Chapter Four When Harry Met Sally . . . , dir. by Rob Reiner
Unfortunately, Peter is indeed Eli’s problem.
He doesn’t hear a peep from Peter all weekend, not that he’s hoping to hear from him. But there’s that uncertain, fleeting desire that springs to life when his phone screen lights up with a
weekend email from Michael or a text from Patricia while she’s out grabbing groceries.
Eli hates that he wants something, some acknowledgment, or another apology; but by Monday he’s promised himself that he’s ready to move on, to forget
about Peter.
Until Michael pops his head in the door of the break room during Eli’s lunch break, just as Gwen from IT is showing Eli the
LEGO Rivendell set she spent the weekend building with her wife.
“Eli?” Michael looks weirded out, an unfamiliar expression to Eli in the years he’s known him. “There’s a man here to see
you.”
“A man?” Eli can’t help his confusion. “Who is it?”
“No idea!” Michael says with a smile before he disappears just as quickly as he appeared.
“Scorned lover?” Gwen asks, sipping her coffee.
“Actually, you might not be that far off,” he tells her, throwing away the empty cup of ramen. He can’t explain why, but it’s
like he can tell it’s Peter before he even walks out into the main office, their eyes meeting far too late for Eli to make a run for it.
Where would that get him, though? Eli already knows that Pe ter isn’t a dangerous guy.
He doubts that there’s a malicious bone in Peter’s body.
Besides, Eli’s suffered through worse. Vent isn’t nearly controversial enough of a website anymore to warrant any kind of attack on the building or any of its staff,
but there have been occurrences over the years, people needing to be escorted out of the office whether they be ex-employees,
people who sent digital threats in their email or from Twitter, the subjects of articles who promise to sue them for slander.
And Eli can remind them that in print, it’s libel.
That still doesn’t knock out the creep factor of Peter showing up at the office, though.
“Eli, I was hoping we could talk. I just wanted to—” Peter begins to say before Eli takes him by the hand, dragging him down
the length of the office—the attention of a few of his coworkers now focused squarely on the both of them—and pulls Peter
into a meeting room.
Not that it gives them much privacy—the modern design of the building means that there’s an entire wall of glass that leaves them on full display for
the rest of his coworkers. But at least no one can hear them.
“You’ve got a tight grip...” Peter holds his wrist when Eli lets go of him.
“What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
“You told me where you work,” Peter says. “During the date.”
“Yeah, okay.” As if that makes this better. “Still, what are you doing here?”
“I...” Peter’s expression sinks, his gaze refusing to meet Eli’s. “I wanted to apologize for... for Friday.”
“Peter, please look at me,” Eli asks of him.
And Peter does just that. In the cool, sterile light of the office’s modern design, it almost surprises Eli just how warm Peter’s brown eyes are.
There’s a comfort to the color of them, like a burning fire on a rainy day.
Of course, the fireplace in Eli’s apartment is closed off, so he’s had to manage with those ten-hour-long YouTube videos of fake fireplaces, but the sentiment is still the same.
“Did you really think that showing up here, in front of everyone that I know, was the best way to go about that?”
“I...” Peter trails off, clearly indicating that this is the first time he’s ever thought this might be an issue. “I’m
sorry, I didn’t mean to— I just thought that I—”
“Okay, fine. Peter. I forgive you or whatever, just get out of here.” Eli talks with his hands before pinching the bridge
of his nose. “Please.”
“You didn’t give me an actual chance to apologize,” he says.
“What?”
“You accepted an apology that I didn’t give you,” Peter elaborates. “I just said that I wanted to apologize.”
“Okay, well... then apologize.”
“Oh, uh...” Peter stares down at his feet, his hands gripped together. He’s still wearing the same hoodie as the other
night, except this time he’s got on a crew-neck sweatshirt underneath, and his hair is a little less neat. Yet somehow, he’s
even cuter than he was on their date night.
“Well?” Eli stares expectantly. “I’ve got work to do, Peter.”
“Sorry, I just...” Peter pauses before he apparently decides to go for broke, to let it all out. “I’ve never really been
on a date before.”
Eli hesitates. “Like with another guy, or—”
“At all,” he spills out, his voice still unsure. “You’re the first person I’ve ever been on a date with. I was really nervous.
So nervous that I wanted to throw up, and I almost called you to cancel. But Francine told me what she knew about you from
your friends, and I found your Instagram, and I thought that you were cute, and I felt like I had to impress you or something.
But that only made you hate me even more, so that didn’t really work out.”
