Joey just stared at me. He blinked once, twice and then hid his face in his hands, softly groaning. When he looked up, he sighed. I wanted to say something but he lifted his hand, indicating that I shouldn’t.

“So that’s what I heard? You and Ross weren’t fighting?”
I felt a blush creeping up my cheeks and fixed my eyes on a window, shaking my head.
“Holy shit.”

“You promised not to tell anyone,” I said softly.
He made a dismissive gesture.

“I won’t. But dude… I thought you were strangling each other or something. I was about to go and have a look but it stopped, so… man, am I glad I didn’t walk in on you guys.”
He started to snicker and it didn’t take long for it to develop into full blown laughter.
It stopped when I punched him in the arm.

“Shut up, it isn’t funny!”
He hiccupped a few times as the laughter died down, rubbing his eyes.

“Sorry, it’s just… man, just think about it. Me walking in on you guys while you’re doing the dirty. I’d need my eyes lasered after that,” he said, beginning to laugh again.
Okay, if you looked at it that way, then it was kinda funny and so I smirked.
Then he took a few deep breaths and turned more serious.

“So what’s wrong; he didn’t force you, did he?”
I shook my head and stood, beginning to pace.

“No. Nothing like that. It’s just… I woke up and he was gone. Everything was gone; his clothes, his backpack, everything.”

“Weird.”

“You’re telling me?”

“Well, maybe he felt embarrassed? Was it bad?”
I rolled my eyes.

“Oh, thanks. That’s a real compliment.”

“Don’t go faggy on me now… I meant that maybe he woke up and didn’t feel all that good about it. Maybe he checked into a hotel, because he figured it’d be inappropriate to stay here.”
I huffed.

"Inappropriate? Gimme a break; first he sticks his you-know-what in my fill-in-the-blanks and then he gets an attack of morality?"

"Eww, dude... no graphics!"
He shuddered.

“Sorry. We ehm… alright, I might as well tell you. We like each other, obviously. For a few days now, we had this… thing between us and yesterday… well, it developed.”

“Developed how?” He asked, immediately holding up his hand. “No more gory details, please, I still have to eat.”
I smiled feebly.

“Two days ago, we were playing Monopoly with a couple of guys and I‘d been drinking. Okay, I was pretty drunk and I said a few things that were out of line.”

“Out of line like…?”

“I told Ross to fuck off…”

“Great career move,” Joey commented, shaking his head.

“Next thing I know, he’s kissing me. Not romantically but you know… he was angry.”

“Say no more. I’ve had a few girlfriends that drove me nuts and I handled in exactly that way; to shut you up, right? I did that with Janice, yesterday.”
The grin that appeared on his face was downright goofy.

“Exactly. Anyway, he left but came back later and apologized. We talked and everything was fine and he asked me to go skiing with him the next day. Not like with a whole group but alone.”

“Gotta remember that one,” he mumbled.

“That was yesterday. So we spend the whole day together, and he taught me some stuff. I thanked him, and I was a bit too enthusiastic. So I kissed him. You know, as a thank you.”

“Ooookay… is this a gay thing?” he asked, sounding unsure and I smiled.

“If you're asking if we always do that, then no. I guess I wouldn’t have done it if it had been you or Joey or someone else. It was a moment. Unconsciously I felt like doing it and knew he wouldn’t freak out like you or Eric would.”
Joey raised his eyebrows, insulted.

“Oy! I’m not a homophobe.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. But you wouldn’t like it if I’d do it to thank you for something, understand?”

“Oh, I dunno… you a good kisser?” he winked, grinning.

“Shut up and let me finish.”
He raised his hands and nodded.
“Alright… where was I… ah, okay. So when we came back here, the house was empty and we found the note but he invited me to dinner.”

“Ooh, smooth.”
I ignored him.

“So we went to a restaurant, ate and talked. He asked me all sorts of stuff. Then, when we were done, we were walking back here and we saw these lights…?”
I looked at him when he nodded.

“Yeah, been there, done that,” he said, grinning. When I frowned he held up his hands, shrugging. “Janice saw them too and wanted to check it out.”

