15. “Eventually, the nerds and the geeks will have their day.” ― Judd Apatow
Chapter 15
“Eventually, the nerds and the geeks will have their day.” ― Judd Apatow
Dylan
T hree Years Later
“I’m sorry sweetie, but my order just isn’t right.” I groaned inwardly but plastered on a warm, or possibly lukewarm, smile as I looked up into the half-smiling, half-sneering face of the older lady who had brought back her breakfast tea twice before, making this time my lucky three.
“I’m ever so sorry ma’am.” My fists clenched at my sides behind the counter. “What can I do to make it right?” I reached across and took the steaming cup from her hands, the sting of the porcelain sharp on my skin.
“Well for one, it just isn’t hot enough.” My scorched, now smoothened fingertips would beg to differ. “I don’t know why this is so hard for you dear. I wanted my tea extra hot, tea bag in for just a few moments, a lemon slice on top with a drizzle of honey in a bone china cup.”
The time before the lemon slice had just not been thin enough and the time before that I had apparently left the tea bag in far too long. This time it appeared that the tea, so hot that it might as well have been boiled on the surface of Mercury, was not hot enough.
“I’ll get right on making you the perfect cup of tea and bring it right on over, and for your trouble, I will throw in one of my extra special lemon squares. How does that sound?”
The sneer quickly vanished from her face, replaced with what could only be described as hungry lust. Since I’d started working at Lou’s Tea Rooms earlier in the year, people had come from all over the neighborhood to grab one of my now locally famous lemon squares. Normally they sold out within the first hour or two of the store opening, but I always stowed a couple behind the counter to diffuse any tricky situations.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that young man, but I won’t say no.” I was under no illusion she was about to decline a free treat. I watched as she shuffled back to her seat, avoiding the looks of the other customers who eyed her with distaste after hearing her repeated complaining over the last fifteen minutes.
“You know she will want free stuff every time she complains now, don’t you,” the husky voice over my shoulder laughed.
“Holy shit!” My hand flew to my mouth as I glanced apologetically to the currently chuckling close-by customers. I turned round and slapped Darren, the tea room’s general manager, on the arm. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” I pressed a hand to the center of my chest. “I’m going to have to get you a bell so I know when you’re coming.”
Darren leaned forward, his blond hair-dusted arms crossed across his barrel chest, the top of his short-sleeved, unbuttoned shirt giving me an unencumbered view of his strong pecs and the thick coating of hair that covered the majority of his body. “Trust me, Dylan, you won’t need a bell to let you know when I’m cumming.” A smile twitched under his thick moustache and beard, a gleeful twinkle in his eyes.
“You know what I mean.” Heat flooded my face and neck.
“Yeah I know what you mean,” he chuckled warmly and patted my arm lightly. “I know you’re still with that guy that doesn’t deserve you.”
“He deserves me.” I smiled weakly.
His forehead furrowed and he regarded me wearily, clearly tired of the same conversation we seemed to have every few weeks. “Sure kiddo.”
“He does,” I protested, “he just forgets sometimes that I deserve him too.”
Okay, so I would have loved to be able to say that the last three years had been smooth sailing and fancy free, but this wasn’t the type of love story that you saw in the movies. This wasn’t the love story where our heroes overcame the slightest of hurdles, only to look into each other’s eyes and know that everything will somehow just be okay.
After Austin had made his announcement at the coffee shop about living together, everything in most ways had just seemed to fall into place. We’d still had a few months left before the summer, which had given us time to find somewhere that we would both be able to afford, while still being able to focus on college.
We’d found a small one-bedroom house about half an hour’s train ride away from the city in Yonkers. Natalie had ridden my ass for the rest of my time in the dorm about how I was moving to the boonies, and that I would be married to a close relative within a few weeks and lose all my teeth and start playing the banjo. I’d tried to point out to her several times that Yonkers was a popular suburb of New York, but apparently anywhere over any of the bridges that wasn’t Brooklyn would have been completely unacceptable.
