A Lie of the Heart - Part 2
Masterpost | Part One
Jared was just headed out of his afternoon class when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
Jaybird call me. Got a job 4 u.
Chad. The only person Jared had told about his dreaded family nickname. Jared wasn't entirely sure why he'd told Chad in the first place. Like many of Jared's life choices, it was one he was consistently regretting.
“Hey, dude. You’ve got me a job, huh? Alright, tell me about it.” Jared said as soon as Chad picked up.
“Formal dinner event, so you’ll need your big boy suit and special shiny shoes. It’s for some guy named ‘Jensen Ackles’ and he says it’s to thank their clients or something. He needs some arm candy and I figure you’re the man for the job. So, do you want it? I’m supposed to call him back and let him know later today. If not, I can see if Tom is interested.” Chad told him.
Jared heard his stomach grumble. “Yeah, I’ll take it. You can fill me in on the specifics when I get home. Thanks, Chad.”
“Sweet. I’ll see you then.”
Jared liked being able to help people this way. Sure, it wasn’t glamorous and to the average person, it would seem like he was a glorified prostitute. But Jared didn’t see it that way. He saw the job as something similar to acting. He played a part for the evening and made his clients feel less alone, even if just for a little while. He never accepted money for services that weren’t negotiated with Chad beforehand and he never slept with his clients, for money or otherwise. It was bad for business to sleep with the clientele and it opened up a whole can of worms in terms of legality. As it was, Jared wasn’t sure how this whole thing was legal to begin with, but Chad assured him that he had talked with a lawyer back when they started this thing up and that as long as no “intimate services” were offered, there was nothing wrong with it. Jared let Chad worry about that kind of thing and concerned himself with making the clients happy.
After the call ended, something about the client's name tickled Jared's brain. Jensen Ackles. The name sounded familiar, he was sure he had heard it before.
The sweet sight of pizza greeted Jared when he finally got home that evening. Heaving a relieved sigh, he toed off his shoes and left his bag by the couch. The smell of Nap's pizza made his stomach grow, again. It had been a long day on campus.
Grabbing a beer from the fridge and a plate for his slices, Jared sat down on the couch. He kicked his feet up on the coffee table and cracked open the bottle of Keystone Light: the beer of champion college students. Sinking his teeth into the still-warm pizza, Jared moaned at the taste. It was hard to believe something so simple could taste so good.
Chad stopped short on his way to the kitchen, with a look of absolute horror on his face. "What the hell have I said about putting your feet on the goddamn table? Jesus Christ, I can't believe you sometimes."
"I wouldn't have to put my feet on the table if you had just bought the recliner couch in the first place. And who the hell cares anyway? This table is probably older than dirt, anyway." Jared replied. The argument was more of a joke now than anything. Something about Chad being the house mother of the two of them always struck Jared as hysterical.
Coming back from the kitchen, a beer of his own in his hand, Chad plopped down on the other couch next to Jared.
"So, how was your day, Jaybird?" Chad asked.
"Screw you, dude. You know my day was total shit. Bodenman totally reamed our collective asses for not having our research proposals done yet. I don't know what the hell he expected since he only just assigned it last Thursday. He's such a dick." Jared rubbed his free hand over his face, trying to ease the tension headache he'd carried with him all day.
“Damn, Jay. That sucks. I forgot he was checking that shit today. But look on the bright side; this is the last class you’ll ever have to have with him.” Chad reached over and uncharacteristically gave Jared’s shoulder an encouraging squeeze. Experiencing Bodenman first hand tended to bond people with whispers of “Holy shit, I'm gonna stroke the fuck out, man.”
“Yeah, I’m trying to keep that in mind. At least it’s nearly Spring Break. I’ll have a whole week to ignore my paper and get nothing done!” Jared smiled at the thought.
“That’s the spirit!” Chad replied, bringing his bottle over to clink against Jared’s. “Now, how about we talk business? You wanted the details on your Friday appointment, right?”
“Oh yeah. So it’s a formal dinner for some dude named ‘Ackles’ and I need my suit? That about the gist of it?” Jared took another swig of his beer and worked on shoving the entire slice of pizza in his mouth. Damn, he was hungry.
