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Adam and I looked at each other. His face crumpled.

"Oh Wil..." He said softly. I shook my head.

"Save it." I mumbled. This was entirely my own fault. "Let's just get through dinner."

"Wait! You have to know, Wil... I'm falling for you." He said quietly. I could hear a hollow laugh come from my mouth, even as my stomach fluttered a little.

"Tell your fucking girlfriend that."

Jamie looked a little flushed as he pressed a drink into my hand. He avoided my eyes. Oops. He totally knew something was up. Luckily Liam got back before the tension between the three of us got too appalling. Liam put me to work on arranging a cheese board and he and Adam discussed work for Creative NZ. I guess they knew each other pretty well after all.

I got lost in drinking and chatting to our friends, trying to be normal when my heart was collapsing under its own weight. I was so stupid. So fucking stupid. Even fucking Matt was less stupid than allowing myself to fall for Adam. And I had fallen for him. Hook line and fucking sinker.

I checked out Nancy. What did she have that I didn't? Well. Tits. And he probably made love to her instead of spanking her and giving her hickeys. The worst part was she seemed really nice. And there I was, the dumb sidepiece who knew her boyfriend was cheating on her.

Jamie stopped me from totalling myself. He exchanged my wine for water with a firm look.

"That's not going to help." He muttered. I blushed. Embarrassing that Liam's baby boyfriend had to watch me, but I was glad he did.

--

My date was the last to arrive, apparently the concept of time didn't apply to him. I had a tad too much to drink, and I totally overindulged on the appetisers which I knew I'd regret tomorrow morning when I had to look at myself in the studio. He let himself in sheepishly and gave Jamie and Liam a hug.

"Sorry I'm late."

"Whats new?" Liam introduced him slowly, leaving me for last. I watched him make his rounds.

He was stumbling and awkward, verging on too tall, kinda gangly. He had short hair and freckles and a real skater vibe about him. Not my type- but my type was apparently cheating arsehole so maybe I could change my mind. I saw him looking me over. I couldn't quite read his expression.

"Wilson, Fred. Fred, Wilson." I held out my hand and Liam suddenly disappeared to fetch more wine. I sighed.

"So I've been moaning about my ex for months, what did you do to get dragged over under false pretenses?" Fred laughed, and his face turned a little pink.

"Ah. Well to be honest... I saw a picture of you. Liam thought this was more organic than stalking you on Instagram."

"Oh." I felt warm- although that may have been the wine. "Well. That's a shame."

"Huh?"

"You know those people who aren't very photogenic? But they're absolutely wonderful?" He rolled his eyes.

"You photograph well, trust me." I smiled.

"Yeah I know. Shame about my personality." Fred laughed nervously and sat down next to me.

"Well, at least give me a chance to figure that out." He said, blushing. I don't think flirting came as naturally to him as it did to me.

"Sure. What do you do? Liam kinda skipped that part." Actually Liam skipped everything but we had to start somewhere.

"Ahh... I'm in construction."

"Way to go against stereotypes. Must be hard being gay on site?"

"Well. It probably would be." Fred stammered.

"Oh, not out?" He shrugged, looking at the ground.

"Not exactly."

"That's ok, it's hard." I thought about that. "Well, not when you're a dancer with liberal parents who drinks wet Martinis but I mean. I can imagine." Fred shrugged.

"More into beer."

"No way." He laughed at my sarcasm.

--

Liam was pretending not to watch us. So was Adam. I narrowed my eyes and leant in closer to Fred. Ok, it was super lame of me, trying to make him jealous... but it felt pretty satisfying to watch his smile fade as he looked on. I looked back to Fred, who was sipping on his beer.

"So construction. Carpentry? Commercial?"

"Residential. Cabinetry."

"Nice. Maybe you know what to do about my wonky lintel."

"Wonky? Is it load bearing? Dude that shit's not ok."

"Wouldn't worry too much, I'm throwing words around without knowing what they mean." Fred paused and his face relaxed into a smile. "So what is a lintel?" I asked him. Ok, not my best line. He obviously thought so as well because he looked at me like I was the world's biggest moron.

"That." He gestured carefully to the doorway. Oh. Huh.

"I swear I went to Uni." I said. "They just didn't cover that in Fine Arts." Fred grinned.

"I didn't go to Uni but I know what an arabesque is." I rolled my eyes. "Fine Arts? Thought you were a dancer?"

"This is going to shock you but it turns out painting is a really hard career to pursue. I have a few backups. You should see my Latte art." Fred snorted.

"See where you've gone wrong is you aimed high. If you aim low like I did you can exceed your wildest expectations."

