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Ryland had been in LA for a couple of days now. Most of that time had been spent hanging out with his brother Colt. He was between projects at the moment, so he had time to entertain his twin, but he was getting fed up with all the sighing and fawning over Tom-fucking-Ryder. Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, Colt suggested something he never thought he would. “Why don’t we invite Ryder to go to mini-golf with us this afternoon?”
“Seriously?” Ryland asked. “That’s like a sacred family tradition. You would invite Tom?”
“If I don’t, you’ll just keep looking at your phone every five minutes hoping for another flirty text from him. Or you’ll look longingly into the distance sighing as you think about his abs or whatever it is about him you find appealing.”
“His eyes, duh.” Ryland replied. “I’m calling him now before you change your mind.”
********
A few hours later, the three of them were on the mini-golf course. Tom had a baseball cap pulled low along with his sunglasses to try and minimize attention. Ryland was hoping the reduced visibility would impede his gameplay. It hadn’t worked so far, and Tom was beating both of the brothers at their own game.
Ryland, being astonishingly competitive (it always surprised people who assumed Colt would be the competitive one) had apparently decided to fight dirty. Every time that Tom was about to take a swing, Ryland would subtly get a little too close. He’d pretend to trip and reach out to Tom for support, or “accidentally” brush against him as he walked by. Once he just straight up smacked Tom on the ass and then walked away whistling with feigned innocence. It was diabolical, but it worked. Tom’s game steadily got worse and Ryland won the first game handily. Tom demanded a rematch and they got ready to start a game on the venue’s second course.
Tom stepped away to go pay for the second game, and Colt looked over at his brother with a mischievous grin. “I bet he’s gonna try and use your tricks against you this game.”
“Oh probably. I don’t think that tactic will work twice.” Ryland shrugged. He’d had fun, and with more than just winning the round of mini-golf.
“What if we swap places? See if he can tell us apart?” Colt suggested.
“We haven’t done that since we were in high school. Don’t you think we’re a little old for that?” He looked around for Tom to see if he was close enough to hear this nonsense. It looked like he had been stopped by some kids who had recognized him. “Okay, fine. But you better not punch him if he tries to kiss you or something.”
“Agreed, as long as you agree not to punch ME if he tries to kiss me.” They hurried off to the restroom to swap outfits.
“It’s a good thing you never wear your glasses properly. I can’t see shit with these things on.” Colt grumbled as they headed back outside.
Tom was waiting for them at the beginning of the next course. Colt walked over to him and accepted the yellow ball he handed to ‘“Ryland”. It was hard to tell with the sunglasses on, but it looked like Tom was squinting at him suspiciously.
Ryland gave his best approximation of one of the annoyed glares Colt had been giving the two of them lately and plucked Colt’s blue ball out of Tom’s outstretched hand.
The first couple of holes went fairly normally. Neither Ryland or Colt got too much into Tom’s space, and he kept his distance. “Ryland” started to get an early lead, and the brothers could both see when Tom decided on a little payback from the last game. Between holes, Tom picked up Ryland’s yellow ball and looked at Colt, still playing Ryland, and said “Don’t worry, I don’t mind holding onto your balls for you anytime.” and then winked.
He must have seen something in Colt’s face as he said it because he immediately did a double take between the two brothers. “You little shits! You changed outfits!”
Ryland and Colt both burst out laughing and then Colt handed Ryland his glasses and took his own sunglasses back. “You caught on faster than I thought you would. I was afraid you’d try to kiss me or something.”
“Ew.” Tom replied and then went over to the real Ryland and kissed him. “I told you I love your lips” he whispered too low for Colt to hear.
Now it was Colt’s turn to say “Ew.”
This game was a close one. Without Ryland making attempts to sabotage Tom’s concentration, Tom ended up winning by one stroke. He was surprised that Colt wasn’t fazed by losing both games, but not as much as he had been by Ryland’s competitive streak. Getting to know Ryland Grace was just one surprise after another.
**********
They parted ways when they left the mini-golf course, with Ryland going with Tom for the rest of the evening. It was the first time they’d been alone together since arriving in LA on Monday, and they were both missing each other despite the previous weekend being the only real time they had ever spent together. They stopped in at Tom’s place and changed clothes before going out to dinner. Ryland really didn’t have anything appropriate for anything even slightly fancy, so Tom told him to raid his closet for something to wear. It took some digging, but Ryland finally found something that both fit and didn’t feel so flashy that he would feel uncomfortable in it. Tom got a hungry look in his eyes and told Ryland that there was something deeply attractive about seeing Ryland wearing his clothes. “Well, I know you’ve been wanting to get in my pants for a while now, so I guess that tracks.” Ryland joked.
