Tyed - Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Tyler wakes up at eleven in the morning- not bad, for a Saturday- feeling like shit. He sits up from the couch, surprised to find a blanket covering him. He can hear talking in the kitchen, and when he sits up and evaluates the strength of his headache- not the worst, but sizable- he figures he should follow those voices.
He realises he's still wearing jeans from the night before, and as he takes out his phone to check just how dead it is, he notices that there's something in his other pocket. Just like that, the memories of last night come back, and he realises just how strange of a situation he's found himself in.
"Shit," he mutters, stumbling into the kitchen. There's a spare charger there and he plugs his dead phone in; looking up, he sees Nancy pouring some cereal into a bowl and Tee crunching down on some toast. Nancy doesn't look at him, but he sees the smile that's on her face. Tee is more open about his amusement.
"You're alive," Tee says, and Tyler can only be confused.
"Yes?" he says as he grabs a glass from the cupboard. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You disappeared," Tee says, "with your ex, and then you're texting Nancy about... something? Nance, what did he say?"
"Let me check," Nancy says with a grin. She pulls up her phone, and Tyler leans over and tries to pull it from her grasp, with little success. She's much shorter than he is, but she curls up and hides it close to her body to read it. "Hmm. Something about this BDSM club, is that right?"
"Only kind of-" Tyler begins, but she's not actually giving him a chance to defend himself.
She ignores him completely as she reads, "'There's this guy who won't stop staring at me,' he said. 'He's like the hottest dude I've ever seen but he's not my type but I'm gonna fuck him I don't even care.' At least, I think he said something like that, there's a lot of typos."
"Fuck off," Tyler says, filling his glass with water and turning his back on her. He's not actually mad, and she knows that, but it's difficult to face things in his life head-on at the best of times.
"So who is this guy?" Tee asks, brushing his hair behind his ear. He leans on the counter, pushing his scrawny frame up to appear a little bigger. He tilts his head like a curious animal. "'Cause it seems like you definitely didn't fuck him."
Tyler can tell several things about Tee from his body language. One is that Tee is being an asshole. But he also knows that Tee is trying to get a rise out of him, likely because he knows about Tyler losing his job and knows animosity is coming anyway for that reason; he may as well get it out of the way early.
And he's wrong, but that's not the reason Tyler doesn't react. Tyler also realises that not reacting is the best way to shut Tee down, as he was shut down last night, but that's not the reason Tyler doesn't react, either. The reason Tyler doesn't react is because he realises Tee is exactly right, and it's upsetting to think about for a moment. Tyler's gaze falls, a strange sadness at the realisation that he must have gone home alone.
There's a pause, through which Tyler is struggling to recall the end of last night. He remembers Colby kissing him, pulling away and treating Tyler like a temptation to be fought, and then, he remembers what Colby gave him. He never changed his clothes, and so, hurriedly, he reaches for his pocket and pulls out the slightly crumpled business card.
"Thank fuck," Tyler mutters as his gaze zooms over the number. "I forgot he gave me this-"
"Give me that," Nancy says, and without giving Tyler a chance to fight her on it, she reaches out and snatches it from between his fingers. She examines it, and then looks up at him. "Are you kidding?"
"No?" Tyler says, furrowing his brows at her. "I mean, he gave that to me because it had his number on it-"
"-cause it's not really funny," Nancy says, turning to Tee. Tyler's frozen with a few emotions, mainly confusion, as Nancy shows Tee the card. "He just swiped this from your work," she says to him.
"What the fuck are you on?" Tyler asks, crossing his arms in annoyance. "You think I'm making this guy up?"
"Well if you're not, this guy's shitting you, one way or the other. Tell him, Tee, these are just from your work."
Tyler knows Tee works at a pretty fancy hotel, but he hasn't put the pieces together yet, and still doesn't even as Tee speaks. "No, Nancy, they're not. Well they are, but-" Tee looks up at Tyler, all traces of annoyance gone. They're replaced by shock. "I- I have to put them out all the time. The design is different, the number's different, and the name on them is the name of the hotel, not the company. This is from higher up. I don't know how you got this, Tyler-"
"I told you, Colby gave it to me-" Tyler says, and two things happen at once. One is Nancy choking back a snort and quickly pulling up a search page, and the other is Tyler finally getting hit with the realisation of just what happened last night, as it concerned Tee. He points his finger at his roommate, now the smug one. "Did I just make out with your boss last night?"
It's then that Nancy laughs, a real loud, hearty laugh. "You said Colby, right? That was his name?"
"Yeah, why?" Tyler asks, and Nancy shows Tee the search page she has open. He covers his eyes with his hands, shrinking back in on himself as her uproarious laughter destroys any chance of an explanation.