Austin’s roommates had not been as forgiving as Natalie. Kyle had reverted to form and tried to insinuate that I was trying to alienate Austin from his friends and that I was just getting what I had always wanted. It had resulted in me refusing to be in the same room with him for the better part of six months. Austin had tried repeatedly to broker a peace deal between us but had failed time and time again. We had just decided that the relationship between me and his friends would be amicably hostile until kingdom come. We could be in the same room together at a party, as long as I wasn’t required to talk to them for longer than ten minutes at a time and could drag one of my own friends with us as a buffer. It hadn’t been an ideal situation, but it had worked for us, somewhat.
“So where is his lordship this afternoon?” Darren looked out across the shop. “Doesn’t he normally stop by Wednesday afternoons to make sure that I haven’t got you bent over a box in the stock room?”
After we’d both graduated, I’d looked for work as an assistant in any of the major studios and production companies in New York, but had come up empty. Those coveted jobs had been snapped up quickly after graduation. While I was still looking, I’d picked up some part-time work at the tea room to help make ends meet. Austin on the other hand had flourished, getting small acting roles in theatres Off-Broadway and more than a couple of callbacks for headline shows on the main stages of New York. We both knew it was just a matter of time before some casting agent spotted him and snapped him up.
“I think he trusts me enough to know that he doesn’t have to worry about that.” I laughed, pushing past him to serve a customer. “Plus, he is meeting with the director of a new stage play, so he won’t be back until tomorrow. He’s staying with a friend in the city and coming back in the morning.”
“Aw sweet,” Darren nodded, “but admit it.” He moved to stand behind me and whispered in my ear. His hot spicy breath made my whole body shiver. “You have thought about it though.” With a last breathy laugh, he disappeared into the office at the back of the shop.
He wasn’t wrong. I had thought about it a lot. Darren was basically a gay man’s wet dream. Tall, strong, stacked with muscle and with just enough hair to make him the sexiest bear that ever did bear. It wasn’t enough however to sway me from my love and devotion to Austin, and nothing ever would be. Sure, I had fantasies of Darren pinning me down in the back stock room and having his wicked way with me, but a fantasy was all it would ever be.
However, my obvious soft spot for Darren had not gone unnoticed back home. Each time Darren had asked me to stay behind to help out with stock take or on a Wednesday afternoon when it was only me and Darren scheduled to work, Austin would find some excuse to come and check up on me. Part of me was insulted While the other part reveled in his jealousy, in a very twisted but hot way.
The rest of the shift passed fairly slowly, Darren staying mostly in the back to work on the books. Occasional shouts of ‘ fuck ’ or ‘ asshole ’ would periodically drift out from there, making me cringe before apologizing to the customers each time, assuring them it wasn’t normal practice for us to have our patrons accosted by verbal expletives. Around an hour before closing, a frantic Darren came rushing out of the room, carrying an armful of manilla envelopes and bellowing something about making it to the attorney’s office before they closed for the day. He thanked me for volunteering to lock up, which I had not done, before rushing towards the car lot and speeding off down the road.
The sun had long since set by the time I’d closed up the shop for the night. I wanted nothing more than to get home, take a long ass bath and curl up in bed with a good book. Maybe I’d call Austin at the hotel to see how his audition went, and maybe I’d even give him either a little congratulatory or conciliatory phone sex. The lights from the store fronts illuminated my way home, shining bright from the big business brands mixed with the mom-and-pop stores that lined the city blocks and avenues during my fifteen-block bus ride home.
Our small house would never grace the covers of any architectural magazines, but it was where we called home. We had managed to turn it from the blank slate it had been and filled it with memories, family photos that hung from the pale-yellow walls. Overstuffed throw cushions lined the back of our second-hand sofas that barely fitted into our living room. The kitchen was dominated by a giant dining table that could easily fit ten people around it. I’d argued that it would be nice to occasionally move around the kitchen without breaking my feet every time I kicked a chair leg, but Austin was right in that a large family table meant that we could have our friends and family over for dinners and games nights whenever we wanted. He was right, and the kitchen had slowly become my favorite room in the house.
