Boyfriend Material

by Jerry Cole

“We talked,” Jason replied. “Don’t worry, you didn’t reveal any embarrassing secrets, though I pushed. Oh, trust me, I pushed.”

  Jason winked at him and Taylor felt his cheeks reddening. “What did we talk about?”

  “Life,” Jason said. “Philosophy. Bad science. You kept trying to impress me with your knowledge of astrology.”

  “Shit,” Taylor replied, rubbing his temple and laughing softly. He grabbed the bottle of pills and untwisted the cap, not without difficulty. He popped three in his mouth, washed them down with the coffee, then handed them to Jason, who was eyeing them. “So basically, I made a fool out of myself.”

  “A little, but it was really cute,” Jason said. “You kept trying all these different tactics to impress me. Then you sobered up a bit, but not really enough to send you home by yourself, so I asked you if you wanted to crash at my place. And by the way, it’s worrying that I’m the one that went out partying and you’re the one that can’t remember the night.”

  “If you remember going out to the club, you’re not pre-gaming right,” Taylor said, rolling his eyes. “Thank you, though, really.”

  “It’s okay,” Jason said, shrugging and putting an arm around Taylor. Taylor could feel his heart start to beat faster than before. He was already nervous, but he hadn’t realized just how nervous he was until Jason was touching him. “Then we got here, I let you sleep in my bed. Seemed a bit wrong to let you sleep on the almost-dead man couch.”

  “Is that what you’re calling it?” Taylor said. “That’s a terrible name.”

  Jason laughed, playfully nudging him with his shoulder. “That’s not what I meant. I just… I don’t know.”

  “You didn’t want to trigger me? That’s sweet,” Taylor said, kissing Jason on the cheek. He didn’t want to kiss him on the lips again, not until after their date. Because he wasn’t sure he could hold off if a kiss like that happened again. He knew that it had to go further and he wasn’t sure how much further he could let it go before he proved to Jason that he was serious.

  “You’re so nice to me,” Taylor said. “You put yourself in harm’s way to protect me.”

  “No, I didn’t,” Jason said, rolling his eyes. “You’re really dramatic for a straight man.”

  “Maybe my flair knows more about me than I do,” Taylor mumbled.

  Jason laughed at that, uproariously, as though Taylor had just told him the wittiest, most interesting joke in the world.

  “You’re so adorable, oh my God,” Jason said. “Seriously.”

  “Uh, thanks?”

  “I mean that in the best of ways,” Jason replied, a smile still on his face. “You’re pretty wonderful.”

  “Hopefully you’ll think that after we go out, too,” Taylor replied. “I have something in mind, but I don’t know that much about you. Except that you don’t eat Italian food like some sort of freak. Who doesn’t eat Italian food?”

  “Well, honey, if you play your cards right,” Jason said. “Your boyfriend doesn’t.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Taylor’s heartbeat quickened every time he thought about the words that Jason had said. Or rather, the one word that Jason had said.

  Boyfriend.

  He wanted the word to come out of Jason’s mouth again, except without an “if” anywhere in the same sentence. He had managed to get Jason to give him a second chance, which he was as surprised as he was amazed about. Friday night hadn’t turned out the way he had expected it to, but it had been better. It had started with a boring football social, with several sorority and fraternity members in attendance. Taylor had to go, he wasn’t allowed to miss any of the social events that the football team was supposed to be there for. He had stayed in a corner while people handed him beers or — something else, whatever it was. Taylor wasn’t sure. But he knew that he was supposed to take them and smile. He just wished he had gone home earlier.

  He had been thinking about calling Jason all night long. He had said that he didn’t feel well to the pretty redhead with the hoop earrings that kept trying to talk to him and then he had walked home, trying to form a way to coherently and convincingly tell Jason that he had told his father about the two of them. Not that there was anything to tell his father.

  He knew that, it was just hard for him to wrap his head around. So when he had gone home, he had taken out the six-pack that had remained untouched in his mini-fridge for months and basically pounded it. Loads of thoughts were going through his head as he got drunk, by himself, in the brightly colored room.