“Yeah. Jensen needs a date for his company’s client appreciation dinner on Friday night. He works for some local development office, mentioned something about planning? I figured that’s right up your alley and you’ll have plenty to talk about with him, if you decide to talk shop. My preliminary background check on him didn’t turn anything up, so it seems like he’s not going to be any trouble.”
Chad bit into his own slice, charmingly talking around the mushed food in his mouth. “You’re supposed to meet him at his office around 5:30 so you can get introduced. The dinner is down the street at the conservatory at six.”
Jared’s ears perked up when Chad told him that Jensen worked for a planning and development office. That's where he knew the name from. His Advanced Urban Planning class was supposed to have a guest speaker toward the end of the semester from the office of Kripke and Associates. His professor said it would either be Ackles or Kawa that would be coming in and that she'd let them know the date of the class later.
He really hoped that it would end up being Kawa, now, because awkward.
“Sounds easy enough. Did you call him back already?” Jared asked after Chad finished both his speech and his mouthful of gnarly pizza.
“Yep. I actually just got off the phone with him before you got here. Don’t worry about your suit; I dropped it off at the cleaners after I talked to you earlier today.”
“Aww, thanks, Mama Bear. I appreciate that.”
“Cram it, cock.”
As Jared reached for the remote, Chad got to it first, proclaiming, “None of that Glee shit. You know I can’t handle that Rachel chick whining every episode.”
Jared just laughed and let Chad pick the program. He knew Chad would be watching it on Hulu tomorrow while Jared would be in class, anyway. Chad couldn’t hide his addiction to Glee at all, no matter how often he protested otherwise. Not that Jared knew the plot points of Glee, ether. He just kept up with it to needle Chad with the details. That's all.
Yeah, he'd totally fail a polygraph on that denial.
Wednesday felt like it was stuck on fast forward. Jensen was scrambling to finish faxing over the new, corrected font, paperwork to Campbell’s office when Michelle poked her head into the room.
“Hey, Jensen. When you have a minute, would you mind stopping by my office? I have a few things I need to go over with you in regards to Friday.” Michelle asked him, sunny smile in place.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Michelle was on the phone when Jensen got to her office. She gestured at the empty seat in front of her desk and he sat down. He didn’t have to wait very long before she ended the call and addressed him.
“Alright,” she clapped her hands, “so about Friday. I know I said I’d deliver the pre-dinner speech, and I’m not backing out of that, but I thought maybe I should let you know that I’ll need to leave right after you lead the toast. I have a bit of a family issue that needs taking care of and I need to be out of town as soon as possible.”
“Is everything alright? It’s not your grandmother, is it?” Jensen asked, full of concern.
“Yeah, it’s Nana.” Michelle's casual tone belied the worried set of her face. “She’s having surgery Friday morning and someone needs to be with her over the weekend. It’s not serious, but I don’t want her to have to be alone while she’s recovering.”
“I’m sure everything will be fine, Michelle. Don’t worry, if you need to just skip the dinner altogether, I can handle things by myself. Just let me know how I can make things easier for you.”
Honestly, Jensen would rather stick hot pokers up his nose then have to take point at the dinner. But most evidence to the contrary, he wasn’t a completely unsympathetic asshole.
“Thanks, Jensen. I really appreciate it.” Michelle looked at the clock on the wall and then back to Jensen. “You should head out. It’s nearly five o’clock and you’ve worked your ass off today. I’ll see you in the morning when we have the meeting with the interns.”
“Alright, I’ll see you then. Have a good night, Michelle.” Jensen got up and made his way to the door.
“You too, Jensen. Tell Mike I said ‘Hi’, okay?”
“Yeah, I will. Although you could tell him yourself if you would ever call him. You know he’s sweet on you.” Jensen laughed and threw her a wink as he exited the office.
“Shut your piehole, Ackles! I’m engaged and he knows it!” Michelle yelled after him, laughing as well.
Later that evening, Jensen finally sucked it up, and called his mother. He'd anticipated a why don't you call; you know I worry lecture, and he wasn't disappointed. His mother was a champion guilt tripper.
