Echo (5 page)

He must have fallen asleep because he was drawn, stumbling, out of his chair by the ringing of the doorbell. It was instinct that had him sleepily walking to the door and squinting through the peephole.

Through the fish-eye lens, Anderson actually looked rather ridiculous. Large head, small body; it was like one of those caricature sketches. Cole half-expected him to be wearing over-sized skis.

He opened the door with a feeling of dread. "What are you doing here?" It was probably a very rude way of addressing the man that was his boss.

Anderson gave him a charming smile and held out a plastic bag. "I come bearing gifts of food. Can I come in?"

Though a part of him was yelling that he should slam the door, Cole wordlessly stood aside.

He caught a whiff of expensive cologne and take-away food when Anderson stepped inside. The man looked around curiously.

"Nice place," Anderson said without a trace of irony. He probably lived in a palace somewhere and had servants that catered to his every whim.

"
Nice place.
Why are you here?" Cole asked again, hoping the different wording would net him an answer.

Anderson sighed and his shoulders slumped a little. He looked tired and from the suit he still wore, he'd come directly from work. His red and black striped tie drooped loosely around his neck. "Mary called me and told me you were freaking out. I figured I'd come by in person and tell you that you're not fired."

"
And tell you that you're not fired.
And the food? You just accidentally brought that along?" Cole raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Anderson shrugged. "There's no accident to it. I was going to call you and invite you to dinner, but things kept interrupting... but since I'm here anyways, I thought 'Why not?' Besides, I figured you might be hungry."

"
I figured you might be hungry,
" Cole echoed. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be angry or not. "You basically decided we were going to have a date without asking me? You don't think that maybe that's just a bit presumptuous?"

"'Presumptuous' is my middle name," Anderson said, then shook his head, "no it's not. Honestly, my middle name is Herman. Please don't spread it around."

He walked over to sit the bag on the coffee table. "Seriously, I figured you might appreciate some dinner."

Cole opened his mouth to say something, but the loud gurgle his stomach made precluded speech. He could feel his face burn with embarrassment.

He'd been sent home before lunch and the clock on the wall said it was nearly six. He was actually pretty hungry.

Anderson's laughter was sudden and bright. He opened up the bag and took out two styrofoam takeout containers and two forks.

"Don't call it a date if you don't want to. This is just food and you need to eat food to survive." He opened the containers side-by-side on the table and poked a fork in each serving of glistening lo-mein noodles, the vegetables cooked to perfection. "I didn't know if you ate meat or not, so I went with the safe vegetable bet. I hope you like noodles." He looked at Cole through his ridiculously long lashes.

"
I hope you like noodles
," Cole echoed, his tone irritated. He could feel his irritation melting away with the presence of Anderson, which kind of made him more irritated. "Everyone likes noodles. And I'm not a vegetarian. I love meat."

Anderson's lashes lowered almost coquettishly. "Good to know." He sat on the couch and patted the spot next to him.

Cole felt his face burning and almost raced into the kitchen to grab two cans of soda from the fridge. He pressed one against his cheeks, hoping the chilly aluminum would help him regain his cool.

He is totally flirting with me,
he thought.
What do I do?

He went back into the living room and nearly flung one of the cans into Anderson's hand before sitting on the couch. He imagined he could feel a line of heat all down his left side and his cheeks were probably bright red.

He leaned forward and grabbed the remote control, changing to an episode of "Doctor Who" on BBC America. It was one he'd already seen, but he was willing to pretend to be interested. Besides, it was a David Tennant episode, his favorite doctor.

"You know what I don't understand is why BBC shows so many American shows," Anderson grumbled. "Like 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'Star Trek.' They're great shows and all, but I tune in looking for stuff like 'Upstairs, Downstairs,' 'Coupling,' 'MI-6,' or like 'Wire In the Blood.' They had episodes of 'Ab Fab' on Logo, for God's sake."

Cole raised an eyebrow at him.

Anderson flushed under his attention. "Yes, I admit that I'm a nerd. Sometimes I even play WoW for days and I paint figurines."

"
I paint figurines
. Okay, so you're a bit more nerdy than I ever thought you would be, but I don't mind. I think it's kind of cute." Cole felt the tips of his ears burn super hot and he shoved a forkful of noodles in his mouth.

"So I'm cute, am I?" Anderson's blue eyes glittered almost too brightly and he sounded incredibly pleased. "Well, I'll take that. You're pretty cute too."

There was a hot guy sitting in his living room eating Chinese food and flirting with him. Anderson looked like he totally didn't belong with his thousand dollar suit, his perfectly coiffed hair and the semi-awkward way he had to bend his knees to accommodate Cole's second-hand furniture. Yet he talked sci-fi shows and video games and he called Cole cute.

It was baffling and strange and Cole really didn't know what to do. So he ate lo-mein noodles and discussed the merits of the various Doctors with a man that didn't seem to care about his echolalia.

It was weird, but good.

* * *

After an exhausting day dealing with a kind of incompetence that he hadn't really believed could exist in real life, then having a wonderful dinner experience with a man he thought he might really like, Anderson called his father.

