When Love Fades

Chapter 16 - Too little, Too late III

Naruto let himself in to his apartment, the offer letter still in his hand. He sighed when he saw that Sasuke still wasn't back. He didn't want to put Jiraiya off about the assignment, so he hoped Sasuke came back early enough that they could actually talk about it. Honestly, it sounded exciting as hell and Naruto really wanted to do it. He knew Sasuke wouldn't have any issues with it, but he wouldn't mind Sasuke taking a look at his offer letter. Naruto had never worked for a real company before, and he didn't even really know if he was supposed to negotiate on anything or just sign. Sasuke had been through it at least once, so Naruto figured he'd know at least a little more than Naruto did about the process.

He pulled out his phone, hesitating for a moment before texting Sasuke.

Call me when you have a minute. I need to talk to you about a new assignment I might take. And I got an offer!

Naruto watched his phone for a moment, hoping Sasuke would respond right away, but after a couple of minutes it was clear that he wasn't going to. Naruto chewed his lip, too excited to really calm down and do anything productive. Obviously, if Sasuke was in a meeting he couldn't exactly pull out his phone and text his boyfriend.

Naruto considered calling him, but if Sasuke couldn't answer the text, he wouldn't be able to take a call, either.

Two hours later, Naruto was had gone from excited to seriously annoyed. It wasn't like he'd sent Sasuke a text about when he'd be home for fucking dinner. It was about work, and the bastard should have at least been able to step out for two minutes by now. Naruto heated up the leftovers from the day before, not even paying attention to what they were.

He had just started eating when the home phone rang. He looked down, surprised to see that the caller ID showed it was a number from the company Sasuke worked for, but it wasn't Sasuke's extension.

Concerned, Naruto answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Oh, um... hello? Is this... Uchiha Sasuke's home?" The female voice sounded slightly puzzled. "There is an urgent matter at work and we need to reach him."

"Yeah, this is the right number, but..." Naruto hesitated. Wasn't Sasuke supposed to be at work? "... he isn't back from work yet. Did you try his cell?"

"Yes, but it went to voicemail. He left for dinner over an hour ago with our other team leader but they aren't back yet. We thought maybe he'd gone directly home, but I guess the dinner meeting must have run long... shit."

She seemed frustrated and slightly desperate.

Naruto felt a brush of irritation at the fact that he was totally useless here. He had no idea where Sasuke was... no clue as to where Sasuke usually at dinner when he worked late.

"I can have him call you when he gets in," Naruto offered.

"Thank you Mr...."

"Uzumaki," Naruto said.

"Thank you Mr. Uzumaki. My name is Karin. I work with Sasuke and our boss just called my cell looking for him. The CEO has a call in less than two hours with an important tech analyst that publishes in a major US forum and is very influential in that market. The analyst just informed him that he wants to talk about the new product that Sasuke has been developing, and the CEO wants Sasuke to brief him on some of things and listen in to the call and give him talking points if they get into any of the technical elements. We need him back at the office immediately."

"Did you check the places you guys usually go for dinner?"

"Yeah, we usually eat at the same three places all the time, but we checked and he wasn't there."