Henry Lennox is a very handsome man.

He's tall with an average build, has dirty blonde hair, light blue eyes, and a dimpled smile that he frequently flaunts on social media.

Physical attractiveness put aside, however, Joshua already knows there won’t be a second date for him and Henry. Why? Because Henry Lennox has the personality of a rock. He’s great to look at, but whenever he opens his mouth, nothing interesting comes out of it. Joshua is bored stiff and his date doesn’t even seem to notice. Had Joshua not been so damn nice, he would have long got up and left this dreadful date.

"So, what do you do for a living?" Henry finally gets around to asking.

"Oh. I, uh…" Joshua pauses, not having been ready for the question due to his mind being someplace else. Henry chuckles, finding Joshua's awkwardness to be cute instead of off-putting. "I work in, uh..." Joshua doesn’t want to tell Henry, a successful accountant, that he works as a low-level cashier. That’s too embarrassing. "I'm in the medical field. I'm a team lead."

“Nice.” Henry smiles, appearing impressed.

Before Joshua is forced to go into more detail about the job that he doesn’t have, he breathes a sigh of relief after Henry excuses himself to take an important business call. It was rude that Henry didn't have his phone on silent in the first place, but Joshua isn’t going to complain. This gives him just enough time to reach out to a friend and vent.

•

Joshua—Blue | Tamia—Grey

•

Henry has been gone for several minutes.

In any other instance, Joshua would've been concerned about his date. Instead, he appreciates the alone time. It allows his brain to take a break from having to concentrate and be fake attentive to Henry and his bland monologues.

After receiving a Twitter notification that someone had liked a tweet he made voicing his excitement about the new Inuyasha spin-off, Joshua opens the app and soon begins scrolling down his timeline, eventually pausing on a tweet that was recently published by Rory. 

•

•

Joshua is suddenly reminded of the night he attended Rory's party.

He told Rory that he would give him a list of recommendations after finding out Rory’s computer had crashed. Joshua has yet to keep his word, but now he has the chance to.

Ignoring the voice in his head that tells him he should put his phone away, Joshua’s cowardice is at an all-time low as he proceeds to text his crush.

•

Joshua—Blue | Rory—Grey

•

After slipping his phone back into his pocket upon Henry's return, Joshua doesn’t try to hide the smile on his face.

For obvious reasons, it’s a thousand times easier for Joshua to talk to Rory via text rather than face to face. Joshua didn't anticipate the conversation to end the way it did, him practically daring Rory to come and save him from this disastrous date.

Will Rory actually show up, or is he all talk?

"What's the big grin for?" Henry asks, forcing Joshua back into the conversation. "You're smiling, but I haven't said anything funny."

"Oh my God. I'm sorry for being such a terrible date,” Joshua says. “Sometimes I randomly zone out and get lost in my thoughts…I also might have had a bit too much to drink."

Henry chuckles, reaching across the table to hold one of Joshua's hands. "It's okay. I used to daydream a lot when I was a kid..." Henry quickly jumps into a story about a dream he recently had where he'd woken up to discover that he was the last man on earth.

Meanwhile, Joshua calls for another bottle of wine to be brought to the table. After he finishes his fourth glass, Joshua starts to feel a lot better than what he did before. Henry starts to look way more attractive; his jokes having become funnier. Almost everything that comes out of the blonde's mouth has Joshua giggling and blushing. Henry loves every second of it.

For another twenty minutes or so, things are all fun and games until Joshua finds himself being pulled out of his seat.

"Time to go, Lois." Rory holds Joshua close as Henry stands to question what’s going on. "I'm taking your date and I dare you to say something about it." Rory challenges as he and Henry make eye contact. Henry isn't a fighter and Rory is built exactly like one. Henry decides to keep his mouth shut as Rory pulls a few twenties from his wallet and throws them onto the table. “My apologies for ruining your evening.”

Rory keeps a tight hold on Joshua as they walk to his car in silence. Once inside, Rory buckles Joshua in before passing him a fresh bottle of water, hoping it'll help sober him up.

"Why'd you talk to Henry like that?” Joshua asks. He's too nervous to look at Rory, part of him still in shock that Rory had kept his word and showed up. Joshua keeps his eyes straight ahead as they drive away from the restaurant. "You sounded very…angry."

"Because I am angry,” Rory responds.

“Why?” Joshua whispers.

“Because you were sitting there with no backup getting sloppy drunk with that creep who looked like he couldn't wait to drag you out of there and..." Rory stops himself, his hands tightening on the steering wheel as he thinks back to the sleazy expression that Henry wore prior to him crashing the date. "Doesn’t matter. You're safe now."

Oh God. He’s even sexier when he’s jealous... Joshua's face turns beet-red. He sips on his water until the bottle is empty. "Where are we going?"

"I was about to ask you where you live so that I could drop you off—" Rory starts.

"What, why? I-I'm not that drunk! We can still go computer shopping," Joshua cuts Rory off, panicking because he isn’t ready for their reunion to end. "I'm up for it if you are."

"You sure?" Rory asks.

"Yes." Joshua nods, trying hard to not look as desperate as he sounds.

"Okay.” Rory smiles. “Guess we’re going shopping."