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“Yeah.”
He shrugged. “Boyfriends come and boyfriends go.”
I didn’t know what to say. He was right, but I felt like I needed to give Adam one more chance. He’d promised things would be different this fall. What if they were? And what if I missed the chance because I ended it?
Windy turned away from me, slinging an arm over Antonio’s shoulders and focusing his attention on Daniel and Minty. The cold from the sudden brush-off lingered until Daniel glanced my way, grabbed my elbow, and tugged me closer into the circle.
“So what’s the plan tonight?” Daniel asked. “I’m getting hungry.”
“Chalky ’N’ Joe’s?” Antonio suggested.
“Naw,” Minty said, wrinkling his nose. “My delicate self will turn into a sturdy self if we don’t stop eating there.”
“Copper Cellar?”
Antonio rubbed his fingers together in the air. “Too pricey.”
“And I’m dressed to get laid, not impress uptight old folks,” Minty said, smoothing his hand down the front of his leotard.
“Long Branch?”
“Peter can’t get in.”
“I can just stay here,” I said.
Antonio waved me off. “No, you’ll come with us. Besides, there’s no real food there anyway.”
We finally settled on Hanna’s, an artsy but fairly cheap place, and headed out with assurances from the bouncer that he’d let us back in without paying.
As we headed down the hill toward Cumberland Avenue, Daniel walked at the front of our group with Windy. Snippets of the conversation floated back on the summer breeze to me, and I strained to hear their discussion of the high points of R.E.M.’sOut of Timealbum. It seemed Daniel was a big fan, and Windy mostly agreed with him.
Despite the urge to push myself into Daniel’s space, I hung back, talking with Antonio and Minty about movies instead. Twice, Antonio and I had to herd Minty into the middle of our group, sheltering him when people stared too long at his leotard and skirt, or when assholes shouted at him from across the street.
Antonio sent an aggressive middle finger to those guys, and I was glad the heavy traffic on Cumberland made crossing too hard to worry about a real confrontation.
“Does that happen a lot?” I asked Antonio, as Minty was folded into Daniel and Windy’s conversation.
“Yeah,” Antonio said, anger heating the word. “Confused straight boys afraid their dicks might twitch at a pretty boy in a skirt.” He mimed kicking his big, black boot up said straight boys’ butts. “Have to prove to their buddies that it didn’t. Even if it’s with their fists.”
My palms grew a little sweaty. “Will we be okay at Hanna’s?”
“Sure. The manager knows us there.”
I let out a long breath. This was part of what I was signing on for, wasn’t it? Being out? It was the risk my mother was terrified of and that I’d have to learn to live with, or spend the rest of my life hiding. I rolled my shoulders, trying to release my tension.
Antonio shook me gently, a warm smile crinkling his dark eyes. “Don’t sweat it. You’ll see. There’s nothing to worry about.”
But there was.
The wide front windows of Hanna’s revealed the entire restaurant, and I stood frozen, staring inside. Leslie, Van, Mike, and Allison sat at a table near the front, laughing and shoving forkfuls of food into their mouths. I shook my head. Just my luck. Seriously, what were the chances?
Pretty good apparently. This city was too damn small.
“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked, holding the door to the restaurant open after the others had passed inside.
“I know them,” I said, waving vaguely, hanging back.
“So?”