The restaurant they went to was nice. The atmosphere was classy and intimate and the food was very good. A few people stared at them, but everyone kept their distance and Ryland was able to relax into the conversation fairly easily. Spending time with Tom in public wasn’t always as scary as he was afraid it would be.
After dinner they went back to Tom’s place and settled on the couch to do some channel surfing. Neither of them seemed too focused on the TV and before he realized it, Ryland was sitting in Tom’s lap and they were making out. After a while, they were both a little breathless. Ryland pulled back a bit and said “I think we should probably slow down a little.” Tom nodded his head and said “Whatever you want, sweetheart.” Ryland leaned his head against Tom’s shoulder and just relaxed into him for a while, enjoying the warmth of his body so close and the feel of his arms around him.
After a bit, Tom asked if he wanted to stay the night, or go back to Colt’s place. Ryland sighed and said, “I should probably go back to Colt’s place. I’m still not ready for sex, but I don’t know how my resolve would hold up if I spent the night with you again right now.”
Tom smiled at that. “I understand. We have plenty of time for more when the time is right for you.”
*********
The next morning Tom got a call from Gail. “I see you’re still seeing Seavers’ brother?”
“Good morning to you too, Gail. Yes, I am still seeing Ryland.” Tom did not want to hear whatever shit she had to say about how Ryland was hurting his image. He wasn’t going to give up on a good thing just because it was potentially inconvenient for the women who wanted to fantasize about being with him, and the men who wanted to be him.
“Yeah, whatever good morning. I’m not trying to talk you out of the boy toy. I’m just letting you know I set up an appearance for you tomorrow to talk about it. There’s a lot of talk floating around about you two since you keep getting seen together and most of it is positive. I think if you lean into it, this could be great for you!”
“Fantastic. Glad my love life is convenient for the brand. What’s the appearance?” Tom rolled his eyes at the thought of having to dissect his brand new relationship with an interviewer.
“It’s a morning show. I’ll send the details to you through your assistant. Interview will be light in tone, but they want to know about the karaoke incident that got tagged all over Instagram, and now about you being out with both brothers at that mini-golf thing yesterday. Play up the whimsy of dating your stunt double’s brother and make a joke about being summoned by his singing or whatever.”
“Right, okay. I’m gonna run this by Ryland. I don’t want to make him uncomfortable by sharing too much about him so soon.”
“Whatever you do, don’t scare him off. The last thing you want is a break up right after going public with this.”
“Yeah, of course, think of my image and not my theoretical broken heart.” Tom said with a touch of bitterness in his voice.
"This guy is such a weird influence on you. You use so many big words now. Maybe try and tone that down for the interview.”
*******
Ryland was at the beach with Colt when Tom called to ask him his opinion on the interview. “I don’t want to overshare and make you feel exposed. I know they're going to ask about the karaoke thing, probably even share a clip or two of you dedicating songs to ‘not me’ and they apparently have pictures from mini-golf and want to know why I was hanging out with two of you.”
Ryland was momentarily mortified at the idea of his singing karaoke getting even more attention, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt anything. All his coworkers had already seen that anyway and there was a whole summer for it to blow over before he had to see them again.
“I don’t mind you talking about us, as long as it doesn’t get into what we do or don’t do in the bedroom. And maybe don’t mention me and Colt pranking you yesterday. People get weird about twins switching places and stuff.”
Colt glanced over and said “Don’t say ‘and stuff’.”
Ryland punched him in the arm and mouthed “Yes, Uncle Holland.”
“What was that? Colt want to get his two cents in too?” Tom asked.
“Nah, he’s just correcting my grammar.” Ryland said.
Tom laughed, “You know Gail said you’ve been influencing me to talk too well. Too many big words. I guess I need to remember to talk like caveman about pretty boy. No use big word to scare fans.”
“Whatever you do, don’t bonk the interviewer with a club. I think that might lead to bad publicity.”
