Page 7 of Unrequited Sloth

GABRIEL

“I saw that,” said Jason.

“What?” asked Gabriel.

“The wince when you sat down. Was that from Saturday night?”

“I’m not having this conversation with my boss on a Monday morning.”

“Fair enough. We’ll do your one-to-one today over lunch.”

Gabriel snorted, but there was no point in arguing with Jason. You’d never win.

“What’s funny?” asked Dexter, walking into the meeting room.

It was their Monday morning leadership meeting. Monday was the HR team’s anchor day, in that it was the one day of the week the entire team needed to be in the office. The other two required in-office days were your choice. There were five hundred people based out of the London office, and only three hundred desks. The middle days of the week were the most popular with underwriters, who needed to meet their brokers, so Monday was always a good choice. Nobody wanted to come in on a Friday, though Gabriel did occasionally, as he often had to facilitate leadership team days, and that was the only day when they were all free.

“The Three Queerketeers are having lunch together,” said Jason.

“I thought it was my one-to-one?”

“Change of plan. Emergency team meeting.”

“So the others will join us?” asked Gabriel, referring to the three other people on their HR leadership team who hadn’t arrived yet.

“This is just for the Queerketeers,” said Jason.

“Ah, great inclusive role-modelling from our chief people officer,” Gabriel deadpanned.

Jason smiled, but in a way that was giving cartoon villain vibes, which meant an intrusive thought was in his head. That was never a good thing, unless you were a spectator. Then it could be hilarious.

“Lunch sounds great,” he blurted.

Dexter and Jason both laughed, leaving Gabriel to hope some emergency would come up which meant the lunch was cancelled.

The lunch was not cancelled, and after his replay of Wayne’s jackhammering, they ordered their food and were then on to his least favourite subject: his brother-in-law to be.

He’d felt shitty about cancelling on Sunday lunch yesterday, but after three terrible dates in a row, seeing his sister all mushy over the perfect guy was not how he wanted to spend his day.

“I can’t believe you’re going on his stag do,” said Dexter.

“What am I supposed to say when my mum puts on that voice?” He winced. “Sorry, I didn’t think.”

They’d both had very different relationships with their mothers. Even though he complained about his own sometimes, he knew how lucky he was.

“It’s fine,” said Jason. “We got what you meant.”

Dexter nodded his agreement.

“I can’t change my mind now, can I? Though I got a flexible ticket on my flight in case something urgent came up.”

“You mean you hope something urgent comes up,” said Dexter.

“If you don’t want to go, just tell him,” said Jason.

“Yeah, okay,” Gabriel snorted. “We all know how that conversation would go.”

He imagined those gorgeous blue eyes looking at him, all sad, and he’d cave immediately. God, he was pathetic. He was in his mid-thirties, why couldn’t he say no to a hot guy? Gabriel had no problem saying it to senior leaders who earned three or four times what he did, but with Bobby . . . impossible.