A Way to Capture This

It was 11 am on a Saturday, and not only was Alex awake, his hair was done and he had showered, a small miracle. The only thing he had left to do was find clothes, which could take anywhere from half a minute to the entire day. He had work clothes, and he had home clothes, and it seemed to him that everything he pulled out of his closet was too dressy or too casual, and he hadn’t been on a date in so long he’d almost forgotten what to wear to one. He finally put on a t shirt under a flannel and sighed. He looked like a fourteen year old girl. Finally, finally, the clock hands showed him 1:30, and he left for Cafe Fiene.

He was there twenty minutes early, just like him to show up insanely early, but it felt even more insane when the clock read 2:10 and Matt was nowhere to be seen. Had they planned to meet at 2:30? At 2:15, the bells over the door jingled, alerting Alex to Matt’s arrival. He could have sworn they were in a movie, because when Matt walked in, his world seemed to stop.

Alex looked Matt over, noticing things he hadn’t had a chance to before, like how nice his legs looked in skinny jeans and how that piercing on his lip wasn’t the only one Matt had, he had one in each ear as well, and that he was pretty short but he still looked great, and as he got closer Alex realized that Matt’s eyes were brown, and that Matt had a little bit of stubble on his face, and bags under his eyes, but it looked sweet, and all of this happened in the span of two seconds because then Matt was sitting down and saying “Hey”.

Alex looked up, shamelessly checking Matt out, and returned the greeting. “Hey. How’s your day?” And that was how the strangest first date either of them had been on began. Because for Alex, a first date was getting to know someone and find out about their work, their life, their family. With Matt, he already knew more than enough about his work and that led him to the conclusion that Matt’s family life wasn’t pretty. As for Matt, he hadn’t been on a date since his senior year of highschool - hell, had it been that long?

As they talked, Alex learned that Matt had been in the city for four years, and before he left New Jersey he’d wanted to be a playwright. As they talked, Matt learned that Alex did some boring business-executive job, although he was more staring at Alex’s hair, wondering how long it had taken to make it look that good - the answer was 45 minutes and more than half a can of hairspray. Really, both of them spent the entire date checking each other out, which was okay, because what are first dates for if not that? Alex listened to Matt talk, and Matt listened to Alex talk, and their coffee dregs grew cold in long forgotten cups. And suddenly it was 4:30 and Alex was glancing at his watch and they were smiling and getting up.

“D’you want me to, like, take you home?” Alex asked, because if shitty roamntic chick clicks had taught him nothing else, it was that you always walk your date home. And it was a sweet sentiment, it really was, except that Matt lived forty minutes away by train. So they just sort of left, and walked opposite ways, but then Alex called back to Matt to wait.

“Hey, I had a good time today. Let’s do it again sometime?” Matt nodded, and Alex clasped his hands behind his back and kissed Matt on the cheek quickly, and then left.

It struck him briefly that a kiss on the cheek was just a little bit impersonal for someone you’d seen just about naked, who less than twenty-four hours ago was grinding on your dick But it fit, because Alex intended on treating Matt like a guy he’d met on the street, and as it turned out, that was the reason Matt decided to go on another date with him, because Matt enjoyed being treated like a human being, and Alex didn’t want to date a prostitute, he wanted to dated Matt Flyzik.