“Jensen, I don’t know why you can’t just come visit me more often. Surely you’re not that busy at work. Your sister was just here two Sundays ago and I know she’s completely swamped with her classes and job. You don’t even call me as much as you used to.”
Oh, yeah - champion guilt tripper.
“Mom, it’s not that I don’t want to see you, it’s just,” Jensen idly bit at a hangnail, “that I really don’t have time right now. I’ve been spending six out of seven days working. I barely have time to see my friends except for on my lunch breaks or late at night.”
“Sweetie. I just miss seeing and hearing from you. You used to call me every week and now I have to get your sister to get you to talk to me,” Donna sighed. “Mackenzie told me you have a dinner for work this Friday.”
Like clockwork, his mother's voice perked up when the inevitable question came next. “Are you taking anyone special with you? Mackenzie said you were trying to find a date since she can’t go.”
“Um, yeah, sure. I’m asking around but I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a big deal if I don’t find anyone to go with me. It’s just something for work, so it’s not a big deal.” Jensen shrugged as if his mom could see him.
“Well, why don’t you call me on Saturday and tell me about it?”
“Sure thing, mom. Listen, I’m really tired from all of the hours I’ve been pulling at work. I need to get to sleep.”
“Of course, Jensen! It’s pretty late and you need your rest. I’ll talk to you this weekend. Have a good night and a good time on Friday. I love you.” Donna told him.
“Love you too, mom. Good night.” Jensen ended the call with his mother.
He felt a little bad about not telling his mother the truth but he figured there were worse things to lie about and this was pretty low on the scale of offenses.
Thursday dawned with Jared flying out of bed and tripping over the clothes still lying on the floor from the day before. Seemed no matter how far forward he set his clock, he could never get his butt out of bed on time.
Pulling on the first pair of pants he found and grabbing a hoodie, he ran down the hall to the apartment's front door; Jared was flying out the door still stuffing his feet into his shoes. All in all, one of his better mornings.
Dodging students left and right, Jared ran into the building his class was in and up the flight of stairs to the second floor. He made it into the second classroom just seconds before the class started. Falling into his usual seat, Jared worked to catch his breath. Tom passed him his bottle of water which Jared accepted with a grateful smile.
"Dude, congrats. Made it on time this morning.”
"Yeah, man, banner day.” Jared laughed between breaths. “My ass would have been grass if I missed the quiz, though. My grade in this class is like three points above epic failure, at best.”
"Uh... Jay, I have some good news and bad news. Good news, we don't have the quiz today since Hintz is out sick."
"Oh, thank fuck. Wait, what's the bad news?" Jared asked warily.
"We're having our test next Thursday instead of the following week. He emailed us this morning about it and said today and Tuesday will be review days. The TA is stopping by to give us some review guides and to pop in a video for us. I plan on leaving as soon as she's gone. Maybe I’ll go get some breakfast."
"Well, shit. Almost makes me wish I had just stayed in bed. Whatever. I think I'll join you." Jared replied.
Waiting for the TA to show up and pop in the video, Jared and Tom chatted about their classes, the recent loss by the baseball team, and their most recent clients. Tom griped extensively about Ms. Fisher calling him for a seventh time. She was a nice older woman, but had a hard time socializing around the area. She liked going places with Tom because it gave her a chance to show off her “man” to the other biddies that couldn’t stop talking about everyone else.
It was fifteen minutes into their scheduled class time when the TA finally showed up. She looked seriously pissed that she'd been lassoed into babysitting the class. Actually, she looked seriously pissed every time Jared saw her. She took roll, passed out the review papers, and popped in the video. As she was leaving, she stopped by Jared’s desk.
“Jared, Kehoe wants to see you.”
“Um, okay?”
“Well, looks like you’re not joining me for breakfast after all. I’ll catch you later, dude. Tell Chad to give me a call when he has a chance. I want to talk to him about limiting my appointment schedule.” Tom said to him after the TA left.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll see you later, Tom.” Jared hunkered down in his chair, trying very hard not to freak the fuck out.
