Love in Tandem

by Natalie Arden

  “Exactly,” Eamon replied, flushing hot all the way to the ears.

  “If you’re worried about keeping busy,” Scott added as they remounted their bikes, ready to continue their ride, “You need some kind of project.”

  “Maybe so,” Eamon allowed. He hadn’t had time for personal projects since he started the company – except, of course, for his work on Scott’s website. He’d done kind of slapdash job on the code there, after all. It could probably use a little more fine-tuning. He wanted Scott to have the best after all.

  “Just don’t burn yourself out again,” Scott warned him.

  Eamon laughed. Was that even possible when he’d never really been burned out in the first place? “I’ll keep it in mind.”

  33

  Scott

  ”Why are you still on your laptop?” Scott said lazily a few days later. He leaned over Eamon’s shoulder and yawned. “It’s getting late.”

  “Sorry.” Eamon didn’t look up. “Another minute, I think.”

  “It’s been a million another minutes,” Scott told him. “What are you working on anyway? Work stuff?”

  “In a way,” Eamon said, beaming.

  “Oh, yeah? They letting you get your hands on the code again?” There had been another couple of calls from Kevin in the last few days, Scott was pretty sure of that. The only thing Eamon had told him was that the board was starting to trickle back from their holidays, but maybe there’d been another development while Scott had been at work that day.

  Eamon winced. “Not that work. It’s for you!”

  “For me?” Scott squinted at the screen again. Definitely looked like coding, but he had no idea what it was beyond that.

  “You were saying you had another messed up appointment,” Eamon told him earnestly. “I did kind of a rough and ready job when I fixed your calendar the first time, so I was already thinking about how I could improve, and then you said it was having problems again, so hey! Two birds with one stone!”

  “I’m pretty sure the client just put in all their info wrong,” Scott said apologetically. “Thanks though?” He hadn’t known that Eamon was still worrying about his calendar. Eamon had asked to use his computer a time or two when they were in the shop together on a slow day, but Scott had kind of assumed he’d wanted to look something up online that might be inconvenient on his phone, not that he was still poking at Scott’s systems.

  It was sweet, even if it wasn’t really necessary.

  “Huh.” Eamon didn’t look put off. “I hadn’t thought of that. I wonder if we changed the parameters on the form, if we could keep that from being so much of a problem in the future.”

  “It only happened once,” Scott reminded him. He kissed the top of Eamon’s head. “You don’t need to worry about it.”

  “It’s not any trouble,” Eamon said, leaning back against Scott’s chest. “I was just thinking how it could be better.”

  “It works,” Scott said with a shrug.

  Eamon laughed as though Scott had said something hilarious. “But don’t you want to be better?”

  “I think I do okay,” Scott told him.

  “Your systems, I mean.” Eamon clicked his tongue dismissively. “You do amazing, love.”

  “Thank you,” Scott said ironically. “I try hard.”

  Eamon chuckled faintly. “Anyway, it’ll just be another moment.”

  A moment, Scott thought, lying in bed and waiting for Eamon to join him, apparently took a long time. He sighed. No use complaining. He’d have to get used to Eamon being busy once Eamon went back to work. He’d had the summer at least, he reminded himself. Eamon had been so wonderful about Scott’s odd summer hours – open from eleven to eight – which was more than any past boyfriend had put up with. It had been so refreshing to have someone around who could hang with breakfast dates and Scott dragging himself home barely before nine p.m..

  If Eamon could be cool about all that, Scott could handle Eamon going to bed a little later than usual.

  He was all the way engrossed in a news story about cycling through Patagonia by the time Eamon padded up the stairs and slipped into the bedroom, his whole lanky frame contriving to look apologetic.

  “Took a little longer than I thought,” Eamon said, stripping gracelessly.

