great, but I still need to find something to do for the vacation.”
“Hawaii?” Dustin suggests.
“A job, man, not a holiday.”
“Oh.” Dustin looks at him. “I thought…”
“What?”
“I kind of thought you were going to come and work here for a bit. I don’t know, maybe I didn’t hear Mark right.”
“Mark said-?”
Dustin shakes his head rapidly. “I must have missed what he was saying, you know I don’t listen to him when I can help it.”
“Yeah. Anyway, I’ve got to get this to…” Eduardo holds out the food that he had almost forgotten about.
“Yeah,” Dustin says. He looks uncomfortable.
Eduardo takes the lunches into Mark’s office and sets them down. He asks, “Did you tell Dustin I was going to come back and work for you over the summer?”
Mark looks up quickly. “What?”
“Did you tell Dustin-?”
“I told him I assumed you would come and work in the offices over the summer. You said you wanted to earn some money, and there’s bound to be someone in Finance who could use you.”
“Mark.”
“What?”
“I can’t work for you.”
“Facebook,” Mark says. “Not me. We’re not actually one and the same.”
Eduardo runs his hands through his hair. “Yes,” he says, “you really are.”
“I don’t know what’s…”
“I know. So I can’t work here. I’ll find something.”
Mark looks at him steadily. Mark doesn’t understand the problem: Eduardo needs money and Mark can get Facebook to give him money. Eduardo had thought they were past this. It’s not just that Eduardo can’t work for Mark; he can’t let Mark help him with this. Mark needs to be separate from the rest.
Eduardo says, “I’m going back to the house.”
“Wardo.”
“I’ll see you when you get back, okay?”
Mark nods, and watches him leave. Eduardo waves off Dustin’s attempts to catch him on his way out.
* * * *
Eduardo runs an unofficial poll after study group on Monday. “It would be weird for me to work for Facebook, right?”
“Don’t drop out again!” Amy says, all in a hurry. “We can get through finals, I promise.”
“I’m not dropping out.” Eduardo rolls his eyes.
“Oh. Okay. Then no, I guess not. I mean, you already did.”
“Yes, but that was almost entirely before I fell in love with their CEO.”
Kamil raises an eyebrow and Sara looks immediately doubting. Tony says, “Yes, sure, okay. You mean during the summer?”
“Yeah.”
“As Mark’s assistant? Because that would be weird.”
“No, not for Mark. Probably not for anyone I’ve ever been drunk with. It’d be business or legal or something.”
“Okay,” Tony says. “But you’ve already said no.”
“Yeah.”
“So what’s the problem?” Tony looks at him steadily.
“I want to know if I’m being weird,” Eduardo says.
“You’re often weird. I’d think Mark’s used to it by now.”
Amy glares at Tony. “Not helping. Was Mark upset?”
“It’s kind of… hard to tell, with Mark. He doesn’t always react like normal people. He could be upset, or he could just be preoccupied.”
Amy laughs. “Shouldn’t you be able to tell?”
Shrugging, Eduardo says, “I get it right about seventy per cent of the time. That’s better than most people.”
“Did you try asking him?”
“He says it doesn’t bother him. He just doesn’t understand.”
“Which is what bothers you,” Tony concludes.
“Maybe.” That’s probably true. Except that it’s not just ‘Mark not understanding’ – that happens fairly often between the two of them, over situations both major and minor. It’s usually not a big deal. The problem is that Mark doesn’t understand this particular thing. This is where the trouble lies.
* * * *
Mark’s not incredibly tactile; Eduardo used to be, but he’s still relearning the habit. They do touch, of course. They kiss, for one, and when they’re in bed together Eduardo slides his fingers over every inch of Mark’s skin he can reach. But they don’t walk down the streets holding hands, and they can sit together in a room without touching. Eduardo’s never been totally sure whether that’s more to do with him or Mark.
Now, though, Mark’s fingers are working on the buttons on the left-hand cuff of Eduardo’s shirt. Not like a come-on, it’s more like a nervous tic. He unbuttons and then buttons them again, rubbing his knuckles against Eduardo’s wrist.
Eduardo keeps his eyes on the television screen. If Mark wants something, he’ll say it eventually.
Mark waits for the commercial break and then says, “Everything okay?”