I slung my messenger bag onto the table and was just about to open the fridge door to raid it for some snacks, when my phone began to vibrate in my bag. I hadn’t heard from Austin all day, but it could only be him. He knew my shift pattern at work and would probably be calling to check I hadn’t accidently fallen and landed on Darren’s dick.
“I still only want you inside me,” I laughed as I accepted the call and pressed the phone to my ear.
“Well, I’m not sure I have the anatomy for that,” a thoughtful female voice sounded down the phone to my utter horror, “but people are doing wonderous things with toys these days. You kids are so much more adventurous than we were in my day.”
I slowly slid the phone away from my ear to look at the screen. An unknown number with a 212 New York dialing code appeared on the screen. Taking a deep breath and readying myself for a world of apologies, I dove back in.
“I’m sorry to whoever is on the other end of this call, but I have a boyfriend, you see, and he has had a really hard day. I mean I have had a really hard day and Darren was doing the books and it was so stressful, I mean stressful for him, but it meant I had to watch the store by myself which is not easy, you know! Anyway, where was I? Yes, I have a boyfriend and I want him inside me, not you. Oh god I don’t mean I want him inside me right now…” I vowed to hang up the phone and put a contract hit out on myself.
“Breathe.” The older lady’s voice sounded somewhat amused.
“Okay, thank you.”
“Now I assume I am talking to Dylan, and I haven’t accidently dialed 1-800-Needy-Boyfriend?” Oh great, now faceless voices on the end of the line were mocking me. Stellar adulting, Dylan.
“Yes, this is he,” I groaned.
“Well, I’m glad that we got that out of the way,” she laughed. “My name is Nellie and I’m calling you from AMN Productions.”
Okay, now my ears perked up. AMN Productions were a major TV and film studio. They had offices in New York, but most of their studios were in L.A. as far as I was aware. They were definitely one of the companies I had carpet bombed with my large stack of resumes.
“Oh hi. Yes, I’m Dylan.” I slapped a hand to my forehead.
“Yes, we have done this dance just moments ago, son,” Nellie coughed, most likely to cover another laugh at my expense. “And I’m still Nellie, so now we have got our introductions finally out of the way, I wanted to call to let you know that we liked your resume and the samples of your work that you sent in.”
“Oh my god, really?” Part of the process of working in screen or production writing was to send in some proof that you could string together some sentences in a coherent manner. I had sent them copies of a one-man stage play I had written and performed in during college. The process of creating the dialogue, set instructions and production was everything I had ever wanted it to be and more. The acting was something I wished I never had to do ever again.
“Yes, we really did. So much so that we would like you to come in to interview for a writer’s assistant position.” I felt the phone start to slip from my hand as my brain short-circuited. This was it, this was everything I had wanted for the past few years. An actual job doing what I loved.
“This will be to work on a new show for the network,” Nellie began to explain the details of the role: their writers had pitched a sitcom to the higher-ups. With it being a weekly show, Nellie explained that the writing process would be hectic, fast-paced and constantly changing. It was basically my idea of heaven. “Now I can tell you right away that this won’t be an easy job and the money we can pay you in the beginning is not a lot. I can also guarantee you that While this is a full-time job, you almost certainly need a second job to pay your bills.”
Even with the words of warning, it wasn’t enough to stop the happy dance I started to do around the kitchen.
She began to say something, but I was too busy being all up in my own groove that I missed it. “Sorry, could you repeat that?”
“Moonwalk?”
“Cha Cha slide,” I explained.
“I was saying that we would love to invite you in to formally interview and meet the team here next week if you have any time free.”
