Jim sat quietly, mind spinning in circles. Did Blair really just
say
what he thought he'd said? "Could you repeat that?"
"I, uh, said that I think you are attractive and I wondered if you'd
ever considered dating, um, men. Specifically me." Blair
was sitting
on the couch, facing him. His eyes never left Jim's, looking
at him
with such serious intent that Jim knew he wasn't joking.
"Have I ever thought about dating men?"
Blair nodded, encouragingly.
"Yeah, I guess I have. Most men do, I think. At some time or another."
Jim was trying hard to get the right words out. He didn't want
to say
the wrong thing.
"And me?" The question was asked softly.
"You specifically? No. I don't think so." Blair face
became
incredibly sad and Jim just knew that the Guide was about to bolt.
He
laid a hand on his friend's arm, to keep him in place. "I mean only
that
I hadn't thought about it before. Not that I wasn't willing
to
consider it. I'd need some time to think about it, okay?"
"Um, yeah, sure. Tell you what. I'm just not going to, you
know...
mention it again. It's out there. You think about it and
if you are
okay with the idea, you let me know. And if you don't bring it
up
again, we'll forget I asked. No pressure that way. I uh,
I just don't
want to mess up what we do have. All right?"
Jim smiled and Blair couldn't help smiling in reply. "If that's
the way
you want it. How about some supper? I think there's chili
leftover in
the fridge."
"I could eat."
Silence fell over the loft as the two men worked together to fix their
meal, each lost in his own thoughts. No more words were said,
even when
Jim stopped stirring the chili and looked up at Blair, forehead furrowed
in thought. Blair noticed and raised his eyebrows.
The taller man set the spoon carefully down on the stovetop. He
walked
over to the table where his partner was placing the bowls, spoons and
hot sauce on the table. blair looked up expectantly.
Very calmly, very slowly, Jim reached his hands out and placed them
on
the shorter man's shoulders. Blair was tense, at first,
not sure what
was going to happen next. Jim waited for him to calm down before
moving
his hands up to cup the sides of Blair's face. Slowly,
so slowly, he
leaned down and placed a dry tender kiss on the lips of his roommate.
Jim pulled back and caressed Blair's cheekbones with his thumbs, the
corner of his mouth turned up in a half-smile. He waited patiently
for
Blair's response.
Blair, eyes wide and momentarily stunned, licked his lips and then bit
the lower one. "Uh, Jim... was that... I mean, I don't want to
push or
anything, but... "
"The answer is that I would like it if you would go to dinner with me
on
Friday night. Italian okay?"
"Ummm... yeah, Italian's great... just great..." The anthropologist
continued to mumble even as Jim tapped his chin in a mock punch
and
turned back to his pot of chili.
<<end>>