“Of course.”
“You’re not…?” He pulls his hand away. “I get the impression I screwed up, the day after I got back. You keep asking if I’m upset but I thought maybe… you might be.” He goes silent and waits for Eduardo to fill the rest in.
Eduardo laughs, just for a second. “I’m not upset, Mark. I just can’t let Facebook…”
“Yes,” Mark says. “But that’s not why you’re upset.”
“I’m not- Mark. I’ll find something to do, don’t worry about it.”
“Of course you will.” Eduardo still doesn’t know what to do with Mark’s certainty. Maybe that’s what the problem is. It doesn’t occur to Mark that other people have doubts. That no one else has ever been so convinced that Eduardo deserves to have good things happen to him. Eduardo can’t just take that on trust – he has to prove it.
* * * *
He was supposed to meet Mark for lunch, but when Eduardo called, Mark’s meetings were overrunning. Vanessa had asked if he wanted to come in later, but Eduardo had study group late afternoon. He gets lunch on campus and then meets the others in the library afterwards. They’re dealing with statistical modelling and it takes hours to run through the information.
Eduardo does go back to Facebook offices when they’re done. He knows Vanessa’s expressions well enough by now to read this one: Mark’s still busy. It’s not a problem; no one stops him when he walks through the office to find some coffee.
Chris is sitting at one of the desks, scanning over something on a screen. He reaches for his own coffee without looking, fumbling blindly on the desk. Eduardo slides the mug into his hand.
Chris smiles and looks up. “Hey, Eduardo.”
“Hi.”
“Waiting for Mark?”
“Apparently,” Eduardo says. “Is this still the lawyers?”
Chris grins. “Yes. I don’t think Mark considers it a full day unless he’s fighting someone else’s legal team over privacy issues.”
Eduardo laughs. For all that Mark complains about the delays that contract negotiations cause, Eduardo suspects that – now Mark is supposed to be a responsible CEO – it’s only really the lawyers he feels free to verbally eviscerate.
Chris asks, “How’s class going?”
Eduardo shrugs. “It’s okay. But how’s the launch prep?”
“Fine. Seriously though – tell me about class?”
“It’s not really that-.”
“Wardo.” Chris looks at him pointedly.
“What?”
“Are you trying to tell me that this launch hasn’t been the topic of your dinnertime conversations with Mark for the past two weeks? You probably know this stuff better than I do.”
“And?”
“And does Mark know about your day in that kind of detail?”
“We talk.”
“Not about-.” Chris taps his fingers on the desk. “He’s worried about you, you know.” Chris sighs in exasperation. “Not that he actually comes out and says that. That would be far too easy.”
“Everything’s fine,” Eduardo says.
“I know it’s not that the course doesn’t matter to you. If that were true, you wouldn’t have reacted that way about working here again. So I know you care.”
“Of course I- I care.”
Eduardo doesn’t know whether to read Chris’s look as pity or concern. Chris says, “So tell him that. I know Mark’s not always the easiest person to get through to, but sit him down and make sure he’s listening.”
Sometimes Eduardo finds himself defending Mark before he’s sure of the attack. He says, “It’s not that… he would listen if I asked. But he would try to fix it.”
Chris actually has some of the same tendencies, but he catches himself first. “Fix what? Eduardo, is something-?”
“No, not like… if I tell Mark that I got into an argument with some guy in my macroeconomics class, he’ll want to do something about it.”
“What kind of argument?”
“Oh, whether or not everybody could ace their midterms if they took a year off school to be courted by a billionaire. And no, ‘courted’ was not the word he used.”
Chris bites his lip. “Yes. I don’t see Mark responding well to that.”
Eduardo exhales slowly. “No. Not so much. That’s sort of the problem. I’d tell him the funny story – and it was a funny story – and instead of listening and nodding, he’d start trying to plan how to hack the school network and change the guy’s grades.”
Chris shakes his head. “Mark was hacking college networks while he was still at college. These days, nothing less than getting the jerk on an FBI watch-list would do it for him.”
This is probably true. “Occasionally,” Eduardo says, “dating Mark is a little like dating a super-villain.”
Chris turns his head towards his shoulder to hide his laughter. “You should tell him that.” Mark is walking towards them.
