Josh snorted. "Just rip it."
"No," Diego ground out, and finally the taped popped up without tearing the paper, revealing a dark green box with gold embossing.
"Holy shit," Josh said, sounding sincere in his shock. Diego's hand was shaking. He nearly dropped the box when Josh nudged him with an elbow. "Talk about timing, huh?"
Slowly flipping the box open, Diego sucked in a breath. But then he blinked, and turned to stare dubiously at Josh, expensive luxury watch momentarily forgotten. "Did you just make that pun on purpose?"
Josh's toothy grin was gradual, his eyes focused on Diego, and then he ran a hand through his hair, looking away. "What are you going to do with that thing?"
"I—" Diego closed his eyes. "Does this mean he noticed the fake?"
"Does he notice that stuff?" Josh asked. "He didn't send me anything. Of course, I'm not quite as friendly as you are..."
Diego shot him a dark look. "Either you judge me for that, which you claim you don't, and own up to it—or quit it with the fucking remarks. Not all of us have your all-American golden boy charm."
Josh cocked his head. "You think I'm charming?"
Ignoring him, Diego looked back down at the watch, sliding his thumb around the crystal face. If he sold it... he could buy another working suit, which would bring the total number of suits he owned up to two.
"You can't sell it."
Diego glanced up at Josh, and for once he looked serious.
"You should give it back, Diego. You keep it, he'll expect something. He never sees it on you... then he'll definitely ask what happened to it."
"You don't think I know all that?" Diego could already feel any hope of keeping the watch slipping through his fingers. But he didn't really feel like letting Josh think he could just stand there lecturing him. "Maybe I'll wear it."
"What?"
Diego's eyebrows rose. "What?"
Josh's expression was surprisingly unreadable. "But he might take that... a certain way."
"So?" Diego replied, lip curling. "Maybe I want him to." His eyes fell to Josh's sleeve, and he sighed. "Jeeze, you..."
Going to his locker, Diego put the watch inside, and turned back to Josh, slipping a hand inside his jacket to grab the emergency sewing kit he kept there. "If you're going to insist on wearing this clown suit every day, at least take care of it."
Eyebrows knitting together, Josh looked down at his shoulder as Diego reached for the long bit of thread coming out of the seam at the shoulder. He snipped it off and flicked it away. "You should have one of the tailors take care of that; it's close to coming apart."
"Yeah, thanks."
Diego didn’t answer him, stuffing his sewing kit back in his pocket, and walking to the showroom where Arnie and a couple of other salesmen were loafing by the cufflinks display. He nodded to them as he went to glance out the large pane windows at the front of the store, but no one was out this early.
Robillard's was a step up from the mid-level department store he used to work at, that was a given. In fact, it was considered relatively high end for such a big place. And Diego was ecstatic when he was hired there as a junior salesman, even if it meant starting from square one reputation-wise.
George Harrington was his first big catch, and he frowned at that. The watch complicated things.
There was a rise of laughter over by the cufflinks, and he glanced over his shoulder, catching Josh at the center of attention, grinning openly, cheeks flushed, while he relayed some apparently hilarious anecdote with expansive, theatrical gestures. Scowling, Diego turned his eyes back to the street.
The bell on the front door tinkled, and he stood straight. A woman in a sleek two-piece skirt and jacket set came in, pulling the sunglass off her face as she glanced around, her heels click-clacking on the laminate floor that Diego strongly believed should be carpeted. He gave her a chance to peruse one aisle, trying to gauge if she was actually looking through the clothes, or if she was just dawdling, waiting for service.
She was inspecting a nice tweed number, with elbow patches that the academic types seemed to gravitate towards, when a swath of green entered Diego's field of vision. "Oh, no you don't," he muttered, but he was too far away.
"May I help you with something, miss?" Josh asked warmly, standing at a respectable distance from the woman.
Running his tongue over his teeth, Diego backed off, half-hoping the woman would coldly dismiss Josh, therefore proving Diego's hesitance valid. But instead she smiled and waved her hand to indicate confusion. "I'm not really sure," she said with a laugh. "I'm looking for a gift for a close friend of mine."
