It Complements Your Eyes

Working in a jewelry store isn’t that bad, but sometimes, Kellin just gets sick of all the gender roles and heteronormativity.

He doesn’t understand why there is a need to specify that certain pieces of jewelry are “men’s jewelry,” and he certainly doesn’t understand why the pictures in advertisements always show a man proposing to a woman, as if straight relationships are the only relationships out there (and also as if women can’t propose to men, as his coworker, Tay, once pointed out). He’s constantly surprised by the number of people who will point out certain pieces of jewelry and ask whether it’s intended for a man or a woman, and if he says that he doesn’t know (or doesn’t care), they get snippy with him and ask to speak to the manager. Every single time. Straight people terrify him.

This is what he’s busy thinking about when a Really Hot Dude walks in (Kellin feels as though the phrase would be capitalized to show just how amazingly hot this dude is). Kellin stops what he’s doing almost immediately to gape in openly queer fashion at this guy, which is unfortunate, because at that moment, the guy glances over and stares right at him.

Kellin bites his lip, his face heating up. Part of him wants to look away and act like he wasn’t just drooling over a potential customer, but he knows it’s too late for that, so he just kind of watches as the guy briefly looks him up and down, a faint smile on his pretty lips as he nods to himself. Then, without a word, the guy turns around and focuses his attention on the jewelry displays.

Tay pops up on the other side of the counter—she’s walking around and trying to help out customers, while Kellin works the register—and raises an eyebrow. “Did that guy just, like, eye-fuck you?”

“I’m not quite sure,” Kellin says slowly. “I’ll, uh, get back to you on that one.”

Tay shrugs. “I’ll go see what he’s up to,” she says, heading over to him and cheerfully welcoming to the store while asking if there’s anything in particular that she could help him find.

The guy shakes his head, his gaze flitting around the store. “I think I’m just looking.”

He makes his way around the store before heading up to the display right at the counter that Kellin’s working at. “Um,” Kellin says, trying to sound professional, “so, have you found anything that you like?”

The guy looks up, that stupid, tiny smile back on his lips. “Oh, yeah. There are a few things here that have caught my attention.”

Somehow, Kellin doesn’t think he’s talking about the jewelry.

“Well, that’s good,” he replies, his mouth forming a smile of his own without his permission. “Have you decided on something, or are you just window-shopping?”

The guy walks down the counter and points to a necklace near the end of the display, with a nice blue-green gemstone hanging from the center. “This one, please.”

Kellin nods and promptly pulls one out, heading back over to the register with the guy following him on the other side of the counter. “Is that all?”

“Yeah, that’ll be everything,” the guy says, still staring intently at Kellin, who totally doesn’t love it and who totally doesn’t want to just ask this guy out right here and now. “Oh—the name’s Vic, by the way.”

“Vic,” Kellin repeats. “I’m Kellin.” Then he realizes that Vic probably already knew this, considering that he has a name tag, and if he wasn’t blushing before, he definitely is now.

“I know,” Vic says, a teasing but affectionate glint in his eyes.

“May I ask who this is for?” he says casually, changing the subject as he rings up the necklace, putting it in a small plastic bag and handing it over to Vic.

Vic nods, his smile turning flirtatious and mischievous. “You.”

Kellin’s almost certain he heard wrong, and he narrows his eyes. “What?”

Vic hands the bag back to Kellin. “For you. Keep it. I thought the gem complemented your eyes.”

Before Kellin can protest, Vic turns around and strolls out of the store with a friendly wave as if nothing happened. Kellin just kind of stands there for a moment, staring at the bag in his hand.

Tay walks back over to him, her gaze switching from him to the bag. “What just happened?”

Kellin laughs a little, torn between being confused and being flattered. “That guy just flirted with me and then bought me a necklace because the gem complements my eyes.”

Tay just looks at him in disbelief as Kellin opens the bag and pulls the necklace back out. She studies it for a moment before saying, “It does complement your eyes.”

“Why would he do that, though?” Kellin asks. “Why would he just walk in and buy this thing for me when he only just met me? And why something so expensive? I don’t get it.”

She snorts. “Maybe he’s rich and can afford to spend his money on shit like that just to be nice. Did he say whether or not he’d be back?”

Kellin shakes his head. “Nope. He just left after that.”

Tay stares at him for another long moment before saying, with a completely straight face, “Well, that was probably the gayest thing to ever happen in this store.”

—

When Kellin’s shift ends, at the time that the mall is supposed to close, he finds his good friend, Mike, standing right outside the store with a weirdly knowing look on his face.

“Hey,” Kellin says slowly, not really expecting to see him here, especially not this late. “What’re you doing here?”

Mike shrugs, starting to walk, and Kellin follows his lead, carrying the bag with his necklace in one hand, both of them making their way out of the building. “Oh, nothing much,” Mike says casually. “I just wanted to know whether or not you saw my brother today.” The smile on his lips tells Kellin that he already knows the answer.

Kellin frowns at him—add this to the list of confusing things that have happened to him today. “Um, what?”

At this point, Mike’s full-on grinning. “My brother. Vic.”

Kellin’s jaw drops. “That’s your brother?” He knew that Mike had an older brother, but they’d never officially met, and Mike never mentioned any names.

Mike nods. “Oh, yeah. I’ve been talking to him about you for a little while now. He said he’d do something to get you to notice him when he came in today.”

Kellin just laughs. “Well, it definitely worked.” That would explain why Vic so nonchalantly bought him an expensive necklace, too—Mike’s family, while not necessarily filthy rich (or particularly famous), is fairly wealthy, wealthy enough that they can afford to do things like that without much worry.

“In a good way?” Mike asks, lifting an eyebrow at him.

Kellin thinks back to how speechless he was at the sight of Vic, how much Vic had him under his spell, how much Vic left him wanting more. Love at first sight? No, of course not. Attraction? Well, yeah. Kellin was very, very attracted to Vic at first sight, and if he’s not mistaken, he’s pretty sure Vic felt the same way about him.

“Yeah, definitely,” Kellin says, holding up the little plastic bag and deciding to pull the necklace back out, tossing the bag in the trash can and then fastening the chain around his neck. When Mike gives him a mildly confused look, Kellin adds, “He, uh, bought this for me.”

Mike snorts. “He would. The little shit.”

They both laugh at that, and then Mike continues, “Seriously, though. I’m supposed to be the wingman here, so I guess I might as well ask you out for him. So I ask: Kellin, would you be interested in seeing Vic again in a bit of a more controlled setting?”

“Does ‘controlled setting’ include my bedroom?” Kellin jokes, but through his sarcasm, they both know that, yes, he is, in fact, quite interested in seeing Vic again.

“Yes,” Mike replies without missing a beat. “If you are so willing, I bet Vic would be delighted to become personally acquainted with your bedroom.”

“Fantastic,” Kellin says, clapping his hands together. At this point, they’ve reached one of the exits of the mall and are pushing the doors open, stepping out into the comfortable summer night air. “Let’s do it, then. Give me his number. I’ll text him later.”

By the time that he’s in his car and maneuvering his way out of the parking lot, Kellin has Vic’s number listed in his contacts, the cool gemstone resting against his skin, and he’s laughing to himself about how, if he and Vic end up making this last, they’re going to have an interesting story to tell when someone asks how they met.