This was already a disaster, and Jo couldn’t tell if it was his fault or not that the guy seemed irritated, even though everything he was saying sounded perfectly reasonable. Jo nodded incessantly as the man talked, feeling like an idiot who didn’t know how to carry a conversation, his hands fidgeting nervously. He’d expected something shorter, like 'Wow, you're loud,' and 'Sorry! I'll lower the volume,' and 'Thanks! Have a great day.' But this problem seemed to go beyond that, and now they were stuck in a longer conversation they really didn’t want to be a part of.
The only silver lining was that the man was handsome, but even that made things worse, because the chances of him being cute, gay, and single were slim to none and it only served to distract him.
A schedule sounded torturous, but the TV was so loud in Jo’s apartment that he couldn’t hear his own thoughts. There was a secret third option. "Uh, maybe I could help?" he offered, despite knowing the normal instinct would be to just leave and deal with it later. Jo rarely took the easy route—mostly because he didn’t realize one existed—so here he was, involving himself in a situation that was none of his business. "What kind is it? If I can ask. I have, uh, one of those generic remotes. It might work on your TV."