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This birthday was not going anywhere near Ryland Grace’s list of favorite birthdays. Yes, of course there was a list. Best one was when he and Colt turned 5 and got their first bikes. Colt almost immediately begged to get his training wheels off and Ryland kept his on until he outgrew that bike entirely. Anyway, this birthday was not a super-fun-new-toy-shared-with-his-twin kind of birthday. This was a, he’s-at-work-and-the-center-of-attention-and-he-hates-it kind of birthday. Ryland was sure it was all Colt’s fault and he would be giving him an earful about it after work for sure.
The day had started off fine. The office staff had gotten him donuts and coffee to celebrate and his morning classes went well. Right before lunch he had been informed there was a delivery for him in the office and learned, to his horror, that Tom Flipping Ryder had sent him a gigantic bouquet of yellow roses and sunflowers and called him “Sunshine” in the accompanying note. He left the flowers with the receptionist, citing his allergies as the (perfectly legitimate!) reason and told her she could keep them. He hoped that would be the end of it, but of course that was not to be.
The rest of the afternoon, it seemed that EVERY SINGLE FACULTY MEMBER found a reason to stop by his room. They wished him Happy Birthday and not so subtly questioned who could have sent him such a lovely display of flowers. At first he explained it away as a prank from his brother, which he was sure was partly true. Sometime between his last two class periods and his final nerve, he peevishly told one of his colleagues “They’re from the actor Tom Ryder!” Thankfully, the teacher who asked thought it was a joke and just laughed it off and said, “Fine, keep your secrets!” He was lucky the absurdity of it all worked in his favor and that no one would ever believe the truth of the matter.
************
Colton Grace (stage name, Colt Seavers) had been waiting for the call from his twin brother Ryland all day. He didn’t know what Ryder had done after asking for the address to Ryland’s school, but he knew he had to have sent him something ridiculous after all the begging he did upon learning that today was their birthday. Based on the timing of the call, Ryland called him the second he got home.
“What the heck, Colt?” Ryland seethed before Colt could even get out a full greeting.
“And a Happy Birthday to you too, Ryland!” Colt laughed.
He could practically see Ryland waving his hand in annoyance as he said “Yeah, yeah, Happy Birthday. You gave TOM RYDER the address to my school? Do you know what he did?”
“No, I was hoping you’d tell me,” Colt replied. “It can’t have been too bad since he was still here on set all day.”
“He sent me FLOWERS. Like a gigantic bouquet! Flipping ROSES. I’ve been fighting a sneezing fit all afternoon. And I swear, every single one of my coworkers had to come ask me about it.” Ryland was really worked up now, it was going to take a while to talk himself out of this one.
Colt bit off a laugh which he knew would only make things worse and asked “So, you’re saying this didn’t make you fall for the great actor’s wiles? Damn, he’ll be so sad.”
Was Ryland actually growling now? Oh boy. “What did you tell him to make him think flowers was the move? You know I hate them and they make my allergies go haywire.”
“Yeah, that was the point. It’s not like I’m going to give that asshole info on how to actually woo my baby brother!” Now Colt was the indignant one. “I told him you like science and nature and shit and the color yellow. He took that and ran with it I guess.”
“You’re like five minutes older than me, I’m not your baby brother.” Ryland continued the age old argument right on cue. “You’re right, it’s not like I want his attention, but did you have to egg him on with something that would be so public and embarrassing? There is no way I’m going to live this down any time soon. I’ll be lucky if my students don’t start asking about those darn flowers at this rate.”
From there the conversation moved to more pleasant things than the overbearing actor and his ill-fated attraction to Colt’s twin. They talked of their separate birthday plans and Colt’s upcoming filming schedule and when they might meet up over Ryland’s summer break. By the time they hung up a while later they were both laughing about the flowers and plotting further ways to mess with Ryder if he didn’t get over his crush soon.
***********
The next morning, Colt walked onto set only a little bit hungover from going out with his friends the night before. He was grateful for his sunglasses as the day was unnecessarily bright, clearly just to mess with him. And speaking of messing with him, he had barely arrived when he heard “Hey Seavers, I need to talk to you!” bellowing from none other than Tom Ryder himself.
Colt groaned. It was too early for Ryder’s nonsense, but he couldn’t really avoid the actor, so he headed his direction. “Can I help you?” He asked, trying not to sound too irritated.
“I just wanted to know if you heard anything from Ryland? Did he get my gift? Did he like it? When can I see him again?” Oh wow, Ryder actually sounded sincere and maybe even a teeny bit insecure about this. Colt almost felt bad for the guy, but then he remembered his general attitude and self-centeredness and just put on a confused look and shrugged like he had no idea what they were talking about.
“You talked to him yesterday, right? And he didn't mention the flowers I sent to his school?” Tom actually managed puppy dog eyes at this.
Colt slapped his forehead dramatically and said “Oh, right, that! Yeah, he got the flowers. Poor guy was up sneezing all night because of it. Allergies are a bitch, aren’t they?”
Tom’s eyes widened. “Allergies?! You didn’t tell me he was allergic! You told me to get him flowers!”
“I did no such thing! I told you he likes nature and shit. I was very nonspecific when you asked what to get him. You must have assumed I meant flowers. You’re lucky I even told you what school to send anything to!” Colt started to walk away.
“Thanks for nothing. I was already going to send some to every middle school in the San Francisco area if you didn’t tell me. Poor Ryland. I can't believe I gave him an allergy attack.” Tom muttered that last as he walked away looking dejected and remorseful.
Colt stared as the actor left and wondered if it was possible Ryder actually had real, genuine feelings for his brother. That had to be an act, right? Then again, Ryder couldn’t actually act worth a damn, so maybe this was legit.