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There were many times in his life where Will knew he had fucked up.
Like the time he broke his mom’s vase, and the time he forgot his final project at home in ninth grade, and the time he drove into a mailbox. They were all huge, life ending incidents that he laid awake over, cringing at his past self for being such an idiot. He had survived all of the situations, luckily, but he knew that he was different because all of those things happened to him.
This situation with Nico was another one of those times where he knew he had messed up. Sure, in the moment he had thought he potentially screwed up, but he was positive that it would just blow over. Nico seemed odd about Dylan being there, but of course Will had said that they were just project partners and nothing more. Surely, it wasn’t a big deal.
But then, Nico started ignoring his texts, and whenever Will went to Homebaked, Nico was always busy. Which, yeah, Nico was usually absorbed in work, the guy was a workaholic, but he had previously been able to chat with Will for a few minutes when he was at Homebaked, and definitely made time to answer Will’s texts when he could.
So, Nico not answering him and actively avoiding him was weird. He had fucked things up with Nico because he hadn’t thought of the implications of bringing Dylan to Homebaked, because he never fathomed that Dylan would share that they had met on Tinder. Like true, they had matched months ago, but it wasn’t like Will had ever pursued anything! And Will did his best to explain the situation!
But, he couldn’t explain all that to Nico in the moment and now Nico was avoiding him and-
“This is all so fucked,” Will complained to Lou Ellen and Cecil. He was sprawled across the couch in their apartment before his first class of the day, whining and feeling sorry for himself, even though it was all his fault. He felt like he deserved at least some sympathy because he didn’t know what to do.
“You’re an idiot,” was all Cecil had to offer him.
“Cecil!” Lou exclaimed, covering her mouth in surprise.
“What? It’s true! Will’s an idiot. He should have kept Dylan far away from Nico,” Cecil replied. “Obviously Dylan wanted to get with Will even though he ghosted him months ago-”
“It’s not ghosting if we never spoke in the first place!” Will cut in, but Cecil ignored him and continued speaking.
“And so, when another boy, Nico, was brought into the picture, of course Dylan was going to try to scare him off! It was intentional, and certainly fucking worked because Nico is avoiding Will,” Cecil said. “At least, now we have confirmation.”
“Confirmation of what?” Will asked, assuming Cecil was going to say something along the lines of confirmation that Will has lost more than a few brain cells.
Instead, Cecil said, “Confirmation that Nico likes you back. There’s no way he would stop talking to you out of nowhere for no reason unless you did something. And the last time you saw him was when you were with Dylan, so it must have been something you and Dylan said. And if he didn’t like you, then the Tinder thing wouldn’t have bugged him. It doesn’t take a genius to put this all together.”
“Yeah, that’s true Will! There’s no way you can deny that Nico likes you back now!” Lou Ellen chimed in. “It makes sense.”
Will fell quiet for a moment, before responding “I guess,” Will said, still half refusing to believe that Nico actually liked him back. “I just- I don’t know! I know he’s mad at me about that particular thing, but it’s somehow easier to believe that he’s mad that I didn’t tell him I had a boyfriend or something, rather than mad because he thinks that I lead him on. I don’t know. I can’t imagine him liking me like that,” Will sighed, standing up to grab his phone from off the charger because he had class soon. “All I know is… that I have a new text from Nico??”
“Holy shit dude! What’s it say!” Cecil asked, jumping up and running to Will, with Lou Ellen following suit.
“Hey, sorry I haven’t been answering. Things have been hectic lately. I’m done with work at 1, do you wanna come to Homebaked then so we can talk? Shit, shit, shit,” Will said, reading the text over and over again. “That sounds serious. He’s gonna tear me a new one. Oh no, this is not gonna end well.”
“I think it’s promising,” Lou offered. “Like he is open to talk to you, even after you were such a screw up. You should respond to him. And, you better not mess this up later.”
“Seriously! He probably wants to talk it over with you, clear the air and all that. You gotta keep it together, Will. The fate of you and Nico rests on it!” Cecil said, which made Will roll his eyes.
“Alright, fine. I’ll do it even though Nico will probably have my head. You guys gotta help me respond to him though. What do I say? Quick, because I have class in twenty minutes,” Will said and the three of them got to work, crafting the best text ever. Will just hoped it was enough to start to repair things with Nico.
