Chapter 23

Chapter 23 — A Dinner Invitation

"What were you talking about?"

Liam approaches his boss straightaway after entering the office. He did meet up with Jason before coming up, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to admit to him that he had seen them. He will tell him, just not now.

"Pardon me?" Aaron looks up confused.

Liam sighs, walking up to his table and sits in front of him, and folds his arms on the table, looking scrutinisingly at his boss, "What were you talking about?"

"I was just looking at the computer screen. Is there something wrong with you?"

"Not now," he shakes his head, "Just now. Down at the parking lot,"

Aaron's eyebrows rise an inch as realisation sets in, and he leans back in his chair. It's obvious that he knows what Liam is talking about, but still he asks, "What was I doing in the parking lot?"

Liam points a finger at him accusingly, narrowing his eyes, "You know,"

"Hmm, no. I don't think so. Why don't you refresh my memory?"

"You were talking to Jason. What were you talking about?"

"Were you spying on us, Liam?"

"What? No!"

"Then how do you know we were talking?"

"I saw you guys," and then he quickly adds before he can be wrongly accused again, because really he was not spying on anyone, "I just came in and I saw the both of you there talking,"

"How come you didn't approach us then?" he asks without missing a beat, a stupid smirk clear on his lips — he could at least try to hide it.

"Because... I didn't want to interrupt anything," that is a weak reason, Liam is aware even as he says it, and he is almost sure he can guess what the dickface is going to say next.

"And why are you not asking this question to Jason?"

As I thought, Liam thinks to himself, "I am going to ask him. But you are nearer," Liam knows very well that he is only digging himself a deeper grave now, instead of trying to figure out a way to climb out.

"I can easily solve that problem for you," before Liam has even registered the words, the dickface has picked up the phone, and is talking into it, "Jason? Yeah, if you can come by my office for a few minutes. Thanks," he puts down the phone and smiles up at a very stunned Liam.

"What the fuck did you just do?"

"Oh, nothing. Just called Jason to come over here so you can him the question that you have,"

"You..." Liam is so frustrated, words are failing and the most he can come up with is: "You truly are a dick,"

"Thank you," he nods, "Now if I can go back to my work,"

Liam stands up, huffing, "Fuck you," and gets out of his room. He paces for a while until he sees Jason approaching and quickly goes up to him, blocking his way.

"Oh, hey," Jason says, laughing a little.

"What are you doing here?" he asks even though he knows the exact reason why he is there.

Jason nods at the room his boss is in, "Aaron asked me to be here actually — didn't tell me why. Probably some accounting thing," and starts to walk past him.

"No!" he suddenly exclaims, blocking his way once again and when the former looks down at him quizzically, he chuckles awkwardly, "Do you really think it's some accounting thing?"

"Um, what else it could be about?"

Liam shrugs, and then in a ditch all attempt to save himself, he claims, "It's a prank!"

"What?"

Liam knows he should stop himself before it's too late, but he can't. He really can't. He's on a roll — on an inevitable roll to doom town and there's nothing stopping him.

"It's a prank," he repeats, this time more assertively, "I'm the one who asked Aaron to call you and ask you here. Didn't think you'd fall for it. But here you are. Ha-ha. Got you,"

"A prank?"

"Yes, a prank,"

Jason squints his eyes at him, probably and rightfully wondering if he should believe him and Liam keeps his lips stretched in what he hopes to be a believable smile.

"And Aaron agreed?"

"Oh, yeah. Pfft," Liam scoffs, waving his hand dismissively and as if on cue, Aaron steps out of his office, but before he can say anything that will give him away, Liam goes to him and puts an arm around him, "We're buddies now, see,"

He has to stand on his toes to be able to put his arm around his shoulders, but he doesn't let the height difference deter him and even pulls Aaron a little bit down, to make it a little easier for him. "Just a prank,"

Of course, the dickface can't keep his mouth shut and play along, "What prank?"

Jason spares Aaron a quick glance, before raising his eyebrows at Liam.

Liam keeping his lips stretched in a smile pulls Aaron down and tightens his arm around his neck, "We got him boss. You can stop pretending now," he says through clenched teeth and side-eyes him.

He rolls his eyes, but thankfully for once, chooses to not annoy him and nods, "Hah, yeah, okay. This was all a prank,"

"Oh," Jason nods, glancing between the two of them — it seems like he is not still quite convinced but doesn't question anything further. He gestures between them, "So... do you guys like get along now?"

