Tempting (Man x Man)

Tempting - Chapter 23: Blind Date

Riding the bus in the middle of the night is not the brightest idea, but its all I can afford right

now. The monstrous cloud of anxiety that clutters around my head does not compare to the

small gaping hole of hope in my heart. That's the most scariest part. Me playing into this to

then be humiliated minutes later. I take a huge breath, balancing myself. I should just get this day

over with.

The bus pulls up to the side of the darkened side walk, the only light brightening up the street

artificial. I walk out, and experience the night clubs around me like a fever dream.

Shines of red and neon orange overpower the artificial lights above, but only one club

out showed the rest.

"That's it." I mutter under my breath. I walk towards the artsy club that Elizabeth's supposed to

be at.

Once I open the doors, through the cluster of dark silhouettes on the dance floor and people

sipping drinks at the bartender bar, I see Elizabeth laughing with Coldren at a booth.

I timidly walk over to it, not knowing how to greet them.

"Calvin! You made it! Its kind of early so not everyone has arrived." She stands up from the booth

and gives me a slight hug. Even Coldren nods his head my way.

"Come on! Get comfortable!" She pulls me onto the pucker emerald seat, leaving us facing

Coldren.

"We were just talking about how much better this place is then the other club we went to."

"The only reason you thought the other club was bad was because someone threw up on you."

Coldren snorts.

"Well yeah, that's one of the reasons."

"This place is too expensive, the other one is way better."

"Oh you think everything's 'too' expensive." She giggles as he sticks out his tongue. I've never

seen Coldren so playful, probably because we haven't known each other long enough for him

not to despise me.

"Anyway, Calvin, have you heard what happened on the news lately?" Elizabeth asks as I shake

my head no.

"Really? But it was such a big thing!"

"Don't worry about her Calvin, she gets like this with any type of news. Oh! Big firefighter saved a hanging kitten from the treeee? Elizabeth would legit be talking about it for days." Coldren

smirks as Elizabeth's cheeks become rosy. I also crack a smile.

"Nooo I don't. Stop it Coldren. Anyway, what had happened-"

"Here we go again."

"Shut up! What had happened is that some Cyber criminal in the UK had launched out a DDOS attack over the internet and crashed a big company's servers. I think they were called Patterson INC. They still aren't able to find who did it, but they had found a string of other companies he has done this to too, and he isn't stopping at this last one."

"Elizabeth, I keep telling you our company's going to be fine. No nerd is going to launch a DDOS so big that it can take down our servers."

"But if he was able to do it with P Inc, imagine what he could do to us. Their servers have been down for a week now and they still don't know when it'll be up again. I don't want to lose this job."

"I'm pretty sure you won't lose this job. And if you do, I'll take care of you, like the big burely

man I am." Coldren jokes as he flexes his arms, Elizabeth throwing salt over the table at him.

"Not funny." She says, but she still cracks a smile. Then her eyes drift back to mine and I see an

idea bright as day shine behind her honey irises.

"Calvin! Oh my god I forgot to ask you! What's your story?"

"What?"

"You know, your story. Like what you did to be where you are now."

"W-well, its not that interesting..."

"Hey, everyone's story's interesting."

"Come on girl, give the man a break." Coldren snorts as Elizabeth pouts.

"I just want to know more about him."

I swallow hastily as both eyes become fixated on me. I rub the back of my neck, a flush coloring

my cheeks crimson.

"I... uh... where should I start?"

"Anywhere! Oh wait, no, no. How about high school?" I cough on air as Elizabeth says the words 'high school'.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh me?" My voice elevates a octave up as I squeeze my hands in my lap.

"Never been better. I just don't remember a lot from... back then."

"Oh yeah, I completely understand. I don't even remember my first love from high school even though I used to talk about him ALL the time. Like seriously, I am so embarrassed from how obsessed I was back then."

"Oh, I remember my first love alright." Coldren interjects.

"Really? Ooh spill it." She claps her hands in front of her to coax him further. He rolls his eyes, but you can still see the playfulness behind them.