And Then There Were More (Gay Poly)✔

Chapter 14 - Mr. Mendova

He was a serious man with a long face and a constantly furrowed brow. His eyes held a constant air of disapproval which was accompanied by his ever present scowl. His grey hair was short and slicked back, and he walked with a straight posture, meeting everyone's eyes directly. This was a man that carried himself with confidence. The kind of man who thought he was better than the world itself.

Ricky remembered the first day he met Mr. Mendova. He had no idea that Chris was a high rank at the time, and instead of being invited over to meet his parents, Chris's father had invited himself into Ricky's home.

Chris and Ricky had been hanging out frequently by that point and after one drunken night in each others arms, they decided to start dating. Ricky's parents were ecstatic, and Chris was...Well, he was secretive.

Ricky thought it was because Chris's parents were overbearing and wouldn't approve of their relationship. If only he'd known how right he was. However Ricky would never have expected the statue of a man with a stare as cold as stone to just suddenly show up one night, demanding he leave his son alone and quit filling his head with nonsense.

Mr. Mendova had gone on a whole tirade right on the doorstep, explaining how Ricky was not well bred enough for his son, nor had a good taste in living quarters. He had nitpicked all of Ricky's possessions, passing them off as children's play things, then chastised him for tricking his son into becoming rebellious.

Chris ultimately got dragged away by his father, leaving Ricky standing there in a daze, unsure of what had even happened. It wasn't until the next day that Chris came back to tell him his big secret. It was a shock to learn that Chris was a highly ranked demon, but it definitely wasn't a deal breaker. As a matter of fact, it explained a lot of things.

It turned out that Chris was getting fed up with how uptight and stuffy his parents were. They were always telling him to walk, talk and breath like the perfect son, always forcing him to focus on inheriting their business and shoving their rank in his face so he wouldn't mix with the 'lesser' people. Ricky learned that on the night they had met, Chris had just had his first big fight with them.

In a way, he could understand how the Mendovas thought Ricky was the root of all evil, but in the end it was just a coincidence that the two met on the same night that Chris first acted out. That didn't stop the stigma though.

Mr. Mendova now stood before him, looking down his nose at Ricky as though he were no better than a cockroach. "Mr. De'stat?" He practically spat the words out. "I thought the name was just a coincidence, but to think that you actually work here?"

Mr. Boyd was standing next to Mr. Dalton, the CEO of the company, and glanced between Ricky and Mr. Mendova in surprise. "You two know each other?"

"No. He was never worth my attention." Mr. Mendova sneered. "Why do you have the staff up here? I thought your expendables worked in cubicles on the lower floors."

Dalton Enterprises was a company founded and run by demons. As such, the main offices were built following demon tradition. The lower your position in the company, the lower you were located in the building. Thus why the first three floors were riddled with cubicles and small meeting rooms. Generally speaking, Ricky had never been higher than the second floor when he worked as a payroll clerk.

"I think there may be some misunderstanding here." Mr. Dalton smiled, amused by the other man's choice of words. "This is Ricky De'stat, our new VP of Payroll."

Mr. Dalton was a fan of blue. His suits were always some shade of the color, and he had windswept blond hair with graying sides. His eyes appeared friendly, but hid a sharp intellect that allowed the man to successfully run any competitors into the ground if need be.