Chapter 18

Chapter 18 — Why Jason

"Top of the morning to ya,"

Liam hears a voice greet him as soon as he gets out of his car at the parking lot in front of his office building — a voice that has him smiling very wildly. He turns and as expected, he spots Jason three cars over. He waves at him and Liam waves back and waits until they are closer to say:

"No," he wrinkles his nose, "Please never say that again,"

Jason nods, scratching the back of his neck, "Yeah, it sounded much cooler in my head,"

"No," Liam just says again, laughing and shaking his head. Coyly, he reaches out and holds his hand. Elevating himself on his toes, he leans in and places a chaste kiss on his lips, and then says, "Good morning,"

It is more than satisfying seeing how red Jason's face has turned. He is truly like a large teddy bear but all muscular. He quickly looks around them and turning back to Liam, he asks:

"You don't care if someone sees us?"

"Um, no. Not really," and then a beat later, "Do you? I'm sorry, but are you like closeted or..."

"No! No no no. It's just I thought–," he lets out a quick exhale, shaking his head, "Never mind what I thought," and he kisses Liam back, and replies, "Good morning to you too,"

"See, now that sounds much better,"

Someone clears their throat behind them and Jason is the one who first sees them, and as soon as he does, he quickly steps back from Liam and looks away as if he's been caught doing something wrong. Curious as to what has yielded that sort of reaction from him, he turns around and almost let out a groan when he sees who it is.

It is none other than his dickface of a boss. Liam is aware that they are on some sort of spoken-unspoken truce right now, but still he is allowed to be annoyed to see him, right? He just ruined a moment between him and his new boyfriend here.

A part of him also wonders why seeing their boss has gotten Jason so unsettled.

"Good morning," Jason says to Aaron but his eyes don't quite meet his, Liam notices and to Liam, he does look at him, but not for long, "I'll catch you later, okay," placing a quick kiss on his cheek, he turns around and walks away before Liam can even say anything.

That's weird, Liam thinks to himself, and shrugging to himself, he is about to walk away too when he hears Aaron clear his throat again.

"Got something stuck inside your mouth?" Liam raises his eyebrows at him.

"Someone's very cheery this morning,"

Liam just rolls his eyes at that, "Do you need anything?"

Aaron shrugs, inserting a hand into the pocket of his pants, and gestures forward with the other. Both of them start walking towards the building side by side.

"Just wanted to remind you of our company policies. Once again,"

Liam has to stifle a sigh and decides to play ignorance, "What policies?"

"The one about no frolicking between colleagues,"

"Frolicking?" Liam guffaws, "Seriously?" as much as he tries, he cannot contain his laughter.

"Okay," they step into the lift right then, and Aaron presses the button for their floor. There's only one other man with them. Liam tries to keep his laughter to a minimum, "The policy where it states there to be no romantic relations between co-workers," he whispers.

"And I distinctly remember Chloe saying there's no such policy in our office,"

"We're working on new policies and terms and there will be such policy in the new one,"

Fortunately, the other man gets out of the lift before their floor. They can speak freely now.

"Well, since there's no such policy yet, I guess we're allowed to date for now. And what even is your problem with us? It has only been a day since we even officially decided that we're going out together,"

"I don't have a problem," his voice rises suddenly, and even Aaron himself seems surprised by it, and he clears his throat before continuing, "I don't care,"

"Are you sure?"

He gives him a terse nod and they finally reach their floor. Liam would like nothing more than to get away from him right then but as it happens, he is his personal temporary assistant so he has no choice but to walk alongside him.

The one positive thing that he can look forward to is the wall separating his table from his boss' office, so he doesn't have to look at his stupid face all day. But of course, Aaron is not going leave him to rejoice so easily; he has to be irritatingly cryptic and throw Liam for a loop.

"Just–" he stops at Liam's desk, and seems to be struggling for words.

Liam doesn't push him and instead just looks at him curiously, not sure what he has to say now.

"Why Jason?" he asks finally.

"What?" Liam is nothing short of taken aback at that question.

But Aaron quickly shakes his head, stepping back and pushing a hand through his hair, "Nothing. It's nothing," and with that he goes inside his office, closing the door behind him.

But the question doesn't leave Liam alone. He wonders what could he have even meant with that.

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"Why Jason?"

"What?" Jason laughs and only then Liam realises where he is and what he's done.

He is on his lunch break with none other than Jason himself, but he hasn't been able to stop thinking about the question all day long. He did think that maybe he should ask Aaron himself but the man hasn't been out of his office all day; his door has remained shut. More surprisingly, not once has he even called for Liam.

He didn't even know he's asked the question out loud until Jason laughed.

"Why Jason what?"

"It's nothing," he shakes his head, laughing along awkwardly.

"O-kay?"

Liam lets out a loud sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. Maybe he should tell him about what happened, and how weirdly cryptic their boss is suddenly being. It does sort of concern him after all.

"Well–" he leans forward, placing his elbows on the table, "–it's not exactly nothing. I told dic– Mr Patterson that we were going out and–"

"You told Aaron we're going out?"

"Yeah, he saw us this morning remember? And he started talking to me about this non-existent company policy–"

"About co-workers not allowed to be in a relationship of romantic or sexual nature?"

"Yes, that. Wait, there's really no such policy, right?"

"No, no," Jason chuckles, "It's more of Aaron's personal policy,"

"Oh?" Liam quirks his head to the side; that's new information.

"Yeah,"

"Anyways, yeah, he was like company policy blah, blah and I obviously didn't listen and then suddenly out of nowhere he asked me Why Jason. It was weird,"

"Oh," is all he says and Liam can't quite read what he's feeling then. A moment later though, he does ask, "Did he say anything else?"

Liam looks at him closely — he's getting a distinct feeling that maybe he's missing something here, the same way he felt when they were with Chloe and Daniel. He shakes his head in response.

"What did you say?" Jason asks a little bit tentatively.

Liam shrugs, "Nothing. I didn't even understand what he meant by that. What did you think he meant?"

Jason shrugs, but Liam gets the feeling that maybe he does know what Aaron meant. Weird, he thinks to himself, but he doesn't say or ask anything. He will find the answers he needs somehow; he's never let his curiosity run dry before, he's definitely not going to start now.

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