Jared dragged his butt back to the apartment just after seven that evening. It turned out Kehoe had wanted to ride his ass about getting an internship for the summer. At least tomorrow was Friday, and that he only had his morning class to deal with. After that, he had all afternoon to get ready for his appointment. He found himself actually looking forward to it.
After Chad had told him who his client was, Jared had looked ‘Jensen Ackles’ up more thoroughly, trying to get a better grasp on who the man was, other than his job. He didn't find much. Apparently Jensen lived an internet hermit life - no public Facebook, no Twitter, nothing. The best Jared could find was intel on the company he worked for, Kripke and Associates. It was one of the top planning and design agencies in the tri-county area. And because the universe rolled that way, it was also at the top of Jared’s list for internship possibilities.
Jared made his way into the kitchen to grab something to eat. The pickings were slim. He could either take his chances with the leftover Chinese take-out from Monday night or try heating up the frost-encrusted TV dinner at the back of the freezer. Deciding the frozen dinner was probably the safer choice, he dug it out from its icy tomb.
Waiting for the microwave to work its magic, Jared listened to his voicemail. One was from Chad saying he'd be back late that night and that he'd already picked up Jared's “big boy” suit from the cleaners. There was also a call from his brother, reminding him about their tickets for an upcoming hockey game, and a call from their landlord, telling them that she would be out of town the following week and to leave their rent check in her mail slot. Jared made a mental note to call his brother over the weekend. He wrote on the notepad on the refrigerator about the rent check; Chad would take care of that. The microwave dinged and Jared gingerly removed the steaming tray.
Jared sat down on the couch and kicked his feet up on the table. He took a picture and sent it to Chad's phone. Two minutes later, Chad texted back, fucking neanderthal.
“Thirsty Thursday” was one habit from college that Mike hadn’t been able to quit. He always tried to make Jensen join him on his drinking excursions, but Jensen always had an excuse not to get plastered. Mostly he begged off saying that he had to work early in the morning. That was usually a good enough excuse for Mike. It didn’t stop him from asking though.
“Mike, I’m serious. I’m not getting drunk with you tonight. If you can wait until Saturday, I promise we’ll go out bar-hopping then. But I really can’t tonight. I have to make sure everything is ready for tomorrow night and I can’t do that if I’m three sheets to the wind.”
“Fine, grandma. But you owe me a round, Ackles. You always bail on me and I have to find someone else to drink with. And you’re supposed to be my wingman, dude!” Mike yelled into the phone. Jensen pulled his cell back from his ear, trying to save his hearing. He sounded like he had already knocked back a few drinks prior to calling Jensen.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll buy you a drink on Saturday. I’ll even let you choose the bar we go to,” Jensen replied genially.
“And don’t forget you have to tell me about your date-thing! Remember I helped set this thing up for you. I gave you Chad’s number. I want details, man, details!”
“Yeah, I'll get right on that, Mikey. Have a good night and be safe. Call me if you need a ride.” Jensen laughed back. Mike slurred some foul name at him and hung up.
Jensen turned his attention back to the papers in front of him. He was just putting the finishing touches on his speech for the board meeting next week when Mike had called him. Normally he might meet him for a beer or two, but not now. What with the dinner tomorrow night and having to meet with his date -Jared, his name was Jared- beforehand, he was starting slightly freak out. Some more. Okay, so he might have to put his head between his knees briefly to calm his breathing.
After repeating it'll be fine, everything's cool, be cool, man 17,000 times or so, he'd called Chad. Seems Chad was used to clients losing their proverbial shit beforehand, if his soothing It's all good, man, no worries was any indication as soon as he'd answered his phone.
Twenty-five games of solitaire later, Jensen finally finished his speech. He drove home and promptly crashed on his couch.
He didn’t know how long he sat there, but when he opened his eyes (and when had he closed them, anyway?), the sun had set and it was pitch black in the house. Turning on the lamp on the end table, he made his way down the hall to his bedroom. Shucking his suit off, he pulled on an old pair of lounge pants and a tee-shirt from college. He yawned loudly and stretched his limbs. Collapsing on his bed, he was asleep in seconds.
