Love Thru Chat

Previously on Love Thru Chat

Lance's hug tightened and he placed a deep kiss on Bill's lips. As the kiss was broken, Lance smiled as he noticed Bill's eyes droop half-shut.

"Hey. Let's go to sleep. You have an interview to ace tomorrow, and it doesn't take a genius to see that this has taken a lot out of you."

Bill nodded and curled up behind Lance, smiling lightly as Lance snuggled closer, letting Bill spoon him and place an arm aross his chest. Both boys were asleep before the covers had even fully warmed them up.

Chapter 19: First Impressions...

Lance woke up the next morning and smiled as his groggy mind registered the smells of coffee and cooking breakfast. Lance got out of bed and into the bathroom to shower and dress, then he walked downstairs to find Bill in the kitchen, cooking up a storm. Bill smiled as he saw Lance walk into the kitchen and open the cabinet and grab out five plates and take them out to the table and set them. Bill finished up the last few items and began to shuttle the food out to the table, leaning over to hug and peck a kiss on Lance's cheek as he placed the last of the dishes on the table. Lance smiled and went into the kitchen to get utensils for breakfast as Bill grabbed the last of the condiments and headed out to the table. As he set the last of the breakfast items out, he smiled as he heard three door slam upstairs and a thundering sound as the rest of the guys in the house made their way quickly down to the dining room.

Bill looked up and smiled as he saw Justin holding hands with JC as he entered in directly behind him.

Chris and Joey followed immediately behind JC and Justin and all four sat down at the table and waited for Lance to sit down as well, pouring out milk and orange juice for themselves. Lance finally came out of the kitchen bearing 5 sets of linen napkins and utensils. As Lance handed out the assorted forks and spoons and knives, Bill reached over and grabbed the lids off the covered dishes, exposing their contents.

"Buttermilk pancakes with homemade berry compote and warm maple syrup as well as sausage links and toast."

Joey groaned, "You're too good to us."

Lance giggled, "Yeah....but I can live with this kinda stuff."

The guys grinned and began to serve themselves as Bill pulled off his apron and headed up to the bathroom to shower and get dressed for his interview.

Thirty minutes later, Bill re-emerged from the bedroom and went into the kitchen, smiling as he watched the five guys fumbling around trying to clean up after breakfast.

"Well...how do I look?"

Lance turned around and gasped, which caused the others to turn quickly to see what that was all about, and they jerked back in shock as well.

"Wow!", Lance said under his breath.

"I second that emotion" JC said huskily as he beheld his friend dressed in a fashionable Armani suit, his blond hair a combination of spiked and combed.

"Uh-huh...Yummy!", Justin quipped up quietly.

"Well." Bill grinned as he looked past the three gawking guys and saw Joey and Chris nod vigorously and give him the thumb-up. "I got the straight guys votes...and it looks like my "homo homies" have been struck dumb. I'll consider that a good thing."

Chris laughed, "Struck dumb?...they've been dumb all their lives...this isn't that much of a change."

A half-eaten syrupy pancake landed with a smack on Chris's face a second later, effectively silencing him and causing Bill to snicker as he headed out of the kitchen and into the living room.

Twenty minutes later, the group re-assembled in the living room and then proceeded to split into two groups, taking two vehicles to the Jive offices in Orlando.

Bill waited nervously outside the office with the guys until the receptionist waived him inside.

"Good Morning Bill!", a dark haired man called out, standing up and approaching as Bill entered the spacious office. "My name is John and I've heard some pretty great things about you."

Bill smiled, "Good morning! I am glad you could take some time out to interview me while I visited this week, especially as I am sure this is such short notice."

"No inconvenience at all, let me assure you, we're always looking out for talented people, and it's nice to have one recommended so highly by those guys out there."

Bill blushed slightly and shook John's hand.

"Let's get down to the interview, shall we? I see you brought your portfolio, excellent."

The guys waited outside nervously, pacing back and forth in front of the receptionist's desk as she watched them closely.

"OK...Fellows...GUYS!", the receptionist called out, standing up from behind her desk, "Why don't you go do something for a while. These interviews can last over an hour, as they are going to go over all his qualifications and portfolio and all, just go do something...outside...err...or at least outside this office...before you drive me nuts with your pacing and worrying and force me to throw you all out."

Justin and JC grinned and shrugged as he and Joey and Chris walked towards out the door to the hallway. JC turned back and saw Lance sitting back down and opening a magazine and grinned, "Lance...you gonna wait here?"

Lance nodded and then proceeded to begin to read quietly.

True to the receptionist's words, an hour and a half later, the door opened up and Bill and John came out smiling.

"Ok. What I'll do is secure you an office and a computer in this building and when you get here we can take a look at what kind of laptop you have and see if we need to get you a new one or upgrade what you have. I think this position we've worked out will be a great new challenge for you and enable you to advance far beyond what you're doing now. Welcome aboard the team Bill!"

Bill grinned and shook John's hand firmly as he thanked him again, then he walked over to where Lance was sitting.

"So you did it?" Lance grinned, "We knew you would!"

"I've got a TON of work to do now. I've got to decide on one of those two places and get packed to move down here."

Lance grinned and got up, hugging Bill tightly to him.

"Congratulations! What kinda work will you be doing?"

Bill grinned, "Well...I'll be working on some little stuff for Jive as an artist, like CD single designs and some promotional pieces..."

Lance frowned, "Is that it? I figured they'd give you some more to do."

Bill laughed, "They did. It looks like I'll be going on tour with some of the bigger Jive acts to do a "on the road" journal for them. It seems that some people I know mentioned my writing to John and he decided to capitalize on that."

