{ #2 } I Would Give Him The Moon (MxM || 18+)

Chapter 61 - Cold Shower

(Joshua's POV - Sat. 10 May 2014)

Should I wear a tie? No, I told them that it was going to be casual, so I decide to discard the tie and to be happy with a dark blue business suit and a white button-up shirt. I even leave the first button of my shirt open. Taking a last look at myself in the walk-in closet's full-length mirror, I sigh at how tired I look. The last three weeks have been quite stressful and proving and it clearly shows on my face. My skin is paler than usual; my pupils are contracted; even my hair won't stay in their usual perfect shape and once again, I didn't shave. Well, I'll do that later on. The only thing that has gotten better is my ankle; it is still a bit sore but I no longer limp which is a good thing, although Cam advised that I should wait for another couple of weeks before I start working out again and take it easy at first.

Tonight I am taking Liz and Tony out for dinner downtown Chicago. It has been a long time since I have last invited them out and I still feel like I need to make up for my recent bad moods. Tony has finally stopped sulking since his little spying game in my office a week ago and I must say that the atmosphere is much better like this because a sulking Tony is much more painful and disagreeable than a sprained ankle. That man means a lot to me; he represents much more than an employee and I value him as a father figure; he has saved my butt more than once and I am sure that he will again in the future. Therefore, being in conflict with him never sits well with me, so I am relieved that things have gone back to normal on that side. Now, I am going to enjoy a relaxed dinner with two people that I consider like family, and it will keep me busy and away from work or worries before they drop me off at the club after our dinner.

I spent the day in my study working and checking the first reports from the audit firm. The week has been agitated and I needed to catch up on emails too. On Monday I was in a full-day meeting with the audit guys to define the plan of actions and what I was expecting from them. Needless to say that it was quite tense on the finance floors for the rest of the week as the auditors kept asking for more and more documents and justifications. This week they started with taxes and tendering departments, but it seems like they haven't found anything dubious here, so we will wait and see what they find next week with Accounts Receivables and Accounts Payables and then with Derek on the P&Ls. Seeing how tense two of my guys looked on Thursday when I came back from Boston - damned trip that lasted one more day than I had planned - I surely hope that my fears don't turn out true or else I'll have some people fired very shortly. In the meantime, I have put Tony on their cases and his team is performing deeper investigations on these two men because I really have a bad feeling about the whole situation.

And yet, this is peanuts next to my worries about Liam. As Aaron had foreseen, Plan A was a fiasco. His first idea was that I should plainly and simply come out to Liam but his fear was that I wasn't going to do it well and unfortunately, he was right. I pretty much fucked up actually. He said that I should just corner Liam and open my heart to him, but this is definitely not something that I am good at. I was waiting for the perfect opportunity and I really thought he would be willing to listen to me, so on Thursday, when Ally decided to call it a day early for once, I asked him to meet me in my office, but the little minx ran away! When I noticed that he had gone offline, it was too late and he had already left.

Since he wasn't answering his phone, I thought that the best option would be to go to his place and leave him no other option than to listen to me. Well unfortunately, the door was an option for him not to listen to me and despite my pleas for him to let me in, he remained mute and ignorant to my pounding on his door. What I needed to tell him couldn't be said with a door between us. I wanted to have him face to face and be able to see his reaction and emotions. I could have waited for him outside his building the following morning, but I wasn't sure that he would accept to get in the car and I certainly didn't want to cause a scene in the middle of the street. I needed to take him by surprise.