Blaine watched the chestnut-haired man interacting with the DJ across the room. Even from this distance, he was quite possibly the most beautiful man… no, not even man, because that still didn't do him justice… he was quite possibly the most beautiful person Blaine had ever seen in real life. With his delicate bone structure, perfectly coiffed silky-appearing locks, and an outfit that highlighted his tall lithe form to perfection, Blaine almost wondered if he was hallucinating. He was like a man out of a fantasy.

"Yo, dude, are you even listening?" Across the table, his best friend Sam was frowning at him, which meant he'd probably been talking for a while and Blaine hadn't heard a word, too busy staring at the impossibly perfect man across the bar.

Blaine blinked a few times and shook his head to try to clear it. "Sorry," he offered, with an apologetic smile. "What were you saying?" Despite his resolution to focus on Sam, he couldn't stop his eyes from drifting slightly to the left to continue watching the interaction at the DJ booth.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I was just venting anyway, so it doesn't really matter." He picked up his beer from the table and lifted it to his mouth.

"Hey, who's that guy talking to your girlfriend?" Blaine asked, nodding his head in the direction of the DJ booth.

Sam turned and looked over his shoulder, then shrugged. "Dunno."

"He seems to know her pretty well," Blaine observed as he watched Mercedes quickly grab the man's hand.

"Mercedes knows everyone pretty well, so it's hard to keep track of them. We've been together what, like 8 years now, and I still don't think I've met all the people she considers her best friends," Sam replied. Then he narrowed his eyes at Blaine. "Why? Are you interested? Because if you are…"

Blaine shook his head. "No!" he protested, maybe a bit too quickly, because Sam just looked skeptical.

"Look, buddy, it's been over a year since you finally realized Sebastian was an evil, lying, cheating…"

"Let's not talk about Sebastian," Blaine interrupted quickly.

"I'm just saying, it's about time you started looking at other men…"

"I'm not interested!" Blaine insisted, a bit more vehemently. "I was just… worried… for you…" he covered quickly.

Sam scoffed. "Blaine, just because Sebastian was an evil, lying, cheating…"

"Sam!"

"…doesn't mean my girlfriend is. Mercedes and I are solid. I trust her completely." Sam twisted to look back over at the DJ booth, just as Mercedes blew a kiss at the stranger. "Plus, that guy is obviously gay."

Blaine gave him a disbelieving look. "How would you know? You have the worst gaydar. Remember that time we went to a gay bar and you insisted that the guy giving you his phone number was straight and just looking for new friends?"

"First of all, you need to stop using that story as proof, because that was like a week after I moved to New York, and I'm still not convinced that guy wasn't just dragged there with a friend. And second of all, even if my gaydar was defective, I'm not blind. That guy is so obviously gay. He's way too well-dressed to be straight."

"You're well-dressed sometimes, and you're straight," Blaine pointed out.

"Yeah, sometimes, when I'm at work and someone else picks out my clothes for me. Off the clock, you couldn't pay me enough money to look that put together." He looked pointedly down at his loose polo shirt and khaki cargo pants, before glancing back over at the DJ booth. Mercedes saw him and waved, a big smile on her face. Sam pushed back his chair and started to stand. "I'm going to go say hi to my girlfriend."

Blaine stretched across the table and grabbed Sam's arm. "Stop it. I know what you're doing. You're going to go ask her about that guy, and then come up with some really silly way to introduce us that ultimately leaves me looking ridiculous and feeling embarrassed, which will destroy the really, really slim chance I could have had with that guy."

Beaming, Sam sat back down. "Aha! So you are interested!" Then he looked affronted. "Wait, are you saying I'm not a good wingman?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Blaine agreed without any hesitation.

"Hey! I am a totally great wingman!" Sam defended. "Remember that time I introduced you to that really hot guitarist in that band we went to see? He gave you a phone number!"

"Yeah, to the local precinct, which he got off a crime tipline poster hanging behind us."

"It was still a phone number you wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't introduced you," Sam pointed out.

Blaine rolled his eyes, then looked back over at the beautiful man who was now deep in conversation with a perky brunette girl at a table across the bar. "I'm serious, Sam. I don't want you interfering. Like you said, it's about time I started at least looking at people again. I looked. That's enough for now."

Sam settled back in his chair and sighed. "Fine, man. You're off the hook for tonight. But you really have to get back out there."

Blaine picked up his beer. "I know. I will. Soon."

Sam seemed satisfied with that, giving a slight nod.

Up on the stage, Mercedes announced the first karaoke performer. They both sat back in silence for a moment while a group of college-aged kids broke into "Don't Stop Believin'".

Sam glanced back at Blaine as they neared the end of their song. "What do you say? You gonna sing tonight?"

Blaine shook his head. "Not a chance."

"Come on, it's a karaoke bar!" Sam cajoled.

"Which I only came to because you told me you missed your girlfriend and wanted to see her," Blaine reminded him. "And I still don't understand how you can miss someone you live with. Don't you see her every day?"

Sam looked over at his girlfriend, who was welcoming the second act to the stage, and smiled softly. "Sometimes that's not enough. Between our schedules the last few weeks, with her recording sessions for her album and her night shifts here and my unpredictable shooting schedule, we've rarely both been in the apartment and awake at the same time." Even as the second performer, a guy who immediately launched into a slightly off-beat version of "Baby Got Back," took over the stage, Sam's eyes didn't stray from his girlfriend. Feeling a little voyeuristic as he observed the tenderness in Sam's gaze, Blaine picked up his beer and turned to face the stage a little more fully.

He couldn't help it if that also put a certain chestnut-haired specimen of human perfection more in his line of sight. The odds of him seeing the man ever again were slim to none in a city the size of New York, so he might as well get the most out of tonight as he could. He may never have someone to look at the way Sam looked at Mercedes, but he could at least have this one night to observe the most beautiful person on the planet and let that fuel his romantic daydreams.