Tanner in The Center Boyxboy

SECRETS AND PERMITS.

Waking up Tan looks over hoping to see Harris, but sees pillows and an empty space instead. He sits up and runs his hand in his eyes to wake him up, Tan grabs his phone looking past the 57 missed calls from his parents he stares at the time. 10:36 am. Tan stands up, walks to the bathroom, and gets ready for the day.

Standing in the middle of Harris's giant penthouse alone Tan thinks about searching everything to know more about Harris, but Harris is such a mysterious man Tan might find something he can't unsee.

Instead, he walks to the kitchen to find something to eat, wondering around in the kitchen his eyes land on a paper on the counter with his name written in capital letters, TAN. Picking up the paper he unfolds it to find a note

I didn't want to wake you up so I wrote a note instead- Tan smiles -I should be home by 3 so hang in there. Make yourself comfortable you're free to anything, if you need help with anything my doorman Jerry can help, I told him to expect you. Can't wait to see you again.

H. Wheeler.

Tan smiles at the note then puts it down, looking around he thinks about staying here all day and wait for Harris, or he could go out and buy some stuff to surprise Harris with. Maybe make him lunch? Or even better find out what his favorite foods are and make that. "Good idea Tan," he says to himself. As he's walking to get his shoes and jacket, Tan sees a set of keys hanging on a hook near the front door. After he puts his shoes on Tan picks up the keys examining them, the logo seems like it's an expensive car but there's no name on the key so he really doesn't know. Putting the car keys in his pocket Tan grabs his jacket and wallet leaving Harris's penthouse.

"If you were a parking garage where would you be?" Tan walks down the hall heading for the elevator after he gets on the elevator ,Tan pushes the button he thinks will take him to the parking lot but he ends up in the lobby instead. Getting off he walks out and sees the doorman who turns to see Tan after the Elevator dings "this isn't the parking garage" Tan smiles

"Can I help you?" Jerry asks

"Yeah, where the hell am I?"

"Everett Tower"

Tan smiles "that was rhetorical" realizing that he might be Jerry Tan asks to be sure "you're Jerry right?"

"Yes"

"Hi I'm Tan," he introduces himself

"Right Mr. Wheeler's friend visiting for the weekend"

Tan smiles at the lie, "yep that's what I am"

"Yes Mr. Wheeler told me to answer any questions you have so I'm here if you need help"

"Here's a question do you know how long Harry has lived here?"

"Harry?" Jerry asks confused

"Harris sorry" Tan gets so used to calling him Harry that he sometimes forget he's the only one who calls him that. "Has he lived here long?"

"Few years I think, at least two"

"Ok thanks" Tan wants to leave but has another question to ask "one more thing Jerry, does he ever have any other visitors over? Or can you not tell me that?"

"That's not my information to disclose"

"No of course not sorry I asked," Tan waves it off.

"But I can say this, Mr. Wheeler works a lot so he's never really here, most nights he spends in his office. This past week is the most time I've ever seen him spend home"

"Does he ever talk to you at all?"

Jerry shakes his head no, "not often"

This isn't helping Tan at all, who's supposed to know anyone more than their doorman? And if Jerry couldn't tell him anything about Harris then who could? Tan knows he can't just ask him, "I want to surprise him when he gets home from work but I don't really know what to get or what he likes."

Jerry can tell Tan is getting frustrated "I know he enjoys French food, he orders from a fancy French place a lot"

"Do you know the name of it?"

Jerry thinks, "no sorry"

"It's ok maybe there's a menu upstairs thanks anyways Jer- can I call you Jer?"

"Sure why not."

Tan smiles about to walk away but remembers the keys in his hand "oh last question, where is the parking garage in this building?"

"It's in the basement the elevator should take you there, but I know all of Mr. Wheeler's cars I can go get it if you'd like" Jerry reaches out and waits for the keys

Still stuck on "cars?" Tan stares at Jerry in shock "how many does he have?" Besides the 2 he knows about

"4 not counting the one he drives every day"

"5 CARS! Who the fuck needs 5 cars?" Shocked by his own outburst "sorry that caught me off guard"

Ignoring his outburst Jerry continues "sometimes he'd disappear a whole weekend and just come back with a new one"

"How many times has he done that?"

"Twice. It was 3 but he returned one of the cars."

Tan thought he didn't understand Harris before but now he's really confused, what kind of person doesn't own a home but owns 5 cars? "I'm so confused"

"Still need the car?"

"Yes please" Tan hands the key to Jerry

"I'll pull it up out front," Jerry says then disappears through the door.

Tan stands there thinking about Harris. Harris Wheeler is an enigma, where could he possibly go for a whole weekend? What logical person needs 5 cars when anything you can ever possibly need is in a 20-mile radius? The more questions Tan thinks about the more his head hurts, who is Harris Wheeler really? And why is it so hard for Tan to figure it out?

Jerry brings the car out front and Tan's eyes pop out of his head as he walks outside to Jerry "what even is this car?"

"I don't know but it looks expensive" Jerry walks out of the car "have fun" and goes back into the building.

"Ok Tan you failed your road test last month but you still have a permit" he talks himself into driving the car. Putting on his seatbelt Tan puts the car in drive and pulls away. "I'm doing it! I'm driving a very expensive car that I don't even know the name of."

Plugging his phone into the car Tan starts to blast music dancing behind the wheel as he drives. Missing a stop sign as he opens his eyes from singing with them closed Tan notices, "crap that's not good!" He looks around making sure there are no cops. The car's really fast and he won't admit it but Tan doesn't know what he's doing. The only reason Tan got his permit is because he cheated off Ronnie, who got her permit at the same time he did and now has her license and a car.

As he's driving Tan reaches into his pocket digging for his chapstick, when he finally finds it he pulls it from his pocket bringing it up to both hands. Multitasking was never Tan's strong suit so yes he drops the chapstick. "Fuck!" He slowly reaches down feeling around for it. Taking his eyes off the road Tan glances around until he spots it, by the time he looked back up Tan ran 2 more stop signs.

Thinking he's ok Tan continues to drive until the siren behind him appear out of thin air "oh no no no" he panics. Pulling over Tan quickly looks in the glove box for the car registration but finds nothing "fucking fuck!" He quietly continues to panic, looking in the middle compartment he finds it also empty.

He sits there scared then hears a knock on his window, he lowers it and the cop bends down to get a good look at him "license and registration please"

Tan smiles nervously taking his wallet out of his pocket "I have this and I don't know where the rest of the other stuff is" he is terrified.

He's sitting in Harris's car without a license or Harris's okay, this is what he gets for failing his road test last month.

"Step out of the car please."