“I had no direction, no idea what I wanted to do for a career, and not enough credits for any degree.” None of the courses he took sparked any amount of interest in him. Corporate jobs sounded soul sucking, and he wasn’t talented enough for anything artistic. He wanted to enjoy his job. More than that, he wanted a job where he could make other people happy or at least provide them with a good time. But maybe that was a juvenile desire.
“What did you do?” Jensen asked, squeezing Daniel’s hand.
Shrugging one shoulder, he let out a loud breath. “I transferred to Sevier University. One of the people I hung around got a job in the city. I followed him, thinking he could help me out. That ended faster than a priest’s cum shot when he realized I could no longer afford to keep up with his lifestyle.”
“He stopped talking to you because you couldn’t afford fancy dinners?” Jensen asked, appalled.
“Basically. I can’t blame him though. He was hired at his father’s company, making two-fifty a year plus bonuses. I was maxed out on three credit cards and going to a low-tier college working on yet another major I didn’t give a shit about. He wanted to live it up, and I could hardly afford to live.”
“He could have gotten you a job at his father’s company.”
“Maybe he could have. But I wasn’t qualified and had no interest in sales or finance. And we weren’t really friends. That’s something I learned once it all came crashing down. I dropped out halfway into the first semester, used the last of my cash to pay two months of rent for the shitty apartment I had with other college students, and everyone I met in DC stopped talking to me.”
“They should have helped you.”
“That’s a nice thought, sweetheart, but in my experience, you can’t rely on anyone to save or help you. But anyways,” he powered on, ignoring Jensen’s sound of protest, “I had no work history, and my only options were minimum-wage positions that offered no more than fifteen hours a week. I could have gotten three jobs, and it wouldn’t have covered the monthly fees for my loans and all my credit cards. I was pretty fucking hopeless until I met Richie.”
“Is Richie your pimp?”
“Oh God, no,” Daniel said with a laugh that broke up the heaviness in the air around them. “Richie is a pretty boy that works in a members-only club for the rich and influential in Sevier. It’s somehow shadier than the Lillian. At the time, I was going into every bar and basically begging for a job. I tried walking in but was thrown out before I could set a foot down. Richie was smoking in the alley outside and told me I should try the hotel. The lady at the front desk took one look at me, asked if I could suck dick, then told me to come back the next night.”
They fell into silence, a clock ticking somewhere on one of the shelves and the soft smell of Jensen’s cologne swirling through the room.
“I don’t want to do it anymore,” Daniel whispered. The confession was a huge understatement. The idea of going back to the hotel made his stomach hurt and pressure build behind his eyes. This sudden shift pissed him off still; he wished he couldgo back to enjoying the job or at very least being neutral about it. It would make everything so much easier on him. “I don’t have a choice though.”
“Why don’t you have a choice?”
He gulped and rubbed the back of his neck, the sweetness on his tongue turning sour. “I’m one hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars in debt, Jensen. I still have no work history I can put on an application, no degree, and no marketable skills unless sucking dick counts.”
“I actually find that most of corporate work is just sucking someone’s dick.”
Daniel whipped his head toward him. “Did you just tell a joke?”
“I wish it were,” Jensen said, the corner of his lips turned up. “Most of life comes down to sucking the right dicks good enough.”
A laugh almost made its way past Daniel’s tight chest. It wasn’t often that Jensen tried to be funny, and Daniel fucking ate it up every time he did. But he couldn’t allow his unforgivable mistakes to be brushed under the rug. Jensen deserved better than a flippant conversation about the very real mess Daniel had made of his life. The smile on his face slid off, his mood turning serious again. “I just told you I’m taint deep in debt I’ll probably never pay off and have no long-term plans. Doesn’t that worry you at all? Doesn’t that make you want to run for the hills?”
Jensen scratched at his jaw, thinking it over for a moment. “My mom’s nephew racked up a substantial debt through a failed Ponzi scheme. His wife had to find a way to pay all the court fees and fines while keeping a roof over her kids’ heads. She had three people to support and still found a way to do it. So I guess I’m not worried about it, and very few situations would ever lead me to embark on an uphill run.”
“How did she do it?”
“She stole cars for a chop shop until she married a wealthy old man.”
Any hope that was building in Daniel from the inspiring tale flatlined. “Prostitution is already a hefty charge; I’m not looking to add grand theft auto to the list as well.”
He shook his head. “I’m not suggesting you do. I’m saying there’s always a way to get what you want. We just need to figure it out. And in the meantime, you have me to help you.”
A weak smile tried its best to lift Daniel’s lips, but he didn’t have the hope Jensen had. No one had ever been there for him, not really. His parents had only cared enough to keep food in the house and clothes in his closet. It was more than some people had, and Daniel should be grateful for that. He was grateful, dammit. He didn’t need handouts or charity. Worse, he didn’t fucking need anyone’s pity.
The little home he’d grown up alone in was safe and had heating in the winter, and that was all he required. His test scores had exceeded those of his classmates with parents that coddled them by going to their games or helping them with homework or college applications.
Without all that unnecessary shit, he’d gotten into a damn good college. Daniel, all on his own, had moved across the country and rubbed elbows with people that were already on their way to becoming influential people. Hell, according to social media, a guy that he partied with on a private yacht was on some state’s ballot this election cycle.
Sure, all those achievements had sunk faster than theTitanic, but he still pulled himself up. All by himself, he’d moved to another new city and started at a different college. And when his debt had caught up to him, no one was there to save him. Daniel took care of himself. He kept himself fed with a roof over his head.
Even though Richie had turned him on to the job, it was Daniel that showed up every shift to do whatever he needed to. He had lasted longer than any of the other employees there and raked in enough blow jobs and handies and hours on his back to keep his bills current and his stomach full.
Just like all the other times in his life, Daniel would figure a way out of the mess he’d created. And he would do it by relying on only himself. He simply couldn’t trust that anyone else would swoop in and erase his slate. The best he had were roommates that helped him pick out what to pack and a man who had put up with him for a month.
