Page 32 of The Woodcarver's Model
“I am such a klutz,” Rob yelled. “I am so sorry. I’ll pay for the cleaning. I promise.”
“I gotta go,” Eric said as he twisted himself away from the table and stormed out, slamming the front door.
“But I made dessert,” Mitch said sadly.
Rob finished mopping the wine off the floor, the chair, and the table. “I’m so sorry. I ruined everything. You went to so much trouble.”
They both sat down to Mitch’s apple pie and coffee. The evening had not gone as Rob had hoped and the impression he’d made on Mitch’s friend was not exactly what he had planned. He just hoped that Mitch hadn’t noticed anything.
As they were finishing the last of the wine, Mitch asked, “Did anything happen that you want to tell me about?”
Rob’s face began to flush.
“I knew it. I knew it! You think I’d have learned by now. You can’t trust that guy.”
“Believe me. Nothing happened.”
Mitch shook his head. “He’ll try to sleep with any good-looking guy that crosses his path.”
“So, it had nothing to do with me groping him in the park?” Rob asked.
“No. He’d have run into you eventually, clothes on or off, and made his move.”
Rob leaned back in his chair. “How did you know? I thought I’d covered pretty well.”
“A guy like Eric rarely gets a hard-on when his clothes have been doused in wine.”
“You noticed that?”
Mitch smiled. “You might have big hands, but you’d need a frying pan to cover that python.”
They both started to laugh. Rob slid one of the paper napkins off the table.
“If Eric’s such a dick, why did you invite him over?” Rob asked.
“Me? You were the one who asked him.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. You should have said something. I could have made up some sort of excuse…”
“No,” Mitch began, now looking somewhat embarrassed. “It’s my problem, not yours. Maybe I just wanted to show you that I wasn’t a total geek and Icouldget a guy like that.”
Rob looked deep into his eyes. “You are amazing. You know that, don’t you?” Rob said.
Mitch’s eyes began to tear up.
“You’ve done such a beautiful job of making me feel at home here, making me feel loved, and for forgiving me for being such an ass this morning. I was planning on picking you up some flowers for tonight, but I got so wrapped up in work… It was selfish. I hope this can make up a little bit for that,” Rob said, pulling a paper flower he had quickly fashioned out of the folded, torn and twisted paper napkin from underneath the table. He presented it to Mitch, who cried even harder.
“It’s a flower,” Rob said helpfully.
“I know it’s a flower, you idiot. It’s the most beautiful flower I’ve ever seen.”
They kissed over the table.
The phone rang.
“If it’s that asshole, I’ll rip his dick off,” snapped Mitch as he picked up the phone. “You’d fucking well better be calling to apologise.” Mitch gasped and covered the receiver, passing it to Rob. “It’s that guy who called the other night,” he whispered.
“What guy?”
