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“I'm heading out now, Dan,” Jamie, his assistant, called. “See you tomorrow!”
“Bye! Drive safe!” Dan heard the door click. As the manager of a small designer clothing store, Dan often had to work late hours. He hated it; the mannequins stared at him, the fabric blew around from an unknown source, and sometimes whispers could be heard throughout the building. Well, they were just the hushed voices from the answering machine, but still, Dan was terrified. He looked around nervously before going back to folding the new stock of dresses the new intern designed a couple of months ago.
All was going well, until something skittered across the floor, right in front of Dan. Dan yelped in surprise, and was ready to bolt out the door when he realized that the noise was just a mouse running across the floor. He watched the mouse stare him with beady eyes, until it retreated to wreak havoc somewhere else, probably to the storage room. Dan chuckled to himself.
“Stupid,” he muttered, “You need to get those mouse traps up and running.”
He continued to fold clothes, thoughts of mouse traps and seeing his husband later running through his mind: fold left, fold right, bottom up, top down, fold left, Phil, bottom up, top down, husband, fold right, a coffee date -
Dan shook his head to clear his mind. He was still buzzing with excitement. Dan and his boyfr - husband had just been married, not even two months ago. It was a wonderful wedding, with designer suits, a huge cake, string lights; even the new intern showed up, and she cried too. Well, everyone cried, but that was besides the point.
Dan’s spirits were lifted after thinking of his dream-like wedding with the man he had wanted to marry for ages. He looked at the clock; just one more hour until he could see his Phil. Out of the corner of his eye, a mannequin moved. Okay, maybe ten minutes.
Dropping everything he was doing, Dan bolted to the main lobby, where the telephone and answering machine was. His fingers shook as he dialed in the number he knew so well. One ring, two rings, three -
“Hello?” a familiar voice chirped into the receiving end.
“Phil? Phil, please, I'm scared, help,” Dan panted into the phone. “IsawamannequinmoveandI’msoscaredandyou’retheonewhodroppedmeoffpleasecomerightawayyourhusbandisinneedhe - “
“Dan, I can’t understand a word you're saying, but I'm on my way,” Phil promptly hung up, leaving Dan alone in a dark business building. Dan sat down behind the front desk and grabbed a nearby roll of fabric, ready to slap the life out of any supernatural being that had possessed his mannequin. He sat there for a good twenty minutes, until he could see a familiar car pull up in front of the building. Dan watched in anticipation as Phil stepped out and entered the building.
“Phil!” Dan called, and bounded towards his husband, “My knight in shining armour, you saved me!”
Phil huffed in surprise as Dan collapsed dramatically into his arms.
“Is this a joke? Cause you better not have made me drive all this way just for you to fall into my arms like this.”
Dan looked up at his “knight in shining armour.” “Actually, yeah a mannequin moved and I was scared, but now that you're here, it's okay! I don’t want to stay here for another hour, so let's leave, but I have to shut down.”
Phil rolled his eyes. “You're insufferable.”
“And you love me,” Dan called back as he shut down the main lights from the control panel near the bathrooms.
“Touché,” Phil replied, and sat against a desk to watch his dorky husband run around doing maintenance checks.
Dan walked over, jingling a set of building keys in his hands. “All done!”
They walked out of the building, hand in hand. Phil stopped abruptly and turned to Dan.
“What about the mannequin? Didn't you say the building had a pest control issue?” Phil asked. “Maybe a mouse ran into the mannequin or something.”
Dan pondered for a second. “Yeah, you're probably right. I'll call Jamie and get her to set up an appointment with pest control. You should have been there when the mannequin moved though! I almost had a stroke.”
Phil laughed at his silly, slightly problematic husband. Dan pulled his phone out, clicked a few words in for his assistant to read later, and looked up at Phil.
“You know, I've had a coffee date on my mind for a while,” Dan smiled cheekily.
Phil grinned at Dan while intertwining their hands. “Me too.”