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"One of my sisters looks like a guy. I'm pretty good at telling the tomboys from the men," he replied with a soft laugh. He then shrugged a little and pulled another book from his bag. It seemed he carried a good supply of them with him everywhere.
"I dunno, I kinda like reading out in the open. And when you hog the bench it gets people to notice you real fast. I used to lay on my back on a lunch table in high school and read during lunch. It annoyed people at first, but then more and more the people who sat at that table began to read during lunch, and even after school hours. It kinda made me happy that by annoying them I caused them to want in on what was so interesting to me. I annoyed them into reading." He opened the book to a specific page and once again his eyes were focused on the words in front of him rather than his surroundings. "At least I can do a little good in the world." |
"That's more than I can say some days." He sighed openly and re-adjusting his seating position so that he was cross-legged and sitting up straight. "I mean, I'm rather happy I'm giving people a place to live and temperature controlled environments to work in during the summer and winter seasons, but... sometimes my industry creates so much pollution I wonder if we do more harm than good. I wouldn't say I'm an activist by any stretch of the imagination, but I do care about trying to keep out planet from as much pollution as possible. I even recycle."
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"Every time you start to wonder if you've done more harm than good, plant a tree. Every time you feel guilty for something, plant a flower. Any time you're angry or sad or you just don't know what to do, find a quiet place and garden. It helps, trust me."
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"It's a good idea, thank you. My time is pretty divided, but they say you make time for the things that are important to you and I can see that project becoming important real fast."
Romeo stretched and brushed off his pants, checking his watch to notice he was just a little bit late, but he didn't mind. His underlings had noticed the change from before and how he acted a few days ago and most likely figured it had something to do with him being late from lunch then. They would forgive him of spending a little bit more time away from the office if he was going to be in a good enough mood to not shoot down all of their ideas before they had a chance to be fully explained. "So about dinner. Does tonight work for you? And what kind of food do you prefer?" |
"Depends on what time," he replied, putting his book away and pulling out a beaten up date journal. "I'm working until seven tonight. And I can't really go anywhere fancy that suits go. Don't have the clothes or the attitude to go there. I don't really care what kinda food, but I don't have money for much. And if you're offering to pay, I'll warn you now that I'm an absolute pig when I get the chance to be."
He pulled out a pencil and made a few adjustments to his date journal and shoved it back into his bag. |
Romeo laughed at his comment softly, shaking his head a little. This was why he liked dating guys that didn't have a lot of money. He really liked spoiling them and giving them things they couldn't always afford.
"Don't worry, you can eat as much as you want to. I can afford to pick up a tab from just about anywhere. I don't have a family or anything so I've been saving for no apparent reason for a while. Would eight o'clock be good? There's this place I've heard of that I've never been to but have wanted to. A little mom and pop pizza joint called Antony's on the corner of Cedar and Fifth. It's been around for a while but I haven't really gotten a chance to check it out because they don't do drive-thru and I hate eating in restaurants alone." |
"They do carry out, you know," he told him, standing up and arching his back to stretch. "You just gotta call in ahead of time if you want to get it. But sure, sounds like a plan to me." Pulling the strap of his bag over his shoulder, he tugged the bottom of his hoodie down over his waist again. It always pulled up every time he stretched, oh how annoying...
"I gotta get back to work before they blow my head off. My boss was really pissed at me for adjusting my usual lunch break. I guess I'll see you later tonight then." Cracking his neck he walked away, heading back to work. |
"Later, Gavin."
