Remove the Empty Spaces (7 page)

“I guess you’re right, though I do plan on us still dating in a month and longer.” Adrien sounded so positive that Ion didn’t have the heart to doubt him.

“I’m more than happy to have that come true. But until then, what do you want to do until I have to go?”

“Hold you for a little while longer, then go to brunch. Maybe hit one of the museums afterwards.” Adrien tugged on his hand to bring him back into his embrace. “You don’t have to do homework or anything like that?”

Ion cuddled close. “I’ll use it as an excuse to get out of having to stay at my parents for too long.”

Adrien’s chuckle warmed Ion’s heart. “I try to find any excuse I can to get out of having dinner with my parents. But there are times when Mother demands my presence, and I can’t say no. I tried that once when I first moved out. Worst idea of my life. She called me every day telling me what a terrible son I was, and how could I treat my mother like that. I wanted to tell her that she might have given birth to me, but she didn’t raise me. That’s what my nanny was for. But I was smart and kept my mouth shut.”

“Did you give in?” Ion grinned, having listened to that same type of guilt trip from his mother as well.

“Yes. I couldn’t take it anymore, so now when she tells me to come for dinner, I show up.”

He tucked the blankets around them as they settled in for a little more rest. Ion couldn’t believe how comfortable he felt just hanging with Adrien, even though they’d only spent two nights together so far. Hopefully after spending the day with him, Ion would be able to let himself start to seriously consider falling for him

* * * *

“Did you hear the news, Ion?” his mother asked as he wandered into his childhood home that evening. She wrapped her thin arms around his waist, then crushed him to her. He hugged her back, breathing in the familiar scent of her White Diamonds perfume.

“What news, Mama? I just got here.”

She waited while he removed his coat before hanging it up. Once he was ready to go, she grabbed his hand to drag him through the house to the kitchen. Olive was cutting up some vegetables, and Ion went to brush a kiss over her cheek.

“You’re looking gorgeous as ever,” he said before he went to get a beer out of the fridge.

“Thank you, Ion.” She gave him a quick smile, but he saw the tiredness around her eyes and the grooves at the sides of her mouth.

Things had been tough for his family in the last year or two. He knew that the sale of the company to Bellamy had caused them all to worry about their jobs.

Bogdan and Olive had kids to worry about. House payments, bills and the future college expenses weighed heavily on their minds. So he wasn’t surprised to see Olive looking exhausted. Ion just hoped that the news that the company wasn’t closing would help lift all of their spirits.

“The news, Ion. Did you hear it?” Mama gestured and the way she waved her hands made Ion happy she wasn’t holding a knife.

“No, Mama. I haven’t heard anything. I was busy all day.” He wasn’t about to tell her that he’d spent the morning in Adrien’s bed, and the afternoon wandering around the Museum of Modern Art with him.

“The company isn’t closing. We’re not going to lose our jobs, and neither is Bogdan. Isn’t that wonderful?” Her smile brightened her wrinkled face, and her joy brought a grin to Ion’s as well.

“That’s wonderful, Mama.” He hugged her again. “How did you learn about it?”

“Maria, who is the secretary for the president of Huntsman, called to tell us.” She grimaced. “She probably wasn’t supposed to let us know, but she said she couldn’t sit on the information all weekend. She knew how worried we all were about it.”

Ion wished he could’ve called his parents the minute he knew the company wouldn’t be shut down, but he didn’t want to explain how he knew. He didn’t want his parents to know it was his proposal that saved their jobs.

Bogdan wandered into the kitchen. Smiling, he slapped Ion on the shoulder. “Good to see you, little brother. Mama telling you?”

He gave his brother a quick one-armed hug. “Yes, she is. It’s great. I’m glad to know none of you will have to be looking for new jobs in a month.”

“So am I.” Bogdan shot him a questioning glance. “Pretty amazing that the company found a way to keep Huntsman open without laying anyone off.”

“That’s why they make the big bucks, brother. I’m just a mail clerk, so I don’t have access to that kind of information.” Ion shrugged, though he could tell from the look he got from Bogdan, his brother would be cornering him later on when the others weren’t around. “Where’s Pops?”