*
Will got to Homebaked at 12:50, because the second his class ended he bolted out of there and ran to the shop, not wanting to be late. And now, of course, he was too early. He paced in front of the shop for a few minutes, looking incredibly suspicious while he wondered if it was weird to be early or if it was perfectly normal. By 12:55, he had decided it wasn’t so weird, and that he actually looked weirder loitering outside. So, Will went inside the shop.
Rachel was working the counter and waved to him happily. Will walked up, and ordered an iced oat milk latte with vanilla syrup. “Good choice,” Rachel said as she punched in the order on the register and took Will’s money. “Do you want me to get Nico? I don’t know if he’ll be able to come out. He’s been brooding away in the kitchen the past few days. It’s been super weird, but I guess we have had a lot of orders to fulfill.”
“No, it’s okay. He told me to meet him here at 1. His shift’s almost over so he’ll come out when he’s done. Thanks though,” Will replied with a smile. He was happy to know that Rachel still liked him, even with the situation currently going on. The past few days, Jason had been giving Will somewhat of a cold shoulder, like he knew the whole situation and was not happy with him for making Nico upset.
He didn’t blame Jason. He probably would do the same if it was Cecil or Lou Ellen who had been upset. But, it didn’t mean that Will liked it. And, he especially hoped that he hadn’t ruined things with Nico beyond fixing, especially if Jason was upset with him.
Will waited and drank his coffee, trying not to look like he was ready to throw up. At 1:15 pm, Nico walked out from the kitchen, his apron off. He had on black jeans and a black long sleeve shirt for some band or movie or something that Will had never heard of. He looked tired (more tired than usual), but he wasn’t staring at Will like Nico watched him kick a puppy, which Will took as a kind of good sign. Will gave a wave to Nico, who collapsed in the chair across from Will. He looked young and vulnerable, like he was as scared as Will currently was.
“Hi,” Nico said finally and looked away from Will. He immediately started bouncing his leg and biting his nails.
“Hey,” Will said, trying to keep his voice low and calm, since Nico already seemed like he was a bundle of nerves. He didn’t need to feed off of Will’s nervous energy regarding the situation. “What’s new? I haven’t seen you recently. Is everything okay?”
“It’s been busy here,” Nico said, like it wasn’t always busy at Homebaked, like Nico wasn’t the king of overworking himself. “I’m sorry.” Nico paused like he wanted to say more, but didn’t continue on.
“That’s okay,” Will replied. “I get it. The semester is really getting nuts now for me too. Lots of papers and tests and projects.” Will wished he hadn’t mentioned projects, because the second he did, he regretted it. Nico whipped his head up to look at Will, looking panicked. Just as quickly, Nico turned away from him and sighed. Nico opened his mouth and closed it again, like he was going to say something and changed his mind.
Nico frowned and sighed once more. “Ah, fuck it. I can’t just do these social niceties and beat around the bush or whatever before we get to the point of this,” Nico said. “It’s too damn awkward and I just gotta rip the bandaid off. Are you dating Dylan?”
“Nope,” Will answered honestly, finding this conversation a lot easier than he had expected. “We are working together on a project, that’s all. After Monday, we won’t be partners because the presentation will be over, but even so we aren’t actively working on it now. We finished it completely yesterday.” Will had never rushed through completing a project so quickly in his life, desperate to get away from Dylan, feeling guilty about leaving him hanging and then turning him down when Dylan clearly was trying to get Will to be more than just project partners with him.
Dylan hadn’t asked Will out or anything, but Will wasn’t going to count him out until the project, and maybe even their class together, was over.
“Did you match with him on Tinder though?” Nico asked, sounding a little angry.
This question was a little more challenging. “Yes,” Will replied, and Nico immediately deflated. “But,” Will quickly continued, not wanting to screw shit up, “we never spoke until we were paired up as project partners. I swear. A few months ago I downloaded Tinder just to kind of play around on it, see if I found anyone interesting. I never pursued anything because I didn’t feel the need to.”
Nico looked at Will like he didn’t believe him in the slightest, which Will could understand. “Look, see,” Will said, pulling out his phone. He opened the app and handed it over to Nico. “You can look over my messages. I haven’t opened any of them, I swear.” Will thanked his past self for not deleting the app all those weeks ago. He was happy he hadn’t talked to anyone on the app, that he hadn’t opened any messages. He just hoped the app was proof enough for Nico.
