Oliver led the way past cubicles, towards Jasper’s office. There, he saw the source of the commotion.
Valerie’s hair was a mess, her skirt slightly rumpled. Shawn was red-faced, on the verge of tears. Jasper leaned casually against the doorway of his office, with crossed arms and a smile. As though he found the entire situation amusing. Behind Oliver, stood everyone who had been eating in the conference room.
“How long has this been going on!” Shawn shouted. “All those nights, working late? Were you actually with him?”
“You’re one to talk!” Valerie shot back. “Given your feelings towards Ollie!”
Oliver could feel all eyes on him, filling him with a need to flee the scene. But curiosity as to what would happen next kept him rooted to the spot.
“We’ve been over this already,” Shawn snapped. “He’s my best friend, that’s it!”
“Yeah, your best friend you’re in love with. I bet you’ve been cheating on me with him!”
“That’s ridiculous. I don’t know where you’ve gotten that idea!”
“I don’t know. Maybe the fact I came home to you two sleeping together recently!”
Of course, she was referring to the time they literally fell asleep together. But out of context, everyone around him would get the wrong idea. Oliver's face burned, but nobody said anything. Of course, they all wanted to see who would say what next. The right thing to do would be to alert Shawn to the crowd. But Oliver was too enthralled.
“I told you, that was platonic! I don’t even like men.” Shawn’s voice shook at that last sentence.
“Bullshit,” Valerie said. “I know all about you being bisexual.”
At this point, warehouse workers had joined the crowd one by one. Everyone waited for Shawn’s response with bated breath. Jasper watched on smugly, facing the audience. Of course he would’ve shared Shawn’s drunken ramblings to Valerie. Oliver regretted not speaking up before Valerie could say something like that. Too late now.
“Okay, fine. I’m bisexual. But that doesn’t mean I have feelings for Oliver!”
“Then why did you keep that from me? Don’t you think I have a right to know?”
Shawn scoffed. “No.”
“You tell her, Shawn!” Brittney’s voice rang out. A few people laughed as others whispered among themselves.
Shawn and Valerie finally looked towards their audience of thirty people. Shawn jerked his head back towards Valerie. “We can continue this conversation when we get home.”
“Fine.” Valerie glared at him for a moment before turning around and walking back into Jasper’s office. Jasper followed, shutting the door behind him.
Once it was clear the drama had ended, people cleared out. Either returning to their work stations, or returning to their meals. Shawn slunk away to his cubicle, head down. Oliver wasn’t sure what people would say if he followed Shawn. Then again, they’d talk about them no matter what. He should at least make sure Shawn would be okay.
Oliver walked over to Shawn’s cubicle to find him slumped in his chair, staring at his list of read emails. “Are you gonna be okay?”
Shawn looked up at him for a second. “I don’t know. But things will probably be worse for us if people catch us talking.”
“Let them talk.” Oliver placed his hand on Shawn’s shoulder, and Shawn leaned his head against Oliver’s arm. “I just want you to know, I’m always here for you.”
Shawn smiled. “Thanks.”
“And if you need a place to crash, at any time, my door is always open.”
“I appreciate it.” Shawn set his hand over Oliver’s. “But I don’t think it’ll come to that.”
“You’re gonna try and work this out?” Oliver had been secretly hoping he would break up with her. Never having to see Valerie again would be wonderful. Plus there was the added bonus of him and Shawn being able to do whatever they wanted with each other.
“I feel like we should. I mean, we’ve been together for two years now. I’ll at least talk to her tonight. See if we can salvage our relationship. I just hate that the whole company knows my personal business.” Shawn removed his hand from Oliver’s, and scowled up at him. “Thanks for letting me know everyone was watching, by the way.”
Oliver ducked his head apologetically. “At least there’s a four day weekend. Maybe people will have forgotten about this by Monday.”
“Let’s hope. Meanwhile, me and Valerie are supposed to be spending this weekend at my parents’ house.” Shawn sighed. “I’m dreading it now. Either me and Valerie are going to have to spend the entire weekend pretending everything is still great between us. Or, go there by myself and tell everyone we broke up.”
“Or pretend you’re sick and stay home.”
“Tempting. I’d hate to miss out on all the food though. And it’s been a long time since I last saw my brother and his son. I kinda miss them.”
“Oliver, there you are.” Tyler appeared outside the cubicle. Oliver braced himself for taunts and teases, but heard none. Instead, Tyler handed him a sheet of paper. “I need you to order these parts.”