So Tyler rips the phone from her hands and reads it for himself.
Nancy had googled "colby - blake & sons", his name and the name of the company on the card, and the first result was some business website with a stiff-looking picture of Colby. The description that Google showed read, "Colby Blake has been the CEO of Blake and Sons since June 2014."
Tyler opens the page and quickly scans it for the information he's looking for. He's able to quickly conclude that, indeed, Blake and Sons is the company that owns the hotel Tee works at. Knowing that, he can't not find it all as funny as Nancy does.
"Shut up," Tee groans, shoving at Tyler's shoulder. "It's not funny. This isn't funny. I don't know how you did this, but-"
"Oh my god. I made out with your boss's boss's boss."
"And you're going to call him," Nancy says, shoving the card back in Tyler's face, swapping him for her phone. "Right now."
"Now?" Tyler looks at her incredulously, and then at his own phone- which only has about 2% power, Tyler realises. "I can't call him now. It's... What time is it?"
"Quarter past eleven is a fine time to be calling someone," Nancy argues. "Do it."
"And say what? You realise I want to-"
"Are you stalling because this actually is fake?" Tee asks, crossing his arms. "I'm not sure why you would, but if it's Nancy's first instinct-"
"Fuck you, I'll call him." Tyler glares at his roommate and immediately starts punching Colby's number into his phone. Nancy covers her mouth, watching with suspended excitement as it rings once, twice, thrice. Tyler's holding it up to his ear, staring at Tee, thinking about proving his point more than anything else, so much so that he's not prepared when the phone doesn't ring a fourth time.
"Hello?" Colby's lilting voice sounds confident, self-assured, unwavering. Tyler knows for a fact he can't have had much sleep last night unless he only just got up. Tyler's stunned silence for a moment must've confused Colby, because he follows up with, "...I only have a few minutes, so if it's important-"
"Colby. Hi." Tyler almost stammers through his words. Almost; he's nervous, but not so nervous as to lose his precious control. "It's Tyler."
"Oh, Tyler." Colby's voice softens immediately. "I'm sorry about that. How are you?"
"I'm good," Tyler says, noncommittal, more interested in Colby than himself. "How are you? Is now a bad time? I can call back, and-"
"I mean, yes and no. I want to make time for you."
Nancy's leaning in to try and hear Colby's voice on the other end of the phone, and she jumps back in excitement when she catches that line. She grabs Tyler's shirt sleeve and shakes him, turning to Tee when she's shrugged off in annoyance. Tyler ignores her, focusing on the person he's calling.
"Well then," he says, putting his hand up to stop Nancy from getting any closer. "When can you make some more time?"
"Hmm." Colby doesn't seem to vocally give Tyler the response he's looking for, but at least they're playing on a level field. It truly does feel like a game as Colby throws back an answer. "Can you be here in about an hour and a half?"
"Be there?" Tyler tries not to be thrown by the hit he gets back, but he's pretty sure he's fumbled and lost, even as he answers with confidence on a second attempt. "Of course I'll be there."
Colby gives the smallest half-chuckle, an acknowledgement that Tyler's been caught out trying and failing to walk the line between cool and suave. "Alright," he says, soft in such a way that Tyler feels both comforted, excited and on edge. It's a gentle, yet untrustworthy softness, hiding something very different underneath. "Just say you're looking for me. I'll see you then."
"Alright." Tyler mimics Colby's easy tone, or tries to. He waits for a moment and is met with silence; Colby doesn't give him the satisfaction of an answer. The slightly-too-long pause puts Tyler face-to-face with the exact situation he's in, and it's both powerful and terrifying. He's forced to fill the silence. "I look forward to it."
"As do I," Colby says, and Tyler can almost see his face, his little grin, as he hangs up. Tyler slowly lowers the phone.
"Bro," Nancy says, like her excitement hasn't been clear to Tyler this whole time. Tee is staring at him in disbelief, still holding a now lukewarm piece of toast that's almost falling from his slack grip.
"What the fuck," Tee finally says. "I can't believe this."
"Neither can I," Nancy says, both of them looking at Tyler, who just smiles.
Tyler doesn't have much that can bring him down after that. He's still somewhat miffed about the fact that they didn't do anything last night, and it doesn't really reconcile with what Luna told him, but it's hard to be upset about it when he knows he's seeing Colby again very soon. He makes himself some breakfast and has a shower, checking his phone every few minutes, mainly to check the time. He calculates how long it'll take him to get to the address on the card- which, he's able to confirm, is the hotel Tee works at, which he still finds hilarious an hour later- and plans to get there on time, but when he's sitting at home doing nothing but thinking about meeting Colby, it's difficult to sit still. He leaves early, walking faster than he needs to; he would be pacing the train if it wouldn't unsettle all the other passengers.
