The Party Boy's Guide to Dating a Geek (Clumsy Cupids) (5 page)

for everyone else, of course. Your geek will probably

eschew the manual in favor of trial and error. He will

make mistakes and possibly even crash the system before

he's through. Be patient with him as he absorbs the

information you are providing him.

2.1

No new messages.
Ash sighed, exited out of the

browser on his laptop, and shut the screen with a

quiet snap. Same as the last three times he'd

checked. It had been days since he'd tried to send

Fee a message through the RTFS blog. After some

searching, he'd found out it stood for "Read the

Fucking Source." The guidebook had worded it a

little differently, but the interpretation was the

same. Ash thought it was kind of hilarious,

especially when he considered how rarely anyone

he knew actually read directions. Most of his

friends were in the "experiment first, ask questions

later" camp.

Despite Ash's message expressing interest in the

blog and concern about whether or not Fee's hand

had healed up properly, there hadn't been any kind

of contact from Fee—not a message, a text, a

phone call. Ash was starting to feel desperate, and

that wasn't something he was used to feeling. Why

were things so easy with everyone else? He'd

never had to work so hard to get someone to go out

on a date before. Hell, getting people into bed or a

bathroom stall for a quick one-off was easier than

trying to get Fee to talk to him. It was baffling.

Could it be that maybe Ash suffered from a

misguided sense of vanity? Was it possible he

wasn't as hot as he thought he was? Ash had

always considered himself well above average in

the looks department. He'd rarely gotten turned

down in his life, and only then by people who

were already involved with someone else and

actually gave a crap about faithfulness and

monogamy. In the club scene where he spent most

of his free time, people were judged on their looks

first. Everything else was secondary. Things like

personalities

and

shared

interests

were

afterthoughts in the face a hot guy with a tight body

offering a fun time with no strings attached.

Judging by Fee's interests and the way he'd

turned Ash down without any real hesitation, Ash

got the feeling Fee wasn't an anonymous fun kind

of guy. What made the whole thing puzzling was

that Ash actually cared enough to want to find out

what kind of guy Fee really was. Fee had to be one

of the best looking men Ash had ever seen in

person, if not
the
best, and Ash could admit a lot

of his attraction was purely, basely physical, but

there was more to it than that. Fee intrigued Ash

for several reasons. Ash knew how to tell when

another man was interested in him—years of

experience had taught him that—and in the very

least, he knew that Fee found him attractive. So

why the refusal? Had Jackson or Marisol told Fee

about Ash's rep? It was the only explanation that

made sense to Ash. Otherwise, why fight the

attraction? It wasn't as if Ash had asked the guy to

move in. Dinner, drinks, maybe some dancing.

Totally casual, nothing major. If they didn't like

each other by the end of the night, they never had to

see each other again. All he wanted was a chance.

But how to get it?

Ash eyed his laptop contemplatively. The RTFS

book club had a meeting coming up toward the end

of the week, on Thursday night, one of Ash's rare

evenings off. They would be discussing some new

Star Wars
hardcover. Ash couldn't remember the

exact title, but the website had said the discussion

would be led by Fee N. and some guy named

Donovan S. If Ash read the book and showed up at

that meeting, well, Fee could hardly ignore him.

Then afterward, maybe Ash would be able to catch

Fee alone and strike up a more private

conversation, possibly even ask Fee if he wanted

to go grab some coffee. Maybe if it seemed

impromptu instead of like a formal date, Fee

would be more likely to agree. It was worth a shot.

Ash flipped the laptop open and signed in again.

He'd get the title, and then he had some shopping to

do. First stop? The bookstore.

2.2

Well, this is awkward.

Ash had never felt more out of place in his life.

People were eyeing him as if he were some kind of

strange fungus they'd found growing in the bottom

drawer of their refrigerator—but that was nothing

compared to the way Fee had looked at him when

he'd first walked into the meeting room. That look

had been pure annoyance followed by a healthy

serving of exasperation and told Ash quite clearly

that his attentions were neither welcome nor

appreciated. It wasn't that Marisol hadn't given Fee

his number, or that Fee hadn't gotten his message

from the website. He'd gotten both and chosen to

ignore them. Ash had been intentionally snubbed,

for the first time ever, and the blow to his ego hurt

more than he'd thought it would. It also made him

even more determined. He wasn't giving up, not

that easily, not until Fee agreed to at least one date.

Ash couldn't understand the animosity and

strange looks coming from the others, though.

Maybe he was a little overdressed, sure, but it

wasn't like he'd shown up in his tight, flashy club

gear with every tat on display. He'd done a bit of

research and given himself a geek-chic makeover.

Instead of his usual skinny jeans, he'd gone for

slim-fitting black slacks. He'd paired those with

his most conservative shoes (plain, black Doc

Martens), a deep blue button-up that almost exactly

matched his eyes, and a sharp, black vest that

emphasized his toned chest and narrow waist. Add

to that a pair of dark-rimmed costume glasses (not

unlike the pair Fee wore, although Ash knew Fee's

were probably real) and a black leather messenger

bag, and he thought he looked a bit like a hip,

young professor. Scholarly, but not entirely

without fashion sense. He'd even gone as far as

changing up his hair a bit, trading his typical,

stylized disarray for something sleek and preppy

with carefully side-swept bangs.

