Author: Max Hudson
Category: LGBT
Go to read content：https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/max-hudson/page,3,546748-someone_like_you.html
Killian continued his speech. “It’s just not for everyone. I love the art, but I didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t walk down to the corner store and get myself a cup of coffee or do anything like that, I guess. It just got old and exhausting.”
“I’ve heard stuff like that.”
“It’s the old be careful what you wish for thing.” Killian smiled, but Jared could tell that it wasn’t completely honest.
“I get that someone might hate it, but the chances of me ever getting that far are pretty slim.” Jared didn’t like feeling self-conscious, but he felt the need to make those excuses when he was talking to this man.
“It may be something that you like.” Killian shrugged. “I didn’t.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Jared thought about what the man had said for a moment. “Do you mind if I ask a question?”
“Go ahead, ask me anything.”
“I was just wondering, why wasn’t I asked this during the interview. If it’s a problem, I can see why you might not want to hire me.”
“The honesty was refreshing. And I get what it’s like to be new. To get a job.”
“I mean, maybe I’ll end up working here on this stage, then I could do the commute from work to rehearsals pretty quickly.”
Killian laughed. “That’s pretty possible.” He seemed amused by the thought of that but didn’t say much more on the subject. “Anyway, do you want me to show you to the set shop now?”
Jared nodded. “Yeah, thanks. I would appreciate that.”
Killian smiled as he walked through the building to the workshop that covered the back half of the building. Jared couldn’t help but notice that Killian seemed younger than he had always pictured in his mind. The man was something of a legend that he had seen as someone that he wanted to be like. But now he could see how miserable the fame had made this man.
He couldn’t help but wonder if that was what he wanted out of life if this was worth moving all this way for. It probably wouldn’t be the first time he wondered if he wanted to pack up and go home instead of staying here with so much uncertainty.
But he pushed those thoughts out of his head.
Chapter Four
Killian stood by the window and looked down at the workshop below. He could see Jared in there working. It had been a full week that the man had been working there, and Killian had found himself working there a lot more often, watching the crew and the work that they do. It was an obsession and he knew it. He was trying to do better, to make himself separate from the man that he had watched for the past week but hadn’t been able to stop doing it.
He hadn’t spoken to Jared, and he felt the risk of becoming something out of control, the sort of watching that movies were made about with the watcher being made to look like a creep that couldn’t help himself through his own mental illness.
Killian didn’t feel mentally ill. But he knew that those that were rarely felt that way. He shook his head and looked back down at the floor, refusing to let those thoughts cause doubts. He had already battled such things and they had made him miserable, but he didn’t feel miserable. He was happy to be watching the man work on the set.
Jared was building a rolling cart that would be designed to look like a staircase. The performers would be sitting on it when they sang one of the musical numbers in an upcoming show.
The man was carefully measuring before each cut. He had a pencil tucked behind his ear, marking off each point that he needed to keep track of. It was careful patient work. He really was the type to measure twice and cut once. In fact, it was pretty obvious that Jared measured more than twice, sometimes even four or five times.
Not once did Jared glance around. He must not be able to feel Killian staring at him from his safe location up above him.
The foreman walked up to Jared and they spoke quietly for a few minutes, but Killian couldn’t hear what was being said. He imagined it was something about the project that the carpenter was working on. Jared nodded and went back to work with renewed vigor, erasing and making some changes to the measurements that he had already made on the wooden frame that he had been building.
He didn’t see Erika approach him. She had slipped up to stand behind him and a bit off to the side. She cleared her throat.
“What’s up?” He pretended that she hadn’t startled him.
“Just wanted to check up on you.” Her voice had the edge of concern in it, and that bothered him.
“I’m fine.” He shook his head. “There’s nothing wrong.”
“How come I don’t believe that?” She shook her head, laughing lightly.
“Something funny?”
“Just that I’ve never seen you like this before.” She seemed to be amused by it.
“I don’t think it’s so funny.” He shook his head.
“Anyway.” She segued to something else, but then let the word hang in the air.
“Is there something else?” He turned back to watch the man down on the floor. Jared was carefully working a jigsaw, but he could only hear the slightest buzz through the window.
“Yeah.”
“What is it?”
“You aren’t going to be happy with it.” She shook her head. “And I think we should talk about your new hire.”
He turned around to regard her carefully. “What are you trying to say?”
“That if you want to go out with him, you should just ask him out.”
“It isn’t that easy and you know it.”
“Of course, it’s not easy.” She shook her head again. She had the very air of a disapproving mother. He hated it when she got that look, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. She was so good at her job and he wasn’t ready to fire her. That would have been a foolish decision. “It’s not supposed to be easy. Partially because you’re his boss now.”
“Office romances never work out.”
“You’ve been burned too hard.” She frowned heavily.