"They had one guy doing all the work," Anderson said. "They were just dumping everything off on him, and they weren't even nice enough to give him a good office. He was working in a closet."

"
Why didn't he complain to HR?
" George asked.

"He didn't even know that what they were doing was wrong. Everyone has treated him like crap since he started at the company. Looking at his file, he's been pretty much used as everyone's bitch boy from his first day."

"
Why did people think they could take advantage of him?
" George asked curiously.

"Cole has a speech condition called echolalia. It's related to Tourettes. He repeats the last thing someone says to him, and he's really shy because of it and seems to have a hard time talking to new people."

"
Cole? You're on a first name basis with this guy?
"

Even knowing his father couldn't see him, Anderson felt his ears burn. "He's Mary's next door neighbor. I met him the other day. He's a nice guy."

"
A nice guy,huh?
" There was a healthy dose of amused suspicion in George's voice. "
Why do I feel like there's more to it than that?
"

"I have no idea what you mean," Anderson said, trying hard not to think about earlier. "The issue at hand is a bunch of grossly incompetent employees that have been dumping all of their work on one man for close to two years."

George was pragmatic. "
Fire them.
"

Anderson groaned. "You know how I hate doing that."

"
There's no real choice here. We've been paying those idiots top dollar to screw around. Talk to Landry in HR and have them all fired. No severance packages for anyone.
"

Anderson felt a wave of distaste, but he knew there was no real choice. Bester International could not keep employing a bunch of people that did nothing but sit on their ass all day. Playing some online farm game did not count as productive behavior.

"I'll talk to Landry," he said glumly.

"
Good,
" George said. Then, in a much lighter tone, "
Are you seeing anyone?
"

"Dad!"

"
What? I'm an old man and I'm just getting older.
"

"You're not old and you know it. And no, I'm not currently seeing anyone."

"
Hm.
"

Anderson groaned. He could always tell when something was going on in his father's mind. "Are you going to make it to the company picnic?" he asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"
Of course I'm going to be there. When have I ever missed the picnic?
"

"Never," Anderson said, relieved that his dad seemed to have accepted the subject change.

He wasn't ready to share Cole with anyone else just yet. He wanted to keep him all to himself.

CHAPTER FIVE

Going to work made him nervous. There was just this sense of impending doom when he stepped in the building. And even though no one was probably paying any attention to him, he felt like everyone was staring at him.

Then he got to his section of the building and he realized everything was going to be completely different. It made his heart do that nervous stuttering thing in his chest and his hands felt sweaty.

Everyone he knew was gone and a bunch of new people were unloading stuff into desks and carrying boxes into offices that no longer had nameplates.

"What's going on?" he nervously asked a woman sitting at what used to be Bill Hueng's desk.

She looked up from where she was busily arranging pens in a hot pink cup. "This department got a complete overhaul and we're replacing the former employees."

Cole felt all the blood drain from his face. "
We're replacing the former employees
. I thought I wasn't going to get fired. Why didn't anyone tell me I was fired? What am I supposed to do?"

A warm hand landed on his shoulder, squeezing. "You're not fired," Anderson said, standing next to him to survey the activity. "I told you you wouldn't be and you're not. You're about the only one we kept."

"
You're about the only one we kept
." Cole turned to look up at him. "Why? I don't understand."

"Come with me to my office." Anderson's hand almost reluctantly left Cole's shoulder and he strode toward what used to be Mark Etty's office.

Cole trailed after him uncertainly.

He felt as though the entire world was crumbling around him and he didn't know what he was supposed to do. He really hadn't wanted a bunch of people to be fired even if they were jerks to him.

He sank into the chair he was gestured to while Anderson closed the office door and sat behind the big desk. "What's going on?" he asked.

Anderson steepled his fingers in front of him. "I had to let those other guys go," he said, sounding regretful. "I really don't like firing people, but what they were doing was unacceptable." He held up his hand to stop Cole. "It wasn't just what they did to you, which was bad enough. They were defrauding the company. They were receiving overtime and bonuses for work they weren't doing. One guy was running an online store during company hours and on a company computer."

Cole blinked. He really didn't know what to say to that.

"You are the only one that was doing any real work in this whole department." Anderson shook his head. "I can't believe they managed to get away with what they did for so long. It was criminal."

Cole licked his lips. "
It was criminal
. Am I going to get in trouble?"

"Not by me," Anderson shrugged. "Those idiots took advantage of your newness to the company when you first started, then kept you in a tiny office away from anyone else. They isolated you so you wouldn't find out that what they were doing was wrong, then they cashed in on all your hard work.

"What they did might not have been illegal in the strictest sense, but it's definitely not something we allow at Bester International. So don't feel like you got anyone else fired," Anderson said. "They can blame their own incompetence and dishonesty."

Cole's mouth made a little 'o.'

He felt incredibly small and afraid. Somewhere in the back of his head he thought he could hear the taunting voices of his childhood: "
Stupid Cole has no soul, he can't talk, can barely walk, he's so retarded!
"