Kevin figured he was probably supposed to water the cactus at some point, but he didn't know when, since the whole point of a cactus was to hold water. It had been a week since Nancy gave it to him, and so far, it had just sat on the desk reminding him of being stuck in the elevator with Stephanie. He still wasn't sure that was her name, but he really hoped so. If fate ever brought them together again, he didn't think he could call her anything else.
He was sure Nancy gave him a plant so he would be reminded of her, but it seemed to be doing the exact opposite. He never looked at the cactus and thought Nancy, he only ever thought Stephanie. He couldn't decide what to do: neglect it so it could die and he could justify throwing it out, give it to someone else, or just make it someone else's problem. There were a few other plants on a table downstairs, he figured no one would notice another one. That way, he wouldn't have to think about the elevator incident all the time, and he wouldn't feel guilty about killing it on purpose.
Either way, the plant had to go; he wasn't getting any work done with it on his desk. Plus, Nancy never came to this office. She probably didn't even know where he worked. She really only knew him because of his uncle, and he doubted his uncle was talking to his staff about him that much. Jared stuck his head in Kevin's office, and interrupted his reverie.
"Trivia night at the Bomber tonight. You coming?"
"Themed or general knowledge?" The usual group of guys was pretty decent regardless, but typically did much better if they got into the right frame of mind.
"I think its general. But Joey is coming so we will be good. His head is full of the most useless crap it's a wonder he ever gets anything done."
"You mean the most useful crap. He remembers things so the rest of us don't have to. I'm in. I need to get out and do something. I've been debugging Randall's code for a week, and I can't stand anymore of it." Randall had been an intern who had a great idea and tried to write the code for it.
Unfortunately for Kevin, Randall was more of an ideas guy than a getting-things-done-right guy, and he had left them two weeks prior for another start up. Thanks to his contract and the non-disclosure agreement he signed, his project stayed behind. Now they just had to fix it to get it working.
If he managed to fix it, it would be huge for their company. Kevin was known around the office as the "fixer" and had temporarily abandoned his own project to work on it. Everyone brought him their buggy code when they couldn't crack it. So far, he'd solved every problem laid across his desk. He refused to be defeated by Randall's, though clearly Randall had no idea how to code anything.
Jared was still talking, "Also, it's nacho night at the Bomber, so we should get there early so we can actually get a decent table. And obviously, eat our weight in nachos."
"Okay, well I should probably go home first then. Get changed. Eat a vegetable or something."
"Bah, there's onions and jalapenos on nachos, that counts as enough vegetables for the day."
Kevin had no idea how Jared managed to stay thin. He ate crappy food and drank heavily at least once a week. Apparently, those green juices in his fridge were good. He was a serious type A personality though, and rarely got more than four hours of sleep in a night. Perhaps he just kept himself so busy that it burned enough calories to allow for weekly drinks and bar food. In contrast, Kevin liked to visit the gym regularly, and ate a surprisingly healthy diet considering the environment he worked in surrounded by everyone else's junk food all day.
"Okay, well, I'm going to head home now, grab a snack, and change. I'll meet you there at 7, and I promise I will eat enough nachos to completely over ride any health benefits I may have gained from the vegetables."
Jared seemed pleased with this and went back to his own office. Kevin saved his progress and grabbed the cactus. Literally anything was better than having it on his desk.
On the way past the front desk, he placed it beside a big plant with drooping vines. Hopefully whoever took care of the other plants would take care of that one too.
*
Kevin arrived at the Bomber by 7:15pm. Almost all the other guys were there already, with two plates of nachos on the table. It looked like they were loaded with double cheese, which meant no matter how much restraint he showed, he was going to have cheese dreams. It always happened when he ate too much dairy in the evening. Some people got gassy; Kevin got trippy dreams.
By the time Jared finally showed up, he had a girl on his arm. Apparently, during the intervening two hours he managed to find a girl willing to go to trivia with him. Kevin was concerned that Jared was either going to be absolutely useless by focusing on getting her to go home with him, or he was going to be unbearably into it and act like an insufferable know-it-all. At least when he was less interested it didn't hurt their odds. Saying no to a persuasive Jared was tricky business sometimes. It all depended what he wanted from the girl.
