The moment Finn set foot into Ringside Gym, he knew he’d made a mistake agreeing to come to the speed dating event. For all the time he’d been coming here, this was the most people he’d ever seen present at once. Men and women mingled, talking and laughing so loud that it echoed in the large open room. There was an energy in the air, something that Finn could feel against his skin.
Devan’s eyes widened as he, Eli, and Finn walked over to the registration table. “This is crazy.”
“Aren’t you sorry you volunteered us to help out now?” Eli’s smile made his eyes sparkle. “That’ll teach you to be all noble and stuff.”
“We owe them.” Devan turned to Finn and smiled. “You better get registered while we figure out where Nolan needs us to be.”
Finn’s heart was pounding, though whether from fear or excitement, he couldn’t be certain. “Yup. Probably won’t stay for the whole event, so don’t worry if you can’t find me.”
The couple shared a look before Finn walked past them. He’d held up his end of their agreement, so what if he only sat through one or two of these things before bailing. The money was going to a good cause, and that was the important part.
The registration line moved quickly, and before he knew it, Finn was face-to-face with the new guy he’d met the other day. Jason or Jessie . . . or something. Finn tried to see if the man had a name tag on, which, nope, of course he didn’t. Wonderful.
Finn swallowed, and his lips trembled as he forced a smile. “Ah, hi.” A blush heated his cheeks the moment the guy met his gaze. The dark-rimmed glasses gave him the appearance of a stern teacher, which was attraction catnip for Finn.
The man smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Finn, correct?” He looked down the list in front of him. “There you are, Finn Miller.”
If Finn had been a bit embarrassed before, knowing that this attractive man remembered him from their brief meeting was downright mortifying. “Ah, yup. That’s me.”
“Here’s your name tag, an explanation of the evening’s events, and your date rating card.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “Things are about to get started, so you might want to head over to the ring.”
“Justin, how many more in your line?” Nolan called out from somewhere unseen.
Justin! Right.
Taking his package, Finn put his name tag on and headed to the gathering crowd. Even though Nolan had been promoting the event a lot at the gym, there appeared to be a large number of people who weren’t members. Fresh faces, unknown quantities, and no way for Finn to adequately prep.
What the hell am I doing here?
Zack climbed up onto the boxing ring and clapped his hands. “Hello everyone. Welcome to Ringside Gym and our first annual speed dating event. All proceeds will be going to launch our LGBTQ after-school self-defense class. If you’d like more information on the classes, or if you know a youth who might benefit from attending, please speak with Nolan. He’s the cute one hiding in the office.” Zack smiled and waved in that direction.
Finn tried to look around, but every time he made eye contact with someone, his gaze would drop to the floor as if his eyeballs were weighted. He shifted until he was toward the back of the crowd, then he bumped into someone. “Sorry.”
The remainder of his apology died in his throat when he realized he’d practically stepped on Leo, who smiled and winked at Finn. “It’s all good, handsome.”
Oh God, oh God. He should say something else, anything else as to not come across as a complete idiot. But Leo had already turned his gaze back to Zack, who was explaining how the evening was going to work based on sexuality self-identification. Finn barely recognized the words as English.
“If you have a blue name tag, that means you’re sitting at the tables in the yoga room.” Zack pointed to Eli. “You can follow the attractive bald man, and he’ll take you up. Everyone else, stay here for a moment, and then I’ll let you know where to go next.”
Leo leaned in toward Finn, tapped his blue name tag, and purred, “That’s us.”
Finn didn’t know how he was going to make it all the way to the yoga studio sporting a massive boner and not be made fun of. Holding the card in front of his pants, he mentally went through every disgusting image he could dredge up in order to help deflate his bulge. Not that it was working with Leo wearing tight jeans and walking in front of him.
God, life totally wasn’t fair at times.
Once they made it to the studio, they were filtered out once more. Eli stood at the doorway, playing traffic cop. “If there’s an A on your name tag in the bottom corner, you’re at a table. B and you’re going to be the one on the move.”