“We’re not done yet,” Mark says. “Do you want me to call you a car to take you home?”
“I can get…” Eduardo stops, because Mark is looking at him like that. He steps forward into the space left at Mark’s side. Their knuckles brush. “Okay,” Eduardo says. “A car would be great.”
Mark’s uncertain expression morphs into something pleased. He shifts a little on his heel, bringing him into closer contact with Eduardo. He says, “I won’t be too long. I’ll… should I come over to your place when we’re done?”
“Sure,” Eduardo says. “You can tell me all about how you crushed the lawyers.”
Mark nods and turns to go back to his meeting. He stops sharply. “What about you?” he says, as an afterthought. “Anything interesting happen today?”
Eduardo says, “No, nothing new.”
* * * *
“What are you guys going to do for a hundred-million?” Eduardo asks. He’s sitting across the table from Mark, and they’re waiting for Dustin and Chris before they order lunch. Mark’s fingers are twitching around his Red Bull, which could be caffeine or nerves. He’s been strange recently.
“What?” Mark asks.
“Hundred million members? You’re going to do it by the summer, right?”
“Yes.” He puts down his drink. “How’s… you have a test tomorrow, don’t you?”
Eduardo hadn’t realised he had mentioned that to Mark. “Yeah?”
Mark picks up the question and flaps his hand dismissively. “You were talking about it on Facebook. You and your friends.”
“I’m not sure watching me on your site qualifies as you working. Just so you know.”
“Well, how else am I supposed to-?” Mark asks. “You don’t volunteer a lot of information.”
“The college experience isn’t that exciting. I mean, you know that, I presume. You left.”
“It’s important to you.”
“Yes,” Eduardo agrees, for the second time in a week. “But I don’t need to- When I’m stressing out about it, you at least pretend to listen. And when it’s just boring stuff, I have Amy and Tony and the others. That’s enough.”
Mark pinches his nose. His voice is tight. “It shouldn’t be. If I’m not… you should make me listen, if I’m not. If it’s important to you, I want to hear about it. Chris said you were having problems with some-.”
“Chris needs to learn not to spread secrets.”
“It wasn’t Chris, so much,” Mark admits. “It was more Dustin asking ‘purely hypothetically, don’t do anything stupid’ what I would do if some guy was hassling you. And Chris telling him to ‘shut up, oh my God, why do I even talk to you?’”
Eduardo sighs. “No one was hassling me. Someone said something. I corrected them. Please don’t have him arrested.”
“How would I even…?” Mark’s expression becomes contemplative. “I suppose there’s always…”
“Mark!”
“What?” Mark asks innocently.
“No having anyone arrested.”
“Fine.”
“This is why I can’t tell you things.” Eduardo spots Chris and Dustin walking over to the table. He calls over to Chris, “And I can’t tell you things either.”
Chris glares at Dustin, then Mark, and then Dustin again. “You two are hopeless. I want you to know that.”
Dustin mimes being stabbed in the heart. “Anyway,” he says. “Wardo, all ready for your test tomorrow?”
“Let me guess?” Eduardo asks. “You’ve been reading my Facebook too?”
Dustin shrugs. “What’s the point of creating – co-creating, Mark, fine – the world’s best stalking tool, if you don’t use it yourself? It would be almost wrong if I didn’t use it to keep an eye on you.”
Eduardo gives up. “I’m fine,” he says. “Entirely prepared. We’ve been studying the material for weeks. We’re all just going to go in, take the test, and then go out and get drunk.”
Dustin perks up. “You’re going clubbing?”
“Not clubbing, exactly. Just out for drinks. Possibly music and/or dancing will be involved.”
“And you didn’t invite us?”
Eduardo stares. Mark and Chris are actually looking at him too. Eduardo says, “You can come if you want? I didn’t think you’d be interested. It’s just some people from my econ seminar and some of their friends.”
“We’re your friends,” Dustin points out.
“And you want to hang out at a college party?”
“Is he implying we’re too old?” Dustin demands. “Wardo, you get that you’re actually the same age as us, right? And even if Mark and I had bothered finishing college, we would still only be two years out now. We’re not actually…” He turns to Mark. “Mark, your boyfriend thinks you cradle-robbed him.”