Romeo smiled at his back and shook his head. If it was so much of a problem for Gavin he could have done it without too much thought. But he hadn't thought about it. He made his way back to his own workplace trying to figure out exactly what he was going to wear tonight and if Gavin would appreciate a specific kind of cologne. Then he realized it might not be a good idea to wear because some people are allergic to the stuff. When he got to work a few people looked like he was replaced by an alien, but he didn't care. Victoria knew exactly what was going on and seeing how she was one of the only people to know his sexual preference she almost attacked him as soon as he got back into his office for information. ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ Later that night, Romeo got everything together for the dinner and checked himself in the mirror one last night. Thick black bondage pants fitted snugly below the A-Shirt that was sitting underneath his fishnet. He had left his hair down again instead of putting it up, so he'd be easier to find. He tended to look like he had short hair when he put it up. He threw on a beat-up Nightmare Before Christmas hoodie, which was one of the origionals, and laced up his combat boots. Making sure his wallet was securely in his back pocket, he steped out the door and made it to Antony's at ten 'til eight. He took a seat and ordered himself a drink while he waited for Gavin to show up. |
Gavin showed up about twenty minutes late, though it had nothing to do with being fashionable. His car had absolutely refused to start and he ended up having to walk the twenty-six blocks from his apartment to the restaurant in the freezing cold and blustering winds.
When he had finally gotten there, he collapsed into the chair opposite Romeo, closing his eyes and panting a bit. "Sorry... Sorry... Car wouldn't start. I think my transmission finally bit the dust." He wore a sleeveless orange hoodie with the hood pulled up, and a long sleeved orange and white striped shirt underneath it. Two orange t-shirt sleeves peeked out from the hoodie at the top of his arms. He wore very old and worn out orange tripp pants with cloth straps and a few lightweight silver chains. His steel toes were also orange, though they seemed like he'd painted them that color several months ago. Around his neck under the hoodie was his white and orange striped scarf, the tails of it hanging against his chest on either side of his neck. He looked utterly exhausted from walking in the cold. |
"You look frigid. Where did your car die at? How far did you walk to get here?"
Romeo was already mid-motion of taking off his hoodie to hand it to Gavin for extra warmpth while he talked. The worried expression on his face was enough to betray how fond he had already gotten of the other man. He didn't know how much Gavin knew about vehicles or if it was something that could be repaired a lot without too much of a hassle on his finances. If it really was the transmission then he was in a decent amount of trouble. He handed his still-warm hoodie to Gavin and smiled. "Put this on, it's nice and warm, it should get you toasty in no time." |
((Transmission =/= Radiator. The transmission being fucked up is horrible, a radiator is much easier to fix. XD))
"Twenty-six blocks. Couldn't even get it out of the parking lot." He shivered a little but unzipped his hoodie, revealing the orange t-shirt with white writing that read 'Do we know, when we FLY?' and he unwrapped his scarf from his neck. "If I get any warmer at this point I think I'll catch fire I'll be okay in a few minutes," he said with a heavy sigh. "Looks like I'm in the market for a new car..." |
((Oops... fixed... LOL.))
Romeo whimpered for a little bit, pawing at the air between him and Gavin while staring straight at his shirt. He looked up to Gavin's face and flushed a brilliant shade of red. He scratched the back of his head and gave him a beaming smile. "System is my favorite band of all time. Although Question! was never one of my favorite songs, it's still good. I really do hope you can get your car fixed soon." Romeo looked down at his menu and poured through the choises. He never knew what he wanted when he went out to restaurants. Part of the reason he usually showed up early when meeting people. But he had been so distracted today waiting for Gavin that he hadn't gotten much further than ordering a drink. "Do you like ravioli? I was thinking about getting that for the appetizer..." |
"Lonely Day is my favorite song of theirs, personally," he replied with a tired sigh. His ears and nose were beginning to turn red from warming up too fast. He pulled off his orange tipless gloves and sat them on his hoodie and scarf next to him. "I don't really care what I eat as long as it's food and doesn't involve the tongue or the brain or the digestive tract and it wasn't human before it died."
He stretched and rubbed at the bridge of his nose a bit, trying to ease the pain brought on by the sudden significant temperature change. |
"You sure you're going to be all right? Your ears are all red..."
The waiter had came over at that point and Romeo ordered some beef ravoli, while gesturing towards Gavin and requested that he be given whatever drink that he wanted. |
"Yeah, I'll be fine," he told him with a nod. He had ordered a pepsi with no ice. "So..." He looked out the restaurant window, trying to think of something to say. "Sorry... I suck at small talk... I don't really know what to talk about."
