Can You Keep a Secret

Sitting in an office with everything covered by plastic tarps besides the walls was a lot like camping. Our lunch was eating sitting cross legged on the floor surrounding a bottle of lemonade, the pizza, and our spuds. I had to admit, having Eric along made the day a lot more fun.

We decided that one of my walls would be painted a dark blue to add contrast to the rest of the office. As Eric did that, I free handed the silhouette of birds flying on the wall next to it. Afterwards, I traced them in the same blue paint and filled them in. I had to admit, my office was starting to look really cool. The doors and desks in the building were already black, unless people had painted theirs or brought in new desks. It all looked relatively good.

"Okay. Marc, one of the guys off that Jersey Shore show, or that sparkly vampire actor," Eric said.

I groaned loudly. "I hate you. I'm going to go with..." I drifted off in thought. There was really no easy answer to this question. "Marc."

Eric looked horrified. "My God, seriously?" he demanded.

I blushed instantly. "Well, he doesn't fake bake and he doesn't sparkle," I defended quickly. "And I might not get herpies from him!"

Eric still had his nose scrunched up as he took a bite of his pizza. "That is disgusting, Shrimp."

"Come on! He's not going to sleep with a million women! At least I won't get diseases!" I desperately gushed out.

"He's married, too! What the hell is your problem?" he demanded.

I knew my whole face was red. "Nothing! He's just better than the other guys!"

"Jesus, you always had a thing for him! Your brother knew it, but I never believed him! Sick!" Eric continued in disgust.

"No, really-"

"Just save it, Shrimp. I can't stomach hearing anymore," he warned me.

I fell silent in defeat. There was no coming back from that one. As I slowly lifted up another piece of pizza, the cheese stretched out. I used my other hand to disconnect the pieces before beginning my dissection of the food.

Eric watched me as I picked off the meat before throwing it onto the pizza box. Eric quickly picked up the discarded pieces and dropped them into his mouth. I smiled a little. This was how it always ended up if we ate together. I'd pick the meat out of my meal and he would eat it. It worked well if we were at dinner with a group of people. He would sit beside me and just casually take my food off my plate. It was almost worked out to an art. The same thing went on in high school when I was with Marc at parties or BBQs.

There was a knock on my door. I frowned in confusion. "Come in," I called out.

The door slowly peaked open to reveal Max. I grinned up at him. "Hey," I greeted happily.

His eyes were stuck to Eric, though. "Hey," he responded slowly.

I glanced to Eric. "Max, this is my brother's best friend, Eric. He was helping me paint my office. Eric, this is Max, he works with me," I introduced.

Eric straightened up his posture. "Hey," he greeted lowly. It was hard to resist the urge to roll my eyes. The macho voice was coming out. The macho everything was coming forward. I'd seen this only too many times from any of the Staals or my brother when they met any guy I was dating or just friends with. It was like they wanted to be the only men in my life.

Eric stood up and stepped around me so he could shake Max's hand. Max's smile faded slightly as he looked up at Eric.

I quickly stood, too. Max hesitantly put out his hand to grasp Eric's. I could only imagine what was going through Eric's head. Already, from the look in his eyes, I could tell he didn't like Max.

"Um, Max works for the tech people. He really helped me out the other day," I quickly stammered out. Eric had to like the only friend I really had at my job. Well, he had to at least give the guy a chance.

Max glanced down at me before looking back up at Eric. "Yeah," he mumbled slowly.

Eric only nodded his head slightly. He was coming off as a hard ass to Max for sure. To me, I could tell this was just his routine.

Max glanced at me again. "I'm going to head out..." he began slowly to walk away from my office. "See you Monday," he finished before hurrying off.

As soon as my door was shut, I slapped Eric's arm as hard as I could. "Ow! What was that for?" he demanded.

"That was for being a prick!" I exclaimed.

He scoffed. "A prick? The guy didn't say a word, what was I supposed to say?" he demanded.

"I don't know, how's it going? What's up? Nice shirt, it's got my team on it?" I suggested.

He rolled his eyes. "I don't like him-"

"Oh really? I couldn't tell..."

"Shrimp..." he sighed out.

I glared at him. "Don't Shrimp me," I warned him.

He followed me back to our seats on the floor. "Come on, I just don't get the right vibes from him."

"Maybe it was because you were trying to be all threatening and macho," I suggested under my breath.

"Whatever. You'll get over it," Eric said calmly, messing up my hair with his hand.

I glared up at him. He shrugged. "You know by later tonight you won't care that I didn't try making friends with your little computer nerd friend," he stated. I continued to glare at him. He simply smiled at me. With out any warning, he brought a paintbrush across my face, painting half of my face a dark blue. I gaped at him in shock. Eric smiled widely. "You'll forgive me for that, too."

"Will not. You're being an asshole."

Eric smirked at me. "You'll forgive me. You always do."

"So what?" I muttered, knowing he was damned well right.

He chuckled. "Doesn't mean I can't change!" I quickly interrupted.

He smirked. "I'm sure you'll forgive me. You're too sweet to not."

"Gag me."

"Well, you know... No one else is here, so I'm sure we cou-"

"Eric!"