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There Nick Nelson was, in the Boots car park, hands on his hips, staring disbelievingly at the very flat tyre that was currently attached to his car, feeling like the dumbest bitch alive. And Darcy was not helping.
“I can’t believe you drove all the way here with a flat tyre!” Laughter was evident in their voice. Nick could only huff in response.
Tara, Darcy’s girlfriend, had woken up with a cold, so she had asked Darcy and Nick if they could go out and get her some medicine and cough drops. They happily obliged, but on the way to the drugstore they heard, from somewhere in the car, a popping noise every few seconds and the ride felt bumpier than usual. But did either of them think to pull over and check out what could be wrong? Of course not.
Darcy continued, “You’re a man; aren’t you supposed to know how to change a tyre?”
“You’re a lesbian; aren’t you supposed to know how to change a tyre?” Nick retorted.
Darcy crossed their arms. “I am not a handy lesbian. That’s why I have a girlfriend who is.” Nick didn’t have it in him to make some sort of joke about that.
“Great, so, the only person who can help us is indisposed.” Nick continued staring at the flat tyre as if that would will it to re-inflate itself.
“I guess we’ll have to YouTube it.” Darcy shrugged. Nick huffed again.
Darcy rolled their eyes. “Staring at it isn’t going to fix it.” They started tapping on their phone, presumably to find someone’s dad on YouTube who could show them how to change a tyre.
“Nick…” Darcy whispered after a minute or two.
“What…” Darcy just poked him in response. Finally breaking his gaze on the flat tyre, he looked at them. They only jerked their head behind him, and Nick turned to see what they were indicating.
And Nick felt his heart stop.
Jogging towards them (probably at a normal pace but Nick saw it in slow motion) was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. Dark curls bouncing with every step, piercing blue eyes, a wide smile that brought out his dimples. And he was tall and lanky, which made him look kind of dorky. Nick could practically feel his eyes go heart-shaped.
Nick couldn’t help staring, and he knew Darcy’s eyes were on him, a cheeky grin on their face, but he didn’t care. This man was beautiful, and he was coming towards them. Towards Nick.
“Hi,” the man said in a soft voice with a small wave, as he made it to Nick and Darcy.
“Hi,” Nick responded, sounding way too breathy.
“I was just coming to see if you all needed any help.” He looked from Nick to Darcy and back to Nick again. Neither of them said anything.
“With your tyre?” The man suddenly sounded uncertain. Darcy elbowed Nick in the ribs. He knew they wanted him to do the talking because they knew he thought this man was attractive. But Nick was now feeling even more stupid then he already was.
“Uh, yeah,” Nick squeaked out, and coughed to try to cover it up. He ignored Darcy’s quiet snickering.
“Right, let me see what’s going on.” The man came over and crouched down right in front of Nick, to inspect the tyre. Nick looked down in disbelief once again, this time at the gorgeous man in front of him instead of the blasphemous flat tyre. He was taking in the mop of dark curls and the curve of the mans spine under his flannel, but he realized he was being weird so he stepped to the side. He snapped his head up when he heard Darcy clear their throat beside him.
“Well, I’m going to go on in and get the things I needed to get. For my girlfriend.” Emphasis on the last word to make it clear that they and Nick were not together and that there wasn’t a chance. “I’ll leave you two to it.” The mother of all cheeky grins was on their face. They winked at Nick and turned and they were on their way inside Boots. Nick just stared after them, as apparently all he could do that day was just stare.
“It looks like you drove right over a screw,” the man said as he stood up.
“Yeah…” Ah, Nick, always with the interesting responses.
“Right. Do you have a spare tyre, a wheel brace, and a jack in your car?”
“Uhhh…” Nick reached up to scratch the back of his neck, his infamous nervous habit. He didn’t even know if he had these things and he was really starting to wonder how many brain cells he actually had.
“They’ll probably be in the boot if you do.” The man was smiling again and his dimples were showing. There was an amused gleam in his eyes and Nick was sure he thought he was stupid. Nick just hoped he didn’t look as flustered as he felt. But it was not lost on Nick that the man was just being nice rather than making fun of him for not knowing a damn thing about changing a tyre.
“Okay,” Nick said and opened the boot. “Uhhh…” Nick said again upon finding the boot empty aside from some rugby equipment.