"Well that explains why you're on a blind date with me." Fred choked on his beer.

"Spare me." He said. "Jamie and Liam are throwing an entire dinner party to give me a chance to talk to you." I looked at him as I paused to take another sip of wine. Huh. This... this whole party... this really wasn't about me was it? I blushed as I realised for the first time in a while the whole fucking world doesnt revolve around me. Here I was, flirting with this guy to make some total jerk jealous and he really just wanted to get to know me. Fred frowned as I stared at him. "Um... did I say something wrong?" I shook my head.

"No!" I protested. I folded my legs up under myself and leant on the couch, looking at him. He was really pretty, actually. "I've had a long week and Liam kind of ambushed me." I admitted. "I sort of wish you had just liked a bunch of my pictures on instagram. I feel like I'm a bit boring in real life." Fred smiled and relaxed a little as he watched me.

"Boring? Wet martinis? An art degree? That hideous shirt?" I laughed.

"Ok, in my defense the shirt isn't mine!" Fred wrinkled his nose- oh, that was cute- and I quickly tried to explain myself. "Wait, wait... It's Jamie's! Liam decided I needed to look fancier or whatever..." Fred grinned and leant conspiratorially towards me.

"Liam told me to dress up as well, and I did, and he still told me off for wearing this." I glanced at Fred. Now that I looked his shirt was wrinkled and clearly hadn't been worn in months.

"What do you usually wear?" I asked, trying to imagine. He bit his lip and shrugged.

"Band t-shirts." Huh. Wouldn't have called it.

"What do you listen to?" Freds lip twisted.

"Uh... not sure you'd be into them. Death. Morbid Angel. Cannibal Corpse..."

"Sure. Anvil, Atheist, Cynic..." I grinned at Fred's face. "I dabble. In between Boney M and Madonna." He grinned.

"Anything else you're hiding?"

"No. I mean, I'm not hiding anything. I'm an open book."

"You're a fucking bestselling thriller."

"I'm not sure about bestselling." I glanced up as Liam squeezed my shoulder, and suddenly the rest of the world came into focus again. I'd been so absorbed in Fred I'd kind of forgotten what we were doing here.

"Dinner." Liam said.

—-

Adam bumped into me outside the bathroom.

"Fred's cute." He said.

"Single too. And gay. Although maybe that all means something different these days." Adam sighed.

"I told you I wanted no strings attached."

"Oh come on. You attached the strings. You sent me shoes at work..." I suddenly realised I was talking too loudly and shut myself up. Adam bit his lip.

"I told you I didn't want to get involved with you."

"I know. But then you went ahead and got involved with me and I really think that's on you."

"Yeah. I know. I thought I could keep it casual." We looked at each other. His fingers brushed my forearm. "I thought... I didn't know you'd be so..."

"Stupid?"

"Breathtaking." I almost choked on my own vomit. What a fucking line. I rolled my eyes and removed his hand.

"Say that to all your subs or just the ones who catch you out?"

He closed his eyes with a sigh and hung his head. Good, I thought. Wallow in that.

We both glanced up as someone cleared their throat. Jamie was trying to act as though he'd just arrived on the scene but his face was red. I made myself scarce.

--

Fred and I were the last to leave. He was dragging his feet.

"So um." He said. "Can I get your number?" I smiled and started to dictate when I caught Liam watching us with the biggest grin on his face from the kitchen. I rolled my eyes. "I hate it when Liam's right." I muttered.

"We can pretend it didn't work out." Fred said.

"You seem pretty sure it's gonna work out."

"Sure. You're an extremely gay dancer still probably not over his ex and I'm a masc construction fag still in the closet. There's no way we can fuck this up." I laughed. I almost leant in to kiss him but I stopped myself, blushing. He bit his lip. "You can." He said.

"Liam's watching." I turned to Liam with a raised eyebrow. He quickly pretended he wasn't. Fred grinned.

"I'll text you." He said. "Too soon actually. I hope that's ok."

"I'll be waiting. Too eagerly. See ya."

-—

Hi. It's me. Fred, I should clarify, just in case. Not that I'm implying you're a slut. Just in case you didn't know who me was. Fred. We met at Liam and Jamie's. So. Coffee? Tomorrow's good. After five? I guess drinks then. You do pubs? What am I saying of course you don't. You choose a nice cocktail bar. I'll take off my hi-vis. But the steel caps are staying on. You never know.

I melted reading his text. He was too sweet, and too young, but ugh, if I didn't just want a naive dude who was into me.