“Ah…”
He blushed.
“Anyway, Ross said if I wanted to go up there and I said something like ‘how romantic’, in a sort of funny way.”

“Right.”

“And he goes like…’so what?” and then he kissed me. Right there in the middle of the street.”

“Hotdamn,” Joey said, grinning.

“Yeah, tell me about it. Anyway, I wasn’t too comfortable in the street so he pulled me into this alley…”

“No graphics.”

“Relax,” I grinned. “Let’s just say we spent some time together; no, nothing dirty. Then we came back here. Spend some time with you guys, and then he went to bed. When I went up he was already asleep. But I woke up in the middle of the night and he was awake… well, fill in the blanks. Next thing I know is that I wake up just now and he’s not there, his stuff is gone.”

“Right. You want my opinion?” he asked, after thinking for a few seconds.
I nodded.
“Well, from the sound of it, he definitely has feelings for you.”

“He kinda told me that, yeah.”

“Okay… so what I’m thinking is that some sort of emergency came up and that he had to leave immediately.”

“Without waking me up? Tell me something, anything? That takes what... two seconds?”

“I dunno man… I’m just guessing here. I don’t know what happened or what his thoughts were. All you can do is wait and see if he calls or something.”

“What if he thinks he made a mistake and when I get back, I’ll have a Donald Trump style ‘you’re fired’ letter waiting for me,” I said, making a face. “He got to screw me and then screws me one more time.”

“Oh man, would you stop that? It's too much info! Relax, man; don’t start freaking out for no reason. There’s probably a very good explanation for it. But I do know one thing…”

“What’s that?”

“That you, my friend, are a goner; you've fallen for him. Hard.”

CHAPTER *12*

Ross didn’t return to Aspen for the remainder of our stay. He didn’t call and even Janice didn’t know what had caused Ross to leave so suddenly, courtesy of Joey who had casually asked about it on a date.
So she and Joey drew me into a few more outings on the slopes when I really felt like not going, and forced me to try and have a good time. Thanks to them, the last few days didn’t suck, to put it bluntly.

Joey's assessment, that I had falled for Ross, was correct. Still, I was more than a little pissed at him for leaving like that. It was only thanks to Joey that he got the benefit of the doubt. But Janice also proved to be very supportive; that and that she wasn’t surprised about Ross and me because she had noticed Ross’s behavior.
She told me that Ross had asked questions about me; if she knew that I was single, where I lived, that sort of thing. What surprised me the most is that he had asked those questions right after we had met for the first time, in the parking lot.

“As soon as he asked me that, I watched you two,” she said, admitting that she had told him my preference for the male population. “He’s very private. I didn’t know he was gay until two years ago. And only because his ex came to the office.”

“Kyle?” I asked.
She nodded.

“Ross was a wreck after that; Kyle really pulled a number on him. Wait until you meet Ross’s mother; she will drink his blood if she ever sees that guy again.”
She smiled as she seemed to recall something.
“Actually, she almost did. It must’ve been what… half a year ago? During some release party, Kyle showed up. Sofia went ballistic. You should’ve seen it; that woman is like a tiger. No one touches Ross or any of his brothers or sister.”

“I don’t think I wanna meet her,” I smiled.

“It’ll happen eventually; once she knows Ross is involved, oh baby… there’s nowhere to hide.”
She grinned evilly.

“Well, right now I don’t know if we are or not, you know. He just left. Didn’t wake me, leave a note or whatever. For all I know, he ran as soon as he got what he wanted.”
Janice shook her head.

“No, he’s not like that at all. It must’ve been something bad, for him to leave like that,” she insisted. “And we can make all sorts of excuses, good or bad, but you’ll just have to wait and see. Knowing Ross, he’ll come to you sooner rather than later.”
She patted my arm.
“He always does. Sometimes, at the office, he yells my head off but he always comes back to explain or apologize, even when he doesn’t have to. That’s how he is. His brother is the exact same.”

