smackenzie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
smackenzie) wrote2008-11-07 12:23 am
smackenzie) wrote2008-11-07 12:23 am
chapt 1
Val climbed in, Aidan turned on the radio, and away they went.
"Sorry for teasing you so much about your sex life," Aidan said as he cruised unconcerned through a stop sign. "I do kind of think Theo has the hots for you, though."
"You just ran a stop sign," Val said. "And I think you're crazy. Theo's straight, he's married, and besides, isn't it generally a bad idea for lawyers to get involved with law clerks?"
"I didn't say he was going to get involved with you, just that he thought you were hot."
"You know I won't be able to look him in the eye tomorrow, don't you? I'll be thinking about him thinking about me."
"At least I haven't mentioned it to Chad." Aidan took his eye off the road long enough to flash a wicked grin in Val's direction. Val had a brief moment of simulated terror during which he imagined that Chad thought Theo was chasing him. Bad enough Chad seemed to be trying to get Val and Aidan together - Val didn't want to have to work with the guy ever again if it meant Chad pushing him at Theo too.
"Don't even. He'll never let me hear the end of it."
Aidan chuckled. "At least you can guarantee he won't ask to join you."
"Thank god for small favors. He's not bad-looking, though."
"Chad?" Val could see Aidan raise an eyebrow in disbelief. "Did I tell you he came on to Stella at the Christmas party last year?"
"No, but I'm not surprised. She's cute and blonde, she's totally his type. Did she laugh in his face?"
"He asked her if I shared." Aidan snickered. "What do you think?"
"What did he say?" Val grinned to himself, thinking about Chad putting the moves on someone as determinedly taken as Stella. Although he knew Stella was a big flirt, so it was entirely possible she'd played along and teased him right back. Val couldn't imagine her giving any response that wasn't some variation of "No" to the question of whether or not she and Aidan had an open relationship, though.
"Well, she said I was waiting for Christian Bale to make an offer for her, and until then, no, we were a closed system." He hit the gas to pass under a yellow light before it turned red. "It was yellow," he told Val, to stave off any backseat driving.
"I wasn't going to say anything," Val said. "Except that it's probably a good thing Chad's straight, otherwise the promise of Christian Bale wouldn't put him off."
"I don't think I'd share Stella with him anyway, even if he was Batman. Heath Ledger, though, he can join us any time. Well, he could if he wasn't dead."
"I can't believe we're having this conversation. What about Maggie... Maggie. What's her last name? She played the girl. Rachel."
"Gyllenhaal," Aidan said. "Maggie Gyllenhaal. She's on my list. Her brother's on Stella's. Jake. Did you ever see Jarhead? I still don't know how I feel about the movie, but dude, Jake Gyllenhaal without a shirt was worth the price of admission. I don't even think he's that hot, but Stella does." He nodded knowingly, as if he knew Val understood what he was really saying. Val was kind of glad Aidan stopped right there.
On the one hand, it was always nice to be able to talk to like-minded people about guys you found hot, but on the other hand, talking about your list with a guy who was on that list was a little weird. Even if the guy was too busy discussing what turned his girlfriend on to discuss what turned him on.
"So I'd get Maggie, Stella would get Jake, and we'd both share Heath. Fun for the whole family." Aidan grinned. "Would you do that?" he asked Val. "A threesome."
The question caught Val off-guard and for a minute he couldn't think of an answer.
"I don't know," he finally said. "Maybe? It would depend on who the other two people were. Jake Gyllenhaal, probably not. Maggie's cute, though."
"Heath?"
"Living and not insane."
"Christian?"
"Probably."
"Aaron Eckhart? Harvey Dent."
"No, I don't think so. He's too perfect."
"How come we can talk about famous guys you'd theoretically bang but we can't talk about your actual love life? I'll totally stay away from your love life if it freaks you out, but I'm curious now."
Val gave that some serious thought. Aidan had actually stopped for a light - instead of blowing right through it - and now turned to look at him.
"What?" Val said.
"It's just weird." Aidan shrugged. "You're a weird dude."
"Everyone talks about famous people they'd screw. Not everyone wants to talk about real people they'd screw." He gestured at the stoplight beyond the windshield. "Light's green. Do you want to tell me all about the real people you'd fuck if you had the chance?"
"Sure. The girl who took over for Maggie at the reception desk today, I'd do her. She was cute. Trent, the IT guy? Geek hot. Mr Simonson's personal assistant, Parminder? She's smoking hot. Last week I ran into her in the kitchen, she was wearing this yellow suit, had her hair up, and I'm telling you, dude, I just wanted to throw her down and rip her clothes off." Aidan took a minute to collect himself. "I'd do you," he said casually.
