The All Important Third Date

Caleb stood at the open refrigerator, marveling at the lushness of its bounty.  He’d never seen their refrigerator so resemble a cornucopia.

“Oh, hey, good, you’re home.”  Nolan’s voice called from the loft.

“We win a farmer’s market in the lottery or something?”  Caleb asked, now eyeing the burgeoning fruit bowl on the kitchen island too.

Nolan trotted down the spiral stairs, wrapped only in a long, fluffy, terri cloth towel at his waist, and flashed his brother a frenetic sort of grin.  “Yeah, I wanted to talk to you.”  He said.  “I’m having someone over tonight.”

Caleb grabbed a bottled water from beside an impressive bunch of broccoli rabe and closed the fridge door.  “Oooh.  Having someone over, as in, a date?”

Nolan smiled.  “Yeah.”

“That why you cleaned my bathroom?”  Caleb asked with a smile.  His bathroom was the downstairs one, the one company would use.

“The only reason I’d venture in there, Brother.”  Nolan quipped.  “I didn’t throw anything away, all your products are in the cabinet.”

“Good.”  Caleb said.  “You know I’d seek retribution by sabotaging your wine collection.”

“Duly noted.”  Nolan chuckled.

“So, the same girl?”  Caleb asked, twisting the bottle cap on and taking a swig.  It was ridiculously hot out today.  Even here in the air conditioned townhouse his mouth felt balmy and sticky.  “The Indian one?”

Nolan frowned a little but nodded to confirm.  “Zahra.”  He impressed.  “I’m making dinner.”  His brother looked around the kitchen, a little daunted by the prospect.

Caleb laughed.  “Say no more.  I’ll find some place to be for the evening.”  He hadn’t planned on sticking around anyway; a new club was opening in the city and he thought he might check it out.

“No, actually.”  Nolan swished his pinky in his ear, trying to dislodge an errant drop of water.  “I was hoping you could be here.”  

Caleb paused, the water bottle midway to his lips, his face a question.  “You want me to be here while you have a date?”

Nolan nodded and padded toward the laundry room.  “Yeah, think you can make it?  At least for the dinner?”  He turned, his face all wrapped up in thought.  “Then maybe find somewhere to be after…”

Caleb raised an eyebrow and leaned against the kitchen counter.  “Isn’t tonight your third date?”  He asked leadingly.

“Yes.”  Nolan’s answer was terse.  “And?”

His brother emerged from the laundry room with the ironing board and began setting it up.  Caleb still hadn’t answered.  Nolan stared at him, expectantly.

“What’s that got to do with it?”

“Nolan, don’t play dumb.”  Caleb scoffed.  “I know what a third date means for you straight people.”

Nolan couldn’t help the smile.  “Like I said, maybe find somewhere to go after.”

Caleb rolled his eyes and pulled a face.  “Nole, in what universe is it a turn-on to introduce your gay little brother on the third date?”

Now Nolan looked serious.  “You’re an important part of my life.”  He said simply, and crossed back into the tiny laundry area to fetch the iron.

Caleb watched his brother choose a setting and plug in the device before he figured it out.  “You want to know if she’s a homophobe.”

Nolan met his eyes.  “I’m sure she isn’t.”  He said, but he didn’t sound certain, just hopeful.  “And it’s more than that.  I want her to meet my family.  I want you guys to meet her.”

“On the third, fucking, date, though?!”

Nolan sighed and headed back to the spiral stairs without comment.

“Wait.”  Said Caleb.

“I’m grabbing my shirt and pants.”  Nolan said as he bounded up the stairs and disappeared into his bedroom.

“Family?”  Caleb called with trepidation.  “You didn’t invite Jonah and Velvet too, did you?”

Silence.

“Yeah.”  Came Nolan’s muffled response from somewhere deep in his bedroom.

Caleb smacked his hand to his forehead and tisked.  What was his brother thinking?!

When Nolan reemerged and started down the stairs again he was holding a few different shirts and a couple pairs of pants.  “Help me?”  He asked casually.

They laid the garments out over the sparkling clean kitchen island and looked them over ponderously.

“Not the lavender if Jonah’s gunna be here.”  Caleb vetoed brusquely.  “No sense setting yourself up for comparison.”

Nolan nodded and pulled it off the counter with a grunt of agreement.

Caleb held up the remaining two against his brother’s still bare chest, alternating one then the other under his chin.  Nolan stood patiently, enduring the process with ease and trusting his brother’s magic.

“This one.”  Caleb said, his verdict as clear as if a gavel noise would follow.  “It’ll make your eyes leave Jonah’s in the dust.”  He added.

Nolan gave a short laugh.  “Unfuckinglikely.” He tossed the runner-up onto the first eliminated and they focused on the pants.

“Neither.”  Caleb said firmly.

Nolan frowned. “Those are my best pants.”  He argued.

“Yeah.”  Caleb agreed.  “And completely useless.”  He looked his brother in the eye.  “Jeans.”