“He’s watching the game. Why don’t you go in and talk with him? Olive and I will finish up getting dinner on the table.” Mama made a shooing motion to get him and his brother out of the room.

After wandering a little ways down the hallway towards the front room, Bogdan pulled Ion to a halt. “Are you the reason why we get to keep our jobs?”

“You can’t tell anyone, Bogdan. The people at work know I wrote up the proposal, but you can’t tell Mama and Pops. I don’t want them to know yet, though I’m sure they’ll find out soon enough.”

His brother studied him for a moment. “What happened? There’s something different about you.”

“I got a promotion at work. I’m now going to be a troubleshooter at Bellamy International, or at least, I’ll be a junior one until I get my degree.” Ion did a little jig in the middle of the corridor.

“Troubleshooter? Is that what you did with the Huntsman problem? You found a solution, and they’ll have you find other solutions to other problems?” Bogdan frowned as he tried to figure out what exactly Ion wanted to do.

“Right. It’ll mean more money too, so I’ll be able to pay off my student loans quicker.” Just that knowledge lifted a weight off his shoulder. He’d never asked his parents for anything. They’d had such a difficult time sending Bogdan to college and had to mortgage their house they were still paying off. Ion didn’t want to make it harder for them, so he’d paid for all his classes on his own.

Bogdan hugged him. “That’s great news, Ion. Are you going to tell them tonight? It might get them to stop telling you to get a real job.”

“No. I’m going to let them be happy about keeping their jobs. I can tell them some other day.” He glanced over his shoulder at the kitchen, then back at Bogdan. “I met someone, too. We had a date and spent some time together. He wanted to come tonight, but I told him we should wait until we’ve been together for a while. I don’t want Mama scaring him off.”

“Oh Ion, I’m not sure bringing a guy to meet them would be good, no matter how long you’ve been seeing each other.” Bogdan frowned. “They are old-fashioned, and I don’t think they’ll ever truly change. They love you, Ion, but you being gay is wrong to them.”

Ion nodded. “I know that, but I’m not going to hide who I am, and I refuse to hide the man I love. I want them to meet him, and if they can’t find a way to welcome him into the family, then I won’t be coming for family dinners anymore.”

“You need to give them time.” His brother started towards the front room. “You can’t expect them to just accept it all without hoping you’ll change.”

“Why shouldn’t I expect that? I’m not going to, and they’ve had years to get used to it. They should know that I’d meet some guy and fall in love with him. I’d want them to meet him and welcome him into the family like they did Olive.” Ion wanted to continue arguing, but they’d walked into the front room where his dad sat watching the baseball game.

“Hey, Pops, congratulations on keeping your job.” Ion clapped him on the shoulder before taking a seat on the couch next to his father’s chair.

His father sniffed, but Ion could see that he was pleased. Pops wasn’t much of a talker and Ion had learnt how to tell his moods by the tilt of his mouth. He glanced over at the TV.

“See the Sox are beating the Yankees again,” he commented.

“Yep. Yankees are a bunch of deadbeats.” Pops slapped his thigh in disgust before shooting Ion a glance. “Work going well for you? Still a mailman?”

Ion stopped himself from rolling his eyes. His father always asked him that. “Work’s good, Pops. I’m still working at Bellamy International in the mail room.”

That part was true. He wasn’t scheduled to start his new job until the middle of the week.

“I don’t understand why you go to college and spend all that money on those classes just so you can work as a mailman for a company. It makes no sense to me.” Pops shook his head.

“I’m not going to be working in the mail room for long. Once I get my degree, I’ll find a job better suited for my education. I don’t understand why we have to have this conversation every time. At least I have a job, and can pay my own way. Shouldn’t you be happy about that?” He gestured to the ceiling above him. “I could still be living here, sponging off you and Mama.”

His father didn’t look at him, but he grunted, and Ion took it as agreement. He knew it wouldn’t stop Pops from making comments about his job, but Ion hoped that his promotion would change things once he told him.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out to check the screen. It was a text from Adrien.

Hope you’re having a good time with the family.

After running his finger across the screen, he got the text part up and typed in
It’s been great. They’re happy about keeping their jobs.

Did you tell them you did it?