Val wouldn't swear to it, but he was pretty sure that comment made his heart stop completely, if temporarily.
"Now you're just teasing me," he said.
"Nope," Aidan said cheerfully. "You wanted to know, so I told you. Did I freak you out? I think I freaked you out." He glanced sideways. "I'm sorry. I just got carried away, and you asked...."
"No, it's ok. I'm ok." It was kind of a relief to Val that he could still lie reasonably convincingly. "I, um, if you turn left right up there you can cut through the parking lot and it's a shortcut."
Aidan hung a left at the next turn, cruised through the parking lot, and picked up a street much closer to Val's apartment on the other side.
"Left up here," Val directed, pointing, and Aidan turned left again. "The street will curve and then you'll recognize where we are."
"This is really shorter?"
"Well, you miss a couple of lights and a weird turn, so yeah, kind of."
Val wasn't about to admit he just wanted to get out of the car before their discussion got any more uncomfortable, although he wasn't quite sure how it could.
"Did you ever think about dating someone who's already dating someone?" Aidan asked.
And now Val knew how the conversation could go even farther afield.
"Um," he said intelligently.
"Might widen the pool of dating applicants, so to speak."
"I don't have time to date. Why are you so interested in my love life? This has just been the weirdest night for topics of conversation."
Aidan shrugged. "Sometimes you just need to get laid. Just because I'm not interested in sharing my girlfriend with Chad doesn't mean other people won't share their girlfriends with you. Or their boyfriends."
"You're not setting me up with Theo."
"I'm not setting you up with Theo." Aidan grinned. "I'm not setting you up with anyone. I'm just saying. Think about it.'
"I think it's weird," Val said. "If you're happy with your partner, why would you want another one?"
"Some people just have too much love in their hearts for one other person." Aidan snickered. "Ok, I can't say that with a straight face. But you know what I mean."
"I don't think I do."
"Dating. Chilling out with someone you like. Getting laid more than once every seven months. Could be good for you. This looks like your place."
Val had never been so glad to see his building. Aidan pulled up to the curb and Val got out of the car.
"Thanks for driving me home," he said, with the door still open. "Even if the conversation was really strange."
"Hey, at least I didn't suggest you throw yourself at Chad."
"I'n not his type anyway."
"Nah, not blond. Night, dude."
"Good night."
Val slammed the car door closed, dug his keys out of his shoulder bag, and let himself into the building. He knew Aidan would wait for him to get inside. It was kind of reassuring when people did that for you. He still couldn't figure out why Aidan cared so much about who he did or didn't want to fuck, and whether or not he was interesting in dating anyone. Val had a sister to pester him about that, he didn't need a friend to do it too.
He went upstairs to his own place, let himself in, and was a little surprised to find Kirk and his girlfriend Haley sprawled on the couch watching TV. He'd thought Kirk was working tonight.
"Uh, hi," he said.
"Hi Val," Haley chirped. "We're watching The Usual Suspects. Wanna watch with us?"
"I think I'm just going to check my email and go to bed."
"Laaaaame," Kirk said.
"I thought you were working tonight."
"They're training a new guy and I'd just clutter up the space, so I got tonight off. Thought I'd call Haley. There's leftover Thai in the fridge if you want some."
"No, thanks, I'm not hungry. Save it for breakfast."
"Suit yourself. We'll try to keep it down."
"Ok, thanks."
Val shut himself in his room and changed out of his work clothes and into his sleeping clothes and spent a few minutes debating whether or not he really had the mental energy to check his email. What a weird conversation he'd had with Aidan in the car. Would he ever join a threesome? Would he date someone who already had a partner? Where did all that come from? He decided maybe a batch of non-work email was just what his brain needed, and booted up his computer.
The only really interesting message was from his sister Morgan, letting him know she and her husband Billy were making a flying visit next Saturday so Billy could do a one-day training course ("Why the hell he can't do it here, I don't know", Morgan had written), and she wanted to see him. She said she'd call. He replied that he'd make a note, they'd do stuff, it would be fun, he couldn't wait. They didn't get to see each other very often - Morgan and Billy lived in Texas, where he was a state trooper and she worked as a medical secretary, and Billy really did not like to fly. He hated admitting he was afraid of it, but the truth was, flying scared the crap out of him. Val didn't get it but he tried to be sympathetic, and the end result was that most of the time, if Val wanted to see his sister, he had to fly down to where she was.
He wondered what this training course was that Billy had to fly out here to take it, and how was the poor guy going to survive two flights in as many days? He'd probably have to be tranquilized.
