Until Proven Innocent 🤍 Net/James

Chapter 14 ~ lazy Sunday ~

Man and Noel spent the rest of Sunday just hanging out. Noel had asked if there were any jobs for him to do but Man told him to rest. Noel had expected Man to leave, to go back to his apartment in the city but he seemed to be hanging around.

It was kind of awkward because around teatime, Man mentioned Noel's wages but the thought of  accepting them after what they had done kind of made him feel cheap. Noel suggested that considering Man was letting him stay here and eat for free, he would do the jobs in exchange for room and board.

He told Man that he was looking for somewhere else to rent and Man assured him there was no rush. In truth, Man liked having Noel around especially after last night. As far as he was concerned, he could move in permanently, some would say it was too soon but when you knew, you just knew.

Man agreed to Noel's suggestion but he still insisted on leaving an envelope of cash for any incidentals. He told Noel he would stay tonight and leave early in the morning and when Noel asked him what jobs he wanted him to do during the week, Man told him to just use his initiative and do whatever needed to be done but not to move any paperwork in the study.

" you don't need to worry about that, I'm never going in there again unless my life depends on it" Noel told him.

They ate dinner, watched a movie and acted like a couple which Noel could very easily get used to but he knew he shouldn't, he would leave soon and this would all become a cherished memory. They took a long bubble bath together and made love in the bath then after getting dried off they went to bed.

Noel thought it was kind of cute how Man had somehow wormed his way into the master bed, to be fair it was Man's bedroom so he couldn't whine about it too much, did he even want to?

Man just said he wanted to hold him all night because he wouldn't see him during the week, he made it sound like they were married and Noel had to admit it felt nice. That night, Noel didn't have any bad dreams, it was the first night in years where he had slept soundlessly.

Early on Monday morning, Man crept out of bed retrieving his firearm and quietly dressed for work. He looked down at the sleeping figure and had to tear himself away then he drove to a street vendor a few blocks away and bought two lots of porridge. One he took back to the house leaving it in the kitchen with a short note for Noel and the other he took with him to work.

He had written down all his different contacts incase Noel needed him, the apartment landline, his works email, desk extension and his DSI pager. Perhaps he could go to the house during the week to break the week up a bit?

Man drove to the office and arrived before everyone else, he made himself a coffee in the staff room then got a bowl and a spoon from the cupboard to pour some porridge into it, the rest he put in the staff fridge in his space.

Walking back to his desk with his coffee and porridge, he flipped on his computer and let it load up while he ate breakfast. He wondered if Noel had woken up yet and he thought of the lovely weekend they had shared together.

Gunny was the first to show up, "morning boss"

"morning Gunny, did you have a good weekend?" Man asked in a pleasant manner.

"shia boss, what happened? s'not like you to be so pleasant on a Monday morning, it's normally 'well, wadaya got?" Gunny said doing a bad impression of Man.

"well then, what do you got?" Man asked seeing as the little shit bought it up, he just had to piss him off when he was trying to be nice.

"Winchitathooms wife is still not talking but where we initially thought she was hiding something it appears she seems scared to talk, as if she is being threatened?"