“Probably in this compartment here.” And then the gorgeous man was standing right next to Nick, and when he reached to open the compartment, the side of his body pressed against Nick’s and Nick had to struggle hard to keep his cool.
“Can you hold these, please?” The man handed Nick the jack and the wheel brace, and Nick’s hands brushed against his as he took the tools from him. The man’s hands were soft and cool, yet the touch sent sparks of electricity up the entirety of both of Nick’s arms. Nick had to grip the tools extra tight to keep from dropping them.
Then the man pulled the spare tyre out of the boot and leaned it up against the side of the car. He had slender arms but he still did this effortlessly. Then he took his flannel off and tied it around his waist before crouching down in front of the flat tyre again and Nick had to lean against the car to catch his damn breath.
The man held out his hand. “Jack, please.” He was so direct but calm and why did Nick feel like he would already do anything this man told him to, this man he’s known for all of five minutes? Nick handed the jack to him and he placed it under the car and began cranking it to lift the car up. Nick could see his muscles moving under his shirt and he had to force himself to look at the ground to keep himself from staring.
“Okay,” the man said as he stood back up. “Can I have the wheel brace now?” He looked at Nick, that beautiful smile on his face again, and held out his hand. Nick handed it to him and he crouched down again and started unscrewing the wheel nuts. And Nick was staring again. The man’s eyes were set in determination and there was a small smile on his face. He was so goddamn PRETTY and how did Nick’s day go from zero to one hundred so fast?
“Alright,” the man said as he pulled the tyre off. He stood up and handed it to Nick. “I guess you can put this in the boot.”
“Okay,” Nick responded. He wondered what heinous crimes he must have committed in a past life to deserve having his vocabulary reduced to three measly words in the presence of this beautiful man.
This beautiful man, who was currently screwing a tyre onto Nick’s car because Nick’s helpless bisexual ass didn’t know how to do it. This beautiful man, who Nick would definitely never see again if he didn’t get his act together and relearn how to speak.
The man was now cranking the jack to bring the car back down and Nick was running out of time to be anything other than a helpless, speechless idiot.
“Alright, should be good to go.” The man was up and facing Nick now, that beautiful fucking smile turning Nick’s heart into jelly.
“Thank you so much,” Nick managed to say. “You’re seriously a lifesaver. My friend and I had absolutely no idea what we were doing.” He flashed a sheepish grin and his hand was up scratching the back of his neck again.
One side of the man’s mouth was turned up in an amused grin. “Well, if you want, I can give you my number? So you have someone to call if you need help changing your tyre again. Or for anything else.”
“Uh, yeah!” Nick cursed himself for sounding overly excited. He handed the phone to the man so he could type his number in.
“Well, nice to meet you, Charlie,” he said upon reading the man’s name in his phone. Charlie. What a pretty name for a pretty man. “Oh, I’m Nick.” He held out his hand for Charlie to shake and immediately felt like an absolute dork but Charlie only giggled (possibly the cutest sound Nick has EVER heard) and shook his hand. Electricity shot up Nick’s arm again but instead of pulling away he held onto Charlie’s hand for longer than was necessary.
“Nice to meet you, Nick.” Charlie’s eyes sparkled and Nick wanted so badly to see them every day. “And I mean it. Call me sometime.”
Nick couldn’t stop the stupid grin from growing on his face. “Will do,” was all he said and it made Charlie giggle again and he hoped that was a good thing.
“I hope you do!” Charlie waved and how many ways could Nick describe what that smile did to him? “Okay, bye!” And Charlie was jogging back to his own car, and Nick was left staring after him. Maybe Nick wasn’t such a psychopath in a past life after all.
“How did it go?” Nick jumped at the sound of Darcy’s voice, who was suddenly standing beside him. Their eyes were bright and they waggled their eyebrows expectantly.
“I don’t really know,” Nick said truthfully.
Darcy raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I basically didn’t say anything at all while he changed the tyre then he gave me his number?”
Darcy squealed. “Maybe you’re not a disaster after all! You’re going to call him, right?”
“If I can manage to say more than three words to him.”
“Okay, maybe you’re a little bit of a disaster. But you should still call him.”
The stupid grin was back on Nick’s face. “I will.”
“Good!” Darcy matched Nick’s stupid grin with their own. “Right, let’s get my beautiful, amazing girlfriend her medicine before she DIES or something horrible like that.”
