Page 15 of Teddy Tea Time

“Isn’t it a penny, though?” Gerry asks before swiping a swig from the can of pop in my hand.

“Inflation, Littlest Bro,” Jackson replies with his own attempt to steal my drink from me. “And kids get the Huggies. Pop and beer is for the grownups.”

Handing my can over to Gerry, I chuckle when he sticks his tongue out at Jackson before running back to the sprinklers. Despite having lost his father last month, that kid has been a beacon of sunshine in my life.

“Being a big brother looks good on you,” Jackson says after grabbing another can of pop for me and a beer for himself. “But it’s weird seeing a little you all over again… except… not you. You never let loose like that, Baby Bear.”

“I’m happy he’s never had to learn the lessons we did,” I say under my breath as Gerry runs past with Toby hot on his heels.

“He is never gonna have to face the system,” Jackson promises before sitting on one of the picnic tables Eric rented for our neighborhood party. I take a seat on the bench next to him. “Justice already has his buddy who works in family law working on the papers needed so that we are next in line if… God fucking forbid… something were to happen to you.”

My emotions overwhelm me, but Jackson doesn’t make a big deal out of it. He just puts his arm across my shoulders and pulls me in to plant a kiss on my cheek. My big brother might be an immature goofball most of the time, but I have never, ever doubted his love for me. To know that love extends to Gerry without even needing to ask… God, I don’t deserve him.

Twenty minutes after Scott announces that all the food is ready, Ash drives past on his way home. He had a job interview today, which should not be happening on a holiday to begin with.

I ruffle Jackson’s hair – much to his annoyance – and make my way across the field towards the mobile home park so that I can find out how it went. Even when Ash is feeling masculine, he rarely erases all traces of femininity, but this morning was like seeing a stranger as he got into his car. It didn’t help that it was probably the only time I have ever seen him outside of his home without one of his pronoun pins visible.

The last thing I expect is for Ash to slam his door hard enough to send the driver’s side window sliding back down into the door on its own. The string of profanity that comes out of his mouth would be impressive if only he didn’t look like he wants to break everything in sight.

“Waste of fucking time,” he says as the energy appears to drain out of him.

I hate seeing my friend this upset, so I hold my arms open to him and hope he takes the comfort I am offering up. While I know he loves spending time with Gerry every day, Ash is so incredibly gifted when it comes to office work and organization. Any job that passes him up is fucking stupid.

He got the office at Mac’s actually looking like something other than a teenager’s bedroom during SAT prep. None of our vendors have needed to call about unpaid invoices for weeks, and updating the inventory to automatically update and order instead of writing it in a notebook that likes to wander has also helped us stay on top of what sells versus what doesn’t. Eli wants to hire him on for the office work full time; however, Ash won’t let him. He says now that it’s cleaned up, all of the office tasks will take at most six hours per week, including payroll, so there isn’t a reason to pay someone full time for it.

“I need to change out of this… torture device,” Ash mumbles into my chest after resting his head on my shoulder, and I wrap my arms around him. “Today is absolutely not a he-him day, but I couldn’t risk it. I need to work.”

I squeeze a little tighter until I feel Ash start to relax in my arms.

“Thanks, T.B. You should get back to the party. I’m just gonna go in and change and put on the she-her pin. I’m not exactly feeling like dressing up, but I’m done being a man today just because society likes it better that way.”

She pulls away from me with a small smile and starts towards the stairs to her backdoor. Right after she gets it unlocked, I call out to her.

“Girls can blow shit up, too, you know.”

It’s not much, but at least I got her to laugh.

14

ASH

The interview was a joke. I should have guessed it was going to be a waste when they scheduled it for the mother fucking Fourth of July, but I am starting to get desperate. Unemployment is a pain in the ass to fill out each week, and the proof of job seeking requirements are getting harder and harder to fill in. After applying to over one hundred jobs, I got a handful of phone interviews and then this single interview in person.

The first red flag was obviously that it was being held on a holiday

. The second red flag was it was not a one-on-one interview. It was a group interview… Still, not a complete deal breaker because some data entry jobs will have larger hiring groups for certain projects.

The third and largest glaring red flag – after having to sit through the whole corporate backstory spiel – was when they said those fucking words: “earnings are only limited by your own ambition”… also known as “this is a purely commission based position where you are responsible for selling off the inventory that I already purchased and you will get ten percent of the profit while I keep the rest” pyramid scheme.

The ads for these used to be a whole lot easier to spot on the sites that require wage and income to be listed. Now, companies aren’t posting those things, so scams that take advantage of the truly desperate like this are more difficult to avoid.

I am not selling fucking water vacuums!

The final straw was watching the owner of the business crack a joke disparaging women, saying the only reason they can sell the product is because they are the target users of the product. It was overt enough that the younger people – and oh God they were young – didn’t quite catch it. Myself and two older men caught it. Only one of them laughed.

I’ve never driven home so fast, nor so enraged, in my life. Thankfully, Jace was the first person I saw. He always seems to understand exactly what I am feeling even when I barely understand myself.

After putting on some ass hugging shorts and a cropped tank top, I add my pronoun pin and snag a ball cap from the hook in my closet. I really fucking wish I could just torch the Bible salesman suit, but I know I will need it for more interviews later… I hope.