Good morrow fine beings! Thank you for still reading this far. Hope you enjoy the new update.
Kurt drummed his fingers on the table as he tried to keep his nerves under control. He checked his watch for the 3rd time in 40 seconds and scowled when he realised he was still 10 minutes early. Was he at the right restaurant? Was he on time? Was he really early? Was Jack still coming? Oh God, what if Jack wasn't coming? What if he'd realised how ridiculous this was? What if he decided he couldn't date a parent of one his kids? What if something had happened on his way here? What if he'd been hit by a car? What if he was lying in an ER cursing Kurt's name? Kurts head was in his hands as each wildly crazy theory outdid the last in his head. That's why he didn't see the guy watching him.
"Hi. Are you okay?"
"Jack!" Kurt whipped his head up and saw his date standing there looking concerned, and maybe a little scared. "I thought you'd been hit by a car or something." Kurt blurted out, internally cursing his overactive imagination.
"Oh sorry, I didn't realise I was late." Jack apologised, "I thought we said 7. I'm so sorry. Have you been waiting long?"
Kurt blushed and shook his head before standing to greet his date properly.
"No, we said 7. I'm sorry, my mind tends to go to the worst case scenario. Hi! I'm Kurt and I'll be your crazy cruise director this evening." Kurt smiled a laughed softly as he leant in to hug Jack. He relaxed a little when Jack returned the hug and laughed quietly.
"I've never been on a cruise before." He grinned as he took his seat opposite Kurt, his heart racing just a bit faster at the closeness he'd just experienced. "This is a nice place. Have you been here before?"
From then on the conversation flowed freely, both men finding mutual interests to chat about with bright eyes whilst the other tried not to swoon too much. From books to movies to musicals to tv shows they had so much in common it surprised them both and before they knew it their empty dessert plates were being removed from their table.
"I did love L.A. for a while. You could see the Hollywood sign from our house. It's not quite the same thing looking out onto a rundown bowling alley." Kurt sighed.
"I know what you mean. My old apartment had an amazing view of the space needle. It was breathtaking watch the sun rise every morning before work." Jack smiled.
"Isn't the space needle in Seattle?" Kurt asked as Jack's blood suddenly ran cold in his veins. "Didn't you say you lived in Colorado?"
"Uh, vacation! It was a vacation." Jack said, a little too emphatically. "Air BnB thing. I was barely there."
"Oh cool, I've always wanted to visit Seattle. That's where Grey's is set and I love that show. Did you ever-" Kurt stopped as he noticed the change in Jacks demeanour. "Did you ever visit L.A.? I may be biased but the studio tours are amazing."
"Uh...no, I-I've never done that." Jack realised that Kurt was trying to change the subject and yeah, his crush got just a little bit bigger then. "You said you worked in one of the studios?"
"Yeah, I worked for Fox for a couple of years until..." Kurt's voice trailed away and a look of sadness briefly flickered across his face, "until I didn't." Jack reaches his hand across the table and squeezed Kurt's gently.
"Stephen mentioned a while ago that one of his parents had died. I'm sorry you both had to go through that. I can't imagine how difficult that was." Jack said softly.
"It was. Stephen doesn't even remember it, he was just a baby when it happened."
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Jack ran his thumb across the back of Kurt's hand not knowing whether he wanted Kurt to tell the story or not.
"It's ok. It's. It as hard now as it used to be." Kurt admitted, looking around the now nearly empty restaurant. "Maybe we should get out of here."
"My place is just the next block over if you want to continue talking. I have better coffee than these guys." Jack winked trying to break the tension, returning Kurt's smile when he nodded. Jack caught the servers attention and handed the bill and his credit card over before helping Kurt into his jacket.
"Hey, I invited you out, the least you could do is let me pay." Kurt pouted playfully as Jack moves back in front of him.
"You can pay next time." Jack winked again, this time with a flirty smirk as he pocketed the returned card. After guiding Kurt through the door with his hand resting in his lower back, Jack took his hand and tangled their fingers as he led them both back to his little apartment.
Kurt was unsure what had precipitated the increase in physical contact but as he moved a little closer to Jack, he found that he didn't really care.
And we'll catch up with them soon. Don't forget to review or get in touch if there's any thoughts or suggestions you'd like to share.