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"Well if I made a laundry list of topics I've been wanting to discuss with you do you think that would help get you out of your non-small conversation shell?" Romeo laughed and tilted his head a little to the right. "Or maybe I should just name the short list of things I refuse to talk about until I get to know you better."
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"You think about me enough that you have a list of things you want to talk to me about?" he asked, arching a brow. "Gotta say, that's a new one. I guess we could ask each other questions, but you seem like you don't like to talk about personal stuff, not that I really like to talk about personal things either... But more and more I've stopped trying to hide the obvious."
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"It's not personal things in general that I don't like talking about. It's SPECIFIC personal things. Like my first name and my favorite sexual position. They don't make good conversations on the first date. Not unless all you want out of them is to get in their pants." He winked. "I'm not like that. Not anymore."
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He smirked a little. "Well, first off, it's not the name that makes you who you are, it's what you make your name stand for. Though I have to say, I smacked into a higher branch of the name tree than you did. At least as far as names that can get a kid beat up in school. Though in a way, Romeo fits you. Though not like in Romeo and Juliet. There's something much darker about you, but not dark in the stereotypical sense. I guess the right word would be depth. Kinda like one of those vampire characters that wants to be seen as human and rejects the lifestyle he's meant to live."
He shrugged a bit, accepting his drink as it was delivered to him. "Sorry, I must read a bit too much." Gavin laughed a little awkwardly. "If all you wanted was to get into my pants I wouldn't be here. I'm not an easy mark. I have enough trouble getting into my own pants." Another awkward laugh. "Self rejection is a bitch." |
"This darkness and depth you speak of.... can this be related to the anti-hero of a story. The kind of person who's not all butterflies and puppydogs, who saves the world because he needs the cash or because he was bored rather than because it was the right thing to do?"
Romeo dodged the second topic of conversation. Partially out of ignorance of the self-rejection and partially because topics like those tended to bring up a slew of other conversations that he didn't want to get involved in tonight. While some of it could be comical the others could be just plain depressing. And he definately wasn't in the mood to be depressed tonight. The waiter had come out with the appetizer and two small plates and Romeo asked him for a little more time so they could decide which pizzas they wanted. |
"Mm. You seem more like you'd save the world out of boredom than for money," he said with a slight shrug, taking some of the food for himself. "I bet you have questions for the person who reads." He took a bite and by the look on his face it was easy to tell he hadn't eaten a single thing throughout the entire day.
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"Yes... lots of questions. The first of which being do we need to order two large pizzas or more? The look on your face makes it seem like you haven't ate in days."
He laughed slightly, his eyes soft to take the bite out of his words. He put a few pieces on his own plate and started eating them slowly, watching Gavin's every move. He took a drink of his own glass of tea before rolling his shoulders back and wincing at the pops that sounded. |
"I've had two small meals in the last three days," Gavin replied, shoving more food into his mouth. "Don't get paid for another week. I knew I shouldn't have fixed that damn broken window. But I didn't want my cat to get out. So it was either lose my cat and freeze to death, or try not to starve for a week."
He finished his portion of the appetizer and downed at least half of his pepsi, sighing as he put the glass down. "I hate making a pig of myself in front of others. But I did warn you that I was a pig when I had the chance to be one. Two pizzas would probably be the smart thing." |
"I'm sorry to hear about that. It sounds like you've had a rough week."
His nose twitched and his face changed slightly at the mention of a cat, but he smoothed out his expression really fast. It was something that would only have been noticed if Gavin was looking directly at him in that instant instead of at his plate. The waiter had come back and Romeo had ordered a large meat lovers and gesturing to Gavin for his choise in food. "I don't have a problem with you eating in front of me. In fact, I'd rather you be fed and happy than starving and miserable. People tend to make better company when their bellies are full and they can think about more than just food." |
"I guess you could say I replace eating with reading to make life a little less painful." He finished off the rest of his pepsi. "So what are some of those questions you have?"
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