  “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Scott watched him over the top of his phone, appreciation warring with tiredness in his limbs. He’d had a hard day – some seriously busted up bikes had come in and their owners had been willing to pay a premium for a rush repair job – and it was later than he’d meant to go to bed, given that he had to get up in the morning and go back to finish the job. On the other hand, Eamon looked damn good even when he was kicking off his jeans in a hurry.

  “I’ll be in bed soon,” Eamon said, and ducked into the bathroom.

  Patagonia began to lose out in favor of listening to Eamon hum in the shower. He’d never win prizes for his singing, but he’d only started to do it a month or so back and Scott thought it was cute that Eamon had finally relaxed enough in his house to let out his less-than-perfect skills. It had started around about the same time Eamon had started leaving his stuff around the place – a habit that Scott had had to resist cooing over more than once. It wasn’t like Scott had enough clothes to fill his closet up: he could easily accommodate a few extra shirts and so forth, but the fact that Eamon was starting to settle in just overwhelmed him every time he thought about it.

  “What’re you thinking about?” Eamon said as he slipped under the sheet next to Scott, still damp from the shower.

  “Oh, nothing much,” Scott replied. “Just you, that’s all.”

  “Just me, huh?” Eamon laughed. “What about me?”

  “You’re pretty cute,” Scott said, putting his phone away on the nightstand. “Did you know?”

  “I’m not sure I did,” Eamon said mock-seriously, eyes wide. “You might have to go into more detail.”

  “How’s this for a detail?” Scott said and leaned in for a long and searing kiss.

  It turned out he was more appreciative than tired after all.

  34

  Eamon

  It was September already and yet things were still not sorted out over at CarreSys. Eamon was going to explode any minute now.

  “You’re telling me they’re all back from vacation,” Eamon said slowly into the phone.

  “Yes,” Kevin said firmly.

  “But they still haven’t gotten around to making a decision about me?” Eamon practically shouted. “What’s keeping them?”

  “You know they don’t meet any more often in September than any other working month,” Kevin said apologetically. “You’ve seen the minutes for the board meetings.”

  Eamon had, in fact, seen the minutes for the board meetings. They’d been filled with the usual rubbish: filing our report for the third quarter, assessments of how well the departments were meeting their productivity targets, a few subtle mentions of some interest by third parties in the company itself. Eamon couldn’t understand how long it was taking for this hostile takeover to come out in the open, but he guessed he wasn’t as experienced with these things as some of the larger companies. He hadn’t had to add any other company’s goods to his slate to raise his profile: their products had always been designed and built in-house and Eamon thought he was justifiably proud of that.

  Of course, it didn’t necessarily mean anything that the subject wasn’t appearing in the minutes of the board meeting, if the board members already had everything planned out among themselves. Eamon thought sometimes that Kevin might be shielding him from having to deal with the board members, and he wasn’t sure why. That is, unless Kevin was trying to shield the board members from Eamon’s wrath.

  But really, he should have known that Eamon had calmed down a lot by now. He wouldn’t make the same stupid mistakes again if he was just allowed back in the business end of things.

  A stray thought occurred to him that he’d have to figure out what was
going on with Scott if he suddenly went back to work, but Eamon squashed it quickly. They’d work it out – Scott was too perfect for them not to work it out – and things would be okay. He just had to sort his life out first.

  “You have seen the board’s minutes, right?” Kevin broke into his thoughts lightly.

  “I have.” Eamon winced. “Sorry about that.”

  “Not a problem.” Kevin sounded completely unfazed. “I’ll keep putting in on the agenda, so don’t worry about a thing.”

  “You’ve been a rock,” Eamon told him. “Sometimes I worry that you’ve been doing more work than I have these last few months.”

  Kevin laughed shortly. “That’s what they pay me for, right?”

  “When I get back, I promise you can have a long vacation,” Eamon said. “You’ve earned it.”

  “You’re too kind,” Kevin murmured.

  “If only all my employees were as competent as you...”

