Once he’d grabbed his laptop, Andy sat back down next to Red and opened it, hoping there wouldn’t be anything embarrassing or compromising on the screen when it woke back up. He couldn’t remember what tabs he still had open.
Thankfully, it was nothing more exciting than his Twitter feed, which was mostly people reporting M4M bugs and other issues.
He’d never expected to feel appreciated as a developer, but the occasional thank you would have been nice.
“Okay, so, let me open up your account through the web app.” Andy opened up the M4M page and typed in Red’s login details.
“Don’t you need my password?” Red asked.
“Not when you entered it right in front of me and you’ve got that setting that shows you which letter you typed in the password box before it masks it turned on,” Andy said. “Besides, it was password1. A child could guess it.”
Red went quiet, and Andy realized he’d been too harsh with him. A knot formed in the pit of his stomach, heavy and uncomfortable. He didn’t want to make Red feel bad. He was supposed to be helping.
“Hey, it’s okay. Lots of people are really lazy about digital security. Most of the time, it doesn’t make any difference. But it only takes one asshole with a grudge to ruin your life if it’s not locked down properly.”
Red shifted, but looked up again. “I know you’re only trying to help,” he said.
“And I know I can be kind of… uh…”
“Unsubtle?” Red offered.
“I hear the phrase huge bag of dicks a lot.” Andy smiled wryly. “And sometimes, I mean to be like that. But not in this case. I like you.”
“You don’t like many people, do you?” Red asked, but his tone was soft. Fond, even.
“No.” Andy could feel the tips of his ears heating up, a blush spreading down his neck.
It was only a tiny crush. A tiny, harmless crush. Nothing would come of it.
“I’m honored.” Red straightened up, leaning over to see what Andy was doing.
“Okay, so, your profile title should not be hello.” Andy deleted the offending title and replaced it with a much, much better one.
“Red Hot? That’s the profile title we’re going with?”
Andy didn’t even need to glance at Red to know exactly what his current expression looked like. His single eyebrow raise was a work of art.
“It’s a pun, because you’re a firefighter, and your name is Red. People will react well to your great sense of humor,” Andy defended.
He’d lock down the profile title if he had to. He was too happy with it to change it now.
“Puns do not constitute a great sense of humor.”
Andy snorted. Of course they did. Everyone loved puns, even if they groaned at them. There was a whole psychology behind bad jokes being more socially useful than so-called good ones.
He’d spent a lot of time studying how to make people like him.
And then ignored literally all the advice, but still. He remembered what he’d read.
“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response. Anyway, profile text…”
This was the part Andy got stuck on, even when he’d been making dummy profiles to test the system. There were several faceless men on the site who had profiles like I’m extremely attractive, you should contact me and please love me I’m so alone, depending on his mood at the time.
Some of them had even gotten messages, despite having no photo, which was unexpected.
He’d considered responding to some of the more coherent ones, but decided that people who responded to single-line profiles probably had other things going on in their life that he didn’t want to get caught up in.
“Just… tell them I’m looking to meet new people?” Red suggested.
“Of course,” Andy said. “Everyone using this app is trying to meet new people. It’s about how you say it. Your profile only gets served to people who match you unless they have your ID number, but you still have to say something that makes them want to talk to you.”
Andy typed a few words, then reconsidered and deleted them. It was hard to say flattering things about Red with him looking over his shoulder.
“Do you trust me?” he asked after a few more moments of staring at the blinking cursor.
“Uh, yeah, sure.”
It wasn’t the most convincing answer, but it was good enough for Andy. “Then let me do this for you, and I will write your profile and find the perfect person to set you up with. All you have to do is show up.”
Red wet his lips, but then nodded. He still looked nervous, but of course he was nervous. This was his first date.
“I promise that you can trust me with this,” Andy said, wanting to reassure him. “Even if you don’t appreciate my profile-naming genius.”
“I… I mean, I do kinda like it? I just don’t wanna look like a dork in front of other guys,” Red admitted.
Andy tried desperately not to find that dangerously cute. He didn’t have time to obsess over his roommate. Especially not his very temporary roommate.
“Do you want to date someone who’s super cool, or do you want to date someone you like?”
“Oh.” Red paused, understanding dawning over him. “Well, when you put it that way…”
“Someone you like, right. So you want someone who appreciates dumb jokes, because you keep laughing at mine. What else?”
“Uh. I’d like… I dunno. I’ve never really thought about what the people I like are like. I’ve just had a ton of really intense crushes.”
Andy smiled at that. He and Red weren’t so different, despite outward appearance. If Andy had a type, he hadn’t figured out what that was, yet. All of his exes probably had something in common—aside from him—but he wasn’t sure what it was. They’d all been around at different stages of his life, and he’d been a different person in high school and college than he was now.
“Leave this to me. I’m gonna find you the perfect man, and you’re going on a date Friday night, and I’m going to put on my noise-cancelling headphones and stay in my room until morning.”
“Why… oh,” Red said as he apparently realized what Andy was getting at. “Oh. Do people do that on the first date?”