Jared introduced her as Katy and they sat together at the end of the table. She was petite, and very friendly. She had really big blue eyes, and straight black hair tied back in a ponytail. She was wearing a Star Labs t-shirt, which was undoubtedly one of the reasons Jared had talked to her. She wasn't his usual type, but he may have changed his mind as soon as he realized she was a bit of a nerd too.
Unlike Kevin, Jared wasn't afraid of rejection and he would go for anyone who'd suit his tastes. Then again, Jared was 6'2", hyper-aware of his hairstyle and wore stylish clothes. There was a reason he was the face of the company. When he focused on you, his deep blue eyes were capable of making you do anything he wanted.
After 15 years of friendship though, Kevin was impervious to all his charms, and had seen all his tricks. And yet, seeing them at work for 15 years to successfully pick-up women did nothing to help Kevin. He just looked stupid if he tried any of it. He lacked the natural charisma that made Jared so successful in everything he did.
At exactly 8:00pm, the trivia started and lasted a full hour. The previous trivia night was cut short when a fight broke out between two of the other tables. It was a themed event, and neither team had any idea how trivia usually worked. They ruined it for everybody. Kevin's team, "This is NOT Jeopardy", was winning until the fight broke up the game. They were not impressed.
Luckily for everyone, Jared was his normal self during trivia, even with his date present, and they came second for the night. Their prize, a $50 gift certificate valid that night only, promptly went towards another plate of nachos and round of beers. Kevin decided it was a good time to head home, and left with Joey, a long-time friend.
It seemed Joey had something he really wanted to talk about.
"So, when will our next D&D campaign be? And where do we stand on letting someone new in to our guild?"
Kevin glanced at him and was about to answer when Joey went on. "Like, not permanently, a trial basis maybe. Do one or two small campaigns, see if they can work with us and then decide. You know we need a new healer."
Joey had a point. Two months ago, their old healer had moved to Chicago. Since then, they'd been playing with random characters Kevin created, and no one liked being the healer, even when it was randomly distributed.
Kevin thought about it as they walked, "Alright, trial basis only, and only if you can get two of the other guys to agree to this. The rest of you can play with random characters again the first time, and they will be a low-level healer so we see how it goes. Then, maybe we can try them in their own healer role." Joey nodded at this and hurried slightly to keep up with Kevin. For a shorter guy, Kevin walked quickly.
They continued in silence the rest of the way to the subway. From there, Kevin and Joey went in opposite directions. On the train, Kevin decided to open up one of his dating apps. He rarely used the sites, and was just used to being single. Seeing Jared acting like himself tonight though, with a date there, made him think maybe he wouldn't be single forever.
He'd had a few relationships in the past. His last one, which had lasted four months, ended two months ago. Before that, it had been almost six months since he had gone on more than two dates with the same girl. His longest relationship ever lasted 14 months, during his last year of university, and she had moved to California as soon as they graduated.
He still hadn't found anyone he felt he could be himself with. Either they didn't like how short he was (it had happened more than once), or he was too 'smart' for them, or for whatever other stupid reason they could come up with, he always ended up heartbroken and alone. The last relationship was the first time he'd ever actually broken up with someone. She was trying too hard to be interested in the things he liked, and it was exhausting to have to explain everything. She always wanted to be doing something, she didn't like just hanging out or watching a movie on the couch at the end of a long day. He'd felt relieved when he finally ended it.
The app, called MatchedUp, provided suggested profiles based on interests, and also let you search profiles essentially at random. When doing so, it showed their answers to your choice of two of the standard questions in everyone's profile. If you liked their answers, you could then go into their full profile and share your interest through that.
He was surprised to see that he had two suggestions already, and three people who had liked some of his answers through the search. When he looked through their profiles though, he was not impressed. Maybe it was time he updated his answers and profile. When he signed up initially, he was hesitant about using the app, and he definitely added some sarcastic elements, which may have been a reason he didn't have a lot of luck. If he wanted results, he had to take himself seriously. It was time for a change.