Entire days would pass when no one would walk into the store that Trevor worked in. The owner, Mrs. Grabow, was a very eccentric old woman who paid Trevor an exorbitant amount of money to sit in the store. She fancied herself a patron of the arts. What appeared to be an endless supply of money wrote the paychecks for the writers, artists, actors, or anyone aspiring to be in the arts for doing nothing more then sitting. Trevor had met her once since had been hired. Every Monday morning a check would be on the counter waiting for him when he opened up the store. It was a bizarre situation, but it was better then filing.
The door was equipped with a very annoying bell that rang every time someone entered the store. Trevor looked up from his magazine when he heard the bell. Trevor’s sister, Anne, a raven haired beauty walked into the store. She had perfect skin, the body of a model, the appetite of a professional eater, and her idea of a workout was running downstairs to the corner deli to pick up a carton of ice cream. She was two years older then Trevor who had to spend a wretched amount of time in the gym just so he wouldn't balloon to three hundred pounds. Not an easy feat when you are a chain smoker. Anne was the golden child, the apple of their father's eye. Trevor was something else all together.
"Have I got news for you?" she said as she leaned over the counter eating the remains of a snickers bar.
"I don't want any news from you."
"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked.
"Every time you have news for me it usually ends up with me in the emergency room."
Anne would every so often get the urge to go on an adventure, and she always wanted Trevor to be the one to risk his life with her. Most recently they had gone whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and bungee jumping. The end of each day was capped off with a visit to the emergency room for Trevor. It wasn't the actual activities that led to his visit to the ER. Usually it resulted from Trevor's clumsiness post daring adventure. Trevor was more mindful of the fact that he was clumsy and uncoordinated when he was doing something that could kill him. However, when he was just walking around or living his day to day life he couldn't be constantly thinking about those things or he would never be able to think about anything else.
On the whitewater rafting trip Trevor was walking to the car after having survived being thrown from the raft and swept downstream, and was bit by a snake causing his leg to swell to epic proportions. Anne then decided it would be a good idea to suck the poison out of his leg, but instead tripped as she was walking toward him and bit his leg ripping a piece of flesh out. She was fine, but he had to spend two days in the hospital. On their rock climbing trip Trevor had complained, whined, grunted, and groaned but made it all the way to the top of the mountain, before Anne even. As he was pouring massive quantities of water down his throat practically missing his mouth he had his faced towards the sky, tripped over a stray tree limb, and broke his arm.
To actually get Trevor to bungee jump took more coaxing then the rest of these excursions. He and Anne were strapped together. She decided to make the jump without warning Trevor. Once it was all done and over with Trevor was a little too eager to get out of the harness. The cords then tangled themselves up in his arms and legs; he went rolling down a hill, and fractured his ankle He was on crutches for a month. Anne had tried to get him to go skydiving, but he drew the line at that. There was no way he was going to be throwing himself out of a plane with his sister anywhere in the vicinity. She seemed to bring pain and hospital bills down upon him.
"Just relax. I have a completely different adventure planned for us. It's really not an adventure for me. It's more for you. I'm not even going to be there."
"Go back to work.”
"We have summer Fridays. I don't have to go back to work."
"I hate you."
Anne smiled a knowing smile. She knew that Trevor wouldn’t want to do anything that she had come up with, but she also knew that her brother needed to be pushed into doing things. He wasn’t one to venture out of his comfort zone unless dragged kicking and screaming.
"So we hired a new freelance graphic designer at the agency to work on some campaign. I don't really even know which one. It's not one of mine, but he's really cute and so of course I moved right in for the kill. The problem is that he's not so much interested in me. He's more your type."
Trevor raised his eyebrow at her. Anne had tried to set him up in the past, and according to her his type was male and homosexual. There didn’t seem to be any other qualifiers. If they were a man who liked men then they were for Trevor. On more then one of these dates Trevor had excused himself to use the bathroom and never returned. The last guy that she had set him up with was Eric who she had met in line at the Duane Reade. All that she had known about him was that he shopped at the Duane Reade. When he asked Trevor if he wanted to go back to his place and play Alice in Wonderland Trevor stood up from the table without a word, left the restaurant, and vowed that he was never going to go out with another guy that Anne had set him up with.
Trevor got off of his stool and made his way for the door without acknowledging Anne. She followed him outside, and he lit a cigarette.
"You need to stop smoking."
"You need to stop setting me up on dates.”
"Granted in the past I haven't been that discerning, but this time is different. This guy is fantastic! His name is Matthew. He's smart, funny, sweet, and HOT! I get jealous at the thought that you could have him and I can't."
"How long have you even known him?"
"Three days."
"He could be psychotic. Or straight. Or both."
"I showed him your picture. He thinks that you are cute."
Trevor lit up a second cigarette, took a drag, and blew it into Anne's face. Anne coughed.
"My point exactly."
"If you don't go out with him, I'm just going to send him here."
"Don't you dare! I'm not kidding with you. I'm done with this discussion. Find something else to do other then harassing me."
Trevor turned around and walked back into the store without acknowledging Anne. She folded her arms and walked away. She knew that she was right about Matthew and Trevor. Trevor could find something wrong with anyone that he met. Anne had set him up with some duds, but Trevor also had a penchant for the dramatic. Once upon a time Anne had a good friend from college, Danny, who absolutely adored Trevor. Trevor was head over heels for Danny as well. One day Trevor decided that Danny liked him too much and broke up with him. It was completely out of the blue. Anne loved her brother, but he could be a selfish asshole. A part of him was only happy when he was miserable. There is only so long that that is cute. At twenty-five you can get away with it, but when you are a miserable forty-five year old gay man people just look at you and think bitter. Anne was not going to let Trevor drag her into old age alone and miserable. Yes, she had only known Matthew for three days, but she was sure that he was exactly what Trevor needed to get out of his funk. Anne took out her cell phone and dialed.
