You Are the Reason (28 page)

I shook my head an emphatic no. “To my knowledge, no one here at the office knew before today.”

Michelle nodded and stood up. “Okay. We’ll ask you to go back to work now while we interview Eliza and Callen. Please refrain from speaking to anyone else on the matter until we address you about any disciplinary actions against them.”

What? Wait? Wasn’t I in trouble?
Stupid online Magic 8 Ball. “Is that it?” I asked in confusion.

I received a fierce frown from Frank. “Apart from me asking you to please bring these matters to my attention sooner? You should’ve let me know what Fayed had said.”

I noticed Frank had gone to calling the man “Fayed” instead of his first name. A sure sign that Callen had lost respect.

I nodded my understanding at the rebuke and left the office. Things were tense out on floor, although I received a couple of sympathetic smiles and nods of approval. I was almost glad that I had client meetings set up for that afternoon. I picked up my stuff and approached Kendall to let her know, per the office policy, that I was escaping the building.

“Hey. I’m off to see CMS for a two o’clock meeting. Then I’ve managed to set up an introductory meeting with Bannan Steel at three. So I probably won’t be back today.”

Kendall looked at me with big, sad eyes and whispered, “You’re not leaving, are you? I mean quitting here? We don’t want you to leave.”

“No,” I assured her. “I’m tougher than that.”

A smile lit up her face and she blushed. “So tell me, what’s your boyfriend’s name? Is he cute? When do I get to meet him?”

I laughed. It was a new experience for me, talking about my love life at work. But I could get used to it if I got to talk about Lee.

“His name’s Lee, and of course he’s cute. The man who makes Davo go sappy has got to be gorgeous, right?” That made Kendall giggle, so I leaned over and whispered, “Hopefully I can bring him to the staff Christmas party, as long as you promise not to steal him away from me, okay?”

I left the building with a smile on my face, hardly even flinching at the thought that the Christmas party was over three months away. Yes, I was sure that Lee would still be around then. I was pretty sure the man had bewitched me for life.

L
EE
GOT
the whole story when he arrived at my house. He listened and then said to me, “And how do you feel about it all?”

I frowned. “Pretty good, actually. I don’t care about them knowing, and truthfully I’m glad it’s out now. I don’t have to watch what I say. I’m not sure what reaction I’ll get from the workshop guys, but I don’t really care anymore.”

The following day at work, Callen Fayed didn’t turn up. His resignation was said to have appeared in Nick’s e-mail overnight, and we didn’t mourn his going. Eliza was subdued and red eyed, so I took her out to lunch. I was a real gentleman and paid a whole $8.40 on her salad roll and drink. She apologized and cried a little more. I assured her that I didn’t hold it against her. I gave her a hug and told her not to be taken in by a pair of beautiful blue eyes. Beauty didn’t always equate to honesty.

I had indoor cricket the next night. The game started at 7:30 p.m. Lee had asked to come and watch. He had never seen the game before, so I agreed. Two of the guys on my team were from the workshop, and the news was out. Nothing had been said to my face at work, and honestly I wished it would be so the air could be cleared and we could all get on with our lives. Maybe confronting Murray and Barney at the game would be beneficial.

Lee and I ate takeaway Chinese at my house, and I drove us to the center.

The building housed four indoor cricket courts, and the games from the previous time slot were still playing. The courts were not quiet. The sound of bats slamming into cricket balls, as well as the cries of the teammates and spectators echoing around the high ceilings was a noise blast when we entered. There was also the inevitable gym-like smell of sweat and body odor.

Anyone who’d watched outdoor cricket and was expecting the same rather inactive and sedate game had come to the wrong place. Indoor cricket is explosive, fast, brutal, and physical.

I found the correct court, and we climbed the stands to watch the last three overs of the game before mine.

“How do you play?” Lee asked.

