Yes, Russell indeed is more a nerd than an executive, he is a chemical engineer and he is as geeky as his job. Plus he is not really able to exalt his assets and so, at almost 30 years old, he is still a virgin. You would think he would be on Luke as soon as he moves in, and instead Russell offers Luke the guest room and plenty of space to study without asking anything back. Luke takes upon himself the job of cooking Russell dinner, with the groceries Russell is buying by the way, but other than that, and only since Luke offered, Russell seems to be content with being simply roommate.
I like that the author didn’t choose the easy and obvious way of making Luke see the light as soon as he meets Russell; on the contrary, Luke will go and search for sex, and finding it, two times while he is staying with Russell, and the second time it actually hurts not only Russell, but also me that was reading since it was clear that Russell had feelings for Luke, and Luke was a bit superficial to not notice it. But I think both time served to Luke to understand it was really no more possible for him to continue like before Russell, without Luke being aware of it, Russell changed him, ruining him for any other relationship without strings attached.
Both characters had their deep layers, Russell obviously so shy to not being able to have a social life, so shy to arrive to 30 years without any action neither when action was inside his same home; Luke with a little of Electra complex, an unresolved situation with his father that turned in Luke avoiding serious relationship and trying to prove to his own father, even if they actually didn’t talk at all, that he was not the sissy boy his father accused him to be; this complex was clear even in Luke’s almost obsession with his looks, he did everything necessary to put on muscles and lose the fragile looks he had when he was 16 years old and he was kicked out of his native home.
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