Thankfully, Finn was an A, which meant he’d have the blessed table as cover. He found the closest available one and fell into the chair. Why the hell had he agreed to this? Never again.
Eli clapped his hands. “I think I’m supposed to say something inspiring.” He shrugged. “No one died from participating in one of these events. Just have fun.” His gaze landed on Finn for a moment. “When you hear the bell, you have eight minutes to spend with your date. When the bell goes off again, you’ll move clockwise to the next table.”
The bell went off, and before Finn had a second to catch his breath, a man sat down across from him.
“Hi there, I’m Jordan.” He held out his hand, and Finn took it without thinking.
“Finn.” Woohoo, he’d managed to get a whole word out.
Jordan was dark-skinned, with the richest brown eyes Finn had ever seen. There was something easygoing in his smile that should have set Finn at ease. Instead, his heart pounded and he had to wipe his hands on his jeans.
Jordan cleared his throat. “I’m a business student, graduating this year. I’ve been out since I was sixteen, and I’m looking for someone not only to date, but someone who would like to go on some adventures with me. Like,” he scooted forward in his chair, “going to one of those escape-room things. The whole idea of using our wits to figure out the clues sounds like so much fun.”
Finn forced his gaze to stay up and locked on Jordan’s. He managed to smile and nod. Jordan frowned. “Is that something you might be interested in doing?”
Shit, he had to speak. “Ah. Maybe.”
Jordan smiled, but not as brightly as before. “There are a lot of different types. Horror themed, mystery, and even espionage ones. I haven’t gone before, but it’s on my list to do this summer.”
Finn squeezed his legs. “It sounds fun.”
“What about you? What do you like to do?”
Okay. He’d been asked a straightforward question. Finn could manage to talk about what he liked. He managed a wobbly smile. “I’m a tech guy. I play video games and . . . ah, read.”
There. Those were words that comprised a sentence. It even made sense! Finn smiled and basked in the glow of his success.
Jordan leaned back in his seat. “So, you’re kind of a stay-at-home guy.”
“I guess.” Was he? He liked going out to movies and to art shows, though he always felt weird going alone. He’d probably do more of those things if he had someone willing to go with him. Maybe someone like Jordan.
Then the bell chimed and Jordan was out of his chair before Finn had a chance to say goodbye.
The wee bit of excitement he’d felt vaporized. This wasn’t who he was as a person. He didn’t do nanosecond first impressions really well, never had. Why he’d thought tonight would be any different, he didn’t have a fucking clue.
Another man had taken Jordan’s place. He held out his hand and smiled. “Hi, I’m Scott.”
Finn did his best to push past his previous failure and start again. “Finn. Nice to meet you.”
They then proceeded to spend most of the eight minutes awkwardly staring at one another and attempting small talk.
Ding. Switch.
“Hi, I’m Palmer.”
Ding. Switch.
“Hi, I’m Malik.”
Ding. Switch.
With each passing person, Finn found it harder and harder to look the person across from him in the eye. How the hell did people do this? Figure out what to say in a split second and not sound like a complete idiot? That was clearly a skill that he hadn’t been born with, and he’d never managed to learn it.
Fuck it, he was leaving.
Finn was halfway out of his chair when Leo sat down across from him. It was as though Finn’s ass had a magnet implanted in it; he plopped back down onto the metal folding chair. If Leo had been aware of his actions, he certainly didn’t acknowledge them.
“Hello, handsome.” Leo stuck out his hand. “Leo Hayes. I’ve seen you around, haven’t I?”
Holy shit, Leo knew who he was. “Ah yeah. I train with Eli.”
“Yes, that’s it. I’ve seen you in the ring more than once. Man, he must be brutal to work with. I’ve only sparred with him once, but he handed me my ass.”
I’d like to handle your ass. “He does that.”
Leo leaned back in his chair and half turned his body, presumably so he could keep his gaze moving around the room. “He’s on my wish list of people to beat. I mean, it will probably never happen, but a man’s got to have goals, am I right?”
