Eric's breath caught in his throat as he saw the immense form of his boyfriend enter the laboratory.
He was surprised by the fortuitous circumstance since they tried to maintain a respectable distance at the university, where Tom was a graduate student and Eric a rising member of the faculty for the physics department.
Tom wore a red T-shirt beneath a black leather jacket with three red stripes emblazoned around the sleeves. His face was shaved except for patchy sideburns and the start of a soul patch, youthful experiments that bemused Eric. In a normal situation, the lanky and bespectacled Tom stood a couple of inches taller than Eric.
Tom had decided to pay an impromptu visit after the professor of his evening class had dismissed early. He had seen Eric's car in the parking lot, so he knew that his workaholic boyfriend and former professor was still in his lab.
So, finding the room empty surprised him. Thinking Eric had stepped out to the restroom or vending machine, he walked toward his desk to have a seat and wait. His path took him near the silvery platform beneath the rather steampunkian-looking ray-gun descending on a tangle of wires and cables from the ceiling.
Keeping his eye on Tom's denim-draped legs, Eric ran toward the edge of the platform. "Tom! Down here!" He added energetic waves to his pitiful, squeaky shouts in hope of attracting Tom's attention.
Tom pulled out Eric's swivel desk chair and had a seat behind his desk.
"Damn! He didn't hear me," the tiny man said aloud. With Tom on the other side of the desk, the tiny man's view of his huge boyfriend was effectively blocked. He stood, puzzling over his next course of action, when he felt a vibration in the pocket of his white lab jacket.
"My god! My phone!"
He retrieved the phone, exulted to see Tom's number flashing. "Tom, thank god!" He answered.
Tom heard a voice that blinked with bursts of static. "Eric? Where are you?"
Phone in hand, Eric continued running toward the building-sized desk. "Down here," he shouted into the phone.
His communication was lost as the connection wavered between the phones.
"Eric?"
Eric heard Tom's voice overhead, loud and rumbling, and the more synthetic version in his ear from his phone.
"Tom, you've got to help me!" The scientist blurted out. "I've shrunk!"
Although he heard "help me" the rest of the words cut out. Alarmed, Tom pushed the chair back from the desk and stood. He moved around the desk.
"Eric, this connection is shit," he said, walking around the desk. "Where are you?"
Eric screamed as his boyfriend's massive sneakers slapped the floor as he left his seat and moved around the desk. In fright, he ducked beneath the desk just ahead of a shocking footfall of one of Tom's sneakers mere inches away.
"Eric?" Tom's voice came through the line without incident.
"Fuck! Be careful!" A shaken Eric screamed into his phone. "You nearly stepped on me!"
A series of shrill squeaks were almost muffled by the static on the line. "I'll call you back," he said.
Eric's heart sank as the line went dead. He saw a dropped gum wrapper and, with a sudden inspiration, emerged from beneath the desk. Waving the wrapper like a banner, he raced across the floor, bravely hazarding Tom's huge footwear.
"Look down here!" Eric cried again. "Tom, I'm down here! On the floor!"
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