An ‘Ahhh’ sort of expression replaced Nolan’s consternation and he smiled.  “You’re the best.”  He threw the light gray striped button down they’d chosen over the back of a bar stool and gathered the rest of the clothing up, eagerly heading back to the stairs.

“Grab a black teeshirt for underneath.”  Caleb advised.

“Yup.”  And Nolan was gone again. 

 

“A tight one!”

He heard Nolan chuckle.

Caleb delivered the selected item to the ironing board but went no further than that.  He wasn’t their mother.

This time when Nolan came back down he had thrown on a plain white tee and a pair of boxers. 

“Ok, picked jeans, a belt, a tee—I’ll need you for shoes, I think.”

“Yeah.”  Caleb agreed.  He would.  “But listen, Nolan, seriously, why are you doing this?”

Nolan pulled out a gourmet recipe book and plopped it on the counter.  “Because you’re my family and my family is important to me.”  He reiterated.

Caleb shook his head.  “Yeah, but we’ll also be here in a week, two weeks, a month, whenever you’ve got this relationship on firm footing and are really ready to do the ‘meet my girlfriend’ thing.”

That’s how it had been in the past.  That system worked well.  

“I would rather know sooner, rather than later.”  Nolan said quietly.

His brother thumbed through the cook book almost idly, no clear agenda at the moment, lost in thought.

Whoa.  “You mean you want to know before you sleep with her whether or not we like her?”

Nolan was quiet.

“Jesus, Nole, that’s a little intense.”

“I’m in love with her.”  He responded simply.  

“Then I’m sure we’ll love her too.”  Caleb soothed.  Nolan always picked great girls.  He couldn’t remember objecting to a single one.

Nolan shook his head marginally.  “I’ve never felt like this, Kay, and I just don’t want to lose my heart if it can’t work out.”

Caleb furrowed his brow.  “If you love each other, why wouldn’t it work out?”

Nolan met his eyes meaningfully.  

“Oh god.”  He said, barely audible.  “You need to know if she meshes because you think she might be it.”

Nolan’s face said it all.

“So I was right, kind of, about the homophobic crack?”

“I’m sure she’ll love you.”  Nolan repeated mulishly.  

“But if not?”

He sighed.  “If not, then, what future can there be?”

Caleb’s eyes widened.  Wow.  He was touched.  Honestly.  Moved.  “Nole.”

Nolan shrugged and decided to open to the table of contents rather than meet his brother’s eye at that moment.  “She’s from a traditional Hindu family.”  He fretted.

Caleb laughed.  “I’ve never heard that Hindus were especially anti-gay.”

“Me neither, but…”  He ran a hand through his still-drying hair absently.  “And the sooner I introduce her to my family the sooner, maybe, she’ll introduce me to hers, and then we’ll really see, won’t we?”

Caleb sank into an island stool and studied his brother’s tense muscles, his barely restrained nervousness, his heart, out there, beating right on his white cotton sleeve.  Boy, did he ever love this girl.  Two dates.  Almost three.  And he’s thinking marriage and forever.

“This is all very Jonah of you.”  Caleb commented wryly.

Nolan met his eyes.  “No shit, huh?”  He said, sounding a bit in awe of it.  “I did not see this coming.”

Caleb was quiet for a moment, thinking.  “More than the thing with me, you need to know if Jones approves.”  He said astutely.

Nolan looked startled and then very guilty.  “I want to know what each of you thinks.”  He argued.  “Jonah isn’t the end-all, be-all.”

Caleb shook his head.  “No, he kind of is.”

Nolan scratched the back of his neck and slapped the cook book closed, deciding to fetch another from the shelf.  “That’s ridiculous.”  He denied.

“Nole, there’s no shame in it.”  Caleb soothed gently.  “He’s important to you.  His opinion is key.”

Nolan shrugged and returned to the kitchen island, brows furrowed, lips turned-down, a storm cloud.  “You’re better at reading people than Jones is.”  He reasoned.

“But you’re the best at it.”  Caleb said with a smile.

“Well my radar is a little foggy with this one because I’ve never wanted someone more in my life.”  He confessed unashamedly.

“Ok, well I’ll be glad to give you my report, but let’s not pretend this doesn’t all hinge on Jonah’s stamp of approval.”

Nolan sighed heavily.  “I wanna see how she is with the kids too.”  He said.

Caleb’s eyes blinked dramatically.  “The kids are coming too?!”

“Yeah.”  Said Nolan, as if that were obvious.

“Does your date know all this yet?”  He asked, incredulous.

“I told her, yes.”  He said evasively.

“And she still agreed to come?”  Caleb asked with a smirk.

“She did.”  Nolan answered blandly.

“Then, brother, I think you’ve already got your answer.”  He said with a playful tone.  “She’s the one.”

“I hope so.”  Nolan said, a shade wistful, a shade worried.

“Tell you this, though:”  Caleb leveled seriously.  “No way in hell you’re getting laid tonight.”

Nolan grimaced. 

“Just saying.”  Caleb shrugged.  “Want me to make the salad?”  He asked with a perky change of mood.

Nolan laughed and very unexpectedly wrapped his arms around his brother affectionately.  “I thought you’d never ask!”