“Okay.” Oliver left Shawn for his own cubicle, thinking maybe, just maybe, everyone else would be mature like Tyler and keep their snarky comments to themselves.
Oliver no sooner sat down at his desk when Tim reached around and grabbed a pen from his pen cup. “Sounds like you and Shawn found that one bed.”
Oliver covered his face with one hand, and groaned while Tim left, grinning.
As hoped, after the long weekend, everyone seemed to have forgotten about the scene Shawn and Valerie had. Oliver had yet to hear the conclusion from Shawn though. His phone had been out of range for much of the weekend, because his parent’s lived in a rural area that lacked cell phone service. And when Shawn did have cell phone service, he sent Oliver a text that just said “I don’t want to talk about it yet.” Judging off that text, Oliver guessed things weren’t going so great.
Shawn finally shared the news in Oliver’s cubicle. He leaned against the desk, as Oliver gazed up at him from his chair. “We broke up. She said I’m too immature for her. That she needs a ‘real man’ like Jasper.”
Oliver struggled to hold back a laugh.
“I know, right?” Shawn shook his head. “She packed up all her things and left, Wednesday night. She didn’t even tell me where she was going.”
“I’m sorry.” Oliver stared at Shawn’s hand, gripping the side of the desk. Without thinking, he placed his own hand over Shawn’s.
Shawn smiled. “It’s fine. I was upset, at first. But now that we’ve been apart for a few days, I’m thinking this is for the best. I mean, I loved her. But after all she’s done, we’re through.”
“Yeah.” The word “all” in particular stood out to Oliver. He only knew of one offense- the obvious one. Had there been more going on?
It was as though Shawn had read his mind. “You wouldn’t believe what she did. I still can’t believe it.” His grip on the desk tightened.
“What?”
“After a nice Thanksgiving dinner, my mom got a phone call.”
“From Valerie?”
Shawn nodded. He took a deep breath, and lowered his voice. “She told her I was bi.”
Oliver’s eyes widened. A wave of nausea hit him. “She actually did that?”
“Yes! And she knows how far-right my parents are. But she outed me to them anyway!”
“What the fuck’s wrong with her?” Oliver’s voice filled with disgust.
“I called her to ask. She said my parents have a right to know. And she’s pissed that I kept it secret from her. She doesn’t even care that my parents hate me now, and that Thanksgiving weekend was a civil war at their house.”
Oliver tilted his head questioningly. He’d assumed Shawn would’ve been disowned by everyone, and gone home right away.
“Believe it or not, half my family was supportive. My brother and cousin, and their wives, were nice about it and thought what Valerie did was messed up. My aunt had mixed feelings. Like, she thought it was okay only if I continued to exclusively date women. But my uncle and parents wouldn’t even talk to me. And my cousin got in an argument with my parents for ignoring me. My uncle saw me alone with my nephew, and yelled about how I shouldn’t be alone with children. And my brother got pissed at him for saying that. So they had a huge fight. Everyone went home a day early because of it.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” Shawn fiddled with the string on his hoodie. “I barely speak to my parents as it is- all they ever talk about is politics. You can’t have a normal conversation with them anymore. So it’s not a total loss. But, they’re still my parents, you know?”
Oliver pulled Shawn into a hug. “I’m sorry.”
“I should’ve seen this coming,” Shawn said. “I mean, she hated you. That should have been a red flag.”
“She told you that?” Though Oliver had assumed Valerie hated him, he didn’t think she’d actually admit it to Shawn.
“Many times,” Shawn said. “I wish I’d broken up with her then. Thank you for not complaining about how much you hate her, by the way.”
“What makes you think I hated her?” Oliver asked.
“I can tell when you’re being fake-nice. And you were constantly fake-nice to her. I appreciate the effort, but you really didn’t have to do that.”
“She made you happy,” Oliver said. “I didn’t want to ruin that.”
Shawn rubbed at his eye. “You’ve always been a good friend. The best I’ve ever had. And I’ll never date someone who hates you again. Hating you is an instant deal-breaker from now on.”
Good thing Oliver didn’t hate himself.
“But enough about my problems,” Shawn said. “How was your Thanksgiving?”
“Not very exciting. Saw my parents. Ate a bunch of food. Went home.”
“Didn’t bring your roommates with you?”
“God no. They didn’t go anywhere. Or, if they did, they came back before me.”
“I suppose they didn’t know a thing about Thanksgiving.”
“Nope,” Oliver said. “Then again, they’ve made it clear they’re not from America. Why would they?”
“True. Do you think they at least know Christmas?”