  “They just need a firm hand,” Kevin said. “And I’m sure you’ll be back soon.”

  “I’m counting on it.”

  They ended the call and Eamon turned back to his laptop where the screen still showed the code for Scott’s appointment booking software. It had been good for him to have this project to work on, he thought firmly. Something to take his mind off the trials and tribulations of his real job, plus a way for him to help Scott. Scott worked so hard, after all. He could use a helping hand, and Eamon wasn’t going to lie to himself that he was more useful behind a counter than behind a computer screen.

  Someday, Eamon told himself, Scott would be able to have more employees. Actual employees, not just teens contracted for an afternoon here or there. He’d be able to take time off, to organize his schedule so that he got more sleep, had more freedom. Scott worked so hard now: hadn’t he earned that kind of luxury?

  Eamon could have just given it to him, of course, but he knew how much the Cycle Works meant to Scott. He knew what it felt like to build a business up from nothing and the need to keep a strong hold on that business, to watch it grow and know that you still had a hand in that growth.

  He didn’t want to take that away from Scott at all, simply to give Scott a chance to let things flourish as they were meant to.

  But if that was going to happen, Scott clearly needed a better website. One that worked properly and didn’t let him down. Even if he was too insistent on doing things his own way to arrange for a better website, he’d already asked Eamon for help. It wasn’t too much of a stretch for Eamon to assume his help would still be welcome, if he could manage to get it going.

  Thus far, it looked good. He’d built a test website for it, something simple that didn’t lead to anywhere, and so far the appointments booked there – by and for him, admittedly, but that was how testing worked – seemed to be coming through loud and clear.

  In his darker moments, Eamon was relieved that at least he was still good at something, that even if CarreSys came falling down around his ears, he’d still have a skill to fall back on. Something he could use to build it up better than ever before.

  So Eamon was optimistic. However, now that he’d heard from Kevin, it sounded like he was going to have to work harder on this project than ever before. If he was about to get called back to Columbus, he’d want to be ready with something good to show Scott, something to show Scott how much he meant to Eamon.

  That meant he had a deadline. He’d always worked well with deadlines.

  Cracking his neck, he set out to make the best possible piece of bike rental booking software he could imagine.

  35

  Scott

  “Will I see you this weekend?” Eamon said over a leisurely Friday morning breakfast one week in September.

  “Not unless you want to drop by the shop,” Scott answered apologetically. “I’m there until late tonight and tomorrow, and Sunday night I have to see my parents.” His summer clientele was almost gone, but he stayed open late for a while after school started in the hopes that the continuing warm weather would bring the cyclists back out.

  Eamon made a gesture of vague acceptance. “I’ll bring you lunch or something then.” His smile crinkled up the corners of his eyes and made Scott want to kiss him. He settled for reaching out under the table with his foot and settling it on top of Eamon’s instead. “What would you like to eat?”

  “Or you could come to dinner,” were the next words out of Scott’s mouth.

  He immediately considered falling to the floor laughing and pretending the whole thing was an elaborate joke, but the look in Eamon’s eyes stopped him. “Are you sure?” Eamon said.

  “Why not?” Scott grinned and waved his toast in the air. He was already leaping off the cliff, might as well take in the view on the way down. “They’ve been clamoring for it forever–” At least, since someone had told his mom that he’d been seen around town with Mrs. Carrell’s boy and she’d had some extremely pointed follow-up questions. “–and we might as well get it over with.”

  Eamon somehow looked stunned and touched all at once. “Really?”

  “Yeah.” Scott scratched his head. “They’re very nosy–” He stopped himself as he watched Eamon’s face fall. “I mean, of course they’ll love you and everything. They’re just going to embarrass me, I know it.”

  A snorting laugh burst helplessly from Eamon’s lips. “Well, don’t let me disappoint them,” he said. “Better give them the chance to embarrass you.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Scott grumbled. He brightened up as a thought struck him. “They can’t be worse than my friends anyway.”

