Jumping the Bull - Jenn Burke Page 0,1
what time it was. Only that it was dark, the room lit only by the glow of the muted TV and the lights from the kitchen, where the margarita mix lived. They’d decided not to go the frozen route—he hated brain freeze, and with the amount of alcohol he’d need to consume to get drunk, it would have just slowed him down.
He licked the salt off the rim as Didi gestured with her glass. “And then! This is crazy, you’re never going to believe it. Then Bob—”
“You said his name was Bill.”
“Bob, Bill, what the fuck ever.” Oh boy, Didi was drunk if she was dropping the F-bomb that casually. Their mother would have kittens if she heard. Ben giggled at that thought. Kittens.
“So Bob”—she stressed the name, as if by decree she could make him a Bob even if he wasn’t—“and fuckin’ Marly sneak out of the porta-potty together.”
“Ew!” Ben frowned as he tried to place the name. “Oh, wait, Marly? Your dick of a foreman?”
She leaned back, a triumphant smirk on her face, “One and the same. The one who keeps commenting on women needing to be in the kitchen instead of on the work site.”
“And they were fucking in a porta-potty?”
“I don’t even want to know,” Didi said, swinging her glass to the side. A few drops spilled out, but she didn’t seem to care. Neither did Ben, for that matter. “Marly’s hair was super messed up, though. Like someone had been pulling on it.”
“In a porta-potty?” Ben couldn’t even get his head around that. He didn’t know how big these guys were, but even average-sized human men would have trouble both fitting in one of the tiny closet-like toilets, wouldn’t they?
“I know! So gross.” Didi scrunched up her nose. “I’m not sure how I’m going to look them in the eye if I have to work with them again.”
“Oh, bullshit.” Ben chuckled. “You’re going to smirk at them and blow bubble gum in their faces while waggling your eyebrows.”
She giggled. “You know me so well.”
Of course he did. And the same was true of her and him. Him and her? Whatever. She knew him just as well. They were twins, after all. He held out a fist and she bumped it, and then they both made an explosion noise.
“Oh!” Didi bounced with the sudden exclamation, but took a sip of her drink before she continued. “I didn’t tell you. Jack—remember Jack?”
“The douchebag pig you dated?”
“He wasn’t a pig. He was a boar.”
“But a douchebag.”
“Yes, definitely a douchebag,” she agreed with a raising of her glass. “He finally found his balls and joined FUC like he said he was going to do.”
The Furry United Coalition was the organization that protected shifters from bad guys. It didn’t matter if the bad guys were humans or other shifters, FUC agents got in the way. At one point, a long time ago, Ben had thought about joining. He had the build and the strength, and was bull-headed enough—ha—to get through almost any situation. But being gay in a paramilitary organization just seemed like a bad idea, even if there were protections in place to guard against harassment. So he’d embraced the side of himself that was more into discussion and empathy and pushed away his tendency to charge into things head first, ramming whatever was in his way.
And look where that got him. Jobless in his prime. Having to start over, learn a brand new company, figure out how to fit in, try to make a place for himself. For however long he had there. Because who was to say he wouldn’t get laid off again? And again? HR was one of those departments that always got hit hard by cost-cutting, but Ben had thought himself safe at InnovaTech because of his performance.
But clearly performance meant dick all.
“They recruit him?” he asked.
“Nah. He applied online.”
“FUC takes applications online?” That didn’t seem very covert, but what did he know?
Didi shrugged. “Why? You interested?”
“Fuck yeah, I’m interested.” It was probably the tequila’s influence, but he suddenly felt excited. Hopeful. Maybe getting laid off was meant to be. Maybe it was a chance for him to really find himself.
He’d tried indulging the softer side of himself. Maybe it was time to explore the badass bull that lived inside his skin. If anyone had a problem with him being gay, they could find out how horny a bison bull could be.
Ben retrieved his laptop from his room while Didi refreshed their drinks. Together, they