Andy blinked. He kept forgetting how new to this Red was. He couldn’t have been more than about twenty-three, but still. Andy was twenty-five, and his dating history stretched back almost ten years.
“Uh. You shouldn’t feel like you have to, but it’s also okay if you want to?”
Giving out life advice wasn’t one of Andy’s greatest strengths. It occurred to him then that Red probably didn’t have anyone else to ask. If he’d only just come out, the majority of his friends would be straight. Maybe all of them.
This was a lot more responsibility than he’d imagined. Matchmaking sounded like so much more fun before you realized how important it was to the people you were matching. Especially when they were new to the whole thing.
“Just… let your conscience be your guide. Or your dick. We’re only going to be young once, we might as well enjoy it, right?”
“Right,” Red said, though he didn’t seem all that convinced by Andy’s admittedly terrible attempt to help him.
Taking a deep breath, Red raised his arms above his head and stretched, cracking his back and knuckles at the same time. “I need to hit the gym. I’m gonna trust you. But, uh, that date needs to be on Thursday night. I have a shift on Friday.”
“Thursday it is,” Andy agreed. He watched Red walk away, starting to worry that he’d picked up more than he could carry.
It’d be fine. He’d spent the last year of his life working on finding people true love. Once he’d populated all the data he needed in Red’s profile, the matches would flow in, and his algorithm would do all the hard work for him. Red would be going on the perfect date with the perfect man on Thursday.
At least, Andy hoped he would.
Chapter Six
Though he’d tried to get some details out of
Andy before going off on his date, all Red knew about his evening was that when he stepped into the bar he’d been given the address of, there’d be a man in there who was waiting to meet him.
That… that did kind of feel good. He was glad he’d taken the plunge, and he was extra glad Andy had been there to give him the final push he needed.
Without that, Red wasn’t sure he ever would have approached anyone.
Andy had sent a photo to his phone, and the guy in it had a nice smile. He wasn’t exactly what Red was expecting, but looks weren’t everything. It wasn’t even as though he was unattractive—objectively, he was a very handsome man.
Red had just… imagined something different.
That was probably nerves talking.
Taking a deep breath, Red pushed the door to the bar open and stepped inside. Andy had helped him pick an outfit, and he felt good in the plaid button-down and jeans he was wearing. He felt like himself, which Andy had said was important.
Part of Red suspected that Andy didn’t actually know any better than he did and was just trying to sound like he had some idea, but that was okay. It was more important to have support than to have someone who was a master of seduction.
Red spotted the guy immediately, and waved over at him.
Then he noticed the logo on the guy’s t-shirt.
He was a paramedic.
That made a kind of sense, he supposed. At least, it would have to Andy.
Red’s heart sank, even as he walked over and sat down.
He didn’t want to date a paramedic. This guy was probably a really nice, but Red spent enough time with people in his line of work, and he worked with a lot of paramedics. Until he’d gotten a new roommate, he’d taken the job home with him every night and let the worst parts of it haunt him. Now, he could tell Andy about his day and then forget about it.
If he had to come home to someone who knew what it was like, he wouldn’t feel like he was getting it off his chest. He’d feel like he was just adding to their burden.
Not that he was obliged to move in with this guy or anything, but he already knew they weren’t going to be long-term boyfriends.
He probably shouldn’t have expected that, though. This was a first date. This was his first ever date. It didn’t need to be perfect. They were just supposed to be having a good time.
“Hey,” Red smiled. Since it was in his profile that he was a firefighter, he figured this guy knew that. “Umm. I’m Red.”
The guy knew that too, but it seemed like the right kind of thing to say.
“Evan,” the other man said, extending his hand. Red shook it without a second thought, and sat down opposite him.
He immediately felt like he was at a job interview.
He also realized that Andy would have talked to this guy, and he had no idea what had been said or how true it was. Obviously, it had been exactly what he wanted to hear—since he’d shown up—but if Red didn’t live up to it, it wouldn’t look great for him.
“Listen, I need to make a confession. My roommate is the guy with built the M4M app, and he’s the one who set up my profile and stuff and talked to you. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be here, but I just… don’t want to disappoint you.”
“Well, so far you’re exactly as described.” Evan grinned. “He must know you pretty well.”
Red figured it was better not to correct that assumption. Andy did seem to have a surprisingly good grasp of what people were like, for someone who admittedly didn’t get along with most of them.
Maybe he did and he was just being modest. He didn’t have to like people to be popular.
Red had checked his number of Twitter followers and determined that Andy was really, really popular. Not that he would have wanted to be in the same position, but he could see why. Despite his self-deprecation, he was funny, and kind, and obviously really smart.
“Uh, yeah, I guess.” Red scratched the back of his neck. “But I don’t know much at all about you.”
“Oh.” Evan sat back, grinning. “I’m pretty much a what you see is what you get kinda guy,” he said. “You want a beer?”
Red was fairly sure he was supposed to accept, so he nodded. “Uh, sure. I’ll get the next round.”