I leaned close and spoke in a subdued voice. Yeah, I didn’t mind that I got a whiff of his cologne either. “It’s rather simple. You have eight players per team, and the teams take turns batting and fielding. Each player must bowl two overs during their team’s turn at fielding, and bat for four overs during the team’s turn at batting. Every time they get out, there are five points deducted from the score.” I paused because a crack resounded and a ball flew to the back net. “See the line in the middle of the court? If the ball hits the nets before the line, and the players safely run between the creases, then they get two points. If it hits the nets behind the line, then they get three points. If it hits the side net then the back net, it’s four points. If it bounces and hits the back net, it’s five points. If it hits the back net full-on, then it’s seven points.”

Lee watched as the batter on strike made a huge swing, and the ball thundered back up the pitch. A player dove for the ball, to catch it on the full, but he dropped it.

“The only way to get a batter out is to bowl them out, stump them, run them out, or catch. The nets are a part of the game, so you can catch a ball off the nets, and it’s out.”

There was another crack and then a cheer as a player caught the ball on the full. I saw the player give his hand a bit of a shake. Obviously that catch was painful.

“It looks dangerous.” Lee commented fearfully.

I grinned. “But also a heck of a lot of fun.”

A fielder snatched the ball off the nets and threw it, with all his might, to the strike end. It hit the plastic wickets with a loud clatter. The fielders rejoiced and another five points dropped from the score.

I pointed to the scoreboard. “See up there? This is the fourteenth over, so there are only two more to go. This team’s on eighty-six, and they’re trying to beat a hundred and four.”

I noticed one of my team members, Murray, heading up the stands to me, wearing our sponsored uniform of light blue shirts and black shorts. Murray’s cousin’s auto shop paid for our shirts and therefore paid for their slogan to be plastered across our backs.
We’ll fix ya right up!

Personally I thought Tyson needed to get a new slogan.

Murray was a laser profiler from the workshop, and I
knew
he had to have heard the news. From the sly looks he was giving Lee, it looked like I had guessed correctly. But the new leaf I had proudly turned over was flying a rainbow flag.

“Hi, Davo.”

“Hey, Murray. Come and meet my boyfriend, Lee.”

Nope. I wasn’t hiding it any longer. Murray surprised me, though. He readily shook hands with Lee, then sat down next to him. Before I could even say “what the heck?” Murray was ignoring me and asking Lee about his job and whether he’d played indoor cricket before.

Tyson was soon climbing up the stands, and I introduced him to Lee. Tyson didn’t bat an eyelid at the news of “my boyfriend” and joined in Lee and Murray’s conversation. The game on the court finished, so I wandered down, grabbed a bat from the selection the center provided, and moved onto the court. More teammates arrived, and pretty soon I was warming up, hitting the balls back as Steve and Jim bowled to me.

Then we swapped. Jim took the bat as I made a couple of practice throws into the side net.

“Who’s the bluey Murray and Tyson are talking to?” Steve asked me.

I looked up in the stands and saw Lee still chattering away. It was a quirk of Australian slang that we called a guy with red hair “bluey.”

“That’s my boyfriend,” I told Steve. Then I paced to the line and sent the ball thundering down the cricket pitch, toward our captain. Jim missed it—which made me feel good—so he had to retrieve the ball off the nets and throw it back.

Steve looked at me with a puzzled look on his face. “Your boyfriend? What? You gay or something?”

I motioned for him to have his turn at bowling, and he threw a nice yorker. Jim managed it easily and hit it back for Steve to catch. He palmed the ball and tossed it to me for my turn.

“Yes. I’m gay,” I said. Then I sent another ball thundering down to Jim. It hit the wickets with a satisfying rattle.

“Why didn’t you tell us before?” Steve asked.

I shrugged and tossed him the returned ball. “Never had a boyfriend before.”

Steve slowed his pace and spun the ball nicely down the pitch. There was a crack as Jim smashed it back, and I had to reach to catch it.