He walks down the waterfront, his heart beating fast in his chest. As he approaches the huge, fancy hotel he recognises well from the outside, he can't believe his situation. He can hardly believe he's even going to enter it, let alone to see the guy who owns it. The hot guy who owns it who he made out with last night.
Well, he thinks his money problem is soon to be solved.
Entering in the front door, Tyler feels incredibly out of place. The best financial place he's ever been in his life is lower-middle class; he didn't even have his own bedroom until he was fifteen, and it would've been longer if his brother's circumstances had been different. He's only ever been in places like this in passing.
The floor is a kind of shiny black marble, patterned with veins of white and tiny strings of gold. There's a round red carpet in the middle of the room that a front desk sits on, and behind it sits a receptionist tapping away at a computer. There are columns along the walls, plush red sofas for guests to sit at, and a chandelier hanging above the reception that natural light from huge windows sparkles off of. The few guests that Tyler can see appear to mostly be business people, in sharp suits and smart dresses, and he can hear at least two important-sounding phone conversations in languages he doesn't speak.
He's slightly intimidated at first, and he has to remind himself that he's here to see the fucking CEO. When he gets a side-eye from a woman who visibly has an inflated sense of self-importance, and he enjoys knowing that he's probably got much more power here than she does.
Still, he's somewhat nervous approaching the reception. He's sure that if he does what Colby told him to, he'll be fine. He's still nervous knowing that, and perhaps he has to consider that he's nervous about more than just talking to the receptionist.
He's definitely nervous about meeting Colby again after last night. He's nervous, and he's excited, and the two feelings blend together in his chest in the form of a racing heart at he arrives at the front desk.
"Hi," he says, still a little more anxious than he intends to come across. "I'm here to see Colby."
The receptionist looks up, taking a moment to parse his words. He's a curly-haired man dressed in a sharp blazer and shirt, but Tyler doesn't miss his painted nails, a small rebellion against the expectations of this hotel's clientele. "What's your name?"
"Tyler."
The receptionist checks something quickly on his computer, and then pressed a button on his desk and speaks into an intercom. "Tyler here to see you," he says.
He then looks to Tyler and nods towards one of the doors. "Take the elevator over there to the eleventh floor."
"Alright," Tyler says, "is that it? What am I supposed to do when I get there?"
The receptionist looks at him a little strangely and says, "I'm sure you can figure it out."
Tyler opens his mouth to say something equally snippy back, but the receptionist's little smile reminds him of the fake smiles he was forced to give customers at all the shitty jobs he's worked, and he realises he should probably give it a pass. The last thing he wants to be doing is antagonizing Colby's employees; after all, he wants to make a good impression.
He nods to the receptionist, deciding to leave before he manages to make things worse. Heading over to the elevator, looking over his shoulder like he's afraid he's being watched or followed, the nerves in his stomach are rising into his throat.
He wasn't that nervous around Colby last night, but now he's sober and now he knows a whole lot about Colby that he didn't know before. Mainly, that he's rich and powerful and definitely not on any sort of equal standing with Tyler.
But Tyler knew that going into this, didn't he? He knew that he was looking for a sugar daddy, and he found one, so why is he so anxious about having the perfect one, that he's attracted to and wanted anyway, who has a mysterious reputation that involves running through people quickly...
Right. Tyler's not used to being the one who's replaceable, the one who's doing the chasing. Realising he may not be good enough for Colby to keep around is terrifying, because he's never not been good enough for someone before. He doesn't know how to handle it.
The chill that runs up his spine as he steps into the elevator doesn't come from anywhere outside of himself. It's the cold feeling that comes with most of Tyler's fears, and he pulls his jacket closer around himself, as though it could drive the false cold away.
This hotel has more than eleven floors, and Tyler's tempted to have a look around before going to see Colby, but not only would he not get away with it- Colby's already been informed he's coming- he also realises he's stalling. He quietly scolds himself for it as he slams the correct button and the doors close on him, leaving him staring at his blurry reflection in the burnished metal of the elevator door.
"What the fuck," Tyler mutters to his own reflection, who's clearly judging him. "Why am I like this?"
He had a therapist once, while he was in highschool. She would always ask him to think about his adverse emotional reactions and to recognise where they were coming from; which,  in her mind, was always his father.
"Fuck you," he whispers to nobody in particular, although it's probably the little voice in his mind that sounds like her. "I'm fine."
Then the elevator door opens with a pleasant ding, and Tyler doesn't have a choice but to shut up. In front of him is a hallway that goes forward, left and right, with three doors ahead of him, one of which is dead ahead; the door reading, "Colby F. Blake."
Well, that was easy, Tyler thinks to himself.
Now he just has to go and knock on it.