“We’ll find out soon enough. But they probably don’t, if our alien theory is correct.”
A loud, dinging sound emitted from the lobby. Followed by more dings in rapid succession. Shawn and Oliver shared a look, then entered the lobby to investigate.
Faye was nowhere to be seen. Oliver hadn’t seen Jyri around either. Perhaps they’d secretly wandered off to visit their morbid pet. Instead, two young women and an old man stood in the lobby. The women wore floor-length dresses. The man was wrapped in a cloak, of all things. One of the women, a redhead, slapped her hand over a bell on the desk repeatedly. She stopped at the sight of Oliver and Shawn.
“Can we help you?” Oliver asked.
“Hopefully,” the redhead said. “I’m Lavina.” She pointed to the other woman. “And that’s Kirsten. And that man over there is Corvin.”
“Okay,” Shawn said slowly.
“We’re on a quest.” Lavina had a soft voice, though it was loud enough to hear. She beamed at Oliver while the other two focused their attention on Faye’s desk. As though they’d never seen anything quite like it. Oliver briefly wondered if these people were from the same planet as Jyri.
“What kind of quest?” Shawn dared to ask.
“A quest to find a quest,” Lavina said. The smile hadn’t left her face. Kirsten and Corvin stared at the computer monitor with curious expressions.
Shawn held up a finger. “We’ll be back in a minute. Don’t go anywhere.” Shawn put his hand on Oliver’s shoulder, steering him back into the other room.
“Okay, either those three are on drugs, or they’re from the same planet as Faye and Jyri,” Shawn whispered. “What do you think?”
Oliver thought for a moment. “Honestly? Both. What should we do with them? Send them away?”
“I was thinking of keeping them here. Maybe we can get information out of them. Find out if our theory is correct.”
“Sounds good.”
Shawn nodded, and the two went back to the lobby. Kirsten had picked up the desk phone, peering at it from all angles. Corvin sat in one of the chairs with his eyes closed. Lavina hadn’t moved.
“You’re looking for a quest, you say?” Shawn clapped his hands together.
“Yes, we are!” Lavina smiled again. “Do you have one for us?”
“I do, indeed. First we need to know how you got here.”
“We walked,” Corvin said, eyes still closed.
“From where?” Oliver asked.
“We don’t know,” Lavina said.
“You don’t know where you walked here from?” Shawn asked.
“There was a sign that said Dunkin’ Donuts,” Kirsten said, setting the phone down.
“Dunkin’ Donuts,” Oliver muttered to Shawn. “Isn’t that where Craig-”
“Definitely.” Shawn focused his attention back on Kirsten. “How’d you end up there?”
Kirsten stared at him in silence.
Luckily for Oliver and Shawn, Lavina was all too happy to answer. “We walked through a portal-”
“Lavina!” Faye and Jyri shouted in unison. The two entered the lobby from a doorway in the back.
“Jyri!” Lavina ran over to Jyri, and hugged him. “We never thought we’d see you again! Where’s Ran?”
“With our new boss,” Jyri said, looking at Kirsten and Corvin. “You’re here too.”
“Yeah,” Kirsten said. “So, you’ve found a home?”
“Kind of.” Jyri glanced at Oliver and Shawn suspiciously. “We should catch up now.” Hand on Lavina’s shoulder, he guided her out the front door. Faye, Kirsten, and Corvin followed.
Leaving Shawn and Oliver with more questions than answers. The two returned to Oliver’s cubicle.
“A portal,” Shawn said, voice lowered. “What the hell does that mean?”
“That we might be wrong about them being aliens.” Oliver rubbed at his jaw, frowning. “Unless these particular aliens came to Earth through some sort of teleportation thing. They could mean that.”
“Or maybe they’re time travelers after all,” Shawn said. “That guy was wearing a cloak, for God’s sake. And I haven’t seen women dressed like that since last year’s Renn Faire.”
“Sometimes women wear long dresses for the hell of it. It’s not too out of the ordinary.”
“Maybe not, but everything else about them is. Did you see how that one girl was checking out that phone?”
Oliver shrugged. “They looked like teenagers. Maybe they’ve only ever seen smart phones.”
“I’m willing to bet they’ve never seen a smart phone either. They’re all time travelers.”
“I still think aliens.”
“Time traveling aliens,” Shawn said. “Wanna try to find this portal whatshername mentioned?”
“I’ve got nothing better to do. Wanna grab lunch first?”
“Sounds good.”24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlPuMMT9j9e
and then Add to home screen.