Eduardo manages, through his laughter, to say, “God, fine, come with us, just stop that right now, you’re putting terrifying mental images in my head.”
Dustin smirks, pleased with himself, and flags over a waiter so they can order.
Eduardo taps Mark’s hand. “You don’t have to come.”
Mark tilts his head. “Why wouldn’t I want to?”
This is what Eduardo means. Mark is acting strange. Eduardo nods back at him and tries to put it down to stress or the hundred million members. He tries not to think that it’s anything to do with him.
* * * *
Eduardo meets his study-mates at the club. Amy throws her arms around him gleefully, “Eduardo!”
“Hi?”
“We aced the paper!”
He smiles. “Of course we did. We’ve very smart people.”
Sara walks up behind them and puts a drink in Amy’s hand. “Eduardo, you made it.”
Tony and Kamil come away from the dance floor to greet them. Tony grins. “You made it then.”
“Why did everyone assume that I wasn’t going to show?” Eduardo asks. “I told you I’d meet you here.”
“I don’t know,” Amy says, “maybe because normally we can’t drag you out partying with us unless death threats are involved?”
Eduardo shrugs. “The year’s nearly done. Maybe I wanted to celebrate. Um. Also. Mark might be coming.”
The look of sheer glee on Amy’s face is terrifying to behold. Sara is smiling too. Amy says, “You convinced Mark Zuckerberg to come clubbing with us?”
“Honestly? I think Dustin did most of the convincing. Just… try not to spook him, okay?”
Amy nods emphatically. “Of course. We’ll be-.”
What exactly she was about to promise is left unsaid, as Dustin chooses this moment to make his entrance. “Wardo!”
Amy says, “Wardo?” probably before she means to, because she blushes. “Sorry.”
Dustin turns, taking her hand to say hello. “And you must be Amelia.”
“Amy’s fine, honestly.”
“Excellent. And I’m Dustin. Chris is the blond one over there making desperate cutting gestures with his hands. Isn’t he adorable? And that’s Mark. Who thinks he’s the only one who gets to call Eduardo ‘Wardo’, because he’s selfish that way.”
Mark takes a curving path around the other people to get to Eduardo at the bar. He tugs at Eduardo’s fingers. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“How’d your test go?”
“Good, I think. You still worried Chat’s going to take the site down?”
“No, I think we’re covered.”
Eduardo remembers that there are other people here. He says, “Hey, everyone, this is Mark. Mark, this is-.”
“I know who they are,” Mark points out. After the expectant pause he gives a little shrug. “They all have Facebook.”
There is a long silence. This is a not uncommon reaction to Mark. Eduardo starts laughing. He turns Mark’s head to kiss the corner of his mouth, briefly, before telling him, “You can be so creepy sometimes.”
“And yet here we are,” Mark says.
“Yes. Lucky for you, I love you for your stalker tendencies.”
Mark nods. “Yes.”
When Eduardo turns from Mark’s unguarded eyes, he catches the end of Amy’s fond expression, and the others trying to look away quickly. Dustin makes no pretence, grinning openly at Eduardo.
Chris coughs, eventually. “Can I get anyone a drink?”
They disperse, and Chris promises to bring back drinks for Eduardo and Mark. Eduardo watches Dustin head to the dance floor, still talking animatedly with Amy and Tony. Eduardo doesn’t see this ending well.
Mark leans against Eduardo’s side, looking out at the crowds.
Eduardo says, “Thanks for coming tonight.”
“It’s not a…” Mark looks behind himself sharply. “How strong are your feelings about pictures of us on the internet tomorrow?”
Eduardo stops to consider this. “I can cope?” It’s part of being with Mark – occasionally people take photographs, though it’s not as though the two of them do anything particularly gossip-worthy.
“Good,” Mark says. He grabs hold of Eduardo’s shoulder, pulling himself up to kiss Eduardo fiercely, stealing his breath away. Eduardo’s hand skims up Mark’s back, trying to hold him steady. Mark says, “I don’t know why you won’t believe me.”
“Mark, what?”
“You act like I’m not just as- or like this is something you’re going to break by being too much like- and I don’t know why you would think that.”