Trevor sat at the counter writing in a notebook. The only person who had walked into the store the entire day was Anne and she served to aggravate him far more then the occasional customer. At least the customers would browse through the clothes and random things in the store. With the exception of some footsteps and rustling things would remain blissfully silent, but as soon as Anne steps in the door it is like a tornado has hit. Her mouth never stops moving. Usually she doesn’t have anything of value to say, but that doesn’t stop her from talking. At least once a week Anne would meet someone that she thought was perfect for Trevor. She would then insist that they go out. When she first started to do this Trevor was open to it, but then she introduced him to Danny. Trevor like Danny, but Danny wanted to spend every waking minute together and when they were not together he wanted to be texting and calling. It was all just a little bit too much, but it was the guy who wanted to play Alice in Wonderland that was the last straw. There would be no more dates set up by Anne.
The door bell rang signaling that someone had entered the store. Trevor looked up for a moment and locked eyes with the most ruggedly handsome man that he had seen in his entire life. He was tall with broad shoulders and tossled brown hair that matched the five o'clock shadow that was growing on his face. His jeans fit him perfectly. It wasn't as if they were painted on, but they were tight in all the right places. He was wearing a fitted t-shirt, and when he took of his sunglasses revealing his piercing blue eyes he looked right into Trevor's eyes and smiled. For a moment Trevor smiled back, but then instantly he went back to staring at his notebook.
"Can I ask you a question?" the man asked Trevor, leaning in far closer then was necessary. Trevor could feel his pulse quicken, and wished that this guy would just leave. People that good looking shouldn't be allowed to talk to mere mortals like Trevor.
Trevor looked up and nodded.
"Are you Anne's brother?" he smiled. Trevor really did want to get angry. He wanted to yell and scream and send this gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous man screaming into the streets. But that wasn't going to happen. He was too good looking to send away on. Anne would get a stern talking to later and the severity of his sternness would all depend on how quickly this beautiful man noticed someone far better looking and left Trevor to cry because he would never attain such greatness in a potential boyfriend again.
"Yeah…I'm Trevor." Trevor responded then just stood there, staring at the ground.
"I guess that makes you the freelance graphic designer." Trevor finally said breaking the silence of his own creation.
He smiled again. He wouldn't stop smiling, which turned Trevor into a tub of melted I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. Trevor wanted to do nothing more then look at his own feet and occasionally steal a glance or two into his blue eyes. Not because he wanted to engage him in any sort of conversation, but because he had really great eyes. Luckily, Trevor's glances would come off as him being polite and looking at the guy when he spoke when Trevor really had no interest in being polite.
"I'm Matthew. I know that you told Anne that you didn't really want to meet me, but I thought I would come by anyway and see if you wanted to give me a chance on my own merit rather then on what sounds like Anne's very poor track record of setting you up."
This made Trevor smile.
"At least she will acknowledge to others that she has sent me on some very frightening dates."
That was all Trevor had to say. His mind went blank. What could he have in common with this tall hunky man? The word hunk is such a cliché, but that is what Matthew was. Trevor looked down at his didn't quite fit right H&M polo shirt, one size too big Old Navy jeans, and sketchers sneakers that were going to disintegrate at any moment and felt an immediate rush of clothes envy. He wanted to seem as put together as Matthew, but he didn't seem to inherit the flair for fashion and personal grooming that most gay men seemed to be endowed with.
The silence was beginning to grow uncomfortable. He didn't ask Matthew to come here. He told his good for nothing sister to make sure that he didn't, but for whatever reason Matthew felt compelled to come anyway and now he was standing in front of Trevor not speaking and just smiling and making Trevor feel all together uncomfortable. It really was up to Matthew to keep this conversation going. He was the one that wanted it.
"So I was thinking that we could go to dinner tonight….if you aren't busy?"
Matthew said, a hint of sheepishness creeping into his voice. He was good at putting on a confident air, but it didn't matter how many times people told him that he was a catch or that he should have no problem asking a guy out on a date. Every time that he had to do it he felt nervous. Matthew was very aware of what he looked like. Not in a vain or narcisstic way, but things tended to go his way and he knew that part of that was because of the way that he looked. Because of that he felt as if guys were intimidated by him. They saw that he was good looking and assumed that he was an asshole. The ones that did talk to Matthew were less then desirable. Some of them were hot, but most of them wanted nothing but sex. The ones that did want more then sex were usually insane. Matthew realized that if he wanted to find a boyfriend then he was going to have to take matters into his own hands. He didn't know Trevor from a hole in the wall, but he had felt an immediate connection with Anne. She immediately started talking up Trevor to him, and his picture had been adorable so Matthew decided that he wanted to meet him. Trevor wasn't as eager, but Anne seemed to think that Matthew should go anyway. Normally this is where Matthew would have called it day. Who wants to go and meet someone that has specifically told you to stay away? It wasn't as if Trevor was playing some sort of game. They hadn't even met. But something told Matthew to go anyway. didn't know Trevor, and he didn't really know Anne but something was telling him that this was the right thing to do. Or he was a glutton for punishment.