I would have to shift some things around with Darren, but I was not about to let this opportunity pass me by. We agreed to a meeting the following Wednesday before saying our goodbyes. Nellie said she would e-mail me over the details and that I should try and stay calm until then.
While I still had to interview, I had a feeling that I had this job in the bag and the process would just be a formality. Nellie was right, the role was an entry-level position, but it was a start. I had to tell someone before my brain exploded. I knew I should tell Natalie that I was coming back to work in the city. She would be excited and tell me that I had to break up with Yonkers and move back to civilization. I also was super excited about telling my dad. He would likely get emotional and talk about my mom. I should also tell my sister… actually my sister could go fuck herself. The one person I needed to tell immediately though was Austin.
I just knew he would understand my excitement and be so proud of me. I quickly scrolled though my contacts and dialed his number. The first dial went to voicemail after a few rings. Austin was a lover of skinny jeans, and would often need to negotiate his phone out of his pocket, which was why I always made a second call.
He answered on the second ring. Music blared loudly down the phone. I pulled the handset away from my ear sharply. A mumbled ‘hello’ echoed down the line. I looked at the screen to make sure I had in fact dialed the right person, and sure enough there was Austin’s name.
“Dylan?” I pressed the phone tentatively back to my ear.
“Austin?”
“Yeah, sorry, I’ve moved to a quieter bit of the party.”
A spike of irritation simmered beneath my skin. Not for the fact that Austin had seen fit to go to a party, but that he’d not even told me that he was going or called me after the audition. “I didn’t know that you were planning to go out.” I knew I sounded like an overbearing prick, but I had questions that burned to be answered. “Also, listen, I have some good news.”
“Yeah sorry, some of the boys wanted to go out to celebrate.” His voice held a note of glee.
I smiled, picturing the charming look of boyish happiness he tends to have when he has good news to share. “You mean you got hired?”
“I more than got hired baby!” He barked out a laugh. “I got second lead in the show.”
“I’m so proud of you!” I squealed down the phone. “Congratulations!”
“I still can’t believe it myself.” His words were coming so fast, and the joy was evident in his voice. “It was just such a lengthy process going over and over different scenes, and chemistry reads with the other actors but right before I was about to leave, the casting and stage director pulled me to one side and offered me the part.”
“Austin! Come back inside, this is your party after all,” I heard a familiar voice say on the end of the line.
“Hey Kyle, I’m just talking to Dylan. I’ll be back in soon.”
“Kyle threw you a party?”
“Yeah, he said that he couldn’t let my first big gig go uncelebrated, so he threw something together last minute.”
“Hey, what are you guys doing out here?” A chill ran down my spine. “Come back inside babe, people are wanting to talk to you.”
“Kevin, shush,” I heard Kyle whisper.
“Kevin’s there?”
“Listen baby, he was crashing with Kyle, and it’s not like he wasn’t going to get invited. I’m just here with Kyle though. You have nothing to worry about.”
Scenes from college rushed through my head. Austin telling me that Kyle and Kevin were harmless, that they were just overly flirty, that they didn’t really detest me as much as I’d presumed they did. Then that final image of Austin’s lips pressed against Kevin’s.
“Dylan, are you there?”
“Yeah. Go have fun I guess.” This motherfucker was out partying with a guy who he’d cheated on me with and he expected me to what? Just chill? “I’m kind of tired, so I’m going to bed.”
“Dylan come on, talk to me. I miss you and haven’t spoken to you all day.”
“No that’s true, you were too busy letting your boys and your boyfriend know about your news before letting, oh I don’t know, your actual boyfriend know.”
“Dylan…”
“I don’t want to fight, so I am going to put the phone down now and go to sleep. Congratulations again Austin.”
“Dylan, wait,” was what I heard as I hung up.
I realized I hadn’t told him about my news. The previous joy in my heart was now a fading memory as images of Austin and Kevin flitted through my mind until finally hours later, I drifted off into a troubled sleep.