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Brian had barely had time to open the shop when a guy with scene hair and a bat t-shirt came in and announced, "I need something awesome."
"Every edible arrangement I sell is awesome," Brian said calmly. "Be more specific."
"Confident. I like that." The customer flashed a grin that threatened to overtake his whole face and said, "I just met the perfect guy and I have to impress him. His name is Patrick and he's an angel."
"And what does this angel like?" Brian pulled the sample book across the counter so that it was in front of the customer and started to flip through the pages, skipping over the Anniversary, Birthday, and Congratulations sections to the I Love You section.
"Music."
"And?"
"Um."
Brian sighed and turned toward the kitchen and yelled, "Greta!"
Greta came out drying her hands on the corner of her apron and frowned. "You bellowed?"
"This customer needs your expertise." Brian just stared at her until she smiled slightly and moved over to the counter.
"Hi, I'm Greta. How can I help you today?"
"I'm Pete and you can help me win the heart of an angel."
"You've come to the right place," Greta said confidently.
Brian turned away so that Pete wouldn't see how hard he was rolling his eyes. Romance was a big part of his business but he found it utterly ridiculous. Love at first sight was a stupid myth and he boggled that anyone over the age of twelve could believe in it.
***
"Do you have something with cookies? I think she likes cookies. Definitely chocolate. Chicks dig chocolate, right?" Gabe looked over Brian's head toward Greta when he said that last part. She ignored him as usual.
"Sure." Brian flipped to the cookie bouquets in the back of the sample book even though he knew from experience what Gabe would say next.
"Just pick something nice and keep it under fifty bucks," Gabe said, barely glancing at the pictures. "Maybe put in lots of pink, so she knows I'm a sensitive dude."
"Right." Brian wrote up the order and ran Gabe's credit card. As Gabe signed the slip with a flourish, Brian thought about how many orders he'd taken from Gabe, each one for a different woman. He appreciated that at least Gabe didn't pretend every one was the love of his life. He might be a player but at least he seemed pretty honest about it.
***
"Brian, I need some help back here," Greta called out just as the bearded guy in the black beanie pushed open the door, hesitated on the threshold, and then stepped through with visible reluctance.
Brian sighed and hoped this wasn't going to be one of those assholes who thought his masculinity was somehow compromised just by being here.
"Hi, how can help you?" Brian asked, when the guy finally made it to the counter.
"I need some kind of happy birthday thing." The guy's hoodie had an eagle and a bunch of wolves on it, and the amazing thing was that it didn't look as ridiculous as it should have. He somehow made it work.
"Business or personal?"
"Personal."
"Girlfriend? Boyfriend?"
"Um, mom?" The guy seemed to catch himself and said more confidently, "Yeah, it's for my mom."
"Brian!" Greta called again.
Brian shoved the book in front of his customer and said, "Could you just look at this for a minute? We've got a bunch of corporate orders to fill and one of my people called out sick today. I'll be right back."
"Sure, no problem."
Brian rushed back and helped Greta finish and wrap up three arrangements and stowed them in the cooler while she got started on the next batch.
When he came back out, his customer was still there, which was almost a miracle considering how impatient some people got. He was staring at the pictures in the book with his eyebrows creased in a little frown, worrying his lip ring with his teeth.
A warmth that he hadn't felt in a long time suffused Brian's chest, catching him off guard. He cleared his throat and the guy looked up with really pretty blue eyes, the frown melting away to a more neutral expression. Brian wanted to see him smile and--seriously? Brian mentally smacked himself upside the head and put on a professional smile as he said, "So, do you see something you like?"
To Brian's surprise and secret delight, the guy's cheeks went faintly pink and he quickly looked down at the book. He pointed to one of their nicer fruit arrangements and said, "Can you do that one but leave out the strawberries?"
"Sure, that's no problem. We can replace them with chocolate-dipped cherries." Brian wrote down the order and glanced up to see the guy frowning at the picture. "What's wrong?"
"Cutting out all those little shapes must leave a lot of unused fruit bits. Do you just throw them out? That seems wasteful."
"No, we freeze all the edible scraps in big bags and someone comes around from the homeless shelter every few days and picks them up. I think they make pies and smoothies and stuff out of them."
"Oh." The guy glanced up at Brian with a smile and his eyes seemed to light up. "That's pretty cool."
"We try." Brian shrugged, feeling suddenly uncomfortable for some reason he didn't want to examine. "When do you need this by? Today is pretty crowded, but maybe--"
"Oh, no," the guy cut in quickly. "Her birthday is day after tomorrow, so I can pick it up then."
"Great, no problem. I just need your name and phone number for the order form."
"Bryar. Bob Bryar." Then he rattled off his number and watched Brian write it down.
