The Gay Man's Matchmaker

Chapter 4

Lauren wasn’t exaggerating about him either. Trevor was cute. Damned fine, in fact! He’d come to dinner in a black long-sleeved tee and a pair of skin-tight black pants. His jet black hair was shoulder length and he’d worn it in a tight ponytail tied at the neck. His black leather jacket completed the pseudo-Goth-like look, but he still held an air of paralegal professionalism around him … despite that extremely hot looking lip ring. His piercing bright green eyes held mine when he met me, and a small grin tugged at the side of his lips. Did I mention he was hot? Because he so was!

We met at French restaurant this time – at Trevor’s suggestion actually. And I was happy to go along with it, not wanting to tempt the wrath of Steakhouse Waiter Man again. I had wanted to leave Tommy and Lauren home, but they insisted they would come at least to dinner. I could see that Trevor also wished they hadn’t come by the covert glance he gave them when they weren’t looking at him and it was all I could do not to laugh out loud. He winked at me and smiled when he saw my expression.

“What’s good here?” Lauren asked as she began to peruse the menu. “Please tell me I don’t have to eat snails!”

“Yeah, since you’re already marrying one,” I retorted.

“Hey!”

“What?” I asked my best friend innocently. “You can’t refute it. It took you four years to ask her to marry you, even though we all – your mother included – pointed out that she’s the only one on Earth willing to put up with you!”

Bitchy, I know, but since he’d decided to torture me with blind dates, I felt the need to pick on him as often as possible. My night with Genie alone should give me permanent license. I will never look at clowns the same way again.

“Yeah, well, he got around to it,” Lauren giggled. “It’s all good.”

“I think I would start with either the onion soup or a warm goat cheese tartelette with asparagus if I were new to French cuisine,” Trevor replied to Lauren, politely ignoring my banter with Tommy.

“Ah, that I can handle,” she grinned back at him.

Trevor smiled and looked down at his own menu. He did seem kind of quiet, like Tommy had mentioned last night, but I was sure he’d found me at least somewhat attractive what with the look he raked over me when we’d met. Maybe he was as uncomfortable on a double date as I was. The waiter came for our drink orders, pulling me out of my private thoughts. I followed Trevor’s lead and ordered a scotch, not knowing how well beer would go with French food. Tommy frowned at me and promptly ordered a lager. Lauren, as always, ordered a white wine.

“Do you know what you want to order?” Lauren asked me in a hushed tone.

I stole quick glance over to Trevor and noted by the small smile that he found it amusing she thought she was being inconspicuous.

“Yeah,” I whispered back with a grin of my own.

“What?”

“Why do you need to know?”

“Stop being difficult, Kee!” she admonished. “You know I like to compare choices with you.”

Trevor chuckled at that and I snorted back a laugh. Tommy grinned as well, and Lauren’s cheeks turned pinkish but she still looked at me expectantly.

“I’m starting with the wild mushroom ravioli,” I finally replied. “Then, for dinner, I’m having the panier du pecheur.”

“The what?”

“It’s shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, calamari and lobster.” I pointed it out on her menu and she shuddered. Lauren was allergic to shellfish.

“I think I’ll just go for the chicken,” she decided.

“The poulet du sud-ouest?” Trevor asked.

Lauren nodded.

We put our order in after the waiter served us our drinks then sat back and waited … and waited. Trevor just gazed at his glass of scotch quietly and I sighed. I’d guessed he wasn’t a conversationalist, but this was a bit much. When it looked like Tommy was about to break the silence I rushed in, knowing that anything he decided to bring up wouldn’t be good … at all.

“So, Lauren tells me you like to go to photography shows,” I prompted him.

“Mmm hmm.”

I stared at him expectantly but he wouldn’t raise his gaze.

“Okay. Um. What recent shows have you seen?”

“Fringe stuff,” he shrugged.

Okay, he was hot but this was nerve-wracking. I picked my brain trying to come up with a name when Lauren saved me.

“He went to see that Jaoquim Blu guy you used to know, Kee,” she looked at Trevor. “Isn’t that what you said last night?”

“Oh, yeah. He was good. A little dark though.”

“I’m not surprised,” I smiled at him. “He was always trying to get the professors to assign morbid subjects.”

“Oh?”

“Mmm. One time he requested that the professor make us all go out and take pictures of road kill for a special school exhibit.”

“Gah!” Lauren exclaimed. “Perhaps you should discuss him after dinner.”

