The Dominant's Obsession

Chapter 2

D A C I A N
(pronounced DAH-see-un)

Dacian raked a hand through his ruffled black hair. "Fuck."

A small paragraph of red text against a black background read Exception encountered: could not read properties of 'undefined'... which meant he still hadn't found the bug.

What was he missing?

His eyes raked back over the code in his editor, a beautiful cacophony of orange, blue and green text against a dark grey background. The colors were setup exactly to his preferences to suit the way his brain liked to parse the information on the screen. But all the pretty colors in the world didn't help him spot the problem.

He picked up his mug to take another sip of coffee, only to find a dried-up puddle at the bottom. He swore again.

Pushing up from his seat, he paused to stretch before leaving his office. He was noticeably stiff from not having moved for more than two hours. The hunt for this bug had sucked him in, as it usually did, into a focus so intense that the rest of the world fell away.

He slid his glass door open and stalked down the blue carpeted hallway. The walls were decorously painted with vibrant colors and abstract designs that someone somewhere had probably convinced some executive would make for a more welcoming work environment. He snorted. Yeah, right.

The windows into the offices that lined the hallway on either side revealed that most of the lights were out, the chairs empty, the occupants long departed. Dacian frowned and glanced at his smartwatch.

When had it become seven 'o clock?

Whatever. He was getting closer, he could feel it. He'd just solve the bug, then go home. It wasn't like he had much to look forward to at home, anyway. A microwave dinner. A smoke. Maybe some videogames that didn't really hold his attention the way they used to.

God, he was bored.

He was still scowling when he stalked into the office kitchen. He set up his mug and pressed the buttons to start the machine brewing, then leaned back against the counter to wait. He crossed his arms, his brow furrowed as he went back to working the problem over in his head.

Why was the variable still undefined? It should be getting set by the constructor...

He was startled out of his thoughts when a soft voice spoke near him. "Hey Dacian," Haley said with a secret smile as she entered the kitchen. "What are you still doing here?"

Fuck. With straight black hair and green eyes, Haley was pretty enough, but she didn't interest him. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of her.

"Hey," he said, keeping his tone carefully disinterested. "You know. Working."

He was not interested in making small talk, much less with her. Staring straight ahead at the slow drip of coffee into his mug, he studiously ignored her as she ran her gaze over him before focusing on rinsing out the dish she carried. Even then, she continued to sneak glances at him out of the corner of her eye.

He shifted uncomfortably, wishing the damn machine would spit out his coffee faster. Either she thought she was discreet in her infatuation with him, or she didn't care how awkward she made him feel. 

Unfortunately, she was hardly the only one. He had no idea why women displayed such an interest in him despite his best efforts to project an air of 'very-not-interested' at all times, but it was one of the cruelest ironies of his life.

Maybe they saw that he was broken and popular media had led them all to believe they could fix him.

But they couldn't. No one could.

"Got any fun plans for the weekend?" Haley asked over the white noise of the faucet. Her delicate hands turned the glass Tupperware over and over as she rinsed it unnecessarily well. Was she drawing it out just so she could try to talk to him?

I think you got it, he thought cynically.

He knew what she was really asking. She'd been probing for months now to figure out if he was single, and insinuate that if he was lonely, she was available. Her persistence annoyed him. Couldn't girls take no for an answer anymore?

Time for a new approach.

"Haley," he said, forcing himself to make eye contact with her. Her peridot eyes widened and a look of shock stole over her face. "You're a wonderful person and I respect you as an engineer." Then he gave a small shake of his head. "But please stop. It's not happening."

Her eyes narrowed and her face turned bright cherry red at the same time. She was still struggling for composure when the coffee machine finally beeped.

He retrieved his cup and poured some sugar and creamer into it, right back to ignoring her. He felt a little bad about hurting her feelings, but it had to be done. It was better that he be direct about it now than continue to suffer her interminable longing and let her have hope where there was none.

It wasn't that she wasn't nice enough, smart enough, or attractive enough. He just didn't do the romance thing, and he never would.

Besides, she didn't need him in her life. No one deserved that.

He heard the sink stop and her soft footfalls as she slipped away, too flustered even to respond. Finishing up, he picked up his coffee and made his way back to his office.

Thanks to the interruption, he hadn't had enough headspace to think of the solution to his problem yet, so rather than sit back down at his desk, he stood by the window and stared out at the grey landscape of concrete and glass while he sipped his coffee. Paradoxically, it was well known that sometimes the best way to solve the problem was to step away from it for a few minutes.

Sure enough, after a few minutes of staring at the city without really seeing it, the answer came to him like a lightning strike. A small smile curled his lips and he sat back down at his desk, excited to puzzle out the rest of the solution. His fingers flew over the keyboard, the rest of the world disappearing as the code sucked him back in. Fifteen minutes later, the code had compiled successfully for the first time all day.

He smiled in satisfaction. There was no better way to leave things off for the day. So at least there was that.

A short train ride and walk down bustling city streets later, he arrived back at his building. He stared up at the orange numbers as the elevator ascended, not making eye contact or small talk with anyone, which seemed perfectly fine with them. He prowled down the hallway to his apartment and unlocked the door with smooth, confident movements.

He set down his laptop bag, stripped off his shoes and immediately went over to his punching bag, giving it several quick, hard strikes. He worked at it until his guilt about the conversation with Haley had faded to the back of his mind. As much as it had needed to be done, he hated having to be the bad guy, especially to a woman.

He threw together a quick sandwich for dinner, then took a joint out of his stash and headed for his fire escape. It had been a long day, starting at four in the morning, and he wanted nothing more than to escape the prison of his thoughts.