“You mean to tell me you’ve been gay this whole time? You’ve been perving on all the guys on the team? On me?” Steve asked as I took another run up and bowled. Jim connected with it this time and hit it back. Steve and I both turned and watched it rebound off the back net.

Steve had his turn at bowling while I thought about his silly comment. Oh, the good ol’ straight man’s insecurity:
If a man is gay, he has to be perving on every single male he meets. So he’s been perving on me the whole time. I’m not comfortable with that. But if he says he’s not perving on me, then why not? What’s wrong with me?

By this time Murray and Tyson had stopped chatting up my boyfriend and had joined us warming up—along with Macca, Barney, and Chris. We took turns having a few bowls. Then the umpire entered the field and did the toss with the captains.

Jim lost, and we were sent in to bat first. Murray and Steve took to the field as our opening batsman, and I reclaimed my seat next to Lee.

“What were you talking to Murray and Tyson about?” I asked.

“You,” he said.

I turned to him, startled. “What? Me? How could you chat for fifteen minutes about me?”

Lee’s eyes were trying to tell me something. I wasn’t quite sure what. “Because I find you fascinating.”

I scoffed and shelved that comment in my memory to pull out later and examine. We watched the game without talking for a few overs. Then Lee said, “When will you go in?”

I screwed up my face in disgust. “Last.” I watched as Murray slammed the ball into the back net for seven points, and hollered my approval. I explained, “Murray and Steve are mavericks. They slam the ball around and have a good time. It usually takes the other team by surprise this early in the game. They’re not awake yet. Then Jim and Macca will go in. They’re our best batsman and can be guaranteed to put a good score on the board. Chris and Barney are quiet batters. They’ll hit the ball safely and make sure they score, but they won’t put a huge total on. So Jim sends Tyson and me in on mop-up duty. If we’re losing, we’ll have to slog it out to try and win. If we’re winning, then we can have a bit of a rest. Tyson likes to run, the prick. He sneaks in runs everywhere, and I have to keep up with him. I’ll be going in on the field exhausted.”

Steve and Murray retired after their four overs, and Jim and Macca went in. Murray made a beeline for Lee and plonked down on the other side of him with an exhausted sigh.

Lee smiled at him. “Forty-seven? That seems like a good score. Was it good?”

“Bloody oath,” Murray gasped, still catching his breath.

I turned my attention back to the game, only listening to snippets of their conversation.

“…and we were in this boat that was all of ten centimeters off the water level when Ricky points out a crocodile….”

“…and my heart just broke when I heard about the number of kids that had been killed, so I had to do something….”

“…I swear, if I could’ve murdered the man and got away with it….”

“…and I left the biscuits to cool on the bench while I dressed….”

“…and there he is, drunk as a skunk, in the middle of the table….”

“…and I arrive to find him in a total panic with Maxine—”

My attention was pulled in by that name. “What?” I had been watching Chris and Barney get run out—again. I swung my head around and realized Lee had amassed an audience while my attention was on the game. Tyson, Chris’s wife, and Jim were all turned around on the bench seat a tier below Lee, listening to him tell the story of the Worst-Nappy-In-History. From his point of view.

Lee grinned. “The look of panic on your face, Dave. It was hilarious. There he was with this tiny baby and in a total panic. Over poo.”

There were titters from the audience. I opened my mouth to refute.

“Whoa, there,” I had to interject. “That wasn’t
just
poo. That was like mega-poo with bacteria strains never seen before by man, along with a stink that could never be replicated in a laboratory.”

They burst out laughing. At me. I feigned disgust, secretly pleased that Lee was getting along so well with the crowd.

Tyson called, “We’re up, Davo.”

I looked up to find that they’d started the over before we were due in. I bumped shoulders with Lee for being such a dick and trotted down the stairs to find a bat and glove. I looked at the scoreboard. Ninety-two. Jim liked us to be on one twenty at the end of our batting, so we needed to play solid but not press it.