Part Three
Jared was just headed out of his afternoon class when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
Jaybird call me. Got a job 4 u.
Chad. The only person Jared had told about his dreaded family nickname. Jared wasn't entirely sure why he'd told Chad in the first place. Like many of Jared's life choices, it was one he was consistently regretting.
“Hey, dude. You’ve got me a job, huh? Alright, tell me about it.” Jared said as soon as Chad picked up.
“Formal dinner event, so you’ll need your big boy suit and special shiny shoes. It’s for some guy named ‘Jensen Ackles’ and he says it’s to thank their clients or something. He needs some arm candy and I figure you’re the man for the job. So, do you want it? I’m supposed to call him back and let him know later today. If not, I can see if Tom is interested.” Chad told him.
Jared heard his stomach grumble. “Yeah, I’ll take it. You can fill me in on the specifics when I get home. Thanks, Chad.”
“Sweet. I’ll see you then.”
Jared liked being able to help people this way. Sure, it wasn’t glamorous and to the average person, it would seem like he was a glorified prostitute. But Jared didn’t see it that way. He saw the job as something similar to acting. He played a part for the evening and made his clients feel less alone, even if just for a little while. He never accepted money for services that weren’t negotiated with Chad beforehand and he never slept with his clients, for money or otherwise. It was bad for business to sleep with the clientele and it opened up a whole can of worms in terms of legality. As it was, Jared wasn’t sure how this whole thing was legal to begin with, but Chad assured him that he had talked with a lawyer back when they started this thing up and that as long as no “intimate services” were offered, there was nothing wrong with it. Jared let Chad worry about that kind of thing and concerned himself with making the clients happy.
After the call ended, something about the client's name tickled Jared's brain. Jensen Ackles. The name sounded familiar, he was sure he had heard it before.
The sweet sight of pizza greeted Jared when he finally got home that evening. Heaving a relieved sigh, he toed off his shoes and left his bag by the couch. The smell of Nap's pizza made his stomach grow, again. It had been a long day on campus.
Grabbing a beer from the fridge and a plate for his slices, Jared sat down on the couch. He kicked his feet up on the coffee table and cracked open the bottle of Keystone Light: the beer of champion college students. Sinking his teeth into the still-warm pizza, Jared moaned at the taste. It was hard to believe something so simple could taste so good.
Chad stopped short on his way to the kitchen, with a look of absolute horror on his face. "What the hell have I said about putting your feet on the goddamn table? Jesus Christ, I can't believe you sometimes."
"I wouldn't have to put my feet on the table if you had just bought the recliner couch in the first place. And who the hell cares anyway? This table is probably older than dirt, anyway." Jared replied. The argument was more of a joke now than anything. Something about Chad being the house mother of the two of them always struck Jared as hysterical.
Coming back from the kitchen, a beer of his own in his hand, Chad plopped down on the other couch next to Jared.
"So, how was your day, Jaybird?" Chad asked.
"Screw you, dude. You know my day was total shit. Bodenman totally reamed our collective asses for not having our research proposals done yet. I don't know what the hell he expected since he only just assigned it last Thursday. He's such a dick." Jared rubbed his free hand over his face, trying to ease the tension headache he'd carried with him all day.
“Damn, Jay. That sucks. I forgot he was checking that shit today. But look on the bright side; this is the last class you’ll ever have to have with him.” Chad reached over and uncharacteristically gave Jared’s shoulder an encouraging squeeze. Experiencing Bodenman first hand tended to bond people with whispers of “Holy shit, I'm gonna stroke the fuck out, man.”
“Yeah, I’m trying to keep that in mind. At least it’s nearly Spring Break. I’ll have a whole week to ignore my paper and get nothing done!” Jared smiled at the thought.
“That’s the spirit!” Chad replied, bringing his bottle over to clink against Jared’s. “Now, how about we talk business? You wanted the details on your Friday appointment, right?”
“Oh yeah. So it’s a formal dinner for some dude named ‘Ackles’ and I need my suit? That about the gist of it?” Jared took another swig of his beer and worked on shoving the entire slice of pizza in his mouth. Damn, he was hungry.
