Simon sighed, he thought he would enjoy working from home. I mean, it was great at the start, but now it’s just repetitive and boring. He needed something to spice things up. 

The blond joined the IT meeting they had today, and listened to Josh ramble on and on about stuff he really didn’t care about. He scanned the crowd of tiny boxed faces and one stood out to him. There, in that tiny unassuming box, was the most gorgeous man Simon had ever laid eyes on. Flawless bronze skin decorated with a smattering of freckles, buzzed short brown hair and artfully trimmed stubble across a jawline to die for. There was a literal Greek God in Simon’s boring work zoom call. Simon had to squint a bit to see the name on the box. 

Markus. M 

Well, Markus. M, Simon thought, thank you for being the distraction I needed. 

Simon’s never seen this sculpture of a man before in any of his zoom calls, so he must be a transfer or from another department. Simon could literally spend all day ogling over this man but he didn’t want to seem like a creep, so he tried to focus on Josh’s presentation. 

Simon attended two more zoom meetings that week with the same man. 

Suddenly, his chat goes off. He opens the tiny box in the corner of his screen, reading the message. 

Markus. M: I like your pyramid of ducks. 

Simon was confused for a moment, but then had to do a double take when he saw the sender of the message. Holy shit. Simon quickly responded. 

Simon. A: Thank you, no one really appreciates an act of art these days. 

The blond watched Markus’s face as he red the message and almost died because of the smile that creeped on Markus’s mouth.

Markus. M: That’s true. I bet the ducks are more interesting than this meeting. 

Simon chuckled to himself as he red (read?) the message, he quickly responded.

Simon. A: Most definitely. Maybe we talk more about my ducks, not here though. 

The chuckle that Simon could see Markus producing was heavenly, he wished he could hear it for himself. 

Markus. M: Maybe. How about a dinner tomorrow night? Over Zoom of course, because no one can go outside right now. 

Simon must have red the message ten times over before he responded. 

Simon. A: That sounds great. 6pm work for you? I’ll send you an invite. 

He watched Markus’s beautiful face as he typed. 

Markus. M: Yeah, that sounds good. *He sends Simon his email* Just email the link to me.  

Luckily, Simon was able to copy and paste Markus’s email before the zoom call ended. He pasted it on a note. He could hear his cat, Jericho, meowing and scratching at his door. With a ecstatic smile beaming on his face, he gets up, walking over to the door, he opens it, walking out, he closes the door. “Come on, Rico.” Simon patted the Maine coon, he grabs some food for her, sitting the bowl down on the ground, he then sat down on the couch and watched TV. 

Next Night, 5:45pm

Simon pasted Markus’s email into his mail, he then sent the other male the link to the zoom call. Simon had just reheated some leftover pasta to eat, he was already in the zoom call.

Markus. M is connecting… 

Simon’s breath almost left him when Markus’s beautiful face popped up on his screen, he looks even better up close. 

“Hey!” Markus smiled, waving at the camera. 

“Hey!” Simon smiled back, waving at him. 

“Sorry about that. I was having a few issues with connection.” Markus said. 

“That’s fine.” Simon smiled again, “We all have some.” 

“That’s true.” Markus replied. “I hope you weren’t expecting me to have a glorious meal.” The Caucasian male lifted up a tub. It’s probably just a coincidence that he has food from my favorite place. That means he’s definitely local. 

“No,” he lifted up his tub of pasta. “I guess this is as glorious as it gets.” Simon chuckled softly. 

Markus smiled. “I guess so.”

Simon and Markus spent hours talking to each other about funny work incidents and tech bug outs. They decided to zoom again the next night.