  But they mostly all boiled down to one thing: Jason.

  He had to call him. He just did, there was no way to get around it. He would beg for his forgiveness if it was necessary, but he needed to take him out.

  And that had worked.

  The problem with his plan was that he hadn’t really expected it to. He hadn’t thought things through well enough and now he only had a few hours to plan the perfect date for them. He still felt and probably looked like shit, and trying to sneak back into his place hadn’t worked that well.

  Elliot had been in the living room, doing something noisy — hanging a painting or something, which Taylor thought was weird, but didn’t pay that much attention too — and he had turned to look at Taylor, raised his eyebrows and asked him if he had a fun night.

  Taylor shrugged. He wasn’t sure what the answer to that was supposed to be. He didn’t really spend that much time making conversation with Elliot, closing and locking his bedroom door after him and taking off his clothes to go in the shower. He hadn’t realized how much he needed it until he was standing under the warm water, letting it hit off his shoulders and his back.

  As he closed his eyes and let his mind go blank, the most incredible thought occurred to him. He knew exactly what they should do for their date tonight.

  ***

  Taylor tried to get out of the house quietly. Elliot normally went out on Saturday, and he always invited Taylor along, but Taylor had declined so much that Elliot stopped inviting him to come along with him.

  “Oh, you look nice,” Elliot said. Of course he was still going to be there on that particular Saturday. Taylor wasn’t sure why, but he was trying to avoid Elliot lately. He thought it might have something to do with his advice when he had first come to Elliot about Jason. He didn’t think Elliot had tried to give him intentionally bad advice. It was just that his advice had made him less likely to pursue Jason and he didn’t like that at all. He knew that his roommate was just trying to help, but after the subtle come on, things had changed between them. Or at least, they had changed for Taylor. He didn’t know if they had changed for Elliot.

  “Thank you,” Taylor said, his hand on the handle of the door.

  “Going somewhere nice?”

  “Dancing,” Taylor replied, smiling at him.

  “You don’t dance,” Elliot said, cocking his head.

  “I know,” Taylor said, chuckling. “It’s going to be so bad. But I thought it would be fun. Jason will be good at it and it’s something he likes, so —”

  Elliot swallowed, then walked up to him. “You’re going out with him?”

  “Yeah,” Taylor replied, furrowing his brow. “I told you I was, didn’t I?”

  “Yeah, you did,” Elliot said. “I guess I just didn’t realize it would be this soon.”

  Taylor shook his head. “What do you mean? When did you think it would be?”

  “I don’t know,” Elliot replied, shrugging. “It’s nothing, I guess.”

  Taylor frowned. “Just spit it out. I really have to go.”

  “Like,” Elliot said, dropping his voice to a whisper. “Do you really think that this guy is good enough for you?”

  Taylor cocked his head, watching Elliot with a mixture of curiosity and exasperation. “What do you mean?”

  “He’s just a Salsex instructor and you’re — you know,” Elliot replied quietly. “You’re you.”

  “He’s just a Salsex instructor? What are you talking
about?” Taylor asked, sounding a bit more irritated than he thought he felt. If he was hearing Elliot right, he was insulting Jason. And he couldn’t be doing that, right? He wouldn’t do something that stupid.

  “I didn’t mean anything bad by it,” Elliot said. “I just meant like, if you were going to crush on a dude, couldn’t he be someone with your status?”

  Taylor’s nostrils flared. He suddenly realized why Elliot had given him the advice he had, why he was even around on Saturday. He had thought that Elliot legitimately wanted to help him, but there was no way he was, and Taylor could see that now. He couldn’t believe he had been so blind before and so stupid.

  “I’m sorry, Elliot, did you have someone else in mind?” Taylor said, raising his voice despite his best effort not to.