I nodded and for a little while, what she had said took my mind off of it. But that last night, when I was alone in bed, thoughts once again started to enter my mind and the next morning I was a sleep-deprived wreck, on the verge of hating him and hating myself. All through the night I’d been tossing and turning, running through dozens of ‘what if’ scenarios in my head. What if we hadn’t had sex this soon, what if I hadn’t given in to the feelings he’d been causing, what if… yeah, what if?

**********

I was glad when the bus finally arrived to take us back to Denver, and I was even gladder when it pulled up into the parking lot at FG. I couldn’t wait to get out, get my stuff, jump in my car and get the hell away from here, and away from the memory of Ross.
It’d been pretty clear to me that I had fallen like a rock for him, the last night together only sealing my unfortunate romantic fate. But who was I kidding? In the end, I was an average young man who wasn’t rich. Sure, I got by royally compared to the average person but I certainly wasn’t moving in the circles that Ross was used to. I was just a guy who tried to live his life, have a little fun and maybe, just maybe, find someone to have that fun with? Was that too much to ask?

So by the time I came home, I was pretty down and had thought myself into state, which didn’t help matters all that much. But then it got worse; no messages on my answering machine. Well, some were there, like from my mom and a couple of friends, but not from Ross. Secretly I’d hoped that maybe he had called to explain, but even that hope quickly diminished when the last beep came and went.

That weekend was one that I couldn’t wait to end, and I was almost glad when the alarm went off on Monday morning. Not so much because I finally might get some answers today, if Ross would be in, but just to get this long, tedious weekend over with.

**********

I arrived uncharacteristically (for me) early at FG, coming into an empty office and I’d already been working for at least half an hour when the first people came in, half of them still hung over from the weekend; another thing that I hadn’t done, unlike other weekends, where I could be found spending half a day in bed to recuperate from a wild night on the town. This weekend I hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol.

When Joey and Eric arrived, the office lit up a bit, and I half listened to their stories about their weekend activities.
It turned out that Joey had spent a minimal amount of time with Eric, instead opting to spend half his weekend with Janice. Eric, of course, wasn’t all that amused and it didn’t take them long to turn back to calling each other names, slapping each other, snide comments and so forth.
In a quieter moment, when Eric had gone to the men’s room, Joey asked if I had heard anything. The sigh I gave was more than enough of an answer and he shook his head.

“I’m sorry, man. I hope you find out some more today. And speaking of today, have we got an action packed one ahead of us.”
I raised an eyebrow and he explained.
“Well, on the way here, elevator talk spoke of the intro-deadline moving forward to, wait for it; today!”

“What!” I said, “They can’t! I’m not ready. Half the theme hasn’t even been finished, let alone a final mix. They can’t do that.”

“Oh yes they can. Apparently, our dear vice-president Andrew Forester has struck a deal with a production company, who want to see that trailer this week. I think that’s why he wasn’t with us last week. Probably busy earning millions again. Anyway, one of the legal department secretaries was blabbing in the elevator because she’d been called in to work during the weekend, preparing contracts and stuff.”

“Shit, I’m fucked,” I said, rubbing my face. “This is just great.”

“Relax, we have a few options. We can always use temp music, can’t we?”

“Sure, but that’s not going to give the ambiance they’re looking for. If the deal revolves around this intro, I need to get my ass into the studio, pronto.”

“Okay, what have you got so far?”

“I have all the instruments on separate tracks, but that’s all done by synthesizer. You’ll get an idea of the ambiance but that’s about it; I did them myself. I had to hold off on booking the musicians to have it all come together in the studio, because they thought I should wait until the programming was done.”

“Well, they thought wrong. Can’t you mix those synthesizer tracks together?”

“Sure I can but it won’t come near to what I had in mind. I want the orchestral sound, not a Kylie Minoque hump-video sound. It’ll sound as empty as that “nanana” crap song.”

“Right. So who can you call, on such a short notice?”
I rattled off a few names of people from which I knew had nothing on their plate
“Great; how about a recording studio?”

“I can try DMA, but it’s very last minute…” I said, unsure.

“Contact them and if they can put us up, call whoever you can in. I’ll clear it with Will, who can go upstairs and talk his ass off with the legal department.”
I nodded and got to work.

There was only one positive about this; for the next few hours, I didn’t have time to even think about Ross.