Seb was in a strange state of mind when he woke up. The conversation with Gareth was still on his mind, fragments of it anyways. It was a whole different view of his situation.
For months, he had been working on being Kurt's perfect guy, dressing and acting in a way to attract him. Working on his script of the perfect day, until he knew how to deliver it and draw Kurt in. It had worked...getting them out to dinner together, and even to the Frozen Dead Guy festival to listen to the band there.
Kissing Kurt, and later, in the car, having Kurt ask him out and kiss him goodbye, had been amazing and perfect.
But even if he did the day again exactly the same way, he would likely never get any further with Kurt. He just wasn't the type of guy who had casual sex. Seb sighed. Was there any point of going through the day again, with no hope of anything more?
Sure, it was great spending the time with Kurt, seeing him warm up to Seb, getting to feel his kisses if everything went right. But Seb knew if he got there again, each time it would seem less special. It was best to just leave it alone. A day as perfect as he could make it. To try again would either be frustrating if he failed, or cheapen the experience if he succeeded.
Getting out of bed, Seb stepped into the shower. If he wasn't going to focus on Kurt, what could he do? There didn't seem to be a way out of this time loop. Unless he came across a new idea, he was stuck, maybe forever.
Gareth's comments about having all the time to try everything repeated in his head. What could he learn to do? What was available to him, on this particular day, in Boulder, Colorado?
Towelling off, he shaved and did his hair, with his mind still turning the questions over and over in his mind. When he looked in the closet, he slipped on an old suit, not even considering wearing the vintage suit he had worn for months for Kurt.
At the cafe, he looked over the whole menu board. So many things he'd never tried, usually just ordering an Americano.
"Um...hi...Stacey." He glanced at the nametag of the barista. She had short, dark spiked hair and a lot of black eyeliner on, giving him an amused look at his confusion. "I usually have an Americano, but want to try something new. What would you suggest?"
She looked him up and down. "Hmmm...nothing too sweet or creamy, I think. I'll make you my special." With a wink, she got to work.
The resulting drink made Seb give a slight moan when he tasted it. "This is so good..."
"Just a variation on a cappuccino, with a hint of almond flavoring, light on the milk." Stacey smirked with satisfaction.
He nodded back, sipping the drink as he got into the elevator.
In the office, he could see Kurt was at Wyatt's desk, and spun the other way, stepping into the area with many paralegal's desks. They all looked at him curiously.
"Um...Hi... I was thinking of ordering something tasty for everyone at the meeting today, so we don't fall asleep while Charles drones on. Do you know of somewhere we could order something besides donuts?" He found himself saying, thinking fast.
Warm looks and smiles were the response, and several suggestions were thrown out.
Seb listened to them all. "Hmmm...that deli you suggested sounds great, um...". He smiled at the woman with salt and pepper hair, and blue framed glasses.
"Marianne." She supplied with a smile, writing quickly on a post-it note. She passed it to him. "Here's the name of the place. Would you like me to arrange it?"
Glancing back to Wyatt's desk, he saw that it was empty now. The coast was clear. "Ah, no, I'll call them right away. Thanks!" He gave her a winning smile and nodded at the others before escaping to his office.
Shrugging, he googled the deli and searched their catering options. Placing a quick call, they agreed to deliver a platter for the meeting.
He deliberately stayed in his office until right before the meeting started, walking in quickly and taking a seat at the end far from Kurt. It just hurt too much to face him for the full hour.
The platter from the deli was being enjoyed, with many co-workers giving him a nod of appreciation when the paralegals whispered that he had ordered it. He grabbed a bagel, cream cheese and lox, happy to eat something since he had been too distracted to eat breakfast before.
He was still drawn to watch Kurt, seeing him picking the same thing Seb did, sprinkling capers over the cream cheese before layering lox on top. He ate with real appreciation, reminding Seb that he had lived in New York for a few years, and probably missed food like this.
The meeting ended, and he braced himself for Kurt's approach to discuss the client meeting.
"Hi, I'm Kurt. I guess we are working together." The sexy man held out his hand for a professional handshake.
Seb quickly shook it, tingling at the quick touch. "Yes. Would you mind handling the initial meeting, just getting her backstory? She's coming in at 2pm and I've been pulled away."
Kurt seemed surprised, and was about to comment.
Turning away, Seb looked for an escape. "Tom, can I talk to you in your office for a minute?" He nodded at Kurt, and then walked away quickly with Tom in the opposite direction.
Tom gave Seb a puzzled glance. "What is this all about?"
