Chapter 23
Mitch and Rico were done dismantling the big office, and now they were installing new shelving. Some of the pieces were stacked in the front hall. Coming back from washing his hands after walking Lenny with Danny, Rob stopped to admire the nice looking, probably expensive wood. While Mitch checked things over and flipped through papers on his clipboard, Rob told him, "I can't wait to see Julian sitting in that big office."
"Aha," Mitch said while eyeing him knowingly.
"What? I just don't like to see Julian holding himself back from taking what's rightfully his," Rob said.
"And what's holding you back?" Mitch asked.
"What are you accusing me of?" Rob asked then he admitted the truth "I lost my mom when I was a teenager. It's not easy for me to believe that anything good can last."
"I remember that feeling," Mitch said and a very sad look came over his chiseled features. "When Sammy's mom died, her grandmother tried to take her away from me. My fear from that time stayed with me for too long, until I met Rico." Now Mitch's face brightened like Rico's name was magic.
"I guess I have to figure out how to let go of my fear too," Rob said.
"It will be worth it," Mitch told him and he smiled.
Yeah, he was a man who was ready to be happy. He and Rob both headed to Julian's office and found Rico in there lamenting the loss of the bar they had removed from the big office.
"Too bad about the bar. A bar in the office is soMad Men," Rico said while shaking his head at the empty space where the bar used to be.
"Are you bothering Julian again?" Rob demanded.
"What are you, the manny or the bouncer?" Rico asked.
"Yes," Rob said then turned to Julian. "Want me to toss him out?"
"We're working here," Rico claimed.
"Not in here, we aren't," Mitch said and pointed him toward the other office.
Rico turned to him. "Rob is so possessive. He's afraid someone else will notice Julian's pouty mouth, dark good looks, ass that begs to be..."
"Hey!" Rob warned him before he could finish and Julian dropped his head to his desk.
"I was just reading your mind, wasn't I?" Rico accused Rob. "You wanted to rescue your precious Julian from me. This is what you get."
"I need hazard pay dealing with you," Rob told him.
"This from a man who was just gladly picking up after the dog," Mitch pointed out.
"Ugh." Rico turned away from Rob in disgust and kissed Mitch. "He's all yours," he said to Julian while pointing his thumb at Rob then he walked away, ready to actually do some work.
"Are you sure you like him?" Rob asked Mitch as he was about to get to work too.
"I'm very sure," Mitch said without taking his eyes off Rico's retreating form.
"That's love, all right," Rob said.
"Yeah," Mitch agreed on a sigh. He had such a soft look in his eyes that Rob felt like he was seeing right into his heart. It was a little embarrassing to get such an intimate glimpse into exactly what he was feeling, but also kind of nice.
As he shut the door between the two offices, Rob was amazed that Mitch ever took a chance on someone like Rico. It gave him hope that Julian might take a chance on him. Julian was buttoned up pretty tight, but if a stoic like Mitch and someone as flippant and loudmouthed as Rico had so much real emotion to offer each other, maybe there was hope for him and Julian too.
That's when he noticed that Julian was holding a photo and looking at it very intently.
"I came across this picture of my father as I was going through some old papers. I wanted to show it to Danny," Julian said. He handed the photo to Rob, and he saw a good-looking guy, who looked a lot like Julian, leaning against a red Lamborghini. Even in the photo, the resemblance didn't go deeper than looks. The guy in the photo grinned and lounged against that sport scar like he didn't have a care in the world.
"He looks like a guy who knew how to live it up," Rob said, still looking at the picture.