Pops scowled at him, letting him know that he didn’t appreciate Ion texting while in the middle of their conversation. Even though they weren’t really talking about anything.

I don’t plan on doing that. They don’t need to know I did it.

Why not? You saved their jobs. Shouldn’t you want the recognition?

Ion snorted softly. He didn’t care since he didn’t do it just for them. He’d wanted to help out his brother and all the other people who worked at the toy company.

Don’t need the recognition as long as they keep their jobs. Miss you.

He hit send, then wished he could take that back. Was it too soon to start doing the ‘miss you’ thing? Especially when they’d only been apart for a couple of hours in all. He didn’t want to be needy or clingy.

Miss you too. Had fun this afternoon. Definitely want to do it again.

“Dinner’s ready, boys. Come on,” Mama shouted from the dining room.

Have to go. Dinner’s ready. See you tomorrow.

Ion sent the text, then stuffed his phone back in his pocket. It vibrated, but he didn’t pull it out. His mama didn’t like phones at the table and he tried to respect that.

Chapter Five

Adrien looked up as Sidney strode into his office. He nodded towards the chair in front of his desk, letting his friend know he would be with him in a minute. After going through Ion’s proposal, Adrien couldn’t see anything wrong with it, and he wanted to put it into action as soon as his people could.

“Will it hold up?” Sidney gestured at the file.

“Yes.” Adrien sent off his approval to Diggs, the man he’d put in charge of the Huntsman Toys recovery. “Diggs should be able to start implementing the new changes within the next week.”

“So the kid came up with a good plan, huh? And you’re rewarding him with the job in Bart’s department?” Sidney studied Adrien, then asked, “Don’t answer that. Answer this. Who did you fuck last night and why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone new?”

After leaning back in his chair, Adrien stretched his arms over his head, and said, “I don’t kiss and tell, Sidney.”

“Since when?” Sidney looked surprised. “I’ve never known you not to brag about your conquests before. You’ve always let me live vicariously through your encounters.”

“You know, if you’d stop working so hard, and enjoy your life, you wouldn’t be alone,” Adrien pointed out.

He chuckled when Sidney rolled his eyes. His friend had heard it all before. Adrien truly believed Sidney worked too hard. Adrien used to be like that, then he’d taken over at the company. His stress level had gone up, and he’d sworn to himself he wouldn’t be like his father, who’d had a heart attack at fifty because he didn’t know how to relax.

“Well, I’m not going to tell you anything about my bedroom activities.” Adrien shrugged when Sidney protested. “It’s not my place to say at the moment.”

Sidney narrowed his eyes, and studied Adrien. “Is there something different about this guy? Or are you just embarrassed by him? Maybe he doesn’t measure up to your mother’s exacting standards as to who the Bellamy heir should date.”

Someone clearing his throat brought their attention to the door where Patrick stood, and behind him, Adrien saw Ion with a stricken look on his face. Adrien jumped to his feet, but Ion disappeared before Adrien could go to him.

“Sir, your eleven o’clock appointment is here.” Patrick didn’t look happy either, and Adrien wondered if Ion had told his personal assistant what had happened between the two of them not just Friday night, but Saturday night as well.

“Oh, I haven’t been able to talk to you since you sent Mr Vasile to interview with Bart and me. We’re taking him on in a limited role until he’s done with his MBA. Once he has that, he’ll take over Constance’s position full time with all the benefits and salary.” Sidney stood, then headed for the door. “Is that all right with you? I’ll have Bart start showing him around.”

“It’s fine with me since that’s why I sent him to you in the first place.” Adrien rubbed the nape of his neck. “Patrick, can you show Miss Bronson to the conference room and see if she would like anything to drink?”

“Yes, sir.” Patrick started to walk away, then Adrien stopped him.

“Wait. Can you see if Mr Vasile has time to meet with me some time this afternoon?”

Patrick glanced over, seemingly checking to make sure Sidney was out of earshot. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, sir?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t spend too much time in each other’s company while at work. I know what happened between the two of you over the weekend, and I don’t want there to be a hint of Ion getting this promotion because he’s sleeping with the boss.” Patrick took a deep breath then stiffened like he was waiting for Adrien to yell at him.