  “No,” Elliot replied, looking at the ground. The hallway was dark and Taylor wasn’t sure if Elliot was blushing, but he didn’t care. He was still angry at everything he had said, everything he had done. He wasn’t happy about the fact that he had confided in Elliot and Elliot had used that to his advantage.

  Taylor swallowed, opening the door. “I thought you were cool.”

  “Wait,” Elliot said.

  “I don’t want to be late,” Taylor replied. “And I’m done listening to you.”

  With that, he left the house and slammed the door behind him.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jason wasn’t sure what he should expect when it came to their date. He had tried to ask Taylor to give him a hint, but he had just told him that he needed to dress up nicely. He had also insisted on picking Jason up. Normally, Jason would never allow something like that, He much preferred going to dates in his own car, so that he could make an emergency exit if he needed to. But Taylor had insisted, he said it wouldn’t have felt like a real date if he didn’t pick him up and drove him there himself. Jason had teased him and asked him if he was still in high school, but he couldn’t help but feel excited himself. More than he had about a day for years. Probably since school.

  He didn’t understand what “dressing nicely” meant either. He had opted for black slacks, a green button-down shirt and black shoes. He thought he looked pretty good, unless Taylor meant somewhere actually nice. Then he would probably be laughed at and turned away. But it didn’t really matter. He knew that Taylor had some great expectations of how the night would turn out, but all that Jason wanted to do was spend time with him.

  Talking to him. Brushing his hair away from his face — God, Taylor really needed a haircut — and then kissing him on the mouth again. The way that Taylor’s lips tasted, what his kisses did to Jason, that wasn’t something he had ever experienced before.

  He could only barely imagine what sex with him would be like if that was kissing and only kissing.

  That was, if Taylor wanted to have sex in the first place. Jason didn’t really want to pressure him into doing anything that he may not want to do, and there was the added difficulty of Jason not really knowing if Taylor was just in it because he was lusting after Jason. While that had been how it had first started, undoubtedly for them, Jason had begun to really like Taylor.

  Not just as someone to have sex with, but as a person. And he had to admit that that was scary, because lust, he could deal with. But getting emotionally attached to someone else was a whole different thing and he had already been burned by the people that he grew close to. But Taylor was so sweet, and honest, and wonderful. And weirdly naive in his own way.

  Jason was busy daydreaming about how wonderful Taylor was when he heard someone knock on his door. His heart leaped in his chest as he stood up and made his way to the door, trying his best not to seem overeager. But when he opened the door, he couldn’t help but grin.

  ***

  “You look so good,” Jason said. Taylor was standing in front of him, wearing a three-piece suit.

  “Thank you,” Taylor replied, looking down and biting his lower lip. “I wasn’t sure what to bring, so I brought chocolates. I thought about bringing you some flowers, but I don’t know how you feel about flowers. I thought chocolate was a pretty safe bet --”

  “I love chocolate,” Jason said. “And I love flowers. Either would have been okay. More than okay.”

  Taylor blushed, still looking at the ground. He held out his hand and presented Jason with a small, golden box of chocolates.

  “I feel like we’re going to the prom,” Jason said, grabbing the box and putting it on the accent table in the hallway. “Are you sure I shouldn’t change?”

  “Don’t,” Taylor said, looking up for the first time. “You look amazing. Plus, if we take any longer, we’re going to be late.”

  “Can you give me a hint, at least?” Jason said. He stepped out of the house and locked the door behind him. When he turned to look at Taylor, he noticed that Taylor was holding out his hand. Jason smiled. He appreciated the fact that Taylor tried to make things seemed as public as possible ever since Jason had shot him down. They were only walking to Taylor’s car, which was parked right across the street in front of one of Jason’s neighbor’s houses.

  “One hint,” Taylor said, as he opened the door for Jason. Jason had to hold back laughter. “But you have to promise that you’re not going to laugh at me or ask for anymore hints after that, okay?”

  “Why would I laugh at you?”

  “Because this is honestly kind of embarrassing,” Jason said. “But it’s also something that I thought you’d really like.”

