Page 41 of Smart Ass

He pulled on his suit jacket and marched toward the door, hoping that he didn’t look as freshly fucked as he felt.

Just kidding. He probably looked exactly like he’d just been fondled by naughty machinery and come his brains out.

But he was not going to act weird or beg for another scene or do anything strange.

Max was his friend. Who he’d maybe crushed on before he was a spark, but didn’t even really know right now. Max could be totally different in a day or a year. He’d grow and make new friends. Find new interests.

This was just a starting state, where Max just happened to have picked up a kink mod and was obsessively tracking Ben’s heart rate.

Ben could be cool with that.

“Do you like flowers?” Max asked.

Uh… what? “You mean like, flowers in the garden?” Please, let him mean flowers in the garden.

“Sure.”

Ben looked around the maintenance room, like it was going to give him any answers. “I don’t think about them.”

“What about bouquets?”

Dammit. That’s what he’d been afraid of. “Flowers are for chumps.”

“Okay.”

Okay? That was it? Why had Ben expected Max to argue? To… fight for him or something? It didn’t matter.

“I don’t do any of that romance-y relationship shit,” Ben clarified.

“Okay,” Max repeated.

That was it? What happened to You’re my Ben?

Well, okay then.

It was fine. Everything was fine.

Better to get back on track. “Did Dr. Sasaki send us that data set?” Ben popped in his earpiece as he opened the door. He’d let Max figure out how to communicate.

Sure enough, Max hacked his phone or his earpiece or something, because his voice came through a few seconds later. “It came in this morning. You’ll be pleased with the results. Your last update improved blue-green clarity for the test subjects by twenty-three percent.”

“Any news on Quincy?”

“I’m not expecting updates until the morning. I’m monitoring and I’ll let you know.”

Ben got to his office and settled into his chair. Max had already opened up the data he’d asked about.

Everything was fine.

And if he snuggled into his chair a few extra times to feel the stripes on his back, no one had to know.