Val deleted some spam, shut down his computer, went to the bathroom to brush his teeth (Kirk and Haley were still watching The Usual Suspects, but it looked like the movie was almost over), and came back to his room and crawled into bed. It was a little early to be going to sleep, but he was tired. It had been a long and weird day.
words: 1935
total words: 10,366
"Sorry for teasing you so much about your sex life," Aidan said as he cruised unconcerned through a stop sign. "I do kind of think Theo has the hots for you, though."
"You just ran a stop sign," Val said. "And I think you're crazy. Theo's straight, he's married, and besides, isn't it generally a bad idea for lawyers to get involved with law clerks?"
"I didn't say he was going to get involved with you, just that he thought you were hot."
"You know I won't be able to look him in the eye tomorrow, don't you? I'll be thinking about him thinking about me."
"At least I haven't mentioned it to Chad." Aidan took his eye off the road long enough to flash a wicked grin in Val's direction. Val had a brief moment of simulated terror during which he imagined that Chad thought Theo was chasing him. Bad enough Chad seemed to be trying to get Val and Aidan together - Val didn't want to have to work with the guy ever again if it meant Chad pushing him at Theo too.
"Don't even. He'll never let me hear the end of it."
Aidan chuckled. "At least you can guarantee he won't ask to join you."
"Thank god for small favors. He's not bad-looking, though."
"Chad?" Val could see Aidan raise an eyebrow in disbelief. "Did I tell you he came on to Stella at the Christmas party last year?"
"No, but I'm not surprised. She's cute and blonde, she's totally his type. Did she laugh in his face?"
"He asked her if I shared." Aidan snickered. "What do you think?"
"What did he say?" Val grinned to himself, thinking about Chad putting the moves on someone as determinedly taken as Stella. Although he knew Stella was a big flirt, so it was entirely possible she'd played along and teased him right back. Val couldn't imagine her giving any response that wasn't some variation of "No" to the question of whether or not she and Aidan had an open relationship, though.
"Well, she said I was waiting for Christian Bale to make an offer for her, and until then, no, we were a closed system." He hit the gas to pass under a yellow light before it turned red. "It was yellow," he told Val, to stave off any backseat driving.
"I wasn't going to say anything," Val said. "Except that it's probably a good thing Chad's straight, otherwise the promise of Christian Bale wouldn't put him off."
"I don't think I'd share Stella with him anyway, even if he was Batman. Heath Ledger, though, he can join us any time. Well, he could if he wasn't dead."
"I can't believe we're having this conversation. What about Maggie... Maggie. What's her last name? She played the girl. Rachel."
"Gyllenhaal," Aidan said. "Maggie Gyllenhaal. She's on my list. Her brother's on Stella's. Jake. Did you ever see Jarhead? I still don't know how I feel about the movie, but dude, Jake Gyllenhaal without a shirt was worth the price of admission. I don't even think he's that hot, but Stella does." He nodded knowingly, as if he knew Val understood what he was really saying. Val was kind of glad Aidan stopped right there.
On the one hand, it was always nice to be able to talk to like-minded people about guys you found hot, but on the other hand, talking about your list with a guy who was on that list was a little weird. Even if the guy was too busy discussing what turned his girlfriend on to discuss what turned him on.
"So I'd get Maggie, Stella would get Jake, and we'd both share Heath. Fun for the whole family." Aidan grinned. "Would you do that?" he asked Val. "A threesome."
The question caught Val off-guard and for a minute he couldn't think of an answer.
"I don't know," he finally said. "Maybe? It would depend on who the other two people were. Jake Gyllenhaal, probably not. Maggie's cute, though."
"Heath?"
"Living and not insane."
"Christian?"
"Probably."
"Aaron Eckhart? Harvey Dent."
"No, I don't think so. He's too perfect."
"How come we can talk about famous guys you'd theoretically bang but we can't talk about your actual love life? I'll totally stay away from your love life if it freaks you out, but I'm curious now."
Val gave that some serious thought. Aidan had actually stopped for a light - instead of blowing right through it - and now turned to look at him.
"What?" Val said.
"It's just weird." Aidan shrugged. "You're a weird dude."
"Everyone talks about famous people they'd screw. Not everyone wants to talk about real people they'd screw." He gestured at the stoplight beyond the windshield. "Light's green. Do you want to tell me all about the real people you'd fuck if you had the chance?"
"Sure. The girl who took over for Maggie at the reception desk today, I'd do her. She was cute. Trent, the IT guy? Geek hot. Mr Simonson's personal assistant, Parminder? She's smoking hot. Last week I ran into her in the kitchen, she was wearing this yellow suit, had her hair up, and I'm telling you, dude, I just wanted to throw her down and rip her clothes off." Aidan took a minute to collect himself. "I'd do you," he said casually.
Val wouldn't swear to it, but he was pretty sure that comment made his heart stop completely, if temporarily.
"Now you're just teasing me," he said.