A solid name for a solid dude, Brian thought and then reminded himself that this was a customer not a hook up, even if Bob was exactly Brian's type. "Okay, Bob, what time do you want to pick up your order?"
"Is about eleven okay? I'm taking her out to lunch." Bob hunched his shoulders a little when he said it and Brian did not find that adorable coming from a guy who looked kind of badass. Not at all.
"Sure, we can do eleven." Brian made a note on the order, and then gave him his total. He politely tried to look away while Bob put his pin number into the card reader, but ended up staring at the way his dark blond hair curled up at the back of his neck, between his hat and the hood of his shirt. It looked soft and Brian idly wondered what it would feel like twining around his fingers.
Bob looked up and caught Brian staring and for several seconds they just looked at each other, stuck in a moment that was slowly turning awkward.
"Right. So. We'll have that ready for you on Thursday at eleven," Brian said briskly, handing Bob his receipt and becoming consumed with straightening up the counter.
"Yeah. See you then." Brian looked up to see a little smile flit across Bob's face as he turned to leave. Brian watched him go and just stood there staring at the door until Greta yelled at him again.
***
Around 10:58 on Thursday, Brian contrived to be very busy in the kitchen with Greta so that Nate had to cover the front. He'd spent the last two days thinking of Bob way too often and it was getting ridiculous. When the bell on the front door rang, he accidentally sliced off one of the petals on the flower he was carving out of cantaloupe. Greta laughed at him and said, "You know you're acting silly, don't you?"
"No, I'm not," Brian said, trying to salvage the flower and making a mess of it.
"Yes, you are. Why don't you go out there and be the charming bastard I know you can be and maybe you'll get a date with mister tall, blond, and hunky."
"He's not that tall." Brian scrunched up his face. "And hunky? Really? Who says that?"
"You win at missing the point," Greta sighed and took the knife out of his hand. "Please leave now. You are actually making more work for me."
"Fine, you do it." Brian stripped off his gloves and crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the counter. "But I'm not leaving. I can't believe you want to set me up with a customer."
"I don't actually give a crap about your sex life. I'm just pointing out the obvious. You want to set yourself up with this customer." Greta cut a perfect daisy out of pineapple and then peeked around the edge of the doorway. "And I can see why. He's cute."
"Yeah, I don't do cute." Brian was just self-aware enough to realize he was prevaricating, but not quite masochistic enough to let Greta see that. "Besides, look at him. He's probably straight. Or a huge mama's boy."
"Doing something nice for his mother on her birthday is clearly a sign of over-attachment, yes. I can only imagine how birthdays in your family must go." Greta rolled her eyes and then proceeded to ignore him in favor of actually getting some work done.
Nate stuck his head in the doorway and said, "You got an order for Bryar?"
Greta pointedly kept working, so Brian went to get it. When he came back out of cooler, Nate was gone and Greta looked so innocent she had to be guilty of something. "Where's Nate?"
"Bathroom break. Guess you'll have to take that out there yourself."
"I could fire you, you know."
"But you won't." Greta raised an eyebrow and made a shooing motion. "Don't keep your customer waiting."
Brian straightened his shoulders and took the arrangement out front. Bob was wearing a black button down shirt with a black jacket, and he didn't have on a hat this time. His longish hair was tucked behind his ears in a way that made Brian want to tug it free. Brian almost told him he looked nice but thought that would be too forward or at least really gay and he had no idea how Bob would react.
"Here you go," Brian said a little too loudly as he set the cheerfully wrapped arrangement on the counter. "I hope your mom enjoys it."
"I'm sure she will. Thanks." Bob started to pick up the arrangement, but then stopped and pulled a folded piece of paper out of his jacket pocket. "Hey, um, Brian, right?"
"That's me," Brian said. He didn't have to wonder how Bob knew his name. He just added Nate to his mental shitlist as he smiled curiously at Bob.
Bob nodded at the tattoos all up and down Brian's arms and said, "You look like a guy who enjoys a rock and roll show. So, I thought..." He unfolded the paper which turned out to be flyer and pushed it across the counter toward Brian. "My band is playing at Angels&Kings on Saturday night. If you don't have anything else to do."
"Oh, well, I was..." Brian couldn't look into Bob's face with his nervous little half-smile and lie, so he said, "Yeah, I could come."
The half-smile grew into a grin that lit up Bob's whole face and made his eyes crinkle up at the corners and Brian couldn't help smiling back. He manfully ignored the giggling coming from the kitchen.
***
Brian paid his cover charge and got his hand stamped so he could go out and smoke later. When he walked into the club proper, a dark-haired guy walking by stopped and stared at him for a moment before grinning and saying, "Hey, your thing worked!"
The guy looked vaguely familiar but Brian couldn't place him right away. "What?"