“I don’t,” Eduardo says. “I know that you… I know.” He kisses Mark again, trying to make the point. He knows that Mark cares about him – if he didn’t care, Mark wouldn’t be out here tonight. If he didn’t, a lot of things would be different. But knowing that doesn’t make Eduardo exercise any less caution over what they have. It’s important to him, he wants to look after it. He doesn’t see what’s wrong with that.
Chris comes back with the drinks, looking curiously between them. Eduardo loosens his hold a little and they drop the conversation. Mark slides down to the flats of his feet but doesn’t step any farther away.
* * * *
Mark is just drunk enough to be fumbling the key in the front door. Eduardo takes it from him and opens the door so they can both get inside.
Eduardo catches Mark around the waist, more for his own benefit than because Mark is stumbling. Mark’s head ends up turned towards him, his mouth on Eduardo’s neck. Mark asks, “Did you have a good night?”
“Yeah, I did. What about you?”
Mark takes a long time to think about that. “Yes. It was… I wanted to meet your friends. You talk- you talk about them a lot. More than you talk about school, which I think is weird, but Chris says I’m overreacting.”
“You are.”
“I don’t know why you tell these things- that guy, Tony, you told him about the asshole hassling you, didn’t you?”
“Well, he was there, Mark, so it’s not the same thing. And he doesn’t-.”
“What?”
“It’s important to him too. We’re in the same place so it’s not weird to talk about class or papers or those things.”
“And it’s not important to me?” Mark asks, flatly.
“Not in the same way. You’ve got- you’ve got Facebook.”
“You could have Facebook if you wanted it. I don’t know how many other ways there are to say-.”
“What?”
“You want someone to pretend to listen. That’s your- that’s seriously the most you’re hoping for out of this? You don’t think you maybe deserve to have someone hanging off your every word? You don’t think that you deserve someone who takes your things seriously? Because I’m trying, Wardo, but you act like it’s not even-.”
Eduardo steps back across the living room. “Maybe I don’t want- I don’t want to push.”
“Well, I wish that you would, okay? I wish that you’d, I don’t know, yell, or make a fuss, or just let me know what’s going on with you when it’s not all okay. I’m not going anywhere, all right? You’re the one who-.” His jaw snaps closed, trying to grab the words back. You’re the one who ran away.
Eduardo backs away from him. “I’m going over to my own place tonight, okay?”
“Wardo.”
“I’m not going anywhere either, but I need to be somewhere else right now. I need to think. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Eduardo walks to the corner and calls a cab to take him home.
* * * *
Eduardo calls Chris in the morning. “I need your help.”
“Okay. Would this have anything to do with the way Mark is slamming doors and throwing things around his office?”
“He’s not actually doing that.”
“Metaphorically speaking. Hang on, Dustin wants me to put you on speaker.”
Almost immediately, Dustin’s voice demands, “Wardo, what did you do to Mark? He’s all frowny and threatening to fire people while actually meaning it. We’ve had to send everybody-but-Mark group emails warning the staff and it’s been months since we did that.”
“This isn’t anything to do with Mark. Except, I don’t know, tangentially I suppose.”
“Eduardo,” Chris says.
He sighs. “I think I’ve sorted my summer project.”
There’s a silence. That wasn’t what they were expecting. “And?” Chris asks.
“I could use your input.”
“Not Mark’s.”
“No, not Mark’s, because not everything is about- and anyway he couldn’t help me on this one. I just need you to tell me yes or no. That’s it, okay?”
He explains, and Chris listens for a while and then agrees. He’s still not happy, precisely, but Chris understands why he needs to do this.
Dustin, however, still wants to talk about Mark. “You know he’s jealous,” Dustin says, “of those study-group people. And they’re cool and all, and normally I would find Mark finally experiencing the green-eyed-monster to be kind of cute, but this is… Would you just call him?”
“I’m going to,” Eduardo says. “I promised him I would.”
He calls Mark next. He should tell Mark what he just told Chris, but he’s not sure that Mark would know why it’s so important. And if he did understand, he would want to help. Eduardo wants to do this part on his own. Just this, and then everything else can go back to where it was. He needs to do this one thing without Mark, and then he’ll tell him everything.
So now, he tells Mark again, “I’ll call you tomorrow. I just need to sort something out first.”