“Yeah. Jensen needs a date for his company’s client appreciation dinner on Friday night. He works for some local development office, mentioned something about planning? I figured that’s right up your alley and you’ll have plenty to talk about with him, if you decide to talk shop. My preliminary background check on him didn’t turn anything up, so it seems like he’s not going to be any trouble.”
Chad bit into his own slice, charmingly talking around the mushed food in his mouth. “You’re supposed to meet him at his office around 5:30 so you can get introduced. The dinner is down the street at the conservatory at six.”
Jared’s ears perked up when Chad told him that Jensen worked for a planning and development office. That's where he knew the name from. His Advanced Urban Planning class was supposed to have a guest speaker toward the end of the semester from the office of Kripke and Associates. His professor said it would either be Ackles or Kawa that would be coming in and that she'd let them know the date of the class later.
He really hoped that it would end up being Kawa, now, because awkward.
“Sounds easy enough. Did you call him back already?” Jared asked after Chad finished both his speech and his mouthful of gnarly pizza.
“Yep. I actually just got off the phone with him before you got here. Don’t worry about your suit; I dropped it off at the cleaners after I talked to you earlier today.”
“Aww, thanks, Mama Bear. I appreciate that.”
“Cram it, cock.”
As Jared reached for the remote, Chad got to it first, proclaiming, “None of that Glee shit. You know I can’t handle that Rachel chick whining every episode.”
Jared just laughed and let Chad pick the program. He knew Chad would be watching it on Hulu tomorrow while Jared would be in class, anyway. Chad couldn’t hide his addiction to Glee at all, no matter how often he protested otherwise. Not that Jared knew the plot points of Glee, ether. He just kept up with it to needle Chad with the details. That's all.
Yeah, he'd totally fail a polygraph on that denial.
Wednesday felt like it was stuck on fast forward. Jensen was scrambling to finish faxing over the new, corrected font, paperwork to Campbell’s office when Michelle poked her head into the room.
“Hey, Jensen. When you have a minute, would you mind stopping by my office? I have a few things I need to go over with you in regards to Friday.” Michelle asked him, sunny smile in place.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Michelle was on the phone when Jensen got to her office. She gestured at the empty seat in front of her desk and he sat down. He didn’t have to wait very long before she ended the call and addressed him.
“Alright,” she clapped her hands, “so about Friday. I know I said I’d deliver the pre-dinner speech, and I’m not backing out of that, but I thought maybe I should let you know that I’ll need to leave right after you lead the toast. I have a bit of a family issue that needs taking care of and I need to be out of town as soon as possible.”
“Is everything alright? It’s not your grandmother, is it?” Jensen asked, full of concern.
“Yeah, it’s Nana.” Michelle's casual tone belied the worried set of her face. “She’s having surgery Friday morning and someone needs to be with her over the weekend. It’s not serious, but I don’t want her to have to be alone while she’s recovering.”
“I’m sure everything will be fine, Michelle. Don’t worry, if you need to just skip the dinner altogether, I can handle things by myself. Just let me know how I can make things easier for you.”
Honestly, Jensen would rather stick hot pokers up his nose then have to take point at the dinner. But most evidence to the contrary, he wasn’t a completely unsympathetic asshole.
“Thanks, Jensen. I really appreciate it.” Michelle looked at the clock on the wall and then back to Jensen. “You should head out. It’s nearly five o’clock and you’ve worked your ass off today. I’ll see you in the morning when we have the meeting with the interns.”
“Alright, I’ll see you then. Have a good night, Michelle.” Jensen got up and made his way to the door.
“You too, Jensen. Tell Mike I said ‘Hi’, okay?”
“Yeah, I will. Although you could tell him yourself if you would ever call him. You know he’s sweet on you.” Jensen laughed and threw her a wink as he exited the office.
“Shut your piehole, Ackles! I’m engaged and he knows it!” Michelle yelled after him, laughing as well.
Later that evening, Jensen finally sucked it up, and called his mother. He'd anticipated a why don't you call; you know I worry lecture, and he wasn't disappointed. His mother was a champion guilt tripper.
