Trick Me Once - 19. Surprises

Blaine was sitting in the college library, trying to study for an upcoming exam. Mr. Connors was one of his favorite professors, but his subject – Music Theory – was one of his least favorite ones. As if he wasn’t having enough problems concentrating on the book in front of him, he soon got another distraction in the form of a cute blond – Anders.

The Swede entered the library and sat a few tables in front of Blaine, not even noticing him there. Blaine started to raise his hand to wave to his friend, but gave up halfway. As soon as Anders sat down, he pulled out a few books and notebooks and started flipping through pages.

“I guess he’s preparing for the exam too,” Blaine thought, getting back to his book. As much as he tried, he couldn’t focus on what he was reading at all. After every paragraph, he’d realize he didn’t actually remember anything he’d just read.

Finally, after seeing there’s no use in trying to study at that moment, he pulled out his phone and clicked on the MusicMatcher icon. He knew exactly what he was looking for, since he already checked out this profile several times, but each time left without the courage to actually send a message.

“Ok, here goes nothing,” he thought as he clicked on the little envelope icon and started typing.

“Hey, PianoGuy.”

A few seconds later, he saw Anders pulling his phone out of his pocket. His own phone vibrated a few seconds later. He quickly tapped the screen to read the message: “Hey. How’s it going?” with two smiley faces at the end.

“Not bad, you? I like your profile! So, do you really play the piano?” Blaine decided to play with him a little. Once again, Anders replied in a matter of seconds.

“Yeah, I do. And thanks!” Anders typed, wishing the person he was chatting with had a face picture so he’d know whom he was talking to. The person’s username ‘MusicBee’ didn’t really tell him anything. In a few seconds, another message popped up on Anders’ phone.

“Do you know which instrument goes best with the piano?”

“No, which one?” Anders replied curiously, expecting some kind of a joke.

“The flute.” Blaine wrote, wondering if Anders would realize with whom he was chatting.

“The flute? Why?” Anders typed back, confused. If there was some kind of a pun hiding there, he didn’t get it.

“If I tell you why, will you go on a date with me?” Blaine found the courage to type and quickly pressed send before he could change his mind. No turning back now!

“Hmm depends. I don’t even know who you are.”

“Turn around.” Blaine responded, putting a winking face emoji at the end.

It took a fraction of a second for Anders to put everything together. As he turned around and saw Blaine’s shy smile several tables behind him, his suspicions were confirmed and he couldn’t help the big grin that appeared on his face.

Another message popped up on his screen: “Meet me outside?”

Looking up from his phone to meet Blaine’s hopeful eyes once again, he just nodded and gathered his books, putting them into his backpack and zipping it up, while Blaine did the same. The boys carefully slipped out without making noise and met in front of the library, where they could actually talk. As soon as the door was closed behind them and they found themselves alone in the hallway, they started laughing.

“I did cross my mind that it could be you when you first said ‘the flute’, but I wasn’t sure until you told me to turn around,” Anders said, grinning.

“I just saw you there and couldn’t help myself,” Blaine smiled affectionately. “But you still haven’t answered my question.”

“What question?” Anders looked puzzled. Blaine took his hands in his own and flashed another shy smile. His heart was beating like crazy.

“Will you go on a date with me?”

--

Dressed in a white and green striped T-shirt and faded jeans, Trick was slowly strolling around the park, looking around and just enjoying the greenery all around him. He knew he had a few more minutes until Cody’s shift ended, so he didn’t need to rush.

Since Cody and he started dating, he had come to love Prescott Park, and not just because Cody was working there. It was truly an oasis, a refuge from the business and noise of the city they were living in. Also, the park was a place where he felt safe – it was his and Cody’s place.

As he was looking around, feeling serene and trying to locate his boyfriend, a big dinosaur-like arm with huge claws appeared behind a tree in front of him, making him jump.

“What the FUCK?!” Trick shouted, instinctively raising his arms and jumping back. For a second, he thought he was actually being ambushed by some huge beast.

“Roooaarrrr!” Cody suddenly jumped behind the tree, holding the fake dinosaur arm in his hands.

“OH, FOR FUCK’S SAKE! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!” Trick laughed out loud, relieved when he saw the guy he’d been dreaming about rather than some vicious animal.

“Sorry, babe! I couldn’t resist!” Cody replied and they both burst out laughing. Lucky for him, Trick had a good sense of humor.

“Where did that come from anyway?” Trick asked, genuinely curious about how Cody came into possession of what looked like a fake T-Rex arm.

“We’re having a big dinosaur exhibit in the park next week, so we’re setting it up now. Huge dinosaur models and everything. It’s mostly for the kids, but it should be fun. If you want, we could come together when I’m not working and check it out?”

“Yeah, I’d like that!” Trick replied, looking forward to having any excuse to spending time with Cody.

“Great!” Cody smiled. “Tim should also come with his… well, I guess they’re boyfriends now.”