——
“What the bloody fuck took you all so long?” Tara asked from her and Darcy’s bed where she was buried in blankets, her voice gravelly from being sick.
“Nicky has a boyfriend, Nicky has a boyfriend, Nicky has a boyfriend!” Darcy danced their way into the kitchen as they singsonged this new development in Nick’s life to Tara. Nick groaned.
“What?!” Tara tried to shout and immediately coughed.
“A beautiful man gave me his number,” Nick said calmly, but he smiled wide.
“Nick drove all the way to Boots with a flat tyre and since he’s a literal disaster he didn’t know what to do about it so this pretty man helped him and now they’re boyfriends,” Darcy explained as they returned with a glass of water for Tara.
“Darcy, we are not boyfriends.”
“Not yet .” They waggled their eyebrows mischievously. They handed some of the cold medicine to Tara.
“So, what you’re saying is, I’ve been sitting here wasting away, waiting for you all to bring me medicine, and Nick was FLIRTING?” Tara coughed again.
“I actually didn’t say much of anything at all,” Nick defended himself. Tara raised an eyebrow.
“You must have done something to catch his interest.”
“Isn’t Nick’s beauty enough?” Darcy asked their girlfriend, then both of them were sizing him up.
“It’s true. Nick, you are pretty hot for a man, I must say.” Nick rolled his eyes but smiled at his best friend.
“When are you going to call him?” Darcy asked.
“I don’t know,” Nick sighed, leaning against the doorway. “I don’t want to call him too soon. I don’t want to be weird, you know?”
“Nick, it sounds like you were being weird. Maybe he’s into that,” Tara suggested.
“You’re also into weird people, aren’t you?” Nick raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.
Tara looked at Darcy lovingly. “I guess I am.”
Darcy gasped. “You guess ?!”
Tara rolled her eyes. “Oh my god, you big weird dummy, you know I love you.”
“Yay!” Darcy exclaimed and pounced on Tara.
“Ow! No, don’t kiss me; you’ll catch my cold!”
“I don’t care.”
“Well, I do! I don’t want you getting sick. This is awful.” Tara coughed as she snuggled deeper into the blankets. “I love discussing Nick’s love life, but I’m tired. I need to sleep.”
“Can I sleep here with you?”
“I suppose.”
“Yay!” Darcy flung their shoes off and cuddled up a few centimeters away from Tara, to give her space. Nick smiled fondly at his best friends.
“I guess this is my cue to leave,” Nick said, turning to do so.
“Or you could stand there and watch us, like the weirdo you are.” Darcy winked at Nick, and he flipped them off. He turned to leave again but was stopped by Tara this time.
“Oh, Nick?” Her voice was quiet and scratchy.
“Call that beautiful mystery man. Like, sooner rather than later.” Darcy nodded in agreement.
Nick smiled. “I will.”
——
Later that evening, Nick was on his bed, thumb hovering over Charlie’s number in his phone. It felt like there was a full-on butterfly battle in his stomach. Was it too soon to call him? He was pretty adamant about wanting Nick to call him. But he was also so casual about it. Nick let out a frustrated groan. Why was he such a disaster when it came to beautiful people?
Tara and Darcy had obviously heavily encouraged him. He knew that despite their constant friendly joking with him, they ultimately wanted the best for him so they wouldn’t lead him astray when it came to his love life. Nick also knew himself, and he knew he would agonize over whether to call Charlie until he felt like too much time had passed to be able to call him. Fuck it , he thought. He was interested, and Charlie apparently was too. He tapped on Charlie’s number before he could overthink it more.
It just kept ringing and Nick was sure Charlie wasn’t going to pick up. His heart sank. Maybe it was too soon to call him. But then he heard the phone pick up and Charlie’s soft voice say “hello?” and Nick was filled with butterflies again. He flipped over onto his stomach and kicked his feet into the air like an eager teenager.
“Uh, hi. This is Nick. Uh, you helped me change my tyre earlier?“
“Hi!” Charlie’s voice sounded infinitely brighter.
“Hi!” Nick responded, which sent Charlie giggling. Then Nick was laughing and so was Charlie and that turned into a three hour phone call (Nick was able to find his words after all), the beginnings of something wonderful.