“Yup.” God, he had the most attractive neck Finn had ever seen on another human being. Who knew that necks could be such a turn on?
“I’m not sure about this whole speed dating thing. I wasn’t going to come, but then the guys guilted me into it. Figured that if people knew I was coming, they might get a few more attendees.” He leaned forward just enough that Finn caught a flash of the chest tattoo beneath his shirt. “Apparently, I have a few groupies around here. Isn’t that fucking hilarious?”
I’m your groupie. I’ll do whatever you want. “Yeah.”
Leo cocked his head to the side and smiled. “I like you. What did you say your name was again?”
“Finn.”
“So, Finn, have you had better luck than me tonight? Maybe my standards are too high, but every time I sit down at a table, I just get a feeling of dread.” He winked. “Except with you.”
Words. I have to use my fucking words. “Not yet.”
Leo slapped his hand on the table. “Awesome. I would have felt like a complete asshole if I was the only picky bastard here. Nice to know I’m in good company.”
Ding.
Finn’s heart raced as Leo let out a big sigh. “I guess that means I need to be on my way.”
“Want to go out on a date?”
Finn froze the moment he realized that the words had come from his own mouth. He hadn’t just done that. Had he?
Leo’s grin widened. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll mark you on my card, and we can exchange information.” And rather than only say he was going to do that, he placed his card on the table in front of Finn and made the mark so Finn could see it. He waited for Finn to follow suit. “Awesome. I’ll see you soon.”
As Leo moved away, Eli clapped his hands. “Okay, everyone. Let’s take a fifteen-minute break. There’s coffee, tea, energy drinks, and snacks in the back of the room. We also have baked goods from the Pear Tree around the corner.”
Finn’s hands shook as he reached for the table edge. He felt as though he’d run a marathon while hopped up on Red Bull. He was going on a date with Leo! This was possibly the best thing in the world that could have happened to him.
Or the worst.
Because going on a date with Leo meant actually having a conversation with Leo. And if tonight was anything to go by, the chances of him going on a second date with Leo would be next to none.
Shit, this was going to be a disaster.
Someone sat down opposite him. Finn had to blink when he realized it was Justin. Wearing a baggy Ringside T-shirt that didn’t suit him at all and sporting what could only be classified as a frown.
“You’re going on a date with . . . that man.” Justin motioned over to the refreshment table where Leo was currently laughing with a small group.
“How did you—”
“I was standing right there.” He pointed to a spot a few feet away from Finn’s table. “Hard not to hear.”
“Oh.” Finn must have been really excited not to have noticed Justin. The man’s air of annoyance alone would normally be enough to put his hackles on edge. “Yeah, we are.”
“Is that something you wanted? Did he pressure you into the date?” There was genuine concern in Justin’s voice. Strange, given they’d only talked twice before.
“It is. I asked him.”
“Honestly?” Justin crossed his arms. “You looked terrified once he left. I wanted to check in and make sure everything was okay.”
Finn stared into his eyes, and a dam broke inside him. “I’ve had a . . . God, saying ‘a crush’ makes me sound like a kid, but I’ve had a crush on Leo for a while now. I don’t do well with people or with conversations. Tonight has pretty much been an intense version of Hell for me. But when he was going to leave I . . . I couldn’t let that happen.” The burst of energy left him once again. “I just don’t think I’m going to be able to have a conversation with him for longer than eight minutes.”
“You seem to have no problems talking to me.”
Finn blinked, as the reality of Justin’s words hit him. “Oh.”
Justin narrowed his gaze. “Why do you think that is?”
“I . . . well. You’re, ah, different? I don’t want to date you?” Finn straightened. “No offense.” God, this was the worst.
Justin waved him away. “You need a coach. Someone who can help you learn the finer art of conversation.”
God, that sounded exactly like what he needed. “That would be amazing. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to take me on for something that tedious though.”
Justin nodded twice. The first appeared to be to himself, but the second time he made direct eye contact with Finn. “Agreed.”
“Agreed . . . to what? Me being tedious?”
“To me being your conversation coach.”