Chapter Text
Ryland felt guilty.
He had been texting back and forth with Tom for weeks at this point, neither’s schedule had lined up yet to go on another date, but in full honesty Ryland really wishes they could. Wanting another date wasn’t what was making him feel guilty though. No, that was because he hadn’t told Tom the only reason he had agreed to a date was to piss Colt off. In hindsight it was petty, but Ryland would never lie and say he wasn’t petty. He was Mr. “waste of carbon” after all.
He had been debating on telling Tom for days. There had even been a few opportunities to tell the other man, they had called several times, but he could never bring the topic up. Instead he just let the conversation flow naturally. Which was so weird to think about. Everything he had been told about Tom was that he was self centered, a major asshole, as Colt had called him. But, everything he had seen from Tom said otherwise.
The other man cared about him, no one else would put up with his science rambles nearly as much. Especially once they got to talking about scifi movies, Ryland really couldn’t shut up when that was the topic. It truly seemed like Tom didn’t mind, in fact he encouraged Ryland to keep talking, saying it was cute how passionate he was about the topic, he even promised that on his next scifi film he would consult Ryland on the actual science of it, just to appease him.
On one hand he knew he should tell Tom, let him know that he had been kind of an asshole in agreeing to the date, but on the other he actually really liked the man and didn’t want to mess things up. So he had to decide, before he could chicken out he shot the other man a text.
Hey, can we talk?
Immediately his phone was ringing.
“Hey Tom.”
“What’s up?” Tom sounded nervous.
“I kinda gotta tell you something, and you might hate me.”
“I don’t think I could hate you Ryland.”
“Well, just let me tell you. I kinda only agreed to that first date to piss off Colt,” he mumbled out the words, hoping if he said them fast enough Tom wouldn’t be able to understand them and just move on.
What he wasn’t expecting was laughter from the other end of the phone. Not just a chuckle, full on laughter, the kind that hurts your stomach.
“You, you aren’t mad?”
“Ryland, I knew that, I’m stupid not dumb. And I figured from the looks that Colt’s been giving me that you told him, he does have a mean bitch face, and yet he hasn’t said anything to me.”
“Yeah, I did tell him, but I think he knows you actually like me and that’s why he hasn’t beaten the snot out of you.”
“And for that I am thankful,” he laughed a bit again, “but seriously, Ryland, I knew when you agreed that that was what your plan was, you’re a horrible liar by the way. I didn’t care though, I just wanted to spend more time with you, and I kinda sorta hoped that I could convince you I’m not like the worst person in the world and you may actually want to date me.”
“I guess we both had plans going into this, huh?”
“Yeah, you wanted to make Colt mad, which is a plan I can always get behind by the way, and I wanted to snag a date with the cutest man on Earth.”