Dinner Invitation

I hear Rick come home from work. He hangs his coat up in the hall closet and goes into his room to change his clothes. It’s the same thing every day, kinda like Mr. Rogers or something; come in, hang up the coat, change clothes, get a beer, sit in front of the tube and turn on the news, sort through the mail… you could set your clock by him.

Speaking of clocks, Molly made reservations in Lambertville for dinner at seven, and it's already five-thirty. I knock on Rick's bedroom door, which is open. Inside, I can see him pulling off his tie and unbuttoning his dress shirt. I guess if the door is open I don't really have to knock, huh? But I do it anyway because it's polite. "Rick?"

"Hey, Sean, come on in." He says even though I'm already through the doorway when he says it.

"How was school?"

"Ohhhh," he sighs, sliding his shirt off his shoulders and tossing it into a wicker hamper he keeps under the window, "we had more drama today than usual because I handed back the midterms in my Western Civ. Class."

"Ew. How were the grades?"

"You know it's funny," he replies, and his dress pants slip off his hips. He catches them and guides them over each foot. "It seems like every year the disparity between students is growing more pronounced. I have a chunk of A's and a chunk of D's and F's. The B's are slowly disappearing and the C's don't really exist anymore. It's like kids either obsessively push themselves to excel or they don't give a crap about History at all, and there is nothing in between." He seems frustrated, or maybe annoyed. I feel badly, I do, because I know Rick is dedicated to those college kids, but it's hard to take him seriously when he's standing there in tighty-whities.

I shake my head and Rick goes on. "At least I had more A's than F's this time, I guess." He shrugs. "But it's frustrating." He looks at me and takes a deep breath, changing the subject. "What about you? Did your sister get here OK?"

"Yeah, she got here alright, except that I didn't recognize her at first. She showed up wearing a short skirt and an engagement ring." I watch Rick to see his reaction. He raises an eyebrow at me.

"Rrriiinnng?" He repeats to me in a sing-song voice, his reaction reminding me of my own. He picks up a pair of blue jeans from where he'd left them hanging over the back of his desk chair. "You didn't even tell me she was dating!"

"She didn't tell me she was dating!" I throw my hands up indignantly.

Rick shakes his head. "Oooh, that doesn't sound good, Sean."

"We're having dinner at seven…"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, you wanna go? She's bringing the guy… Andrew." Rick seems like he could use the distraction. A good meal and some better wine should fix him right up.

"Why not," Rick nods, pulling on the jeans. "Andrew." Rick tries it out. "He has a handsome name, that's something I guess."

"Yeah, she showed me pictures and he's hot, too."

Rick laughs. "You're not allowed to drool over the straight boys, Sean, it makes them insecure."

"Aw, how is that any fun?" I grin. "He's got a great smile."

"You have a crush… on your sister's fiancée." Rick snorts, doing up his button fly slowly.

"It's not a crush, you idiot." I say sitting on the end of Rick's bed. "Oh!" I suddenly remember why I came in here. "Speaking of crushes, can I get Marcellus's cell number off you? I thought he might like to go."

Rick looks at me sharply. "Marcellus?"

"Yeah, you know, big black guy, paramedic…?" I say sarcastically, Rick has this look on his face like he didn't hear me right. "I thought I'd make it kind of a date, you know? What do you think? He's a really nice guy… hot…"

Rick is staring at me still, but I can't read his expression. Whatever it is, it changes rapidly into something else again, then he turns his back and heads over to his desk. I get the feeling I said something Rick didn't like. Thankfully, I'm quicker on the uptake these days, because I totally figure it out.

"Wait… are you two…?" I stand up and take a few steps toward Rick. "Marc said you guys were just friends but if you were thinking of…"

"Nononono…" Rick interrupts. "I have no interest in dating Marcellus." He says emphatically with his back to me. He's leaning one hand on the desktop and I think he's writing out the phone number with his other. The light from his window is casting a shadow on his abs, which I notice, maybe for the first time, are totally ripped. I knew he'd been working out, but... damn...

"Are you sure?" I ask, stepping closer again, "it's no problem, I mean we haven't… you know, we're just friends so far so I can leave it that way." I put a hand on his bare shoulder. It's warn and smooth, and for a moment I remember our one night. Fuck. That was a... well it was a long time ago.

Rick barks at me, tugging his shoulder from under my fingers and turning around. "No!"

I'm startled by his tone and I take a step back. "Dude…" I put my hands up in front of me in a sort of back-off gesture. What the fuck was that? If he doesn't want me dating Marcellus he should fucking just say so. I wonder if maybe this is a good idea after all but then Rick holds out a piece of paper with a phone number on it.

"Sorry…" Rick sighs and runs long fingers through his hair. "I… I just…" He licks his lips and looks at me for a long moment before continuing. "I'm just worked up from school, I guess. Here." He presses the paper into my fingers and strides past me to his closet. "I know Marcellus likes you, he'll be thrilled to get the call."

"Yeah?" I ask, but I'm still hesitant to set myself up for some kind of mess if Rick's eye is on Marcellus. Still, he did pretty much insist it was OK, and if he knows Marcellus likes me then what the hell, right? "Thanks," I say, once again looking at Rick's back and broad shoulders as he stares into his closet.

"Have fun tonight." He says quietly, while he flips through clothes.

"Wait, you're coming, aren't you?"

"Nah, double date… I hate the whole fifth-wheel thing. You guys have fun. I can't wait to hear about Andrew."

"Sure, ok." I'm disappointed adn I know Molly will be, but I guess I can understand what he means. Plus it does seems like he must have had a really bad day.