heat(ing and plumbing) rivalry
live updates from the scene (my apartment) where, a month ago, i witnessed two plumbers conducting our gas inspection. ordinary? heterosexual? you'd think so. except:
one is a very tall redheaded russian. very tall. and
the other is a normal sized very handsome man of middle eastern descent, possibly persian. i am bad at accent identification.
the shared english a month ago? also bad.
the russian's sudden sweet clutch of his partner's forearm when possibly persian man did something wrong to the stove? electric. (no pun intended. these men are not electricians.) i SAW the words flee from possibly persian man's lips; i SAW the russian's redheaded complexion, which can hide nothing, turn an incriminating pink.
today, four weeks later (they have been in the building several days a week hunting down a gas leak apartment by apartment; we still have no functional stove; the complex is stuck in some sort of bureaucratic purgatory; i will accept air fryer recipes at this time), they have returned to replace our water heater. it requires welding and an extensive explanation of what any drips could mean.
the english: better
the BICKERING: robust. lavish, even. and, most damning,
the russian has now called the possibly persian man "malyshka" three separate times. it doesn't sound sarcastic to me?!?!?!
i thought i was hallucinating it. i thought i made it all up in my delusional brain, wherein for the duration of 2026 i anticipate being incapable of seeing a handsome slavic man without making some involuntary associations.
the questions i pose to you are: is it possible to call your male coworker "baby" in a platonic way once you've done the forearm thing? does it matter if i'm fujoing out if it makes the world brighter and more beautiful? and, most fundamentally, do you think they have kissed?