“Jensen, I don’t know why you can’t just come visit me more often. Surely you’re not that busy at work. Your sister was just here two Sundays ago and I know she’s completely swamped with her classes and job. You don’t even call me as much as you used to.”
Oh, yeah - champion guilt tripper.
“Mom, it’s not that I don’t want to see you, it’s just,” Jensen idly bit at a hangnail, “that I really don’t have time right now. I’ve been spending six out of seven days working. I barely have time to see my friends except for on my lunch breaks or late at night.”
“Sweetie. I just miss seeing and hearing from you. You used to call me every week and now I have to get your sister to get you to talk to me,” Donna sighed. “Mackenzie told me you have a dinner for work this Friday.”
Like clockwork, his mother's voice perked up when the inevitable question came next. “Are you taking anyone special with you? Mackenzie said you were trying to find a date since she can’t go.”
“Um, yeah, sure. I’m asking around but I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a big deal if I don’t find anyone to go with me. It’s just something for work, so it’s not a big deal.” Jensen shrugged as if his mom could see him.
“Well, why don’t you call me on Saturday and tell me about it?”
“Sure thing, mom. Listen, I’m really tired from all of the hours I’ve been pulling at work. I need to get to sleep.”
“Of course, Jensen! It’s pretty late and you need your rest. I’ll talk to you this weekend. Have a good night and a good time on Friday. I love you.” Donna told him.
“Love you too, mom. Good night.” Jensen ended the call with his mother.
He felt a little bad about not telling his mother the truth but he figured there were worse things to lie about and this was pretty low on the scale of offenses.
Thursday dawned with Jared flying out of bed and tripping over the clothes still lying on the floor from the day before. Seemed no matter how far forward he set his clock, he could never get his butt out of bed on time.
Pulling on the first pair of pants he found and grabbing a hoodie, he ran down the hall to the apartment's front door; Jared was flying out the door still stuffing his feet into his shoes. All in all, one of his better mornings.
Dodging students left and right, Jared ran into the building his class was in and up the flight of stairs to the second floor. He made it into the second classroom just seconds before the class started. Falling into his usual seat, Jared worked to catch his breath. Tom passed him his bottle of water which Jared accepted with a grateful smile.
"Dude, congrats. Made it on time this morning.”
"Yeah, man, banner day.” Jared laughed between breaths. “My ass would have been grass if I missed the quiz, though. My grade in this class is like three points above epic failure, at best.”
"Uh... Jay, I have some good news and bad news. Good news, we don't have the quiz today since Hintz is out sick."
"Oh, thank fuck. Wait, what's the bad news?" Jared asked warily.
"We're having our test next Thursday instead of the following week. He emailed us this morning about it and said today and Tuesday will be review days. The TA is stopping by to give us some review guides and to pop in a video for us. I plan on leaving as soon as she's gone. Maybe I’ll go get some breakfast."
"Well, shit. Almost makes me wish I had just stayed in bed. Whatever. I think I'll join you." Jared replied.
Waiting for the TA to show up and pop in the video, Jared and Tom chatted about their classes, the recent loss by the baseball team, and their most recent clients. Tom griped extensively about Ms. Fisher calling him for a seventh time. She was a nice older woman, but had a hard time socializing around the area. She liked going places with Tom because it gave her a chance to show off her “man” to the other biddies that couldn’t stop talking about everyone else.
It was fifteen minutes into their scheduled class time when the TA finally showed up. She looked seriously pissed that she'd been lassoed into babysitting the class. Actually, she looked seriously pissed every time Jared saw her. She took roll, passed out the review papers, and popped in the video. As she was leaving, she stopped by Jared’s desk.
“Jared, Kehoe wants to see you.”
“Um, okay?”
“Well, looks like you’re not joining me for breakfast after all. I’ll catch you later, dude. Tell Chad to give me a call when he has a chance. I want to talk to him about limiting my appointment schedule.” Tom said to him after the TA left.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll see you later, Tom.” Jared hunkered down in his chair, trying very hard not to freak the fuck out.