* * * *
Eduardo’s internship is supposed to end with the school year. He’s been working with the company’s consultants on some of the smaller contracts – basic growth and investment possibilities. It’s interesting and it’s nothing like the work he was doing in New York. There’s a lot more personal involvement and long-term relationships with the contracts.
But the firm has been doing some work with charities and issue-groups on how to best raise and maintain funding. Eduardo is pretty sure he can help with that. And he likes having a project.
James Anders has been overseeing Eduardo’s work at the company. It was maybe the scariest thing Eduardo had done in a while (since leaving New York for California, since the first time he told Mark ‘Come home with me’) asking James if he could talk to him for a minute. Now he’s standing in front of two of the company directors, James, representatives from a local homeless charity and a green campaign, and Chris, who volunteered to come in for some moral support.
Eduardo straightens the sleeves of his suit jacket and coughs. “So. I have a proposal for a research project. I think a digital presence is one way for local and global non-profits to bring people together, and I think that the firm could use that as part of their consultancy work. I’ve spoken to representatives at Google, at MySpace, and,” he nods at Chris, “at Facebook. They’re all willing to participate in a trial of some cooperative awareness and fund-raising campaigns. I’ve designed a,” he passes the proposals around the table, and cues up the relevant slide, “time-limited trial which I would coordinate, with Mr Anders’s oversight, for a three month period.” He taps his fingers against his leg. “Does anyone have any questions?”
He answers questions, and what feels like endless follow-up, until eventually James looks at the directors and nods. “Thank you, Eduardo,” James says. “We’re going to talk this through for a little while, and I’ll give you a call in a couple of hours.”
Eduardo shakes their hands, and walks out with Chris and the two women. He thanks the two of them for coming in, and tells them he’ll call later when he finds out what’s going on.
Chris stays. “You want a ride to the office?”
Eduardo is interrupted by James stepping out of the meeting room. James pats his shoulder. “Just to let you know, they’re going to say yes.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You’re a good worker, Eduardo, and they’re going to jump at the chance to have someone who actually knows what they’re doing with e-business. They’ll fund the trial, and a temporary contract for you.” He smiles. “So don’t go home worrying about it, I know what you’re like, remember?” He taps Eduardo’s arm again, and goes back in.
Eduardo takes a breath. He had been braced for a no, he’s not sure what to do with such an easy win. He looks at Chris. “Thanks for coming in with me.”
“No problem. Now, do you want to come in with me, or not?”
“Okay. If you’re headed that way.”
“If I’m headed… I’ll be lucky if Mark lets anyone leave before midnight tonight. He’s freaking out about Twitter again.”
Normally, Eduardo finds Mark’s hyper-competitiveness amusing, but he suspects that he may be somewhat responsible for this bout of tyranny.
He lets Chris drive them in and walks across the office to where Mark is, as Dustin promised, sincerely threatening to fire people. Eduardo waits for Mark to look over, and raises his eyebrow. Mark stops.
Mark meets him at the wall, jumping back into his rant immediately. “They deserved it. I know you think I’m overreacting but if we can’t maintain a basic level of-.”
“Mark.”
“I can’t allow complacency here. Everything else but not-.”
“Mark.” Eduardo settles his hand on Mark’s elbow.
Mark stops talking.
Eduardo says, “I’m sorry I haven’t been around for the past few days. Did you want to talk about anything?”
“You’re not-.”
“I’ve finished for today. I’m right here, what do you need?”
Mark exhales. “Uh. Do you want to go get something to eat? I could use a break from the office.”
“Sure.” He slides his hand over to Mark’s back, walking him out the door. “Do you want to let everyone else leave too, maybe?”
Mark is very close, turning to smile at him. “If they can’t figure that out by themselves, they shouldn’t be working here.”
Eduardo should probably call him out on that, but it wouldn’t be Mark if he weren’t occasionally taking time out to disparage the intelligence of everyone around him. Even though, and Eduardo knows this one for sure, Mark would stand up for his employees with everything he’s got. He’s over-protective that way.
“I have some good news,” Eduardo says. “If you’ve got a little time.”
Mark stares at him. “I have- I have all the time. Tell me everything.”
