Chapter Six
Danny knew it was ridiculous to be nervous about a completely fake date with a guy he already knew, but that wasn’t enough to actually stop him from being nervous. What if they didn’t look convincing together? He was no actor, and neither was Eliot, as far as he knew.
What if Eliot hated him once he got to know him a little better? What if all of this served as proof that Danny’s love life wasn’t a disaster because he was in the closet, or because he didn’t have time, but because he washim?
That was what he was really afraid of. That he wouldn’t even be able to make a relationship work if he paid the guy.
While he was lost in thought, someone brushed past him and bent down to kiss his cheek.
It was a relief when he looked up and realized it was Eliot. He was suddenly self-conscious about being outside, in front of all these people, on a date.
Any date, but especially a fake one.
It was way too late to back out now.
“Hey,” Eliot said, beaming at him across the table as he settled into the seat opposite. “You were a million miles away when I got here.”
Danny blinked, forcing himself back into the present. “Uh, yeah. Thinking about…”
He couldn’t tell Eliot what he’d really been thinking about, could he? It was one thing to trust him with his public image, another thing to share his deepest secrets and fears with him after only having met him three times.
“Ghosts of boyfriends past,” he said. Before he’d been thinking about how this might all go wrong, thatwaswhat he’d been thinking about. How he’d screwed up every other relationship he’d had in new and inventive ways.
Of course,relationshipwas a generous word to use to describe any of the other men he’d been with. They were more like secret affairs that left him feeling guilty, afraid, and unfulfilled.
After a while, he’d resigned himself to a life of watching porn while he jerked off instead. Even that had lost its shine pretty quickly.
“Well, at least you’ll never have to put me in that category.” Eliot smiled.
Danny wasn’t so sure. He hadn’t picked Eliot for nothing. He’d been perfect, obviously, but there was also a tiny part of Danny that liked him.
He was practically the opposite of every other guy Danny had dated. He would have been fairly confident, with any previous boyfriend, that an arm wrestling match was a fair fight.
Eliot was downright fragile in comparison. Not a guy Danny would normally look twice at. Not a guy he’d even notice in the first place, honestly.
And yet, his heart had done that weird somersault thing when he’d answered the door to him the other day. Knowing he was coming over had been strangely exciting, and not just because he’d been plotting a conspiracy.
Danny was currently pretending none of that had happened, because it was more confusing than he was willing to deal with.
“Yeah, that’s soothing,” Danny admitted. Worries aside, he liked getting to hang out with someone—anyone, really, but especially someone who knew where he was coming from—without the pressure of having to be switched on the entire time.
“You scrub up nice, by the way.” Eliot smirked at him. “I was starting to think you didn’t own a real shirt.”
Danny glanced at the button-down shirt he’d picked out for the occasion. It wasn’t anything special, but he supposed it was a little tidier than a t-shirt he’d slept in and a pair of sweatpants.
“I also look great in a suit,” Danny said. “But you’ll have to wait and see.”
Eliot hummed. “We’ll have to coordinate our ties.”
Then, unexpectedly, Eliot reached out and took Danny’s hand. Danny blinked at him for a second, confused, waiting for an explanation.
No one ever held his hand. He just didn’t date guys who held hands at all.
It wasn’t… the worst thing ever. Not even close.
“Our photographer just arrived. I don’t think there should be any question about whether or not this is a romantic moment,” Eliot said.
Then he leaned forward a little and gave Danny the most adoring look he’d ever been on the receiving end of.