He hated feeling like he was being judged, and that’s definitely the vibe that he was getting off of this woman. “What do you expect me to do?”
“Something other than hiding up here and moping while you stare at those pecs all day.”
“I’m not doing that.” He denied it even though he knew that it was absolutely, a hundred percent true. “I’m not someone who sits around and mopes about stuff like this.”
“Sure, you say that, but then I have to come up here and find you several times a day.”
“Hey, I’m just checking up on my employees.”
“Right, that’s something you always did before he came around.” Erika rolled her eyes.
“Whoa, why don’t you calm down a little bit.” He shrugged; the weight of the world was suddenly feeling a little heavy on his shoulders. “You act like I’m some sort of maniac.”
“I don’t know what it is about this guy. You see handsome guys all the time.”
Killian shrugged. “I don’t either.” He felt the honesty starting to flow through him, like a dark cloud of truth that he couldn’t control. He glanced past Erika to see more of the area. This was an extension of the raised boxes that were around the performance area. The building was large, a unique place in New York, giving the set designers a place to work on the same level as the stage. It meant that less had to be carried or hauled up or down elevators and stairs.
He had always assumed that was why the audience area was so small. It was a place that always struck him as more intimate, but that only made the seats more desirable.
He always made sure to have some of the best shows that he could get at the house. People knew that if he was willing to host a show that it was going to be a good one and that seats would be hard to get. That made his life a lot easier because he was known for quality.
He used his reputation to continue to get better and better shows, but he had never worked on the stage at his own theatre. It felt too egotistical and self-serving even if he had been asked a few times.
“Hey
, you ok?” Erika was looking at him with an odd look on her face.”
“What’s up?”
She frowned heavily, watching his face carefully. “You’ve got a weird look on your face.”
That honesty that he appreciated before and in every other instance irritated him right at that moment. “Is there something work-related that you came to find me for?”
“I need some signatures.”
“For what?”
“Paychecks.” She shrugged. “I’ve got the checks all printed and stuff.” She looked like she wanted to say more but was staying quiet about whatever it was that was on her mind. “You kind of need to pay the guys this week.”
“I’ll get that taken care of. Are they in my office?”
“Yeah, along with the guys who want to run a play here again.”
“Did you tell them we’re not interested in their show?” He snorted in frustration. “It’s like they can’t listen.”
“I’m not sure they can listen to anything anyone says.” She shrugged. “Just figured you would want to know they’re wanting to try again.”
He shook his head. “That’s not happening.”
“I know it’s not. And I tried to tell them that, but what do I know. I’m just a secretary.”
“Did they really say that to you?”
“No.” She frowned. “But it’s how they treat me like I don’t know anything that’s going on around here and you’re the only one that they’ll talk to.”
“I’ll deal with it.” He stiffened his shoulders and headed down toward the offices.
She didn’t say another word, just following him down to confront these men again. They had been around a lot recently and he had been dealing with them time and time again.
Of course, they wanted to work there, to have the place show their play, but Killian hadn’t thought the play was good enough. Still, they persisted. He had heard word of them doing this to every other place that might offer them a space to produce the play, but no one was interested. It wasn’t a very good play to start with and the people trying to run it weren’t anywhere close to professional.
He sighed as he walked into the small reception area. “May I help you, gentlemen?”
“We’ve come to see if you would reconsider.”
“About what?” Killian decided that pretending he didn’t know them was the way to go here. He was a busy man who had a lot of meetings on any given day.
“We were here before, just so you know.” The man looked a little bit insulted by the fact that Killian didn’t know who he was.
And that was what Killian was banking on. That frustration. “You were. What was it regarding?”
“We’re here to see if we can book a play.” The man held out a sheaf of papers in Killian’s direction.
Killian grabbed the papers from the man’s hand. “Ah, I remember this now. I remember saying that it didn’t fit our aesthetic.”
“Yeah, that’s what you said.”
“So, what’s changed?” Killian tilted his head toward the man and fixed him with a hard stare.
The man took a step back. He was clearly a bit intimidated by Killian, and the theatre owner was just fine with that. “I did some work on the script. I was hoping that you would take a look at it.”
“I’ll put it on the stack and call if I want to do it.” Killian nodded. “I need time to go through it.” He was hoping it would work. At some point, this guy had to get out of his hair. That moment couldn’t be soon enough.
“Sure.” The playwright was looking down at his feet, nervously shifting his weight from side to side.
“All right. I’ll be sure to call you if I decide to take this on.”
The man nodded. “We’ve got the money to get started any time you want us too.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. I’ve got a lot of offers to do plays and a lot of work to do with the ones that I do pick, so competition is stiff, I’m sorry in advance if you don’t get picked.”
The playwright looked down at his feet, a little upset by what he was hearing, but he didn’t say anything in response.
Killian assumed that was because he didn’t have anything to say about it. “Is that all?”