Lance's face broke out into a huge grin, "AWESOME!"

Lance and Bill caught up with the rest of the guys just outside the office and they all cheered as Bill told them the good news. The guys split up again and decided to head out to lunch at the local mall.

As they sat down in the restaurant, Lance sat beside Bill and grinned, "So...do you know which place you're gonna move into?"

Bill smiled as Justin leaned forward in expectation. "I think if I am gonna be in and out of it because of work, I'd much rather have the warehouse apartment, since it has no yard upkeep or anything."

Justin grinned, and smiled, "YES! I loved that place!"

Bill laughed and looked over to Lance and smiled, grabbing his hand under the table and giving it a light squeeze.

After lunch Bill called up the landlord and confirmed that he would take it, and then asked to see it once more to measure for blinds and that kind of stuff. Lance, JC and Justin all went along in one car to look at it while Joey and Chris opted to stay at the mall and play some games for a while. Bill stood in the apartment taking measurements of the many windows while JC and Justin talked furniture and decor that they knew that would fit in perfectly in the apartment. Lance giggled and he shook his head as he watched JC and Justin walk off to another room as he held the notepad and wrote down the measurements that Bill had just taken.

"Those two are like Martha Stewart on drugs." Lance snickered.

Bill rolled his eyes, "Well....I have about half the stuff I need to furnish this place. I'll have to go out and get a bed for the 3rd guest room. I have one for my room and one for the other room already. I also am gonna need to invest in some living room furniture, otherwise we'll be sitting in some chairs or on the floor."

Lance scribbled a few more measurements down as well as some notes to himself on a separate piece of paper, then waited as Bill looked once more around the apartment for anything he had missed.

JC and Justin walked into the living room area where Lance and Bill stood and smiled, "This place is so awesome! we can't wait til you move in! We'll all come and hang out!"

Bill thanked the landlord and then filled out the paperwork on the apartment, then wrote a check for the deposit and pro-rated first month's rent.

Lance and the rest of the guys were so keyed up that they were positively bouncing on the way back to Justin's house and their excitement was infectous, causing Bill to grin almost the whole way back.

As they filed into the house, Bill yawned and stretched.

"I am gonna go get changed and take a little nap. I think that interview took more out of me than I realized."

Lance nodded and said he'd come up and check on Bill in a bit as Bill climbed the stairs and made his way to the room that he and Lance had shared.

Lance watched and waited for the door to close before he looked at JC and Justin.

"Awesome! So which room did you want to decorate?"

JC grinned, "The second bedroom and bathroom is mine. I totally have that all planned out. Justin said he wanted to do the dining room"

Justin nodded and smiled, "I know the perfect place....I was there with my mom about a month ago."

Lance grinned, "I am gonna do the living room. I have all the measurements for the windows for the place so we don't forget to pick out window blinds and curtains to go along with our furniture choices. This is gonna be great! Bill has been so awesome to us...and he's gonna be so busy trying to get moved here and then with his new job that this will totally be a weight off his shoulders."

Joey and Chris bounded into the room a minute later and smiled as Lance quietly told them of their plan so far.

"Cool! Chris and I can do the kitchen and that room he said would make a good library/study/computer room."

The guys all grinned and quietly slipped out of the house and back to the mall to look around at the furniture stores there.

Three hours later, they returned with a pretty complete plan of action as well as a list of stuff they just bought or had planned to purchase in the next week.

Lance walked up to the bedroom and smiled as he opened the door and saw Bill laying on his side on the bed. Lance walked over and sat down beside him and shook his shoulder to wake him up.

"Hey sleepyhead.", Lance grinned as Bill's one eye opened halfway, "We let you sleep for three hours...are you ready to get up?"

Bill nodded and scratched his head and he got up and walked into the bathroom, stripping off his clothes and stepping into the shower. Five minutes later, Bill walked out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist as he headed towards his suitcase, grabbing a fresh pair of underwear, a shirt, and socks then setting them down on the bed beside Lance.

"So what kind of mischief did you guys get up to while I slept?" Bill asked as he pulled the towel off his waist and used it to dry his chest and arms before putting his t-shirt on.

Lance was about to answer when he saw Bill pull the towel off, exposing his naked body entirely. Lance's jaw dropped and he gawked for a second and then blushed and demurely turned his head as Bill finished putting his t-shirt on.

"Umm....we...ahhh...didn't do anything...just hung around for you to wake up...you know...we, *cough* we just hung....*COUGH* I mean....we just waited around."

Bill looked down at Lance's scarlet face and realized instantly that Lance must be nervous about seeing him naked."

"Oops..." Bill chuckled, "Sorry about the free show there Lance."

Lance's scarlet coloring deepened as he watched out of the side of his eye as Bill grabbed his underwear and begin to put it on.

"Last call if you wanna inspect the goods there Lance." Bill chuckled as he raised the underwear up above his knees. Lance's blush had taken on a color resembling burgundy as he quickly jerked his head to the one side and took in the sight of Bill's exposed midsection and then just as quickly turned back.

"Dude...we're both guys. Don't be embarassed by that. I am sure you have one of everything I have...er...at least I hope you do."

Lance giggled and turned to face Bill, his blush beginning to fade to normal levels.

"I do....but I never really looked at anyone else's equipment before... well...on purpose...and knowing what I know now about myself."

Bill smiled, "Really? Well...I didn't know that. I really didn't mean to embarass you. I hope it was a good show."

Bill walked into the bathroom to put on deoderant and Lance exhaled loudly and whispered to himself, "Oh yeah! That show was a blockbuster...that's for sure...Jeez...I think I have to go check my undershorts now."

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