“Really, Ronan?!”

“Yeah, turns out he’s not so straight after all.”

“Aww how cute, I can’t wait to see them!” Trick gushed.

“I know, I’ll tell you all about them in a sec. Let me just return this hand and then we can go, ok?”

As Cody ran off to return the dinosaur hand, Trick looked at him and smiled mischievously.

“I am so gonna get him back for this!”

Unfortunately, as much as Trick wanted to spend the day thinking about how to get back at Cody for almost making him poop his pants, he got distracted by another surprise later that day – one he was definitely not prepared for.

As Cody and he were cuddled up on the couch, relaxing and watching a random animal documentary on Animal Planet, Trick almost fell asleep, enjoying the warmth of his boyfriend’s body next to him. Suddenly, he was startled by his phone going off as a new e-mail notification popped up on the screen. He grabbed the phone to read it, and in just a few moments, he was already wide awake, as if someone threw a bucket of ice-cold water on him.

“Oh, fuck,” Trick said as he read the e-mail, his voice almost cracking.

“What, baby?” Cody was having a hard time deciphering Trick’s tone this time – was he nervous, scared, or maybe disappointed? “Who’s it from?”

Instead of explaining, Trick just handed him the phone. Curious, Cody started reading and his eyes widened with excitement.

“Well, that’s great! You’re gonna do it, right?”

“I don’t know…” Trick replied insecurely, frowning and getting up to sit next to Cody.

He knew he was being offered a great promotional opportunity here – a famous IT website was interested in doing an interview with him about his dating app. It was no surprise, since MusicMatcher blew up over the last few months. At first, it was mostly used by local college kids on campus, but then it got picked up by young and old people alike, all over the city. From there, it spread to other places like wildfire and by the end of four months since its release date, it had over 700,000 downloads. Trick was absolutely shocked, but he still didn’t expect to actually get interview requests, let alone by major media outlets.

“What? Why?” Cody asked, a little louder than he intended to.

“You know I’m not good at talking in front of cameras, what if I say something stupid and embarrass myself. It would become a viral meme in like five minutes. ‘The creator of MusicMatcher – can’t match three words to create a sentence.’ Something like that.”

“Well, first of all,” Cody couldn’t help but chuckle at his boyfriend’s creativity, “it’s says here it’s a written interview, so they’re not gonna record you on video. Maybe they’ll wanna do a few pictures, though, so you might want to dress up to be presentable,” Cody suggested.

“Are you saying I don’t look good right now?” Trick teased.

“Ugh, I could eat you up!” Cody replied, lightly biting Trick’s neck. “And second of all, this is a great chance to promote the app some more. It can’t hurt.”

“Yeah, I know… I’ll think about it,” Trick said hesitantly, leaning back and resting his head on Cody’s shoulder. “If I decide to do it,” he emphasized the word ‘if’, while Cody grinned, “will you be there too?”

“Of course, I’d be happy to!”

“Thanks, baby,” Trick turned to face the smiling Cody and planted a big juicy kiss on his soft lips.

He knew Cody was right, but he had to muster enough self-confidence for the interview. He needed to be prepared for any questions they might ask him. Just thinking about it made him nervous. What if they ask him something simple and his brain just freezes and he can’t respond? What if they ask him something technical and he doesn’t understand it? “Oh God, this is going to be so much more difficult than I thought!”

“I know what you’re doing,” Cody said, watching as Trick’s gaze was fixed on a spot on the wall. “Stop overthinking things, it’s gonna be alright. Trust me. I know you, and I know you can do this.”

“Thanks, I wish I was as confident in my abilities as you are.”

“Well, start getting confident,” Cody smiled and pretended to elbow him. “Look, I don’t want it to seem like I’m forcing you, but I think you should do it. It would be really good for you, and I’d be there the whole time.”

“I know, you’re probably right. I’ll think about it, but for now let’s get something to eat, I’m starving!”

Trick knew his boyfriend was right, this would be good for him. Not just for the app and his potential future in IT development, but also for his personal growth. He wanted to prove to himself that he could do it, that giving an interview was not that scary. Sure, thousands of people would probably read it and see his picture on the website. Sure, he could say something awkward and embarrass himself publicly… Yeah, come to think of it, he definitely needed some more time to convince himself that it was a good idea.

--

While Cody and Trick were enjoying their dinner date, Cody’s sister Angela was hanging out with her girlfriends and doing what most girls her age do – talking about boys. After having taken about fifty selfies, she finally chose one for her profile picture for the MusicMatcher. According to one of her friends, her old picture was very ‘mo­o’ – which Angela tried hard not to understand as her friend saying she looked like a cow – so she had to change it. The new picture seemed to have done the trick, as she got a new message not even two minutes later.

“Hey cutie, you look familiar. Have we met?”

“Hey, I’m not sure,” she replied, but not before showing the guy’s profile to all of her friends. A few moments later, another message followed.

“Btw my name is Mason.”