  “Okay, look,” Jason said, getting in the car and closing the door after himself. He had to wait until Taylor was starting the car to speak to him again. “This is really sweet. It is, and you’re really sweet, but I wish you wouldn’t do things that make you uncomfortable or embarrass you just because you think they will impress me or something. Trust me, I’m easily impressed.”

  “No, you’re not,” Taylor said. “If you were easily impressed, I would have been able to take you on a date a lot earlier than this.”

  Jason smiled, looking up at Taylor and wondering if he was making a joke. But he clearly wasn’t, he was looking ahead and he wasn’t smiling at all.

  “I’m impressed,” Jason said, putting his hand over Taylor’s. “I promise. But you really need to cool it, okay? I mean, yes, I’m letting you do this to make it up to me so it’s okay that it’s a little over the top, but I’m not a high maintenance person. You don’t need to take me on expensive dates where you have to dress up and give me a present before we go on them. I swear, I’m like super low maintenance.”

  Taylor nodded. “I didn’t — I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said.

  “Oh, no, no, don’t feel bad,” Jason said, very quickly, once he realized that Taylor had paled and was looking pretty mortified. “I don’t mean that I don’t like stuff like this. Of course I like stuff like this. Every now and then, you know? Not all the time. One of these every six months or so is good.”

  At that, Taylor looked at him, and his eyes widened. “Does that mean we’re doing this more than once?”

  “No,” Jason said. “Not this. Dating yes, but not this.”

  “So you’re — just to be clear, you’re saying you’d like to go out with me again,” Taylor said, his voice only a little louder than a whisper. “That is — that is what you’re saying, right?”

  “Yes,” Jason replied, laughing. “As long as you don’t do anything too weird on this date. But just so you know, the things I like to do on dates, they rarely require formal attire.”

  “So what do you like to do?”

  “I like going on hikes,” Jason said. “I really like going to a national park and getting lost in the trails. I like swimming, going to the beach. I like frozen yogurt. I like eating Chinese food and watching bad movies that I’ve seen a million times before. You know, that kind of thing.”

  Taylor looked at him and smiled, little wrinkles appearing around his eyes. “All of those things sound wonderful,” he said. “But I think you’re actually really goi
ng to like this. Though I promise to stop bringing you presents before dates if you don’t like them.”

  “It’s not that I don’t like them,” Jason said. “It’s just that you don’t need to try so hard to win me over. You know, still. You pretty much already have.”

  Taylor parked on the street in front of a small, brick building that looked slightly familiar to Jason, but he couldn’t quite place it.

  “Come on,” Taylor said. “Let’s go. We don’t want to be the last couple there.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “You brought me to a dance class?” Jason asked Taylor in a startled whisper.

  “It’s a tango class,” Taylor replied, feeling a little foolish. What if Jason was acting this way because he hated it? Maybe he only saw dancing as something he had to do instead of something that he liked to do. But that made no sense, Taylor had seen the way that Jason moved and only someone who loved dancing and practiced a lot could move like that. “You said I was a good dancer, remember? Well, you said I had a knack for it. Or something like that.”

  They were whispering in the back of the class. The instructor was a woman in her fifties, slim and short, with free-flowing curly black hair. They were at least five other couples there, by Taylor’s count, though they were the only two males in the class.

  Jason looked around the small dance studio, so Taylor took the opportunity to do the same thing. It was similar to where Jason taught Salsex, with wooden floors and wall length mirror. Unlike at the gym, though, there were no weights or lockers where the dancers could put their stuff.

  Jason was still looking around when Taylor leaned over to whisper in his ear. “Look, if you don’t like this, we can go. Do one of those other things you said. There’s an ice cream parlor right across the street.”

  “No,” Jason said, so quickly that it startled Taylor. “No, that’s not what I meant. I love this.”

  “You do?”

  “Are you joking? Yes! I’ve always wanted to learn how to tango,” Jason whispered back to him. “But it’s either really expensive or I don’t have time or…”