Thinking fast, Seb tried to remember what Tom had mentioned working on in the meeting that he had attended so, so many times. "Something occurred to me as you were talking in the meeting. Have you looked at Johnson v. Strauss? It's an older case, but I think it may be similar to your's." He urged Tom into his office, closing the door behind him.
He was able to get Tom talking about his case, and somewhere along the way, really found it interesting. They dissected it, digging through the files and pulling out reference books.
Tom leaned back, stretching. "Wow, Sebastian, it's been really good reviewing everything with you. Getting a different perspective on the whole case." He glanced at the time, and swore. "I'm supposed to be meeting some friends in about ten minutes for supper." He got up, taking his winter coat off the hook behind his office door and slipping it on.
He paused, looking back at Seb. "Say, would you like to join us? We're grabbing dinner at Oak, and going out for some live music after. It's a pretty casual group."
Seb was surprised at the invitation, but accepted it.
Chuckling, Seb followed Tom up to a large wooden door, marked with only a small metal sign that said 'Open Daily 4 pm – 1 am', beside a pizza joint in an unremarkable strip mall. "Where are you taking me? This looks pretty shady."
Sending a grin over his shoulder, Tom opened up the door and music poured out. "Come on." He led him over to a booth in the corner, where his other friends were already sitting.
It was a small space, with a central bar area lined with stools, and booths along a wall. A tiny stage held a blues band consisting of a singer with a guitar, a bass guitarist and a drummer. The space was packed, with many groups standing around the tall, bar tables, drinking pitchers of beer and eating pizza.
Seb soon was sipping a tasty microbrew and joking around with Tom's friends. They were mostly in their late twenties, well-educated professionals who travelled extensively and were passionate about music.
He was pulled out of their conversation by the band though, when the lead singer pulled out a harmonica and went into a fantastic solo. The whole crowd was cheering and clapping along.
"That was so good." Seb turned to Tom. He had never really listened to blues before.
Tom nodded, and leaned close. "It's Chicago blues style. So much good energy."
Seb sipped his drink, grinning as he listened to the rest of the amazing set. After months and months of being stuck on the same day, it was still incredible to have days like this that went a completely different direction. When he woke up this morning, he never would have pictured himself getting drunk listening to world-class blues with a bunch of hipsters and having a great time.
He stayed out late, drank a little too much, and still woke up at his regular time. No hangover and feeling well rested. It was one of the best things about his situation. Having all his transgressions erased by the time he woke up.
Pondering what to do with the day, Seb sighed at how many times he had done this. He was drifting, without an anchor, and that was going to probably drive him batty if he continued on that way. Without the goal of trying to 'get' Kurt, he felt a little lost.
Maybe something would trigger this time loop to end and he would wake up to a new day. But maybe it never would, and he would be stuck here for years. Maybe forever. He could hope for the former situation, but he had to prepare for the latter.
Over a huge room service breakfast, he thought about how he could use his time. Sure, he could drift from day to day, doing whatever whim hit him at the time. But he really needed more structure to his life than that.
Sipping coffee, he opened his laptop and made a list of things he liked doing and things he wanted to try doing, things he wanted to learn how to do. He let his imagination run wild, just typing down any idea that struck. He thought about Gareth's words, about meeting all the people in Boulder, reading all the books in the library, and trying every type of weed.
Chuckling, he thought of when he had asked Kurt about his perfect guy. What had he said again? After a minute, he started typing again. Intelligent, supportive, funny, kind, sensitive, gentle. Seb just shook his head at the words. Plays an instrument and loves his mother.
Could he actually do this? Try doing completely different things and working at them until he got good at them? Could he really change that much?
Shrugging, Seb started sorting the list, picking out the things that were the most appealing. He had nothing but time. He could try things, and if he didn't like them, take them off the list.
A niggling thought was popping up. What was that 10,000 hour rule again? Googling it, Seb read up on the theory that if someone practices something for that many hours, they could become a master on it. Time was the one thing he seemed to have an unlimited amount of. What could he learn in all those hours?
-Disclaimer: I own nothing.
-Bar: It's called the No Name Bar, because it literally has no name or signage. Look for the big wooden door next to Cosmo's Pizza on The Hill.
-10,000 Hour Rule: The idea that 10,000 hours of dedicated practice in one area will bring you to the level of a master. "To become a chess grandmaster also seems to take about ten years. (Only the legendary Bobby Fischer got to that elite level in less than that amount of time: it took him nine years.) And what's ten years? Well, it's roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice. Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness." ― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success.