Episode 002 - Season One

Joey sat nervously inside of Jed's office as Jed slowly looked through his portfolio. Once he noticed that Jed was finished, Joey nearly jumped out of his seat. Jed looked over at Joey with a business-like expression.
"You have talent," Jed said. "But I'm worried about how much experience you have."
"Oh, um, I know that my work in porn doesn't really make me qualified, but I would really like to get more experience in print work."
"Okay, I will make you an offer: I need someone to work in my mailroom and if you take the position I can promise you will receive more interesting assignments."
"Oh, um, okay. That sounds like a deal."
Jed stood up and reach out to shake Joey's hand. "Welcome to Blade Magazine, Joey."
"Thank you, Mr. Langton."
"And you can call me Jed. Come, let me show you around."
They walked out of Jed's office. "Here you will find the staff's desks and over there is the conference room..."
Jed noticed Nick walking in their direction. "Hey, Nick. What are you doing here? I thought you worked better outside of an office atmosphere."
"You were the one who dared to give me a desk." Nick said.
Jed smiled. "I just thought a bit of professionalism should be in the works. Nick, I'd like you to meet Joey Dials. Joey will be working in the mailroom as well as taking photography assignments from time to time. Nick has been assigned as a columnist here."
Nick and Joey shook hands.
"Welcome, Joey."
"Thanks. I'm a fan of your work. Your first novel was great."
"Thank you. I came in to get something off my desk, so I should be going. It was nice to meet you, Joey."
Jed called after Nick: "Don't forget about the meeting in the morning."
Nick continued to his desk. Just as he sat down, his cellphone rang.
"Hello."
"Hey there!"
"Ben, what's going on?"
"I was wondering if you wanted to have a drink later on?"
Nick felt a familiar tingle in his chest somewhere. "Sure. How about Nexus about five-thrity?"
"Sounds good. I will see you then."
Nick turned off his phone and started to look through his desk for the research notes he left the other day.
"Hey, Nick."
Nick turned around to see Damien standing by his desk."
"Damien. Sneaking around again?"
"When are you going to stop being suspicious of me?"
"What do you want, Damien?"
"Just trying to be nice."
* * *
After Jed finished showing Joey around, he returned to his office where he sat down and dialed Steve's phone number. When Steve answered, Jed felt himself smiling. "Hello, handsome."
"Jed. Hey, how're you doing?"
"Better now. How's your day going?"
"Pretty good. And your's?"
"How about I tell you tonight during dinner?"
"I have an appointment at five, but it shouldn't run over twenty minutes. Where shall we meet?"
Jed wondered if the fluttery feeling in the pit of his stomach was butterflies...
* * *
Joey called Damien when he left the loft to tell him about Jed's offer.
"Joey, that's great news!! We've got to celebrate! How about Nexus, say, um, at six? My treat!"
"Thank you, Damien. I owe you one for this!"
"I told you, your life is about to get more interesting..."
* * *
Later on that afternoon, Nick and Ben met each other inside of Nexus. The bar was somewhat crowded with happy hour attendees drinking and bitching about their jobs. Nick walked to the bar to order drinks as Ben searched for a table for them to sit and chat. He found a booth near the back. He sat down and watched Nick. He felt something. He didn't know exactly what it was, but it made him excited. For awhile back, he had tried not to miss Nick after what happened and Nick left Port Wayne for New York. However, he found that he had to think about him in order to move on. Yet, Ben asked himself if he had really moved on. He looked up just as Nick walked up with their drinks and sat on the other side to face him.
"Thanks," Ben said.
"So, what's the reason for the sudden need to have drinks?"
"Just to see you again."
Nick smiled. "I should have left for New York long ago if I knew that it would bring this much attention my way."
"Stop being sarcastic. I am happy that you're back."
"Thanks. It's good to be back. I heard that you've been working hard at building your business up."
"Yeah, I took a number of risky deals that actually became quite the reputation builder."
"Good for you. You're a great architect, Ben. I've always thought that."
"Yeah, you were my biggest supporter."
"That's because I really believed in you."
Ben looked at Nick. Old feelings - or new ones? - had started to stir inside of him. "How about we work on giving ourselves another chance?" As soon as the question came out of him, he wished he could have taken it back to ask at a later time.
"Give us another try?"
"Yeah. I mean, why wouldn't we?"
"I guess we can leave things in the past. I'm not sure, exactly, Ben. I tell you what: let's just take things slow and see which direction we take ourselves in."
"I'd like that!" Ben said, moving his hand over to take hold of Nick's. Just then he looked up. It seemed as if the color drained from his face. "Damien..."
"Hi Ben. Hello Nick."
"Damien, hey. Oh, hi Joey."
"Hi Nick. Hey, Ben..."
Ben could barely get his words out. "Hi Joey..."