He could spend the amount of time it took to drink two beers with this guy. If nothing else, they automatically had life experiences in common—and he seemed nice enough.
Red just wasn’t even a little bit attracted to him.
Up until now, he hadn’t considered that he might be at all picky, but he was starting to realize he was. There were things he did and didn’t like in people.
Evan hadn’t done anything wrong, and it was nice to meet other gay men in his general field, but… Red didn’t want to take him home, or anything. He was so uninterested that Evan might as well have been straight. He was more interested in Andy than he was in this guy.
“So Andy Matheson is really your roommate, huh?” Evan asked as he set a bottled beer down in front of Red.
“Yeah. It’s a long story,” he said. It wasn’t actually a long story, but it wasn’t really his story to tell. As far as Red knew, Andy hadn’t announced the fact that his apartment had burned down to the world, and it wasn’t Red’s place to tell anyone.
“Wow, and you’re here with me instead of trying to woo him? Man, no offence, but in your place I’d be on my knees in a heartbeat.”
Red blushed, and hoped that the lighting in the bar was low enough to hide it.
“I don’t think he’s interested,” Red said, though he’d never given it any thought before now.
Andy had said he was hot, but it had seemed more like a statement of fact than a compliment. He’d been a little flustered, but he’d also just walked in on his new roommate coming out of the shower. Anyone would have been.
“You could make him interested,” Evan said. “But I’ll drop the subject. He’s your roommate, it’s probably weird.”
It was weird. It was incredibly weird, and he’d only known Andy for a week.
“It’s fine,” Red said. “But I did come here to get to know you…”
Evan laughed at that, sipping his own beer. “Smooth, I like it.”
Thankfully, Evan did actually start talking about himself, and asking simple, non-invasive questions about Red as well. It wasn’t the best night of his life so far, but it wasn’t exactly torture.
By the time they were on their second beer, Red was even starting to think he might walk away from this with a new friend. He didn’t have so many of those that he could afford to waste the opportunity to make another one.
Andy was going to be disappointed when he found out that he hadn’t actually found Red’s soulmate, though.
Chapter Seven
When he got up, Andy was genuinely surprised to see Red at the breakfast table alone, playing with his phone between mouthfuls of cereal. He’d expected to find an exhausted, satisfied paramedic next to him, ready to thank Andy for all his hard work.
Andy had even been practicing what he was going to say in his head so that he’d sound gracious and humble in front of his roommate’s new boyfriend.
“Did Evan go already?” he asked, sitting down opposite Red as he always did. He liked having someone to talk to in the morning, rather than having to spend it alone with his emails.
That was a genuine surprise as well, but Andy suspected it was more because of the novelty than anything. Sure, he’d been lonely, but he also enjoyed solitude.
Hanging out with Red didn’t make him feel as drained as social interaction usually did, though. That was part of why he liked him so much.
“I, uh… we didn’t hit it off. He was a nice guy and everything, but there was no…”
“Spark?” Andy suggested.
“Yeah, no spark. Honestly, he seemed more interested in you than he was in me. I think you’re in with a shot, there.”
Andy wrinkled his nose. “Not my type. I’m sure he’s charming, but… not for me.”
> “Well, thanks for trying, anyway,” Red said. “Seriously. It was good to get out and I’m glad I met him. I added him on Facebook and everything. I just couldn’t imagine being anything other than friends.”
“I get that,” Andy said.
This was a setback, sure. He’d struck out the first time, but even he couldn’t account for chemistry. He could figure out whether two people would be a good long-term match, but he couldn’t make that first jolt of interest happen.
Yet.
“We’ll try again.” Andy got up to get his laptop. “This time, you pick.”
“I don’t know…” Red trailed off. He looked defeated, which Andy understood. A bad date was sure to be disheartening, especially since he’d never been on one before.
“You have to get right back on the horse, or you’ll never go on a date again,” Andy said, trying to sound as wise as possible as he sat back down and hoping Red wouldn’t notice the butchered metaphor. “Bad dates happen. You take what you learned from them and try again. Like everything else.”
After a few moments of silence, Red looked up at Andy’s laptop. “Okay, well, firstly, I don’t wanna date anyone in emergency services. I also don’t wanna date doctors or nurses. Not because they’re bad people or anything, but they’re too… they’re too much like me, y’know? I know lots of people have relationships with people they work with, but I don’t want that.”
That, Andy realized, had been his primary mistake. He’d assumed that Red would want to date someone who was as similar to him as possible. Red, obviously, had other ideas.
In hindsight, he’d been stupid to think that would work. Andy himself was rarely attracted to people who were a lot like him—contrast made a relationship exciting, made another person worth knowing.
He was basing the idea that similar people were better suited on the heartbreak of his last relationship, telling himself that if they’d just been more alike, they might have understood each other a little better. That wasn’t true, though. He and Jake just hadn’t been meant for each other, and that was okay.
Well. He was still stinging from it over a year later, but it was okay, and he’d be over it one day. Judging by his unusually persistent crush on Red, one day soon.
Red Hot Page 3
