Dirty Little Secret: Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 2: Who Else Has Secrets?

Getting to work that Monday was proving to be a headache. The traffic was crawling on the roads leading to the Secord Bridge. Ethan slumped against the steering wheel in boredom as he turned on the self driving mode. He was starting to get the impression of the wheel’s textured surface on his face when he leaned over and flicked on the radio, wanting to know if something was actually happening, or if the drivers were just particularly terrible today.

And he let out a sigh when he realised the announcer was giving a fight play-by-play. Captain Wrecking-Ball and the villain Unstoppable were battling it out on the bridge. Which was wonderful. With those two heavyweights duking it out he had his doubts the bridge would survive, let alone be cleared in a reasonable amount of time so he could get to work.

He could turn and try to use another bridge, but they’d probably be just as crowded. Plus, his car was pretty trapped right now. Unless he drove onto the sidewalk it wasn’t getting anywhere anytime soon. So he told it to drive home safely, and crawled out the passenger seat. He grabbed his briefcase and started walking towards the nearest subway line.

He didn’t like the subway much, it got way too hot in summer and was rather cold in winter, but in autumn? It was… tolerable.

Massively over-crowded right now, though. Since it seemed almost everyone had had the same idea as him on how to get across to the business district on Moose Island. He had to let three trains go past before finally getting on. Then missed his station due to the struggle to get back off of the train.

All in all it left him arriving at work severely late. The security guard gave him a judgemental stare until he shrugged and pointed out he normally took the Secord Bridge. The man grumbled quietly while Ethan waited for his elevator.

He tried to hurry quietly to his desk, only to discover the director of the department was present, giving a speech. There was a woman behind him who looked vaguely familiar, though Ethan couldn’t place her.

“Mr. Quinten, nice of you to join us,” the director said.

“S-sorry. Sorry, I was too stubborn about detouring around the fight on Secord Bridge,” he muttered as he slipped over to his desk.

“Ah! Just what I’ve been talking about! We as a company have the same problem you had this morning: we’re always reacting to supers. We need to be proactive!” the director started to say, before sliding into even more vague corporate speak that showed the fact the man was a trained executive and had no idea what the department employees actually did.

Sure, Ethan’s office didn’t actually handle the modelling to try to figure out the most likely next villain targets, but he paid enough attention to know they had a pretty good record at this point. X-Tech had been benefiting nicely, and was actually showing profits again… after the whole bit where the founder, Xavier Xenos, had turned out to be a supervillain and tried to take over the country with mind control devices in the routers the company made (and was banned from producing for the next twenty years… just in case).

The department director definitely didn’t care, though. Like most of the post-Xenos executives, he was probably going to bounce to another company in a year or two, with a few million bucks of ‘severance’ pay. Or whatever they were calling their golden parachutes these days.

What Ethan did know was that this little rambling ego trip from the director was eating into his work hours, and they still hadn’t worked out all the kinks from the repairs after the Mole King’s attack.

“And so that’s why we need fresh blood, like Miss Xiang here, to help propel the company into the future,” the director said, finally acknowledging the woman behind him. “I trust you’ll all make her feel welcome as your new supervisor.”

Ethan blinked, staring up at the woman, who gave a quick hello, while politely reminding the director that she was Doctor Xiang. The man apologised, before slipping away, to… well, Ethan didn’t care.

What he cared about was having a female supervisor. A woman with long term authority over him. The one other situation he still wasn’t good with… he was closer to being able to handle it than with romantic matters, but still… he could have used some warning.

He tried his best to look busy, while his eyes kept drifting over to see Dr. Xiang checking on each employee’s current projects. He constantly pulled his eyes back to his screen, only to find them looking at a now closer Dr. Xiang every few moments.

Then, finally (and, also, too soon), she was at his desk.

“Hello, Mr. Quinten,” she said, leaning in too close to him as she looked at his screen.

He felt trapped as her voice slipped to a whisper.

“I wasn’t expecting to meet someone I share a secret with this morning…” she said.

He blinked, turning to her. And then it clicked. Where he recognised her from.

The client in the club, with the shift-collar. The eyes were identical. The overall bone structure was basically the same. Really, it was embarrassing he hadn’t realised it earlier.

