"You're actually upset right now? Look at everything the world has given you, Luke."
"And that's great, but I'd rather have you."
• the story before "count on me" by sircalyum • book 1
// smut included //
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MONDAY EVENING. My workday had been extremely long, but only because I had decided to stay late to get ahead on editing. It was already nearing seven o'clock, which was probably the latest I had ever been in the office, and I was planning to stay for another thirty minutes or so. Luke had told me he'd be over at around nine, so it wouldn't really matter how long I stayed.
Spending the night at Luke's the day before had been fine—I got over there late, so there wasn't much to do except go to bed, and he had made me breakfast in the morning. Our lack of conversation had worried me, but I had been trying to distract myself from it all day. I knew the conversation we had the morning before had upset Luke to a fair extent, but I also knew that the last thing he wanted was to be upset with me.
We were fine, but it was clear there was tension. I was hoping that we'd be able to clear things up tonight because even our text conversation throughout the day had been lacking complete normalcy.
"I thought I saw the light on in here." I jumped at the sound of another voice, but laughed off the fear as I looked toward the door to see Stevie. "Sorry, I should've knocked—"
"It's fine," I told Stevie before waving him in. He smiled and took a couple of steps in before looking around the office. "I don't think I've ever seen you working late."
"It's because I never have," I told him as I sat back in my chair, deciding a break could be good for me. "Why are you here so late?"
"I'm usually here late on Monday and Wednesday night... editing the videos that go out on Tuesday and Thursday." My eyebrows furrowed at Stevie's statement.
"I thought Molly edited—"
"She usually does, but she's been asking me to help... I enjoy it, so it's no big deal. Plus, I'm the guy behind the camera in the first place... I like to make my mistakes look better so no one else has to deal with them." I laughed at Stevie's words and he smiled as he moved closer to my desk, beginning to play with a figurine of Elizabeth Bennet that was on the edge of the surface, next to a Mr. Darcy figurine. He chuckled at them, clearly recognizing them.
"If you're editing videos, you should be getting paid for that, Stevie."
"It'll happen eventually, I'm sure," Stevie said with a shrug, but that only made me sigh. "I really don't mind doing it."
"If you're working overtime on a job that you don't get paid to do—you should really think about starting to mind doing it. It's not criminal for you to want a raise, Stevie. You do every essential odd job there is to do here, you should be getting praise... in my opinion."
"I appreciate that, really," Stevie told me with a smile. "However, I'm not going to go begging for anything. I like this job and Tony scares the shit out of me most days, so I'm just gonna keep the gig I've got." I bit my lip gently and thought about maybe talking to Tony myself—it didn't seem fair that Stevie wasn't recognized more for his contributions. "You never told me why you're here so late."