* * * *
Eduardo straightens Mark’s tie, looks at it askance, and decides to just take it off and start again. As he’s retying the knot, Mark meets his eyes. “What?” Eduardo asks. “It’s not my fault you can’t successfully do up a bowtie.”
“It’s not…” Mark looks down at his shoes (glossy black). “I had a fantasy about this once.”
“That’s a surprisingly tame fantasy for someone who once wanted to have office sex, with me wearing a skirt and heels.”
Mark chokes. “You said you didn’t hear that part!”
“I lied.” Eduardo smiles blithely. “It seemed like the best idea at the time.”
Mark punches his arm, entirely ineffectually, and complains, “Every time I think I know all your secrets.”
Eduardo pulls the bowtie back into the right place. “You know most of them,” he says quietly.
Mark reaches up to straighten Eduardo’s collar, though Eduardo doubts the necessity of the action. “I do,” Mark agrees. “Thank you for that.”
Chris and Dustin walk over with a few other people. Dustin says, “Mark, have you met Calvin Vashchenko? He heads up a consultancy firm here in town.”
Mark nods. “We haven’t met, but I think you know my boyfriend? He’s interning with your firm.”
Mr Vashchenko extends his hand. “Eduardo, of course, yes. We’re looking forward to the results of your trial over the summer.” He turns to Mark. “Eduardo has some very interesting ideas on the uses of social media in business. He’s a very perceptive young man.”
Mark frowns. “I know that.”
Smiling, Mr Vashchenko says, “Of course you do, I’m sure. We’re grateful for Facebook’s input on the project as well.”
“It’s all Eduardo’s work. And it’s mostly Chris he’s been dealing with on our side.” On Chris’s cough, Mark adds, “although of course I’m very supportive of the intentions of the trial, and we’re doing everything we can to help.”
When Dustin leads the man away into the crowd again Chris asks, “What was that?”
Mark stares after him. “Why do people always assume I don’t know these things? I know that Eduardo’s smart and good with people and that he worries about how to solve problems no one else has thought about yet. Those are only some of the many reasons I’m dating him.” He shakes his head. “This is what I don’t get.”
Chris has taken on a familiar expression caught between fondness and a desire to strangle Mark.
Dustin intercepts it with his reappearance. “Okay, I’ve done my mingling for the evening. And can I say, I really think making nice should be in Chris’s job description, not mine.”
Chris says, “You know, you’re right. Tell me what, give me some of your billions of shares, and I’ll go and talk to more people than the thirty or so I’ve already led around this evening.”
Mark leans around to ask, “You want more shares?”
“What? No, I absolutely do not. I want the people here who happen to own the majority of the company to be a little better with public relations, but I guess that’s a lost cause. I’ll settle for some nice photo-ops.”
“I’m wearing a bowtie,” Mark observes, with a petulant glare. “And a suit. What more do you want?”
“You could go out onto the dance floor.” Eduardo suspects that even Chris knows this is unlikely.
But Mark’s hand brushes Eduardo’s arm, and then settles more firmly. He tugs, and Eduardo follows him out onto the floor.
Mark drapes his arms over Eduardo’s shoulders. They don’t dance, really. They just sway from side-to-side while the music keeps playing.
Mark asks, “How was your day?”
Eduardo smothers his giggles in the top of Mark’s hair. “It was good. I got started on an analysis of usage of different social networking platforms by age and locality.”
“Don’t cheat on me with Twitter.”
“I promise,” Eduardo says solemnly. “Anyway, I did that all morning. I met Tony and Amy for lunch, we worked on some advance reading, believe it or not.”
“Workaholic.”
“Takes one to know one.”
“Noted. And then you came here?”
“And then I came here. Slow day. How about yours?”
“Nothing special. Mostly planning for this. Chris and Vanessa had me on flashcards of the guests. We had a meeting with some media people on establishing a presence on the site. I’m really glad we’re based here and not L.A.”
“It’s probably for the best. Oh, I meant to tell you, I got the last of my results today.”
Someone behind them is taking photographs, but Eduardo doesn’t look around. The music is playing slow and gentle on a one-two-three beat. Eduardo keeps his arms wound around Mark’s waist, who nods at him to keep going. So they stay there on the dance-floor, swaying to the strains of violins, while Eduardo tells Mark about his day.