“I just want to check, though, you aren’t one of those types of customers, are you?” she whispered. “Who go to clubs like that because they can’t stand women in any part of their life?”

“I—“ he stammered.

She stared at him, with disapproval in her eyes. Which caused him to freeze worse.

“Uh, M—Dr. Xiang, you might want to give Ethan a bit more space,” another female voice said softly.

Dr. Xiang stood up, turning to the mousy blonde with a raised eyebrow.

“He… his mother… well, he doesn’t talk about it much, but she…” Jenny said. She was the blonde woman the closest thing Ethan had to an actual female friend. Or, well, maybe he could count her as an honest ‘sort of’ friend. A ‘work friend’. “He’s gotten a lot better, but he still needs some space. Especially since you’re his boss.”

“Oh,” Dr. Xiang said, her own voice softer and kinder now as she turned to Ethan. “I’m sorry. The dossiers I was given didn’t say anything about that.”

Ethan forced a smile. One that slowly became more natural as his new boss backed away.

-

The rest of the day proved less horrible than Ethan had braced for. Dr. Xiang kept her distance, and sent him an email stating he could keep correspondence digital if it made him more comfortable.

She felt too kind, in his opinion. Which had him on edge. He remembered his mother’s two faced nature around friends and family. Even if he told himself it wasn’t fair to Dr. Xiang. He kept repeating the things his therapist had told him, but it never seemed to quite work.

It was why his therapist wondered if Ethan’s mother had done something specific to him. The dangers of an abusive parent who was also a mad scientist. His mother had the know-how to have inflicted purposeful psychological scarring. Programming fears into him for her own ends.

At least work only lasted so long, and it was soon time to head home. Which begged an important question, prompting Ethan to pull up a news article about the condition of the Secord Bridge. If it was open, then maybe he should call for his car and then wait for it…

Unfortunately, as we watched the video attached to the article, he was left wincing at what he saw. The hulking form of Unstoppable, barely registering as human with his impossibly muscular build, threw Captain Wrecking-Ball into one of the main support towers of the bridge.

“Oooh,” one of the news anchors said in response, “I don’t care if you’re called the Titanium Titan or not, that has got to hurt.”

“Mhm, looks like it did serious damage to the bridge too,” the other anchor added. “Good to see Captain Wrecking Ball getting back to his feet, though…”

“Ooh, a good reply punch by the Cap’ into Unstoppable’s gut,” the first anchor said.

“You know, though. That tagline of Titanium Titan has always bothered me,” the second anchor replied.

“Not this again.”

“I’m just saying ‘titanium’ already comes from the word ‘titan’. It feels redundant to—”

Ethan shut the volume off, watching a bit more of the fight as he scrolled through the text portion of the article. It was amazing to think that Captain Wrecking Ball was over two metres tall and built like a tank with how small he looked next to the brutish supervillain he was up against.

In the end Captain Wrecking Ball emerged triumphant, but not without taking a serious beating in the process. He was smaller, but had obviously studied actual martial arts, whereas Unstoppable relied on pure strength. Still, he needed patching up from Dr. Medic at the end.

The news article confirmed the bridge would be shut for at least a week for inspection and repairs.

Ethan decided to request work-from-home permission for the rest of the week.

He maybe got a bit too focused on wording the email politely, however. He hadn’t wanted to risk making Dr. Xiang’s impression of him any worse. Since that risked her taking a proper disliking to him, and him having to suffer the results.

“Everyone else has gone home. Are you planning to stay late?” she asked, just as he was hitting ‘send’.

Ethan, in a completely reasonable response, jumped out of his skin and somehow managed to almost knock his chair over.

“Sorry,” Dr. Xiang said with a wince. “I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”

“I—It’s fine. Fine!” he blurted, glad she was at least keeping her distance.

“Ok. I was wondering, though, if we could talk in a non-work situation?” she asked.

“Uh… another time, maybe? I should really get going. Very sorry,” he replied, hopping to his feet, and taking comfort in the fact he was taller than her.

“Ah—sure. Another time,” she said, stepping out of the way to give him plenty of space to scurry out of the room with roughly the same dignity as a cat that had just rolled off of a table.

