The Boyfriend Project.

Getting to Know the New Boyfriend.

        It was late afternoon when Shane decided to leave his room. Cyrus was satisfied because it was enough time to cook him something to eat. The moment he stepped into the house, he had already received his first task:

Make him like you.

     He didn't know any other way to do that than cook something nice for him. His mom had always told him the way to a man's heart was through food. His father could vouch for that.

As Shane walked to the kitchen looking absolutely hideous with his bed head, Cyrus placed the square plate on either end of the table with an empty glass. Shane flopped on one he had just put a napkin and cutlery for, and Cyrus managed a smile for the man.

"How was your nap?" Cyrus asked as he placed his napkin and cutlery down on his side.

Shane ran his hands through his hair but didn't respond causing Cyrus to hold back an eye roll. He went back to set the dishes in the middle of the table like his mom did during his family dinner.

He said as he served Shane first, "So this is rice and Indian chicken curry. My dad taught my mom and me how to make it when I was little."

The brown-haired man hummed as he stared at the food. Cyrus served himself then sat comfortably in his seat. He waited for Shane to say something but when the man picked up his fork, Cyrus shrugged and started eating.

Watching the man as he munched on, he noticed the man take a bite of his food, made a face and drank almost the entire glass of water.

Shane finally looked up at him and said, "That was hot."

At first, Cyrus was confused by what he meant. Was he referring to the food or him? However, thinking back on the way the man had treated him since he came, the later was probably not possible.

"You mean the pepper or spice?"

Shane's forehead creased with confusion and he shook his head. "How much of either did you put in it?"

"Moderate," He continued after a sip of his water. "My family normally added more, but I decided to go easy since you haven't tasted my cooking before."

Shane took another sip from his water before standing to get more. He turned to Cyrus when he was done. "You still live with your parents?"

"I wish I did," he said after he swallowed then took a gulp of water. "But I don't. I moved out five years ago to Canada to study Arts in UOIT. I help at a studio downtown Toronto now."

Shane hummed dryly, looking away from him and dropping the glass in the sink. "Thanks for the food. By the way, I'm pescetarian."

Cyrus frowned. He hadn't heard that one before. However, he wasn't surprised since the man had never ordered for someone who could cook. Cyrus looked up at the man before he walked out and asked, "It's the one with fish, right?"

"Yes," He answered walking passed him to the living room where he flopped on the couch and turned on the TV.

Get him to like me, he thought. That was harder than he had expected.

~::~

"Alright! So I'm going to head out and scout my surroundings then hang out with a friend. When will you want me to be back?" Cyrus added as he adjusted his pink leather cap in front of the small mirror that hung on the wall beside the door that led out of the apartment.

The man hummed when Shane didn't answer him. Shane wondered why he even needed to ask his permission. None of his other boyfriends did so. They typically stayed home or followed him out when he went out. If there was something he was learning about Cyrus, it was that he was independent.

"Do whatever you want. Just know it automatically locks at 11:00 pm and if I am out, you'll have to call me because you don't have the code."

"Then tell me the code," He said smoothly, and Shane looked away from Kim Kardashian on the Tv to him.

"No. I don't trust you yet."

His face instantly became stoic. The expression he had used when Shane had been surprised about his race. Shane frowned and sat up. He reached out his hand and said, "Give me your phone let me give you my number?"

Cyrus slowly reached into his jacket pocket and gave it to him after unlocking it. It was a solid iPhone7, and although Shane had never really liked black iPhones, there was something amazing about the 7. He saved his contact as My Man then gave it back to him.

He heard Cyrus chuckle and Shane bit back a smile.

"Give me a call, so I can save your number too. And it's not that I just don't trust you, I don't know you. We haven't been talking before so I can't just give you my code when I don't know what you are capable of."

"Kind of hard to not get offended when the first thing you pointed out was my skin color."

Shane sighed then lay back down on the couch. "Because I have been subconsciously getting all white boyfriends. It was unexpected."

Cyrus scoffed as he opened the door. "Well, at least you said yet, so there is still hope for me. Think of me as you lie there and be lazy."

When Shane leaned up on his elbow to scowl at him, the man winked then closed the door behind him.

Shane stared at the door for a couple minutes before lying right back on the couch. He cuddled a small pillow as he thought about the shit The Gay Project had put him in. Shane just wanted to have fun sex with a guy he had been talking to for a while. Now he had to talk to Cyrus face to face, and that was a communication he wasn't good at. Didn't that mean he should take him on a date? A date was rare with his other boyfriends.

Think of me as you lie there and be lazy.

Cyrus' deep voice repeated itself in Shane's head, and he hated the fact that he was actually doing what he said. Jumping off the couch, he went into his room to get out his laptop and his note. He placed them on the table, turned off the TV then sat back on the couch. He wasn't going to do what Cyrus said. He was going to work on his essay that was due in a couple days.

Loading up his laptop, he typed in his password and the screen went back to the boyfriend page he had left it on. A message was already on his screen, and it read;

Shane,

I am terribly sorry you do not enjoy our services. Sadly, Cyrus Rich can only be returned after two weeks due to a problem that has risen. It would be best to even have him for the rest of the month. Until the contract we signed expire which is next month, and it is approaching fast.

To help better your relationship with your new boyfriend, we will give you a series of tasks. For every completed task, you lose a day you have to spend with him. If the task is something TGP finds heavy, you might lose more than a day. The countdown is from now to two weeks. Do the task below, and you lose the last Sunday to spend with him.

Task: Go on a date with Cyrus Rich.

To prove you did the task, write a short note of who you think he is.

The Gay Project.

Shane read it again and again and again.

Leaning back on his seat, he didn't know if what he read was a good thing or not. He didn't know if he would fall for the man. However, it wasn't like falling for the man was his aim. If he felt good to sleep with then, he didn't mind.

Shane froze. Wasn't Cyrus a top? That meant sex was...  Exhaling deeply, he opened a new tab as he googled nearby eateries. He might as well just go with the tasks. It wasn't like it wasn't something he couldn't do. Besides, he needed someone to cry to about Ramus. Then maybe Cyrus would spill about a lost love too. Just thinking about it was enough to excite him.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he opened it up to see it was a text from Cyrus.

Maybe this wasn't so bad after all