Enemies with Benefits 2

Chapter 4: The Birds and the Bees

His tie was off centre. A slight tilt to the left... and now it was far too left. He fiddled with it over and over, never quite getting it right. It was always off. Never perfect. Even when he thought he was one slight adjustment off perfection, it always slipped from his reach. All his own fault as well.

He straightened out his charcoal suit jacket then adjusted the leather belt on his similarly coloured trousers. Actually, were they the same colour? The more he stared at him, the more he looked, the colour kept seeming to change and differ in front of his very eyes. One second it matched then the next it did not. His eyes playing tricks on him or was he simply poorly dressed? Truthfully, he didn't even know where he was going to be meeting the two boys for dinner tonight. He hated it. No, he despised not knowing. He felt physically ill not knowing anything that could happen tonight. Where were they going? What was the dress code? Would anybody else be in attendance? What would they think of him? That was the most important one, how would the people there see him.

Too formal, too informal, well put together, a complete mess. If he knew the venue, he would have a better chance of gauging what people, wanted from him, what they expected. Unless this was a ploy of some sort to humiliate him then... then it wouldn't be completely undeserved.

His phone began to ring on a nearby table. The sudden noise caused him to jump, he hadn't realised how quiet the house was in that moment before then. The number was not registered on his phone.

He brought it to his ear: "Hello. Steven Dickinson speaking."

The phone was silent for a moment. A spam call perhaps? Then a voice came through. "Oh, hello. Um, Colby Williams replying. Over."

Colby Williams? Colby? Oh... that Colby. Why did he say over? It wasn't as if they were using radios to speak to each other. "Hello, Colby."

"Hello, Steven."

"Yes, hello."

"Yep, hi."

Why wasn't he saying anything? Steven had had this sneaking suspicion for a very long time, ever since the very boy he was speaking to in the phone washed up at his door one night and demanded to speak with his son. This Colby fella was very strange. The boy that had stolen Ezra's heart was a very very weird guy. He remembered the night they first met as if it was yesterday. Colby had been such a scraggly looking boy. His hair a wild mess of brown waves on his head going this was and that. He had arrived late at night and stayed even later, no matter how purposefully uncomfortable Steven tried to make Colby feel —and after that didn't work— how many hints and clues Steven gave Colby to leave, he just didn't. To this day, Steven had never been sure whether Colby was an idiot or a hidden genius. All Steven's jabs had been water off a duck's back.

Colby was weird. Maybe he'd changed since they'd last met, but the phone call wasn't making Steven believe that.

"Can I help you, Colby?" Steven asked.

"Help me with what?"

Was this a prank call? He debated hanging up, but Ezra probably wouldn't like that. Unless, Ezra had told him to do it.

"Well, you call me, Colby. So, I was wondering if there was something you wanted to tell me."

Colby hummed into the phone. "Oh yeah! Duh doi, totally forgot. You know what it's like, in one ear out the other." Colby laughed and Steven felt under a polite obligation to laugh with him. "But yeah, I was calling to tell you where we are meeting tonight. It's this completely new place on fifth street, very chic from what I hear. It's also apparently got a big bird theme, Ezra mentioned that you're a big fan of birdwatching."

"He did? Oh, well I'm sorry he told you that. Terribly boring stuff. I don't do that anymore, so no need to worry about me being a drag."

"No, I love birds. I think my favourite bird is the woodpecker. They just slam their head against wood all day long. They're so cool."