Drinks tomorrow then. Can we not go out? I can make you a decent cocktail and we can have dinner at mine. I'm kinda broke right now.

Well. As much as I want to tell you it's on me baby, that actually sounds amazing. Um... we could even skip the cocktails? I'll bring a six pack? Wait, you drink wine. And wet martinis. Whatever you need for that. I'll bring that.

Beer is good, dude. Any requests for dinner?

Surprise me. Not too much though- I'm allergic to nuts.

Huh. Thats a shame.

Flirt.

Tease.

I grinned. Ok, so, not my type- but I should definitely think about updating my type.

Hey Fred. I'm about to sound insane. But look, the last couple of guys I had feelings for both turned out to have other number ones. So I just thought I'd check. You are single right?

Oh shit. But... You're like a fucking god? Sorry, too much. Anyway, believe it or not, there is not a queue lining up for my skinny ass. I'm single. Absurdly single. Never had a boyfriend single.

Ok. Tomorrow. I have an audition though. Make it 7?

Audition huh? I'll bring champagne for the congratulations.

Don't. You'll jinx it.

Better bring extra then. For commiserations.

I sent him my address. God, he was working even harder than I usually did.

--

I had been avoiding Liam, showing up late to the studio and running home without getting changed. I didn't want to talk to him in case Jamie had said something and it was a whole thing, but he was really the only person who would understand how I was feeling about to audition for my first major role. I caught him just before he left on Friday.

"Liam I'm so fucking nervous." He grinned.

"You'll kill it. Trust me."

"It's your part really. I can tell already, just the choreography." Liam smiled.

"So make it yours. Jamie's pissed at me anyway for never being home, it would be good to work in the background for a season." I laughed. Easy for him to say. "Call me." He said. "If you fuck up Jamie and I will take you to Caretaker and we can get properly fucked." I rolled my eyes and saw Rebecca warming up.

"I'll text."

--

Well. I thought I killed it. I thought that might have been the best I'd ever performed. I still stood nervously, perspiring and aware of the clock ticking as the directors compared notes. Eventually Karen grinned at me.

"Sorry to make you sweat Wilson. You should go. You have the part. David will take you through your new schedule after this week's run."

I almost died.

Lead?

I'd never been a lead. Never.

I texted Alison first, super aware of how late I was running.

Sorry sorry...there's a chance a tall guy in a band t-shirt will show up before I get home.

Be nice to him, I like him.

Sure thing dude.

Then I texted Liam.

👍

Knew you'd be fine. Come over! We can celebrate

Haha. I have another offer. Thanks though.

Who? Matt? Hickey guy?

Get off my back.

Wil, should I be worried?

No.

Really?

It's Fred, ok?

Ohhhhhh. I'm a miracle worker.

Absolutely. What did you want? My first born?

Ah. Well see if you two get that far. Then we'll talk.

I grinned and headed back to my flat. I had coerced Jamie into one of his recipes for a pepper steak and a caesar salad kinda thing which I didn't have to buy too many ingredients, thank god. Fred wasn't there when I got home even though I was late. That's right. Timing wasn't his strong suit.

I prepared everything and sat shooting the shit with Allie until there was a knock at the door. I went to open it. Fred bit his lips.

"Super late. Sorry."

"It's fine. It's your whole gig." Fred laughed and walked in. I checked him out. Black jeans, Dark Funeral shirt.

"Good band." I grinned. He smiled.

"Hell yeah man."

"This is Allie. Alison. Flat mate."

"Oh yeah?" Alice is in front of me, Alice aren't you scared..." He started singing. Al looked at me, a bit unnerved. I rolled my eyes.

"Annihilator." I enlightened her- not that she seemed any clearer. "Allie's more into pop." He grinned.

"Damn you're really a metalhead under all that huh?"

"Under all what?" He shrugged, turning pink.

Hmm. Yeah. I do read as gay. I mean musical theatre gay. Wouldn't know the difference between Slayer and Slipknot kinda gay. I wondered if that bothered him.

"Alright, I'm at George's tonight. I'll see you soon." Allie jumped up and kissed me on the cheek before she disappeared. Fred grinned at me as I started to cook the steak and arrange the salad. He cracked open a beer for each of us and started asking me about myself.

"What's your film genre?" I was distracted by the steak.

"Horror." I said. "But like... Campy stuff. Lost boys. Evil Dead 2. Ginger Snaps. Fright night." Fred said nothing and I slowly served the steak with the salad. He was looking at me weirdly. "What?"

"How much did Liam tell you about me?" I snorted.

"Literary nothing. I was totally ambushed."