  Eamon nodded encouragingly.

  Naturally, Scott discovered, they were, in fact, worse than his friends.

  Not to start with, of course. Walking in and introducing Eamon went fine, as did presenting the bottle of wine Eamon insisted on bringing. Sitting down was okay too.

  Their inevitable questions about how Scott met Eamon again after all these years was when things began to break down a little.

  At least from Scott’s perspective.

  Eamon had brushed aside the whole sabbatical question in favor of talking about Scott’s busted appointment system, which was fine, but then Scott’s parents had teased him about his lack of technical expertise, and now Eamon seemed poised and ready to defend Scott against all comers. Which was cute as hell, but this was his mom and dad.

  “It’s fixed now, with Eamon’s expert help,” Scott tried.

  “I didn’t have much to do,” Eamon said with a little laugh that Scott was pretty sure was fake. Any other time, he’d have teased the hell out of Eamon for it, but not in front of his parents. Another reason why this was turning into a disaster.

  “You literally wrote me a whole bunch of new code,” Scott reminded him.

  “Well, you needed it to be more robust,” Eamon said. “You’re dealing with so many more rentals now.” He beamed at Scott, turning to Scott’s parents with an expression of pride on his face.

  “Not that many more,” Scott said awkwardly.

  “He’s so modest!” Eamon crowed to the room at large. “Isn’t he so modest?”

  Scott’s mom laughed. “You’re too sweet.”

  “Scott’s just a special guy,” Eamon said, looking at him fondly, and Scott didn’t know where to put his eyes. Was this really Eamon? The same one who teased him all the time for his incredibly minimal computer skills? He wasn’t too shy to say ‘I love you’ from time to time, now that they’d opened that particular box, but he wasn’t usually this free-flowing with the compliments, especially not to other people.

  Was he nervous? That was pretty cute, actually, even if it was leading to some unnecessary things.

  “He’s very special,” Scott’s mom agreed, looking like she couldn’t quite believe what was happening in front of her.

  “You guys are going to make me blush,” Scott put in quickly. “Can’t we get back to something less embarrassing, like naked baby pictures.”

  His dad la
ughed. “There are naked baby pictures,” he agreed. “You want to see them, Eamon? Pull a real cliché?”

  “Well, if they’re there,” Eamon said, shooting an amused look at Scott.

  That was better. More like the Eamon he knew and had fallen in love with.

  “You don’t have to talk me up quite so much to my parents,” Scott said as they left after dinner. “They kind of already know me.” He laughed a little, reaching out to put his arm around Eamon’s waist. “They’ve already heard about any troubles I might have.”

  “You deserve to be appreciated,” Eamon told him, his hand catching Scott’s and swinging through a few steps before letting go.

  “They appreciate me plenty,” Scott said with a laugh. He wanted to ask why Eamon would assume otherwise, but honestly, that conversation seemed too sappy for him. It was pretty cute, however, that Eamon seemed to have undiscovered reserves of sap, even if it would have been easier to make this discovery at a time when he could properly joke with him about it.

  Instead he asked, “What, are you practicing for when I have to meet yours?”

  Eamon leaned into the embrace, looking puzzled. “Am I what?”

  “You know.” Scott waved his free hand around vaguely. “When I meet your parents. You planning on telling them all the good things so they don’t worry about some big rough mechanic stealing away their baby boy.” He brushed a kiss over Eamon’s cheek. “I know they’re in Florida, so I’m not saying this is going to happen soon or anything. Just, you know, for that day?”

  “Right, yeah.” Eamon nodded two or three times, oddly quickly.

  Scott leaned on him harder. “You are planning to have me meet your parents, right?” He stopped teasing when he saw the look on Eamon’s face. “I mean, it’s not a big deal if I don’t right away. You said they knew, right? That you were gay?”

  “They knew about my ex-boyfriends, yeah,” Eamon said slowly.