Untouchable: Chapter 18: But that's not fair!
Xander awoke with Paul in his arms, faintly purring in his sleep. As he stirred, Paul rolled over then pulled Xander into a spine reorienting hug. Xander grabbed his pillow and pulled it into Paul's hug and slipped away. Paul wrapped his knees and arms tightly around the pillow like his life depended on keeping it. Xander grabbed his phone and put on a pair of underwear and soft padded his way to the bathroom. Sean hadn't reviewed his message, but he'd see him in a hour or so anyway. He flushed the toilet washed his paws then went to the kitchen to eat and then get ready for the day. The rest of the house slept while Xander made breakfast, he ate then showered. Before leaving to catch the bus for work, Xander went into Paul's bedroom to whisper good by, but the urge to kiss him arose. Xander crept in and licked Paul's cheek, then whispered, "sleep well handsome I'll see you soon."Paul spoke still asleep, "ok honey, I love you too."Xander blushed and he left the room, He thought, "Why would he say that, has he already fallen for me or something... honey and he loves me? but he was sleeping, wasn't he? No it must be a mistake he thinks I'm only temporary. What do I do here?"Xander's bus ride to city hall was full of confused thoughts about Sean and Paul. When he reached City hall the front desk got him a visitors badge and sent him up too, a Mr Franks office. The white furred secretary let him in. Xander said, "Sorry Mr Franks the bus took longer to get here than I thought it would, where's Sean?""It's not a problem, you are our marketing contractor for the project the one Sean recommended, I assume?" Mr Franks said gruffly."Yeah Sean recommended my company and you all got me," Xander said."Well we look forward to your work. So Sean won't be working with you," Mr Franks said, "well no, I should say he can't work with you anymore."Xander sat back in his seat unable to speak. His shock didn't go unnoticed, "Why is that?""You know the story right?... Well he won't be able to work with you and he'll be handling channel five interactions from now on," Mr Franks said."Ok... but several of my strategies need to involve them," Xander said clenching his paws."For now your strategies won't, Sean needed to work with them so he will. We need you on the other areas of the contract. Anyway my secretary will show you to the desk we have for you to work at," Mr franks said in a clear dismissal.Xander left his seat and the office without a second glance from Mr Franks.Franks' secretary rose when he left the office."I'm Xander, I didn't catch your name?" Xander said with a quick masking of his feelings, he extended a paw.He could tell she could smell his confusion, she said, "I'm Jessi, I'll show you to the desk, do you have your keycard already?""Yeah I got it at the front desk," Xander
said, he wanted to call Sean or find him, "So why wasn't Sean in this morning?"They passed into a cubicles area, Jessi said, "well he already left for the new station, and that side door leads to the smoking area if you smoke." His lip curled involuntarily, then he glanced at the side door, "I don't smoke," he said."You must really hate smoking don't you?" She asked then looked away from his expression."Something like that," he said, "I may need a drafting table.""Here's your desk," she said, "unfortunately there aren't any here on the third floor, but on the fifth there are, email me if you need anything else."After she left, he sat in his thoughts for several minutes, then went out the sidedoor to the vacant smoking area. Sean didn't answer again, he said to the voicemail, "what the hell Sean, you can't work with me now so your taking a third of the account I was hired for! Goodbye Sean!"He felt better but still confused after he left the voice mail. He thought, "If Sean wanted to talk why is he avoiding me now... he just wanted me to submit and call him, so he could be the one to ignore me, Damn him!"Xander's anger was put on hold as he heard voices moving toward him. He blushed with bristled fur and headed back to the door as one of the voices said, "The new system insures that the toilets all flush at the end of the day, you never have to come back after the weekend where something sat-"He lost the rest of that conversation when the door closed behind him, then he went to his desk, and imagined Sean getting a swirly.He texted Paul not expecting a reply right away, "Alpha I'm so pissed right now!"But Paul was up and replied, "I know it's totally fucked up!""Wait how did you know about it?" Xander asked."Tanner told me at breakfast, what are you going to do about it?" Paul asked.Xander wondered how Tanner knew, Sean most have texted someone who texted Tanner, he messaged, "well there's not much I can do about it, you know, plus I can't reach him right now, but it is what it is, :( to late I guess.""That makes sense, but it'll all get figured out I'm sure, anyway, I have to work tonight, would you want to come in, we can have dinner together! :)" Paul messaged."I'd like that, text me the time and I'll be there," Xander replied.He thought, "Sean hast to be ignoring me... but he can't ignore work requests. Xander made a meeting for this afternoon at 2:30pm near the end of Sean's workday and e-mailed it. Xander got to work changing plans he had made and worked extra hours on over the last several weeks.