Jared dragged his butt back to the apartment just after seven that evening. It turned out Kehoe had wanted to ride his ass about getting an internship for the summer. At least tomorrow was Friday, and that he only had his morning class to deal with. After that, he had all afternoon to get ready for his appointment. He found himself actually looking forward to it.
After Chad had told him who his client was, Jared had looked ‘Jensen Ackles’ up more thoroughly, trying to get a better grasp on who the man was, other than his job. He didn't find much. Apparently Jensen lived an internet hermit life - no public Facebook, no Twitter, nothing. The best Jared could find was intel on the company he worked for, Kripke and Associates. It was one of the top planning and design agencies in the tri-county area. And because the universe rolled that way, it was also at the top of Jared’s list for internship possibilities.
Jared made his way into the kitchen to grab something to eat. The pickings were slim. He could either take his chances with the leftover Chinese take-out from Monday night or try heating up the frost-encrusted TV dinner at the back of the freezer. Deciding the frozen dinner was probably the safer choice, he dug it out from its icy tomb.
Waiting for the microwave to work its magic, Jared listened to his voicemail. One was from Chad saying he'd be back late that night and that he'd already picked up Jared's “big boy” suit from the cleaners. There was also a call from his brother, reminding him about their tickets for an upcoming hockey game, and a call from their landlord, telling them that she would be out of town the following week and to leave their rent check in her mail slot. Jared made a mental note to call his brother over the weekend. He wrote on the notepad on the refrigerator about the rent check; Chad would take care of that. The microwave dinged and Jared gingerly removed the steaming tray.
Jared sat down on the couch and kicked his feet up on the table. He took a picture and sent it to Chad's phone. Two minutes later, Chad texted back, fucking neanderthal.
“Thirsty Thursday” was one habit from college that Mike hadn’t been able to quit. He always tried to make Jensen join him on his drinking excursions, but Jensen always had an excuse not to get plastered. Mostly he begged off saying that he had to work early in the morning. That was usually a good enough excuse for Mike. It didn’t stop him from asking though.
“Mike, I’m serious. I’m not getting drunk with you tonight. If you can wait until Saturday, I promise we’ll go out bar-hopping then. But I really can’t tonight. I have to make sure everything is ready for tomorrow night and I can’t do that if I’m three sheets to the wind.”
“Fine, grandma. But you owe me a round, Ackles. You always bail on me and I have to find someone else to drink with. And you’re supposed to be my wingman, dude!” Mike yelled into the phone. Jensen pulled his cell back from his ear, trying to save his hearing. He sounded like he had already knocked back a few drinks prior to calling Jensen.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll buy you a drink on Saturday. I’ll even let you choose the bar we go to,” Jensen replied genially.
“And don’t forget you have to tell me about your date-thing! Remember I helped set this thing up for you. I gave you Chad’s number. I want details, man, details!”
“Yeah, I'll get right on that, Mikey. Have a good night and be safe. Call me if you need a ride.” Jensen laughed back. Mike slurred some foul name at him and hung up.
Jensen turned his attention back to the papers in front of him. He was just putting the finishing touches on his speech for the board meeting next week when Mike had called him. Normally he might meet him for a beer or two, but not now. What with the dinner tomorrow night and having to meet with his date -Jared, his name was Jared- beforehand, he was starting slightly freak out. Some more. Okay, so he might have to put his head between his knees briefly to calm his breathing.
After repeating it'll be fine, everything's cool, be cool, man 17,000 times or so, he'd called Chad. Seems Chad was used to clients losing their proverbial shit beforehand, if his soothing It's all good, man, no worries was any indication as soon as he'd answered his phone.
Twenty-five games of solitaire later, Jensen finally finished his speech. He drove home and promptly crashed on his couch.
He didn’t know how long he sat there, but when he opened his eyes (and when had he closed them, anyway?), the sun had set and it was pitch black in the house. Turning on the lamp on the end table, he made his way down the hall to his bedroom. Shucking his suit off, he pulled on an old pair of lounge pants and a tee-shirt from college. He yawned loudly and stretched his limbs. Collapsing on his bed, he was asleep in seconds.
Part Three