The interview was stupid early the next morning, so Ryland and Tom didn’t make any plans for the night. They called and talked for a while before bed and Tom said he’d swing by and pick him up after the interview was over.
*********
Tom was in hair and makeup bright and early the next morning, ready to bare a tiny part of his soul to appease the curious masses. This was the first time he’d been really public with a relationship. He’d dated an actress or two before, but that had mostly been mutual social media posts supervised by their publicists. This felt different because there was something real underneath it all.
“Good morning everyone! Today I’m here with the charming Tom Ryder to talk about some interesting developments we've seen in his personal life lately!” The interviewer was perky and way too awake for this hour of the day, and Tom favored her with a carefully calculated smile. Just bright enough that everyone thought being here was his idea. “How are you Tom, it’s so lovely to talk to you again.”
“Thank you, Andrea, it’s lovely to be here. I’m doing very well, thanks for asking.”
“That’s great to hear. So anyone following you on social media saw that you had an eventful weekend, huh? Do we have a clip to share?”
“Haha, yeah it seems my boyfriend got a bit tipsy at a karaoke bar and it made it to Instagram.”
The screen in the studio showed a clip of Ryland on stage, swaying a little bit saying “I’m dedicating this next song to my boyfriend who is NOT Tom Ryder in case you were wondering.” They didn’t show any of the singing, likely trying to avoid any music licensing fees.
“Now the really interesting part about this, Tom, is the pictures posted after this video went live. Here we have you at the same bar, leaving with the man who we just saw on stage! I know a lot of people want to know, is this somebody you were already in a relationship with, or is karaoke how people apply to be your boyfriend?”
Tom playfully put his head in his hands after this question. “Oh, no, please don’t start dedicating karaoke songs to me in hopes of getting my attention. The man in these posts is my boyfriend, Ryland. We’ve been seeing each other for a few months now and the other night was a silly situation because I was mistaken as to where we were supposed to meet up. I promise I don’t just show up anytime someone sings me a song like that!”
“Oh no, you’ve just dashed the hopes of many a would-be suitor!” The interviewer laughed at that and then moved on to the next set of pictures. These were from the day before, and featured Tom, Ryland and Colt at the mini-golf course. Most of the pictures were pretty tame, but they did manage to catch the moment where Tom kissed Ryland after Colt gave him his glasses back. “These pictures are from yesterday, right?”
“That’s right, I was out with my boyfriend Ryland and his twin brother Colt. Colt has actually worked with me before and was the one to introduce me to Ryland.”
“Oh really? Is Colt an actor?”
“No, Colt Seavers is one of the stunt performers I work with regularly. He is very often my stunt double for the really crazy stunts.” Tom consciously made an effort to tamp down the lingering jealousy he had over Colt’s job being to do the cool stuff and tried to be as complimentary as he could. “I like doing what stunts I can safely, but sometimes you need a professional. For example, I hate being set on fire. I can’t stand the thought of my hair going up in smoke!”
The interviewer laughed at that. “Oh, that would be a true tragedy if your beautiful hair was singed off.”
“So Ryland isn’t in the film industry, then?” Andrea asked after a beat,
“No, he’s actually a teacher. Middle school science. Honestly he’s way too smart for me. I just couldn’t resist the combination of beauty AND brains.” Tom sighed for effect and the interviewer smiled.
“Now, forgive me if I’m getting too personal, but the fact that you are dating a man is surprising to some people. The only other relationships I’ve heard of you having have been with women. How do you label your sexuality?”
“I’ve never really felt the need to come out or label my sexuality publicly before, but I’m not ashamed of the fact that I am bisexual. I find people of all genders to be attractive and that’s not a new development for me personally. I’m much more interested in the person than their gender identity and I feel like when you meet the right person, you just know.”
Andrea nodded, “What a wonderful way to look at love. So, is Ryland Seavers the ‘right person’ for you?”
Tom noticed the misconception about Ryland’s last name and didn’t bother to correct the woman. Ryland might actually appreciate having a stage name for this, honestly. “I can’t imagine anyone being any more right for me. Getting to know and learning to love him has been the highlight of my life thus far.”
**********
Ryland was watching Tom’s interview on his phone and practically fell off the couch when Tom said the bit about learning to love him. They hadn’t used the L word yet, even though it had felt tantalizingly close several times. Was this how Tom really felt, or was this just good PR? Ryland was honestly a little scared to find out either way.