"Nope," Aidan said cheerfully. "You wanted to know, so I told you. Did I freak you out? I think I freaked you out." He glanced sideways. "I'm sorry. I just got carried away, and you asked...."
"No, it's ok. I'm ok." It was kind of a relief to Val that he could still lie reasonably convincingly. "I, um, if you turn left right up there you can cut through the parking lot and it's a shortcut."
Aidan hung a left at the next turn, cruised through the parking lot, and picked up a street much closer to Val's apartment on the other side.
"Left up here," Val directed, pointing, and Aidan turned left again. "The street will curve and then you'll recognize where we are."
"This is really shorter?"
"Well, you miss a couple of lights and a weird turn, so yeah, kind of."
Val wasn't about to admit he just wanted to get out of the car before their discussion got any more uncomfortable, although he wasn't quite sure how it could.
"Did you ever think about dating someone who's already dating someone?" Aidan asked.
And now Val knew how the conversation could go even farther afield.
"Um," he said intelligently.
"Might widen the pool of dating applicants, so to speak."
"I don't have time to date. Why are you so interested in my love life? This has just been the weirdest night for topics of conversation."
Aidan shrugged. "Sometimes you just need to get laid. Just because I'm not interested in sharing my girlfriend with Chad doesn't mean other people won't share their girlfriends with you. Or their boyfriends."
"You're not setting me up with Theo."
"I'm not setting you up with Theo." Aidan grinned. "I'm not setting you up with anyone. I'm just saying. Think about it.'
"I think it's weird," Val said. "If you're happy with your partner, why would you want another one?"
"Some people just have too much love in their hearts for one other person." Aidan snickered. "Ok, I can't say that with a straight face. But you know what I mean."
"I don't think I do."
"Dating. Chilling out with someone you like. Getting laid more than once every seven months. Could be good for you. This looks like your place."
Val had never been so glad to see his building. Aidan pulled up to the curb and Val got out of the car.
"Thanks for driving me home," he said, with the door still open. "Even if the conversation was really strange."
"Hey, at least I didn't suggest you throw yourself at Chad."
"I'n not his type anyway."
"Nah, not blond. Night, dude."
"Good night."
Val slammed the car door closed, dug his keys out of his shoulder bag, and let himself into the building. He knew Aidan would wait for him to get inside. It was kind of reassuring when people did that for you. He still couldn't figure out why Aidan cared so much about who he did or didn't want to fuck, and whether or not he was interesting in dating anyone. Val had a sister to pester him about that, he didn't need a friend to do it too.
He went upstairs to his own place, let himself in, and was a little surprised to find Kirk and his girlfriend Haley sprawled on the couch watching TV. He'd thought Kirk was working tonight.
"Uh, hi," he said.
"Hi Val," Haley chirped. "We're watching The Usual Suspects. Wanna watch with us?"
"I think I'm just going to check my email and go to bed."
"Laaaaame," Kirk said.
"I thought you were working tonight."
"They're training a new guy and I'd just clutter up the space, so I got tonight off. Thought I'd call Haley. There's leftover Thai in the fridge if you want some."
"No, thanks, I'm not hungry. Save it for breakfast."
"Suit yourself. We'll try to keep it down."
"Ok, thanks."
Val shut himself in his room and changed out of his work clothes and into his sleeping clothes and spent a few minutes debating whether or not he really had the mental energy to check his email. What a weird conversation he'd had with Aidan in the car. Would he ever join a threesome? Would he date someone who already had a partner? Where did all that come from? He decided maybe a batch of non-work email was just what his brain needed, and booted up his computer.
The only really interesting message was from his sister Morgan, letting him know she and her husband Billy were making a flying visit next Saturday so Billy could do a one-day training course ("Why the hell he can't do it here, I don't know", Morgan had written), and she wanted to see him. She said she'd call. He replied that he'd make a note, they'd do stuff, it would be fun, he couldn't wait. They didn't get to see each other very often - Morgan and Billy lived in Texas, where he was a state trooper and she worked as a medical secretary, and Billy really did not like to fly. He hated admitting he was afraid of it, but the truth was, flying scared the crap out of him. Val didn't get it but he tried to be sympathetic, and the end result was that most of the time, if Val wanted to see his sister, he had to fly down to where she was.
He wondered what this training course was that Billy had to fly out here to take it, and how was the poor guy going to survive two flights in as many days? He'd probably have to be tranquilized.
Val deleted some spam, shut down his computer, went to the bathroom to brush his teeth (Kirk and Haley were still watching The Usual Suspects, but it looked like the movie was almost over), and came back to his room and crawled into bed. It was a little early to be going to sleep, but he was tired. It had been a long and weird day.
words: 1935
total words: 10,366
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