If any of his friends had seen him this way, Ash

was sure they would have done a double-take and

then laughed their asses off. He didn't look bad.

Just … different. And it would've taken them less

than a second to figure out he'd dressed to impress

someone. Not that it had done him any good.

Beyond that first annoyed glance, Fee hadn't even

looked in his direction. He'd stayed on the

opposite end of the meeting room, locked in a

conversation with a tall, gangly blond wearing a

shirt that read "Han Shot First," which Ash didn't

get at all, while Ash lingered near the snack table,

his outfit making him feel embarrassingly

conspicuous in the sea of grubby jeans and faded

graphic T-shirts.

From what Ash remembered reading on the

blog, the RTFS book club met at this same location

every month, the second floor of a local used

bookstore/coffee shop called Grounds For

Thought. Ash had never been there before, but he

liked the place. It had a mellow, friendly vibe,

with high, haphazardly organized shelves, a

smattering of comfy chairs and cushions scattered

throughout, and a small café area that had been

entirely packed when Ash first walked in.

The signs, chalkboard menu, and bookshelf tags

had been drawn by someone with a decent artistic

hand, which added to the laid-back, homey

atmosphere. Ash could have taken those signs from

cute to awesome and helped them come up with a

really memorable logo as well, but he wasn't there

as an artist. He was there trying to win over a guy

who had yet to give him the time of day. It was

kind of pathetic when he thought about it, but he'd

already come so far. At this point, it was a matter

of pride to see the whole thing through.

"Okay, everyone," Fee announced from the front

of the room, jarring Ash out of his musings. "I think

we're all here. Let's get started."

Ash moved toward the table and sat down at the

far end. A chubby girl with a mop of ginger curls

and an overabundance of freckles plopped into the

chair next to his with a muttered "hey." Ash

returned her greeting with a bit more enthusiasm

and got a small smile for his efforts. He smiled

back and started digging in his messenger bag for

the book he'd purchased earlier in the week while

casting a surreptitious glance in Fee's direction.

Fee had settled in a seat about midway down the

table and the gangly blond he'd been talking to had

taken the seat on Fee's right. Ash wondered briefly

if the blond was the "Donovan S." mentioned on

the blog. He didn't want to consider any other

possibility, like how maybe the guy was actually

Fee's boyfriend, not just his book club co-captain.

Blondie was sitting pretty close, after all, and

seemed to be leaning toward Fee in the familiar

way of a close friend or maybe even a lover. The

thought made Ash's stomach churn. But if Fee was

dating someone, surely he would have just said so

that first day, or told Marisol to pass on that little

bit of info so Ash wouldn't contact him again,

right?

Ash liked to think so. He wasn't one to push

once the boundaries of a relationship were drawn.

If Fee had said he had a boyfriend, Ash would

have backed off, but he had a feeling that Fee

wouldn't be the type to hide something like that

when he was being approached by another guy.

No. If Fee had a boyfriend, Ash was fairly sure

he would have said so the day Ash asked him out.

Unless Fee and Blondie had hooked up since then,

Ash figured they were probably just friends. Of

course, there was only one way for Ash to find out

for sure, and that was to continue with his plan.

Ash tried to pay attention when the blond started

talking—he
was
Donovan, Ash realized after a

couple minutes—but it wasn't easy. His gaze kept

straying to Fee and occasionally he caught Fee

looking back.
Yeah, no way is Donovan his

boyfriend. Not when he's checking me out with

the guy sitting right next to him.

He allowed himself a smile, ignoring the

discussion going on around him until a question

was directed at him—by Fee, who along with the

rest of the group, was staring right at him

expectantly.

Ash cleared his throat and sat up a bit straighter.

"I'm sorry, I missed that."

Fee's eyebrows arched above the frames of his

black glasses. "Many reviewers in the
Star Wars

fandom have stated that
Darth Plagueis
could be

seen as a prequel to
The Phantom Menace
, even

though an official prequel already exists. What do

you think about its place in the Expanded

Universe?"

Say what?
Ash blinked. Now would probably

be a bad time to admit he hadn't been able to read

the entire book, right? He'd tried, honestly he had,

but he'd gotten confused only a few chapters in.

There were so many characters that didn't match up

with the ones he knew in his head. Where was

Luke? Leia? Han Solo? He didn't have a clue who

Darth Plagueis was, or Darth Sidious for that

matter. Maybe he should have paid more attention

during the movies or watched them more than

once, but aside from the main characters, he

couldn't actually remember all that much. Sci-fi

had never been his thing.

"Um," Ash eventually forced out. "I—I, um—"

"Personally," the curly-haired girl beside him

interrupted, "I'd never had much interest in the

story of Palpatine or his master, but I really

enjoyed the book. It seems like every new Sith

master had his own vision of the Sith and the dark

side of the Force. I think with how strong a