Love Means No Shame - Andrew Grey

arrived six months earlier, fresh out of college with a degree in accounting and a libido on overdrive, he’d almost made a mission out of seeing how many men he could have, and it was wearing thin.
    4
Love Means … NO SHAME
    Raine continued sipping his coffee. “You need to take it easy, relax a little. You can’t screw your way to happiness.” There it was—one of Raine’s witticisms. The man had one for all occasions.

    “No, but you can have a lot of fun trying,” the two said in unison. They laughed merrily, breaking Geoff out of his mood.

    Raine was good for his soul. No matter how bad things got, he could always count on Raine’s easy manner and carefree humor to break him out of a funk.
    “Seriously, Geoff, you’re going overboard with the man buffet.”
“I know.”
They finished their coffee and sticky buns. “Let’s catch a movie and have some fun. I think you could use it,” Raine commented. Geoff checked his imaginary calendar. “Well, I’ve got such a busy day planned, cleaning the apartment, laundry; I don’t know how I’ll fit it in.” “Sarcasm is unbecoming.” They both laughed and cleaned up their table before leaving the coffee shop.
    Geoff and Raine spent the rest of the day together, going to a movie and doing a little shopping. Since they were both fairly broke, they looked more than shopped and then went back to Raine’s apartment and spent the evening watching movies until Geoff headed home, where he fell into bed.
    GEOFF had to be at his office by eight on Monday morning, and he was nearly late. Unlike most of the past few weeks, he’d slept well and hadn’t spent Sunday night trolling for men. Arriving just in 5

    Andrew Grey
    time, he quietly put his things away and booted up his PC, getting right to work. He’d gotten this job right out of college, working as a staff accountant for a chain of retail stores. He liked the work, and the people he worked with were nice, but most of them were older, and it was difficult to make friends. The one exception had been Raine. He’d met him the first day on the job, and they’d become fast friends. Unfortunately, he was the only real friend Geoff had made.
    Oh, there were acquaintances and people he went out with, but Raine was his only true friend, which made for a lonely life. He was busy working on the accounts payable ledger, trying to find an imbalance, when heard a soft cough. “Geoff, Kenny would like to see you in his office.”

    Kenny was the head of accounting, and when he summoned, you hopped to it. He was a nice guy but demanded punctuality from all his people, and being late when he called was viewed as a sign of disrespect.

    An hour later Geoff returned with more mysteries to solve.

    This was what he loved, really loved. Numbers sang to him, and he had a talent for digging in and finding mistakes and imbalances no matter how small. In a very short time, he’d developed a reputation as someone who could locate small errors before they became big ones. The one thing he didn’t like about his job was that it tended to be very solitary. He spent most of his days working with numbers and very little of his days working with people. He’d really like to do both.
    At noon, Raine came to his cubicle, and the two of them had a quick lunch before heading to the company fitness center to work off some of the weekend’s excesses. Once they’d changed, they each got on a treadmill and started walking. The room was empty except for them, which was normal.
    “I’m thinking of looking for a new job,” Raine mentioned.
6
Love Means … NO SHAME
“Why?” The thought sent chill through Geoff—what would he do without seeing Raine every day?
    “I’m not going to go anywhere here. Kenny doesn’t really like me, so nothing is gonna happen for me.” Raine had been there a year longer than Geoff, but Geoff seemed to get better assignments and more recognition. Geoff didn’t know what to say, so he kept walking, increasing the pace of his machine. Raine must have seen the worried look on Geoff’s face. “Don’t worry, we’ll always be friends.”
    “I know… it’s just that this place will be so dull without you.”
“Not that Kenny will see it that way, but it probably will be.” Modesty wasn’t one of Raine’s personality attributes. “You going out tonight?”
    “No. I decided I’m going to cut back and find other things to do.” He’d been drinking way too much lately, and his liver and