☆// earth's the right place for love; i don't know where it's likely to go better. //☆

-robert frost

...

"Frank? You still there?" 

Frank snaps his head up at the sound of his own name, his thoughts dashing themselves to pieces as whatever he was thinking about slips into the back of his mind again. 

"You haven't even touched your fork. Not hungry?"

The guy in front of him is talking to him. Shit. Bryan, Frank thinks his name is Bryan. 

"No, there's just a lot on my plate," Frank settles for not saying his name in fear that he'll mess it up. 

"Well, of course there is, you haven't eaten any of it," Bryan smiles.

Frank shakes his head, "No, no-- That's not what I meant." 

"I know what you meant," Bryan smiles a bit wider and sticks his fork in the salmon he's eating. "D'you wanna talk about it? Or is that too much for the first date?"

Frank shrugs and picks up his fork, looking down at the pasta in front of him, mostly to be polite."Nah, I wouldn't bother you like that." 

"Oh," Bryan replies. He pokes at his salmon. Frank resists the urge to roll his eyes at the attempt of guilt-tripping him.

But then, he figures, he already doesn't like the guy, so why not just open up a can of worms and make sure there's no second date? 

"Ah, not to bother you with a whole life story," Frank sighs and finally sticks his fork into the pasta. "Not to mention, it's about another guy..."

Bryan is leaning forward in his seat now, eyes fixed on Frank's face, which is downcast and scrawled with a calculating expression. 

"Oh." 

Seriously, is that all this guy says? 

 "Well, actually, I wouldn't mind a good story right about now." 

Guess not.

"I wouldn't call it a good story," Frank tries a laugh, but it just comes out awkward and uncomfortable. "Not even a story, really." 

He's completely insincere, just like he has been for the majority of this date. Frank is gonna make up some bullshit, but then he thinks about it. 

Bryan-- while Frank doesn't like him-- he's easy to talk to. So, he finds himself slipping easily into this conversation that he didn't want to have, despite what all of his first date etiquette instincts are telling him."There's just... this guy."

Great start, idiot.

"He's kind of... an acquaintance of mine?" Frank continues, shutting out all of the bells ringing in the sensible part of his brain. "I've sorta been interested in him since I started working at the coffee shop down on Pearson. Or at least since he started coming."

Bryan nods, smiling, which surprises Frank. 

But he continues nonetheless, "He came in every day at like 7 AM to get a coffee. Eventually, I fucked up his order, and that lead to me talking to him. And uh... he was really nice, so when he came in the next day, we talked again."

The restaurant is no longer crowded. 

There are a few stragglers left, but Frank and Bryan don't rush themselves. They don't even touch their food, Frank just continues to talk and Bryan gives him full, undivided attention. He smiles once in a while to show he's still listening.

"I'd always been attracted to him physically. He's really beautiful. Objectively. He's just nice to look at. But once we got to talking, I realized I was catching feelings and, wham, suddenly I've got a full-blown crush on Ger- uh, the guy."Frank picks at his fingernails.

"So, yeah," Frank nods and gives a little shrug. "He decided to mention his girlfriend a few days ago and long story short, my dreams are smashed." 

Bryan and Frank are both quiet; Bryan is expecting Frank to keep talking and Frank is expecting Bryan to respond already.

"That... sounds like it sucks," Bryan confirms, his lips tightening into a thin line. "I know how it feels when the guy you like talks about someone else..." 

When Frank looks up from his pasta, Bryan's face is red and he's looking anywhere but Frank.

Frank rubs his eyes, his head hurting from thinking so much. 

But he's empathetic, so he gives Bryan a half-smile and sighs, "You're easy to talk to. I'm glad I came." 

Bryan supposes it's meant to make him feel better, and even if it doesn't, he appreciates the sentiment.

"Your pasta's gotta be freezing cold by now," Bryan breaks the tension with a laugh. 

 Frank finds himself laughing as well as he realizes he completely misjudged everything. And under platonic circumstances, he'd be thrilled with the idea of a second date. 

Maybe he needs that.