Diego pressed his lips together. He had lost a client without a solid choice in mind to Josh, a client who could be convinced into buying many different, expensive things. He caught the predator's gleam in Josh's eye, and sighed.
Over at the cufflink display, Arnie was making a show of rearranging things, while the other two salesmen on the floor meandered over by the shoes, doing the same. Diego was always amused by how quickly they could all spread out when a customer showed up. "She was mine, you know."
"Proximity does not equal claim," Arnie replied lightly, pulling out one set of cufflinks—a pair of skulls—and grimacing with distaste.
Resting on his elbow, chin in hand, Diego poked at the glass. "But I was..."
"You didn't act fast enough, and you know it."
He wanted to roll his eyes, but Arnie was right. "You just think this whole thing is hilarious to watch, since you already have more clients than you can handle."
Arnie smiled wryly at that. "There's never too many clients."
Lips thinning, Diego went mute rather than answer, and Arnie turned back to the cufflinks with an amused sigh. Glancing back out onto the floor, he caught sight of Josh pointing at different ties, the woman nodding along with him. "He sees this as a way to pay for school," Diego said quietly, but his voice was strained with annoyance.
"That happens."
Diego flicked a fingernail. "He shouldn't be so good at it."
"At salesmanship? Diego, that's not a talent reserved only for suits."
Diego knew he was close to pouting, which Arnie would never humor. So he nodded, and straightened his back, brushing a hand down his front. "A client gave me a gift."
There was the thud of the display being shut. "Oh?"
"A pretty nice gift," Diego continued, eyeing Arnie.
Arnie was giving him a look that clearly said you were asking for this, but it was more exasperated than smug. "So you charmed Harrington, and now you don't know what to do with him now that he's actually calling you on all that touchy-feely foreplay."
"It—" Diego lowered his voice. "It wasn't like that. It was barely anything."
There was giggling from the cash register. Diego saw at least two tie boxes, and Josh was also scribbling notes on a receipt, which meant she'd ordered something bigger as well. "I just don't see George as the type to think pleasant service means anything other than that."
"You go above the call of duty," Arnie replied kindly, smirking. "Not that I think it's bad, you're cute and clever, so who cares, right? But you should have had an escape route planned for this exact situation."
"Any suggestions?" Diego replied.
"Figure it out," Arnie said primly, abandoning Diego with a flourish of his hand.
*~*~*
Diego found himself watching Josh for most of the day, the way he caught clients—he didn't wait at all for them to walk around, he just approached them and if they stiffened up, he backed away just as smoothly. Being rejected was Diego's weak point. It was hard to hide his tight lips and frustration before leaving the customer to browse.
And as he watched Josh ring up a third commission and jot the man's information down in his client book, he realized he was tugging just a little too hard at the sleeve of his jacket.
Forcing himself to relax, he distanced himself from Josh, going to stand in the tie section, straightening boxes with a
distracted air, when someone poked him in the side, nearly making him knock over a decorative table-top tree that had holiday ties hanging from its branches which he first steadied, and then turned to glare.
It was Josh, standing there with an easy grin and crossed arms. "Yo."
"No," Diego said immediately. "The answer is no."
"But it's such a great spot," Josh whined, reaching out to plaintively grab at Diego's arm. "You know what kind of business contacts I could make if I was in that neighborhood?"
"Then find somewhere else to rent," Diego hissed, tugging his arm out of Josh's grip. "There are other sublets and rooms, you know."
"But we're friends, we could have some fun—"
Diego had frozen at 'friends', his eyes widening, and then he saw that Josh caught his reaction, the grin on his face fading.
"At least... that's uh—" Josh swallowed. Even his cheeks were a little red.
After a day of mounting jealousy over Josh's skill at selling suits, Diego did not feel inclined to quell the awkward moment or backpedal. He simply sniffed, and glanced away with a bored expression.