"I gave one of your edible arrangements to Patrick and he agreed to play my club. Just wait 'til you hear him sing. He's amazing!"
"Oh, Pete, right? Yeah, I remember now. That's great."
"He isn't in love with me yet, but I'm patient." Pete thumped Brian on the back like they were old friends and bopped off into the crowd.
Brian avoided the bar and found a good place to watch the band, wondering what Bob played. Somehow he'd never managed to ask while he and Bob had been staring at each other like sixth graders desperately trying to figure out how to flirt. If he'd become this socially atrophied after his last relationship went up in flames, it's no wonder his previous plans for tonight had included watching the Discovery Channel and maybe playing some Madden football on XBox.
The first band looked fresh out of high school and didn't have Bob so half a song into their set, Brian went outside for a smoke. He was just digging his lighter out of his pocket when someone said, "Hey, you came."
He glanced up to see Bob lighting a cigarette of his own and then holding his lighter out. "Yeah, I heard good things about your singer--Patrick is in your band, right?" Brian took the lighter and lit his cigarette before handing it back to Bob. "Please tell me Pete's not perving over one of those kids playing right now."
Bob laughed and shook his head. "Patrick's in my band. Well, I guess it's his band, really. I'm just the drummer."
"The drummer's pretty important. I've seen some otherwise decent bands ruined by shitty drumming."
Bob just smiled and glanced down as he took a drag off his cigarette. Brian watched Bob's lips tighten around the filter and felt his mouth go dry. He wondered how Bob's mouth would feel against his. He hadn't kissed a guy with a beard in a really long time. Would it be scratchy or ticklish? Would he like it or find it off-putting? He really wanted to find out, but all he did was smoke his cigarette and try not to be too blatant about checking out Bob's ass. Or trying to, anyway. Bob's jeans were too baggy to give much away, which strangely attracted Brian even more. The way he seemed to hide inside his clothes made Bob seem more mysterious and Brian had always liked a challenge.
After a while, Bob pushed back the sleeve of his hoodie and checked his watch. "I gotta get ready to go on. See you after?"
Brian smiled at the flash of a surprisingly graceful wrist and said, "Yeah, I'll be here."
***
The band was good, almost enough to make Brian wish he was still in the business. Pete had not exaggerated Patrick's singing talent too much and hadn't even mentioned that he also played guitar. Brian barely noticed the other guitar player and the bassist because he was mostly watching Bob, who was pretty amazing. He made these kind of orgasm faces during the fast parts that made Brian wonder what Bob looked like when he actually came.
And then way too soon it was over and Brian was left standing in the middle of the milling crowd wondering what to do now. He told Bob he'd stick around so that's what he'd do, but he felt kind of weird and tense about it. Maybe it was the overwhelming smell of beer coming off the people brushing past him. He went outside for a smoke and hoped Bob would come looking for him.
He was finishing up his second cigarette when Bob came around the corner. Brian lifted a hand in greeting and blew out one last lungful of smoke, dropping the butt to the pavement and crushing it under his heel. "Hey. That was a good show tonight."
"Thanks." Bob licked his lips and fiddled with his lip ring for a second before continuing, "I was a little more nervous than usual."
"You didn't look nervous." Brian stepped closer and Bob dropped his hand but didn't back away. "You looked hot."
"Yeah?" Bob actually looked surprised which made Brian want to kick someone's ass for not telling Bob that sooner. "Pete's having an after party, if you're interested."
"I don't do a lot of partying these days, but if you want to go get some coffee...maybe something to eat?"
Bob nodded and smiled. "I could eat."
***
Brian moaned into Bob's mouth, and buried his hands in Bob's hair. The silky strands felt just as good as he thought they would and Bob's body felt even better pressing his up against the wall of his apartment building. Bob was just that perfect amount bigger than Brian, not overwhelming but strong enough to push him around a little.
And it turned out that he really liked the feel of Bob's beard. It was long enough not to be scratchy, but Brian was so caught up in Bob's mouth he probably wouldn't have cared much even if it was. When Bob dragged his mouth away from Brian's and started kissing his neck, Brian tilted his head to one side to give him better access and said, "Wanna go up to my place?"
"Thought you'd never ask," Bob murmured, tightening his grip on Brian's hips and licking his jaw. "Man, I'm glad Pete recommended your shop. I thought he was exaggerating when he said how hot the tattooed guy behind the counter was."
Brian frowned and pulled back. "I have Pete to thank for this?"
Bob huffed out an exasperated breath and said, "Does it really matter?"
"No," Brian said, but it turned into a groan when Bob arched his hips against Brian's. "Upstairs, now."
"That's better," Bob said with a grin and Brian thought it definitely would be--just as soon as he got Bob alone in his room.
The end.