"So you just happen to like my favourite films?" I grinned and handed him dinner.

"Guess so."

"I had you pegged so wrong." I shrugged and sat at the table.

"Don't worry babe, I promise deep down I'm the vapid himbo you were looking for." Fred rolled his eyes.

"You know what?- This is fucking amazing by the way, it's not fair that you can cook on top of everything else.- You have the worst case of low self esteem dude." I laughed awkwardly.

"I'll give you the recipe."

"I can't cook. Make it for me again."

"If you're lucky." I tried to ignore the self esteem comment but Fred didn't let me.

"I mean, it's good for me, you've obviously lowered your standards but I feel obliged to tell you you're way too funny and smart with excellent taste in music and movies to be so down on yourself. And you just got a part you wanted." I smiled in spite of myself.

"How did you know I got the part?"

"I knew you would." I rolled my eyes. "I can't wait to see it." He said. "I bet you're amazing."

"We're in a show that starts in a couple of weeks. You wanna come?" Fred blushed. Yeah, ok that was pushing it. A lot in common didn't mean he wanted to watch an hour of contemporary dance. "Dude it's ok. It's not most people's thing." Fred smiled at me.

"It's not that. I just already have a ticket."

--

"Did you catch The Dead Don't Die?" Fred shook his head as I started flicking through my saved movies on my laptop. He insisted on helping with the washing up and we were cuddling on my bed. We'd been scrolling through Plex for eons.

"Na. We should watch it next time." I laughed.

"Uh... what about this time?"

"This time I'm gonna be super distracted." I looked over my shoulder at Fred. He had a soft smile on his face, and a slightly hard look in his eye. I pressed play on the first movie I saw.

"What did you pick?"

"No idea." I said. He grinned and I curled up beside him. He stroked my hair and body gently as we pretended to watch whatever I'd put on. Eventually he shifted slightly and I looked up at him.

He was watching me with a small smile on his lips. He brushed my hair off my face as I sat up and leant towards him slowly. His eyes closed. He moaned a little as my lips brushed his. His lips parted and I kissed him chastely before sighing and opening my mouth wider, allowing him to kiss me properly, his tongue meeting mine- our breath becoming heavier.

He pressed me down into the bed and pinned me there as we made out. He was hard against my leg and I reached to touch him through his jeans. Oh... His dick was huge. I blinked a little as I stroked it through his jeans. Huh.

He was kind enough to return the favour and groaned as he felt how hard I was.

"Fuck yeah." He grunted as he fumbled with our trousers. We both moaned as his hands wrapped around our dicks together. "You're so fucking hot." He whined, wanking us off against each other using two hands. I thrust into him and pulled my knees up to straddle him as I enjoyed feeling him rub against me.

He paused to my dismay but he just laughed as he took my shirt off.

"Man, if I had that body I would walk around shirtless everyday." I rolled my eyes and he leant up and bit my nipple gently. I moaned. "Take the compliment." He muttered.

"Take your shirt off." I replied. He sighed and obliged me. He was pretty thin but he worked construction so he did have some muscle. He has a slight tan line where he wore a singlet in the sun and had freckles all over his chest.

I reached to touch him and play with his nipples. He moaned, looking up at me, and began to slowly stroke my dick again, only barely catching his own as he played with me. We made eye contact and I bit my lips, looking between him and his leaking cock. I raised an eyebrow and cocked my head. He sighed contentedly and nodded.

I knelt over his dick. I started my worship, inhaling his scent- all fucking man. I pressed my face in his pubes- he was the first guy I'd been with in a long time who didn't shave or trim. I loved it. I gently kissed the head of his cock, reverently. I sucked a little on his balls, stroking the shaft with my hand. He was so fucking hung. I usually deepthroat guys easy- but he might be a challenge. I started to lick up and down before I felt his hands on my head, guiding me deeper. Got it.

I let him gently press on my head, up and down. Huh, he wasn't pushing me as far as he could. Probably taking it easy on me. I took charge for a second and got my throat all the way down, gagging and struggling a little. I sucked him desperately for a second before sliding off as he groaned.

"You can umm... be a little rough with me." He groaned and pushed me back on to him. He was rough from there. He started pounding my throat and grunting, his fingers wound in my hair. He even slapped me, which made me moan.

"You like that?" He muttered. "You fucking slut." I moaned. "Good slut." He said as he rammed his dick in and out of me, using me like a sex toy. "You're so hot, Wilson. Such a fucking pretty boy. You're taking my dick so good, baby." I moaned and started to hump the mattress below me. He noticed and pulled me off his dick.