He thinks I’m cute? Eli has to tell himself that’s not important right now. “If it really meant that much to you, you could’ve been on time. And I don’t hate you, Peter. I just... don’t really care.”
There’s no way to say that without it sounding harsh, but it’s the truth. Eli doesn’t care; he only feels an indifference
toward Peter.
“I know.” Peter nods. “I keep my phone on work mode basically twenty-four seven, just so I can focus, and I just... let
time get away from me while I was in a meeting. But I didn’t mean to, and I’m incredibly sorry about it.”
“Okay, well... apology accepted. So, you can go.”
“I wish that you’d say something.”
Eli pauses, finally meeting Peter’s gaze before Peter breaks eye contact with him. Eli sighs, bracing himself against the
conference room table. “I mean, I can’t lie, Peter. It was a pretty terrible night.”
He doesn’t see the need to beat around the bush, especially when Peter asked for the truth.
“You were late, you didn’t text or call, you spilled food on me, you barely said a word, and you didn’t seem all that interested
in what I had to say.”
“I know,” Peter says. Eli almost wishes that he’d fight back instead of sitting there and taking it.
“You couldn’t pay, which I don’t mind, it’s not a huge deal; but it’s clear you’re a little scatter-brained and that dating
isn’t your main priority.”
“Fair.”
“And you left me at the movies.”
“I had a work call.”
“At eight o’clock at night? You know you can ignore those, right? You don’t have to answer the calls if you’re not on the
clock.”
“I know...” Peter lets his head hang in shame. “I’m sorry. There was a project one of my team members in Mumbai needed
help with, so the day had just started for him because of the time zones and...”
His words trail off as Peter realizes there’s no excuse. There’s this silence that stretches out in front of them, while Eli is left to look anywhere that isn’t at Peter.
“Am I seriously the first date you’ve ever been on?” he dares to ask.
“Comer isn’t a big town, and there aren’t many out gay people, least of all any out gay people who aren’t also racist. And
college... I don’t know. I had a few friends, but it was one of those situations where after I graduated... I realized
I was just friends with them because they were my classmates. I just found it so...”
“Hard?” Such a simple word, but it means everything.
“Yeah.”
“Huh...”
“Is that a surprise?”
“Well, kind of. You’re hot, Peter.”
“Oh, uh...” His golden cheeks go red almost immediately, like someone got a little too eager with blush. “Thanks?” He sounds
so unsure of himself.
“It’s a compliment, you can take it.”
“Sorry.”
“You say that a lot.”
“Sorry.”
“There you go again.”
“I don’t really know what else to say,” he offers. “I told Francine that I wanted to actually get out there, meet someone,
finally explore the city after living here for so long. Look at where it got me.”
Damn , Eli thinks.
“I’m sorry. Really,” Peter tells him.
“Well... we all have to start somewhere,” Eli says. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve only ever had one boyfriend,
so I was pretty nervous to meet you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t think first-date nerves are really something that goes away, you know?” Eli asks before he realizes that no, that’s not really something that Peter would be familiar with. “You just get used to it, kind of.”
“Yeah, well... I just didn’t want you to think that I was some huge asshole.”
“No,” Eli says. “Just a regular asshole.” He tries to add a levity to his voice so that Peter knows he’s being playful.
And Peter actually does smile at that, and there’s a comfort to the expression, like he can tell that Eli is telling a joke.
“Do you know how to get better at it?” he asks. “At dating?”
“You sort of just have to do it, learn by experience.”
Peter smiles ruefully. “I was afraid you’d say that.”
Eli thinks about last night, about the Dating 101 idea that Rose had. He didn’t realize just how on the nose she was with
that one. It almost comes out, Eli almost offers to help teach Peter a thing or two. But this isn’t his responsibility.
Eli opens his mouth, unsure of the words that he’s about to say, but then Michael makes his grand reappearance at the door
to the meeting room. “Hey, Eli. Is everything okay?”
Eli wishes he could pretend that Michael actually cares, but he knows Michael is just waiting for the right moment to pounce on the gossip.
“Yeah, Michael. We’re fine.”
“Oh.” Michael pauses. “Then maybe you should get back to work, the phones have been ringing.”
“I was just leaving, actually,” Peter interjects. “Thanks for everything, Eli. And I’m sorry again, about... everything.”
In an instant, the awkwardness seems to come back to the forefront.
Before Eli can say much else, Peter is stepping past him, Michael opening the door wider to let Peter out into the office
where he heads toward the elevators.