Silver Flash - Out of this World - Chapter 1

Out of this World by L.M. Brown
A male/male romance 

He was staring at him again. Rick could feel the man’s eyes on him from right across the other side of the room.

He wondered whether he might come over and talk to him today, or whether he was just going to watch him like he had every day this week.

Anyone else would just go over and talk to the man, but not Rick. Rick had never found it easy to talk to anyone, and certainly not men he was attracted to. To get up and walk over to a stranger and strike up a conversation just wasn’t in his nature.

“Rick!” A manicured hand waved in front of his face.

“Hi Maggie.” Rick turned away from the blond haired man and focused on the petite blonde sitting across from him. 

“What’s so interesting over there?” Maggie asked as she twisted in her seat to look across the room.

“Nothing.” Rick pointedly looked away from the man. It wouldn’t do for Maggie to realise he had his eye on someone. It would be just like her to drag him over there and push them together, whether the other man was interested in him or not.

Maggie shrugged and turned back to him. “So, I heard back from Dan and he told me his room mate’s older brother is gay and he’s single.”

“I don’t need setting up on another blind date.”

“How about if I get you a picture of him first?”

“No.”

“But you need to start dating again. One bad experience shouldn’t turn you into a hermit like this.”

“I’m not a hermit. I go out and meet people.”

“You go to work and you hang out with me and your brother. You haven’t dated since –”

“Don’t say his name,” Rick interrupted.

“You need to get over him.”

“I am over him.”

“If that were true you wouldn’t have a problem with me saying his name.”

Rick sighed and turned back to his half eaten salad. “Fine, one date with this guy and that’s it. No more set ups.”

Maggie bounced in her seat as she pulled out her mobile phone. “He said yes. Saturday night is perfect.”

Rick shook his head. It seemed like he was now cancelling his plans for Saturday.

* * * *

Self-centred, boring egotist. Rick knew he shouldn’t be surprised that this latest blind date was just as disastrous as the rest of them.

“And it was only my stepping in that sorted out the whole mess.”

Rick smiled absently as his eyes swept the room distractedly. He spied the clock on the wall and realised he’d only been here fifteen minutes. Was that too soon to end the date?

He was turning his head to stifle a yawn when he spotted the man from the café again.

He was sitting at the next table, his own dinner companion apparently forgotten. He had twisted around in his seat to stare at Rick again.

He was closer than he had been any day in the café, close enough for Rick to see the hazel eyes and the edge of a tattoo peeking out from the edge of his collar.

The stranger continued to watch him and Rick squirmed in his seat at the scrutiny.

Rick’s date was busy ordering around the waiter so he took a chance and hissed across at his stalker. “Don't look at me like that.”

He wasn’t sure what reaction he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t for the man to fall off his seat in shock.

Rick stared at him as he scrambled up off the floor. The man’s date hadn’t moved from her place and no one else seemed to have batted an eye.

“You can see me?” the stranger asked in a hushed whisper.

“Of course I can see you.” Rick looked around the room, and for the first time he noticed that while no one had noticed the man across from him falling from his chair, he was getting a few strange looks himself.

“I knew it!”

“Rick, who are you talking to?”

Rick turned back to his date. “Sorry, you were saying?”

It seemed that the light haired stranger wasn’t going to be ignored quite so easily. “I’m sorry, I don’t have time to explain, but you have to come with me right now.”

Rick shivered at the man’s tone. There was an urgency about it and even with his date staring at him as though he had lost his mind, he couldn’t stop himself from turning to the other man once again.

“Now,” the man repeated, holding out his hand and waiting for Rick to take it.

“But—”

The stranger took his hand impatiently and pulled him from his seat. “Hold on tight,” he ordered even as Rick protested.

Then a flash of light blinded him momentarily. He struggled to release himself from the vice-like grip. “I said hold on!”

When Rick’s vision cleared he almost wished he hadn’t. His date was nowhere in sight, the restaurant had vanished, and the world as he knew it was altered forever.

To be continued...

Other Silver Flashers This Week

Ryssa Edwards (m/m)
R.J. Scott (m/m)
Pender Mackie (m/m)
Julie Hayes (m/m)
Diane Adams (m/m)
Lily Sawyer (m/m)
Victoria Blisse (m/f)
Sui Lynn (m/m)
Lindsay Klug (m/f)
Heather Lin (m/f)

For the full list of Silver Flashers
(including those not participating this week)
please see the foot of this blog.