“That’s it,” the man mumbled and made his way to the exit, slipping out the door.
Killian drew in a deep breath. That sort of thing happened far too often for his comfort, but it was one of the dangers of this business. People wanted to have their art showcased, and he couldn’t take everyone. Especially if what they had offered wasn’t up to caliber.
He let out the air in a heavy sigh. “I’m going back to my office.”
Erika was coming up behind him as he spoke. “Are you going to your office or to watch the new guy again?”
“I don’t see how it’s any of your business either way.” He shrugged, but she was right. All he could think about was going to go see him again. He wanted to watch the muscle-bound man haul wood and other supplies then sweat as he worked with power tools. There was something so painfully masculine about the way the man moved. It was enough to take up more than half of his day thinking about the handsome young man that he had hired on a whim.
He walked back out to the spot where he could watch the workshop. It was a good out of the way spot that allowed him to monitor the backstage crew, and he watched them.
Jared was talking to the other members of the crew. He seemed to be fitting in and was proving to be a hard worker willing to do any job that needed to be done no matter how hard it was to do.
He was going to do things. He just had to figure out how to approach an employee that he only hired because of this growing need to see and be near him.
It was a sticky situation full of terrible ideas and choices. There had to be a better way.
Chapter Five
“How was work?” Harry called out as he walked into the small apartment.
“It was cool. I learned a ton of new stuff about set design.” Jared was practically bouncing with excitement. He had been excited when he came home from work every single day, ready to go on and on about everything that he had done over the course of the day.
“What about that hot boss of yours?” Harry smirked. “You see him again?”
Jared shook his head. “No, sadly he doesn’t come around a lot. I think he mostly works up in the front part of the theatre.”
“He doesn’t supervise at all?”
“Not unless someone needs him, I think. The foreman takes care of most of it.” Jared wasn’t exactly happy about that, but he knew that Killian Templeton was probably a very busy man with a lot to do.
“Yeah, I bet he doesn’t get his hands dirty at all.” Harry laughed. “I figure a man like him doesn’t really do the grunt work.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Look at him, he made a fortune acting.”
“You and I both know that acting isn’t an easy job.” Jared laughed.
“Yeah.”
“What about you?” Jared wanted to change the subject off of his job and the hot guy he worked for. “How’s the job hunt coming?”
“Pretty sure I bombed that interview.” Harry shook his head. “I think I’ve bombed every single interview that I’ve had. I just don’t get it.”
“Killian told me that every time he sees an aspiring actor it makes him have second thoughts. You aren’t telling people that, are you?”
“I want to be honest with them.” Harry groaned. “But I still need a job.”
“I know that feeling.” Jared offered him a smile. “But we’re still ahead of the game because one of us is working. Our timeline had us both working within two months.”
“I know, I know. I’ll find something.”
“Maybe you can get into serving or something?”
“A waiter?”
“Yeah, tips have got to be pretty decent if it’s a good place with expensive prices.”
“I’m not so sure about that, but I’ll get some ap
plications in for that sort of thing. It’s got to be better than nothing.” Harry was looking worn down by the job hunt. “But I got some decent news.” His head picked up and the man suddenly smiled as he remembered the fact that something good had happened to him.
It was about time that Harry got to feeling a little better about the way his life was going. Jared’s success in finding a job was weighing on Harry. The man was a little jealous of his friend at the same time he was happy for him. It was the way that friends work. Harry sometimes felt like he was lesser than Jared, even if Jared never really saw it in the other man. “What’s that?”
“I went to an open casting call today. Here’s hoping it turns out.”
“I haven’t had time to try out for any of that.” Jared shook his head. “You’re lucky.”
“Only because I don’t have a job, but at least the acting job will pay if I can get it.” Harry seemed excited.
“What do you think your chances are?”
“Pretty good. I mean, I don’t have the resume, but I think I really impressed them. They were all smiling when I left.” Harry laughed. “Of course, that could mean that there’s something wrong with me and they were happy to see me leave. I’ll have to see if I get a call back.”
“Yeah, that’s always a little scary.” Jared grinned though. “But that’s awesome. I really hope that you get it.”
“It would be really awesome to get to start working right away.” Harry laughed. “You still beat me to the job though.”
“I guess I did.” Jared shrugged. “But it’s just doing set work, I’m not actually able to do much looking for acting work.”
“That part sucks.”
“I feel like we’ve had this conversation like thirty seconds ago.” Jared laughed. “Have we really run out of stuff to talk about?”
“I guess we have. Just spent too much time together.”
He looked down. “Tell you what. Let’s go out and get a drink.”
“Did you want to go to a club or something?” Harry asked his friend. “I don’t think I’m awake enough to go dancing or anything like that.”
“I wasn’t thinking about dancing or anything like that.” Jared shook his head. “Maybe we can find a little bar and go have a couple of drinks to celebrate everything.”