33. Jace #2
“I don’t know, now I’m starting to worry that I accidentally signed up for one of those ‘golden’ seasons.” I think they’re joking around, but the distorted voice makes it a little hard to interpret the tone.
“I have no idea what that is,” I admit.
“Well, now I’m worried you’re either really old or way too young for me if you’ve never heard of the Golden Bachelor,” they say with another laugh.
“Is it bad to admit as a contestant on a reality TV show that I’ve never watched any reality TV before?” We both end up laughing at that.
“Why the hell did you sign up then?”
Hmm, what’s the Sparkles-free version of this?
“Well, I’d just gotten back from a night out with my uncles, watching them be all cute and coupley for hours while I third-wheeled for the millionth time.
I might have been doomscrolling when I saw the application at, like, three a.m., and I started fantasizing about meeting someone without all the distractions of work and social media that have gotten in the way in my past relationships.
I never expected them to actually pick me. ”
“You must be hot. If you don’t watch reality shows, you might not know this, but the contestants are always attractive.”
“Is that your way of trying to tell me you’re attractive? We’re really covering everything we’re not supposed to talk about,” I tease.
“You’re right, I won’t tell you about how hot I am,” they say in what I think is the robotic equivalent of a deadpan.
“Okay, back to safer topics than how gorgeous you must be before we get kicked off the show.” I laugh. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much. I don’t think our first date was a fluke.
I take a second to remember what else we were talking about…
right, their cat. “So, cats. Yeah, I’ve never had a pet before,” I admit.
I’ve never really thought about it, but I guess growing up, we were too busy with baseball.
And my uncles didn’t have any animals either.
“I’ve never been around an animal enough to confidently want my own. ”
“My cat is awesome. I’m kind of a workaholic—I don’t think I can say what I do based on the show’s guidelines to keep things totally blind, and we’ve probably skated the line enough already—but I do a lot of work at home. My cat keeps me company while I’m endlessly working,” they explain.
“I also probably shouldn’t say what I do for work, but I can’t imagine working at home.
My coworkers are pretty much the only people I hang out with besides my uncles, and even then, it’s always right after work.
” Wow, I am not making myself sound cool at all.
“Do you ever get lonely?” I ask, eager to learn more about them and distract from how boring I sound.
“That’s why I have my cat, duh.” I laugh again, already vibing so well with their sense of humor. “But to be a bit more serious, I work with my best friend, and a few other people work with us, so I do talk to some people in real life.”
“Is working with your friend fun or does it get awkward if you disagree on something?” I love working with my uncle, but at the end of the day, he’s always been my boss, the one teaching me what to do, so there hasn’t been a situation for me to disagree with much.
“It’s fun,” they assure me. “We’ve been through enough together over the years that we know how to talk things out without taking anything too personally.”
“That’s really cool you have that.”
“You said your uncles are your best friends?” they ask.
“Yeah, so they’re kind of stuck with me.” Not that I haven’t been abandoned by family before, but I think we can save that for another day.
“And are they brothers, or…?”
“Husbands,” I correct with a smile. “They act more like my big brothers than anything, but they really stepped up to be like parents to me when I needed them. I’m really lucky to have them.”
“That’s awesome you had positive queer role models, too,” KD adds, and, oh, how I wish that had been true.
My father did so many things that negatively impacted my life growing up, but keeping my uncles from me was one of the worst. “My parents have always been very supportive,” he adds.
“So it seems like we both really lucked out there.”
“Definitely,” I agree, but the mention of great parents isn’t exactly an easy topic for me, so I switch it up. “So do you have any hobbies?”
“Ummm.” They pause to think about it for a while.
Maybe I’m not the only one without any. “I used to be more into art, and occasionally I’ll draw or paint something.
But to be honest, most of the time, I’m either working or on my phone,” they finally answer.
“God, I need to change that when I get back.”
I laugh. “I was thinking the same thing when I was making my mood board. It was surprisingly hard. I even threw food on there to fill space.”
It sounds like they laugh, too. “Maybe we can try out a hobby together while we’re here,” they suggest, and I smile at the implication that we’re going to continue to talk.
“That sounds perfect,” I agree.
This round of dates are only thirty minutes long, so after a brief brainstorm of some things we might be able to try while we’re here, it’s over before I’d like it to be.
“So do you want to stick to the formal dates?” KD asks. “Or is texting okay too?”
“Texting is great,” I answer, excited to be continuing things with them. “But I’d also like to do this again, if you’re up for it.”
“I’d like that.”
When the date ends, I see LM has scheduled a date with me for tonight as well, so I stay in the room, and we talk for a bit.
The conversation is as easy as this morning, and we spend some time talking about the show itself, then exchange bad date stories.
There’s still no romantic spark, but talking with L makes the time fly, and I probably would have scared KD away if I’d jumped right into texting them, so this was well timed.
But I think I’ve waited long enough.