"Sureeeee," Liam drawls, anything to keep this pretence going on, "Why not?"

And Aaron nods in agreement as well.

"That's nice," Jason recounts, his eyes lingering on Aaron for a moment too long, or maybe it's just Liam's unnecessary exaggerated interpretation, "Well, is there any purpose to this prank or?"

The dickface nudges Liam's shoulder and nods his head towards him, but the last thing Liam would do is listen to him, so he's not–

"Actually, yes. There is a purpose," Aaron speaks up before Liam could and unceremoniously exposes him, "There is something Liam wants to ask you,"

Frustrated, he elbows him hard in his ribs and hisses at him, "No, I don't. Shut up,"

Before a bickering can start between the two of them, Jason intervenes, "Liam?"

"Yeah?"

"What is it?"

"It's–" his first instinct is to lie, of course, but he stops himself. He truly likes this man, and he doesn't want to do anything that can jeopardise that, and lying not once, but over and over again can surely do that. They did just have a honest heart-to-heart after all. It's better if he is just straightforward with him, although the circumstances are not exactly ideal right then — referring to the obstinate man standing beside him.

"Okay, I saw you and this dickface this morning. At the parking lot. Talking," Liam admits at last, "And I was just wondering what is it you were talking about," he realises that it doesn't exactly sound good for him, so he quickly adds, "Not that you are obliged to or anything as such. Just that I was curious... And you don't hav-,"

"Liam," Jason steps forward and holds him by his shoulders, a small smile on his lips — okay, that is a good sign.

And he can hear their boss chuckling not far away from him — he can fuck off, Liam is not going to care about him.

"Right, I'm going to go back into my office. You guys can take twenty minutes, but after that, back to work,"

Wait, did he hear him right? Did he just–

Aaron disappears into his office and Jason directs him to his chair and he sits in the spare one before him.

"It's fine, okay. Just when did you even see us?"

Liam brings his attention down to his fingers on his lap, "I came earlier than I told you. I wasn't going to not tell you. I just... I saw the two of you together, looked like you were talking about something serious and... I don't know, okay. I don't know why I lied. I don't know why I didn't ask you about it straightaway. I definitely don't know why I went to Aaron. I just don't know," Liam finishes in a breath and sighs, covering his face with his hands.

"He apologised to me," Jason reveals to him.

"What?" Liam immediately looks up, certainly of all scenarios that he imagined could have happened, this was none of them.

"Aaron, he apologised to me,"

"For what?"

Jason lifts his shoulders, "For our breakup,"

"That's–"

"A little too late and out of nowhere, yes," he lets out a laugh, "I didn't know how to respond, so I just stared at him. And he went on with his explanation about how he wasn't in a good place when we dated. Apparently, there were some things that he needed to figure out about himself and he didn't want to drag me along with whatever he was doing and so the best decision he could come up with was to break up with me with a lame-ass fake reason,"

"Oh,"

"Yeah,"

Knowing the exchange between them now, does it soothe him a little? Maybe a little yes, but the better part of him is irritatingly abuzz, unsettled. He really doesn't know what more he needs to find out. It just feels like that there is something missing, but really nothing is.

Putting his very annoying and unending thoughts aside, he regards Jason, "I'm sorry I forced you to tell me,"

"Forced me?" he laughs, "No. I was going to tell you later today. I didn't tell you when I saw you because you were already running late,"

"But still–"

"It's fine, Liam. Just you don't have to lie to me, okay,"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. Force of habit,"

Jason smiles, and pats him softly on the cheek, and stands up, "Okay, I should probably get going. Our twenty minutes is almost up,"

"Right. Don't you think it's weird he even allowed us to talk? Like he's being nice? I'm sure he's going to do something today,"

Jason only laughs in response and taps on the table, "Oh, talking about being nice... and weird, there's one other thing I forgot to tell you," he glances at the window that looks into their boss' room as if to check he was looking at them — seems like he isn't and says in a softer voice, "He actually invited us to dinner too,"

"Us?"

"Yeah, the two of us?"

"To dinner?"

"Yep,"

"That's–"

"Weird? Yeah, I thought so too,"

"Who knows, maybe he's already planned to kill the both of us off,"

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