"Well," Josh said, sounding completely deflated, "If your other options don't work out... let me know."
Ah, fantastic. Diego was reminded of a kicked puppy. "Sure," he said, finding himself unable to meet Josh's eyes. And then he drew in a long sigh, cursing the wave of uninvited guilt currently eating away at his stomach. "Actually, I haven't really heard from anyone promising, so... if you're free tonight, you can come check it out."
Which wasn't a lie, anyway. Plus, the rent was due in a couple of days.
"Really?" Josh said, immediately perking up, and doing nothing to dispel his puppy-ish impression.
"Really, really," Diego said with edged enthusiasm. It made the moment go tense again, and this time Josh did not look deflated, but rather worn thin. He was frowning, his hands locked under his armpits.
"Look, Diego, if I did something to make you not like me..."
A reel of the day—Josh hitting the mark with commissions with almost every person he targeted—spun through Diego's mind.
"Um." He dropped his gaze. "No, you didn't. I've just been in a bad mood today, sorry about that." His apology had to sound as fake to Josh as it did to him, but he wasn't quite yet to the point of caring. He just didn't need things to be unmanageable with a colleague.
... And apparently a potential roommate.
"Ok," Josh said, but this time with some hesitancy. "Yeah, no problem. Let's, um..." He ran his hand over his hair. "Well we're on the same shift, so let's just grab some dinner after work, and then check the place out?"
"Yeah. Sounds good."
Josh gave a brief nod, and then wandered off. Diego watched him go, frowning, and then sighed. He was not looking forward to this.
*~*~*
They sat on a bench outside of the burrito place Josh picked out, Josh slouched back, legs spread obnoxiously wide and Diego routinely shifting to avoid having his knee brush with Josh's thigh. Wiping his mouth, Diego cast a glance at Josh, at his faded T-shirt and jeans, before going back to take another giant bite of his burrito.
"I kinda thought you'd wear the suit home," Josh said. Diego looked at him again, and saw that he had dropped his arm out across the bench behind Diego, and was watching Diego with a small grin.
"Well—" Diego realized his mouth was full, and narrowed his eyes at a laughing Josh. Swallowing, he cleared his throat. "I only have the one. I try not to wear it too much."
"Me too," Josh said, his eyes alight with amusement. "But I wasn't expecting so casual..." he continued, nodding at Diego.
Pulling a bit more foil away from his burrito, Diego shrugged. At least his T-shirt wasn't better off as a rag than an item of clothing.
"You know, 'cause you're kind of a snobby dick."
Nearly choking on his food, Diego whirled around to stare wide-eyed at Josh. "Excuse me?"
"You think you're better than me," Josh said. "You were thinking something like that right now, I saw it on your face."
Diego actually blushed, his lips parting. But then he gathered himself, and with resolve, said, "No, I really don't." And if anything, Diego was constantly thinking about how Josh was better than him, better at what Diego had prided himself at.
Josh didn't look convinced, but he let it go with a wave of his hand. "Anyway," he said, "sorry, I didn't mean to make this tense again. But it's been bothering me."
Christ, he was so straightforward. "Sorry," Diego said, finding himself apologizing for a second time that day, still not sure if he was sincere, but he couldn't deny that he had been less than polite to Josh on several occasions.
"Apology accepted."
Shooting Josh an irritated glance, Diego's expression deepened into a scowl when Josh just grinned at him, and then winked. "You're a dick, too," Diego growled.
Laughing, Josh scratched at his shoulder, and then leaned forward on the bench so that he was face to face with Diego. "I'm actually a really great guy—great at doing the dishes, great at not leaving towels on the bathroom floor—"
"Oh, Christ."
"Great at writing down phone messages—"
"We don't have a landline."
"Great at not drinking from the carton, great credit score..." Josh kept listing, voice full of playfulness.
"Let's go," Diego sighed. "But seeing the place doesn't mean you're in, got it?"