We all laughed and the conversation went a bit better after that. Our dinner was delicious and the waiter never once gave me the impression he wanted to piss in anything we consumed. When the bill came and I reached for my wallet, Trevor put a hand on my arm and shook his head.

“But …”

“My treat,” he said firmly and he and Tommy divvied up the bill.

Lauren laughed at my expression, knowing me well enough to discern my thoughts … that I’m apparently the woman on this date. Tommy gave me a smirk as well and I fixed him with a sour expression.

“Where do you want to go now?” Trevor asked me when we walked out the door of the restaurant.

By the way he looked at me – so intently – I could tell he addressed that question just to me. Tommy and Lauren weren’t his concern anymore. It was thrilling yet kind of intimidating. I’d never had a relationship before – just a series of casual flings over the last few years. I wasn’t sure what the accepted protocol was.

“Kee’s not used to going out much,” Tommy said helpfully.

I was going to kill him later. Maybe I’d do that old hand in the warm water trick in the middle of the night. It would be funny as hell if it worked and he pissed his bed.

“Oh?” Trevor asked me. He still hadn’t broken our gaze. “Why not?”

I shrugged silently, nervous and excited at his suddenly forceful stare.

“He’s been busy focusing on his career,” Lauren supplied.

The ‘oomph’ I heard from Tommy indicated that he was about to say something to break the mood and she’d intercepted him. Have I mentioned what a great girl she is? Too bad she’s in for a life of woe with Tommy.

“I’d love to see some of your work some time.”

“You probably have already, if you like to cook,” Lauren answered for me again. Good thing, too. Trevor’s lip ring suddenly fascinated me. I was uncharacteristically speechless as I wondered what it would taste like. “He’s the main photographer for Gourmet.”

“You are?” Trevor asked with another small smile. “Did you do the spread on chocolates from around the world, by any chance?”

“Yeah,” I whispered.

“That issue was sexy as hell,” he murmured.

Normally, one would think anyone linking a food magazine with sex appeal would likely be in need of a psychologist … or a dietician. But I make my living taking pictures of food, so to me that’s the highest compliment he could have paid me. And he knew it, from the way he punctuated the statement with a smirk.

“Um, I think we’ll head on home now,” Lauren said.

“But …” Tommy started only to end his complaint in another ‘oomph’.

“Don’t wait up for him,” Trevor said to them as I listened to their retreating footsteps. He was still staring at me intently and I was beginning to feel a shiver slide down my spine. “So …” he said.

“Um … yeah.”

He laughed at my witty reply and tugged me down the sidewalk in the other direction … to a darkened area of the street. When we reached a fairly desolate place he turned and pushed me roughly against the brick wall. And when I say roughly, I mean that the back of my head bounced against the brick causing me a moment of dizziness. He didn’t wait for my head to clear before he captured my lips in a searing kiss that normally would have had me reciprocating … if it wasn’t for the goose-egg sized bump on my head.

“Trev-“

“Shh!” he hissed.

He bit down hard on my lower lip and I groaned in pain, trying to push him off me. But he was surprisingly strong.

“What the fuck?!” I demanded.

“Like you don’t want it!” he sneered. “I saw you checking me out all night, Kee!”

“Yeah,” I growled. “But that doesn’t mean attack!”

“In my world it does! Besides, I paid for you for the night.”

“What?!”

“Dinner. I paid. You owe me this.”

His eyes bore a laser-like hole into mine as he held me in place against the wall, wedging his knee between my legs.

“I think I want to go home now!” I shouted pushing back at him with all of the strength my arms could muster. I was beginning to feel sick and I wasn’t sure if it was from the head slam or his brand new Mr. Hyde persona.

“I like public places,” he grinned at me coldly. “I always do my boys in public the first time I have them.”

“Your what?!” I cried. “I’m no one’s ‘boy’!”

“You’re going to be,” he insisted, pulling me out by my shoulders and slamming back against the wall again. This time I saw stars … and I became really pissed.

Okay, that’s it, fucker! I couldn’t get his arms off me so I did the one thing that I, as a guy, knew would get him the fuck back. I slammed my knee into his groin with a force even I wasn’t sure I possessed and when he whimpered I shoved him off me and to the ground.

“No means NO! Asshole!” I pulled a fifty out of my wallet and threw it down on his writhing form. “There! Now I don’t owe you shit!”

I gave him one more kick in the ass for good measure before I stalked away. It’s always the quiet ones!