Will sat with bated breath while Nico looked through his phone. He knew that it had to have only been a couple seconds, not even a minute, but for Will, it felt like hours. He contemplated just losing hope, when Nico spoke again.
“I believe you,” Nico finally said, sounding upset. Will was unsure why he sounded so sad about the whole thing, until Nico continued on, saying, “I’m sorry. I was just upset and frustrated about Dylan. I-,” Nico paused, looking pained. “ I can’t believe I’m saying this. But, I was embarrassed because I kind of thought that maybe we had something going on? Like romantically? I don’t have a lot of experience with this stuff, to be honest. So I thought that I misread the situation and jumped to conclusions. I’m sorry I acted like that.”
Will paused, not quite sure that he was correctly hearing and understanding Nico. Did he say that he thought something was happening between him and Will? Nico looked at Will expectantly as Will sat there silently, wondering if this was real or a dream. “Do you know why I stopped using Tinder?” Will finally asked, unsure of how else to respond to what appeared to be Nico’s confession of his crush on Will.
“Why?” Nico asked, his brows becoming more and more furrowed by the minute.
“Because I met you,” Will said, and then cringed. “That sounded so corny. But you get what I mean. I just was having so much fun coming here and talking to you and yeah. I joined Tinder because I wanted to see if I could find someone, you know? And then I didn’t need to find anyone because you were here.”
Nico sat silent and still for a few moments. “Are you serious?” Nico eventually asked. Of all of the responses Will had imagined, he definitely did not think that Nico would have responded that way. He would have been hurt, had Nico’s expression not begun to soften.
“Of course I am,” Will responded. “I think you're amazing. You make me laugh and you’re hardworking and I never seem to get bored around you. And, the fact that you’re incredibly cute helps,” Will said, feeling his face blush red as he continued speaking. “I could say a lot more, but in the interest of not totally embarrassing myself, I won’t.”
Nico, whose face was also now red, said, “Wow. I… Wow.” Will waited for Nico to say more, but he didn’t. “Sorry, everything I am thinking is good. I am just overwhelmed. In a good way, obviously.” Will nodded, feeling hopeful, yet incredibly nervous about Nico’s response.
“Okay,” Nico said after a few more beats of silence. “Sorry, I just never had this happen before? I know that’s so humiliating to say, but I am so out of my depth when it comes to this stuff. I like you too. Like, a lot, which I’m sure you could gather from the way I freaked out when you brought Dylan here, and how I gave you a free pastry, which I never do, and then I made it my mission to find baked goods like you. I’m sure it’s been obvious since day one that I really thought you were handsome.”
“No, I was kind of scared of you to be honest,” Will said, which he immediately regretted until Nico giggled. “You came off as super intense. In a good way! Like, when a person is scary hot.”
“I’m kind of intense,” Nico admitted, a smile stretched across his face. “But, whatever. Point being, I like you a lot, Will. And,” Nico took a deep breath in. “I want to ask you on a date.”
“Yes,” Will said without giving his answer a second thought. “I thought you would never ask. Holy shit.”
“Oh, awesome,” Nico said, smiling the brightest that Will had ever seen him smile. “Wow. That’s… wow. Okay, cool. I’m sorry. I am just so excited.” The two stared at each other for a few seconds, just smiling at each other like a bunch of fools. Will was sure that they looked incredibly weird, but he didn’t care. He was just so damn happy.
“Can we text about it? Come up with a time and plan and all of that? Sorry to leave like this, but I unfortunately,” Will said, looking at his watch, “have class very soon. But I can text you tonight?”
“Absolutely,” Nico replied. “I might not answer immediately because I am so exhausted and I will most likely knock out the second my head hits the pillow, but I will answer. I already have some date ideas.”
“Excellent,” Will responded. He and Nico stood up and looked at each other. Will considered what the best way to say bye to Nico was, but he figured that they were close enough that they could hug. So, he threw his arms around Nico and squeezed him. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye,” Nico said, his voice muffled from where he was squeezed into Will’s chest. When Will finally pulled away, Nico waved at Will, a smile stretched across his face.
It took everything in him to not run out of there skipping and cheering. This was maybe Will’s best day ever (until his date with Nico, that is).