Page 4 of Unrequited Sloth

Paul went bright red with anger but said nothing else before he left. Gabriel ate the guy’s starter as well, given he was paying for it, and finished his drink before settling the bill. Thankfully, being London and that the place was full of oblivious and self-absorbed queens, nobody had seen their drama, or if they had, they didn’t care.

When Gabriel stepped out onto Old Compton Street, he took a deep breath. So far, dating had just been an expensive endeavour. He was tempted to cancel his last date on Saturday, but it couldn’t get any worse, and maybe third time lucky was a real thing.

Gabriel walked into his flat at seven o’clock Sunday morning, or should that be hobbled? His third date, and last for a while, was with Wayne. He was hot, worked as a builder so was hairy, tattooed, looked nothing like Bobby, and was polite to hospitality staff. Gabriel had planned to ask for a second date, but then Wayne invited Gabriel back to his place, and he agreed.

Gabriel had experienced a few “jackhammers” before, but Wayne took it to a new extreme. He had a decent-sized cock, but had missed Gabriel’s prostate repeatedly as he raced for the finish line. It had been over in three minutes. Gabriel hadn’t even bothered to finish himself off and had left before the guy woke up. Now he had a sore arse with no post-orgasm contentment, and was supposed to be having Sunday lunch with his family and the man who would never be his. It was the last thing he wanted to do today.

Based on the first week, this probably would not be Gabriel’s year.

CHAPTER 2

BOBBY

Bobby loved his life. He had an amazing job he was shit hot at, and in six weeks he was marrying the love of his life. Life couldn’t get any better than this. He had an awesome family himself, with supportive parents and two older brothers who gave him crap as the baby, but he knew if he ever needed them, they’d be there immediately, like he would for them.

The only thing bothering him was that his future brother-in-law hated him for some reason. He wasn’t sure what he’d done to upset Gabriel. He was such a lovely guy, and his sister doted on him, so it was really important that they got on. When Gabriel had first seemed offish late last year, Bobby had tried to get some alone time with him, but he’d not been interested. He was coming to his stag do in Las Vegas at the end of the month, but he wanted them to clear the air before then. Gabriel would only know Bobby in the group, and he didn’t want him to feel left out. His brothers weren’t attending for valid reasons, so it was even more important for Gabriel to be there. Martin was a professor of law at Starhaven University, and it was exam time. Ryan was the head chef at Knights Corner, a queer restaurant bar, which Bobby had been to many times. The big boss liked to have meetings there as he knew the owners, so it was where he was meeting Daniel for lunch on the first Wednesday in January.

Bobby reported to one of the senior associates, but Daniel Harper was the managing partner, which was the legal equivalent of a CEO. He’d founded the firm himself and was an incredible guy, the best legal mind Bobby had ever met, a boss who could make a shit tonne of money and still care about the people who worked for him. He was annoyingly handsome too; the man had it all.

“Bossman,” said Bobby, shaking his hand.

They got on well, but weren’t at the hugging stage yet. He smiled and shook his head at the moniker Bobby had given him.

“Pick something from the menu so we can get down to business,” said Daniel.

“That doesn’t sound ominous.”

“Relax, Bobby, if I was firing you, we’d be in my office.”

“Good to know, if you ever ask me to attend a meeting in your office.”

Daniel chuckled as Bobby looked at the menu. He knew it by heart, but he wasn’t fancying his staple of a steak sandwich today, even if it came with the delicious skin-on fries he loved. The wedding wasn’t far away, and Alex had told him to be sensible. He was ripped, with an average of fifteen per cent body fat, but he’d do anything the woman asked of him. Bobby put his order in on the app, unable to resist adding a note for his brother.

“Right, now that’s done, I want to talk about a case with you,” said Daniel.

Bobby perked up. A case from the bossman had to be something serious.

“Have you heard of the charity Rainbow Futures?”

Bobby shook his head.

“They’re a charity that focuses on employment support for LGBTQ+ youth. They’ve only been going for two years and aren’t a big name, but they are doing some great work.”

Bobby nodded. He’d do anything to support the LGBTQ+ community. His brothers ribbed him about being the straight anomaly, but he knew they appreciated him being their biggest cheerleader.

“I’ll be honest with you, Bobby, the charity founder and CEO, Sarah, is a close friend of mine. They engaged an agency to support their fundraising, but that agency recently got a new CEO who dropped Rainbow Futures as a client. No discussion. They refunded the money paid and are withholding the strategy they spent months working on together, saying it’s their IP.”

“What do you need me to do?” asked Bobby.

Daniel smiled. “From what we’ve been able to discover, the new CEO has some very strong homophobic views, and we believe that’s the reason they’ve been dropped.”

“So, we’re looking at breach of contract, unlawful discrimination in the provision of services, and potentially some reputational damages, especially if fundraising is impacted and they can’t deliver whatever they’ve committed to the trustees.”

“I knew you’d be perfect for this, Bobby. I know you’re great at digging around and finding shit people don’t want found.”

Bobby smiled, feeling a little embarrassed. It was something he was good at, but he always found praise uncomfortable. He was just doing his job.

“I’ve got time off next month for my wedding and honeymoon. That won’t cause any issues, will it?”