He didn’t really calm down again until he was in the subway, waiting for a train home. Riding along, he slowly came to a clear conclusion: he needed to visit ‘Julie’ again. Even if it had only been a few days, he needed someone to talk to. And hug.

Ok, more than hug.

But, there would be a hug in there at some point. Probably a few. Just, mixed with other physical contact that helped replace the stress neuro-chemicals awash in his brain with… nicer ones. Serotonin, right?

So, he stayed on the subway a few extra stops, before grabbing a small automated bus out to the lower density back corner where Dirty Little Secrets was. It was still a bit early, but they were open. If ‘Julie’ wasn’t in yet, he could probably grab food nearby. There were some cheap diners around.

Walking over, Ethan saw there were enough cars around that he probably wasn’t the first customer of the night. That made him feel a bit less desperate.

The waitress at the front happily led him over to the front desk, where a cheerful petite ‘woman’ was seated, smiling up at him.

“Hello Mr. Quinten,” ‘she’ said with a grin.

“Hey. Is ‘Julie’ free tonight?” he asked.

“One sec,” the bubbly receptionist replied, checking the screen. “Oh. No… no… ‘she’ had a bit of an issue at ‘her’ day job. She’s probably going to be off for a few days, actually…”

“Oh,” Ethan replied softly.

He had been hoping to talk with ‘Julie’. With someone who already knew his situation.

“We have some similar ‘girls’ available tonight, though. You like redheads, right?” the receptionist asked.

He was about to say no, that he didn’t really need the other part of the club’s services, but… well, he was full of stress and already here. Plus, ‘Julie’ had other clients, so it wasn’t like he’d be betraying ‘her’ or anything. So…

“Petite ‘girls’, actually,” he replied. “I like the height difference.”

“Oh! That’s great, actually! We just got a new ‘girl’ who could use your gentle touch,” the receptionist replied. “Cute little blonde. Still pretty nervous.”

The receptionist turned the screen to show him. The blonde was indeed very cute. A modest figure. Excessively cute clothing, but a lot of ‘girls’ at the club seemed to start that way.

“Sure, I’d be happy to help show ‘her’ the ropes a little,” he replied.

The waitress then led Ethan over to the waiting area for the ‘girls’, calling the new blonde over. ‘She’ pulled him along to one of the private rooms, a determination in those bright blue eyes.

“So,” ‘she’ said, “I’m ‘Mia’! I… did they tell you that already?”

“Uh, it was on the screen when they showed me at the front desk,” Ethan replied.

“Right. Right…” ‘Mia’ muttered. “Um… Sorry. I’m still new to this… uh… did you want to have a meal first, or just… y’know. Jump straight to the main event?”

“The main event sounds good to me,” Ethan said, pulling off his tie.

He was surprised at just how much ‘Mia’ blushed as he started to unbutton his shirt.

“Oh, dang. You’re actually in pretty good shape,” ‘she’ mumbled.

“Ah, thanks. I try to keep fit. Lots of jogging,” he replied.

It was mostly to be ready to escape from his mother (or other supervillains) if he needed to, but… it did have advantages for other things.

‘Mia’ nodded furiously, while also undressing. “S-sorry. I’m still getting used to accepting I’m actually gay.”

Ethan turned to stare at ‘her’.

“Oh! I mean… straight? Right. Be in character. Need to remember—girl. I’m supposed to—I am… er,” the petite blonde stammered.

“Maybe try ‘attracted to guys’?” Ethan offered.

“Ooh! Yeah! That works! I only recently figured out I’m really attracted to guys,” ‘Mia’ said, nodding.

‘She’ turned into a blushing mess as they continued, however. Enthusiastic, but a mess about any physical contact.

“If you’re not comfortable we should stop,” Ethan offered, pausing his efforts.

“It’s not… it’s not bad. Just… weird feeling,” ‘Mia’ mumbled.

Ethan nodded, and continued. ‘Mia’ wasn’t doing much, but, hey. Neither did ‘Julie’. Lots of the ‘girls’ here were somewhat on the… passive side. Which Ethan did not mind.