He didn't get an answer, just another grin from Josh, and then they were both up, throwing away their trash and then heading for Josh's beaten down rust bucket of a car that he had probably been nursing along since high school—which was still one step up from Diego, who didn't even have one. He waited for Josh to get in and lean across to flip the manual lock.
"You'll get side-eyes for this," Diego said, kicking away an empty fast food cup that had rolled back under his feet.
"I'll be leasing something better soon," Josh replied, distracted as he checked over his shoulder before pulling out. "But I figured the apartment was a higher priority than the car."
"Even then, though," Diego said. "The second you bring a girl home, she's gonna see the four other roommates, right?"
"What?"
Diego looked over at Josh. "What?"
"Girl?"
"Yes?"
"No."
Diego frowned. "Is this a game?"
Taking a quick sweep of the road, Josh turned his head to Diego, his eyes narrowed with delight, head tilted up arrogantly. "Did I just get bumped up a few points in your book? Straight-passing bro, yeah?"
Recovering quickly, Diego crossed his arms. "Why would that gain you points?" Josh shot him a dubious expression, clearly not buying Diego's nonchalance, but he was still smiling. Irked, Diego continued snidely. "And no bro would wear that tacky mess."
"My suit? It's not tacky."
"It's green."
"Yes, it is," Josh said slowly, catching Diego's eye before watching the road again. "Just flashy enough to catch the attention of Ritalin-addled millennials."
Snorting, Diego shook his head. "What a fool-proof plan."
"Works just as well as netting rich fifty-somethings through the power of youth and flattery."
They were downtown now, inching along in the last dregs of evening traffic, sitting in a stew of mutual irritation. "Look," said Josh finally, his tone compromising, "I really don't know what I did to earn the pissy attitude, but I promise to stop making cracks about you and those old guys, ok?"
Crossing his arms, tapping a finger on his bicep, Diego bit his tongue for a moment, stalling. "Well," he said, "fine."
"Fine what?"
Diego jerked his head to look at Josh. "Are you speaking to me like a five year old?"
Letting out a breathy laugh, Josh shrugged. "Are you going to stop acting like a dick?"
Diego was so close to screaming It's jealousy, you moron, but he clamped his mouth shut, and turned to look out the window. "Do you like selling suits?" he asked.
>
Snorting lightly, Josh glanced at him, and then back at the road. And then back at Diego. "Oh—you're serious. It's retail. It pays for school until I can get a real job."
Any goodwill Diego may have been feeling towards Josh vanished, his eyes narrowing as he wondered just how quickly he could get Josh through the apartment and then right back out again. Like hell he would ever live with him.
*~*~*
"This is the half bathroom," Diego said with a sigh, slapping the door open as he walked by it, not leaving any time for Josh to glance in before continuing down the entryway. "And the bedrooms are past the kitchen, I was sharing with Anna, and then there's Jessica and Laine in the other room—Mike has the living room, as you can see. There's a full bath past the bedrooms."
Josh joined him, hands stuffed in his pockets, staring at the partitioned-off living room. "Certainly cozy."
"It's suffocating."
"So we would be roommates?"
Diego's jaw tightened at the thought. "I guess," he said, walking past the living room to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. He didn't offer one to Josh. "It'll be a pain in the ass. Anna and I have different work hours, so at least there was some privacy."
"I don't spend a whole lot of time at home," Josh replied, taking a circuit around the kitchen, opening drawers, checking the fridge. "Evening classes, out on the weekends. I wouldn't be in your hair."
God, Diego couldn't let the other roommates hear about that, they'd love Josh. "Well," he said slowly, "we don't allow overnight guests, no smoking, no pot, no alcohol... light cooking." That was a lie. "Uh, the laundry is coin operated?"
"No, it's not," Josh replied, eyes hooded, a small smile playing on his face. Resting a palm on the counter, he leaned in towards Diego. "Man, you really know how to upsell something. Is this how you win over all those old guys?"
"I thought you wouldn't mention that again," Diego replied, bending back. Josh was staring at him in an unnerving way, but Diego felt pretty secure with the knife drawer within his reach.
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