AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ravi laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind if I ever feel like dating someone.”
The one thing Wren loved more than having a roommate who didn’t judge him was having a roommate who understood him. Ravi had recently come out to Wren as somewhere along the ace spectrum. And while they didn’t understand each other in that way, Ravi understood what it was like to not feel like everyone else when it came to sex or relationships.
Whenever things got ugly with a hookup, Ravi was there to listen to Wren without judgment, which was something he didn’t have a lot of growing up. He let Wren think about himself—to wonder about himself. Wren was old—he was uneducated in a lot of ways. He was terrified of being introspective because he was afraid of what he might find if he looked too deeply. But at home, he felt safe.
The only thing that mattered was giving himself space to just…be. He wanted to be content most days, happy on others, and stable enough to handle it when things didn’t go his way. It didn’t feel like too much to ask, even if sometimes people made him feel like it was.
But he wasn’t going to let that ruin his mood. Not tonight. Tonight, he was pretty sure he was going to get laid. And with how responsive and high-strung Percy seemed to be, Wren was pretty sure it was going to be good.
Checking his phone, he saw a message from Percy letting him know he was heading out, so Wren grabbed his shoes and hurried into the living room. “Don’t wait up,” he signed with one hand as he struggled into his Chucks.
Ravi raised a brow at him. “When do I ever wait up?”
Wren just grinned, then shot him a quick ILY before heading out the door and down the stairs to his car. The bar was so close it almost felt pointless to drive there, but he wanted an excuse to stay mostly sober and to offer a place to go if Percy didn’t want Wren in his space.
And, if he did, Wren wanted a quick escape in case Percy got too deep into his feelings. Wren was an amazing lover. It had nothing to do with arrogance and everything to do with the fact that he paid attention to the way people’s bodies moved and responded. He’d been doing that to communicate his entire life, and he was young when he learned that translated very well when he brought it into bed with him.
The only problem was it caused a rush of endorphins, and people fell for him fast. And they fell for him in ways that he knew he’d never be able to reciprocate. So, he had to take precautions because he truly didn’t like hurting people, and it looked like Percy had been through enough.
But that wasn’t enough to stop him from wanting this more than he’d ever wanted a hookup in his life. He didn’t know why, but something about Percy just…did it for him.
He thought about how thick Percy’s fingers were, though, and how full his lips were. He had the perfect hands for fingering, and his tongue probably felt amazing if he knew how to use it right. Assuming Percy wasn’t some closeted married man who had only gotten his rocks off to queer porn, it was almost a shame to waste him on a single evening.
His only real hesitation was that Percy had said he was sticking around—that his sister and niece would be at the shop a lot. And if things went south after this dinner, Wren would have to go into hiding every time Percy came in to BrewBiz.
Wren was still dealing with small tendrils of guilt for having hurt Anthony—who really was such a great guy and probably would have been an amazing boyfriend. Anthony had moved on, but Wren knew there was still a sore spot there because he’d broken his own rule: he’d let Anthony stay the night. More than once.
They’d woken up together for two weeks. Had breakfast together. Texted heart emojis, and sometimes Wren even brought him baked goods to his office. It was, in all honesty, everything he’d do for any of his friends, but Anthony wasn’t wired like him. And Anthony didn’t know that’s how he was, and he’d mistaken Wren’s affection for falling in love.
So Wren had to end it, and it had been ugly. Anthony had cried, asked why he wasn’t good enough, asked Wren why he’d led him on for so damn long. And Wren had no answers other than to tell him that’s just how it was. The look in his eyes would haunt Wren for a long, long time.
He couldn’t make that mistake again. Especially not with a man like Percy, who seemed like he’d already been through enough pain.
Wren was a sensitive soul, for as much as romance confused him, and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.
He took a fortifying breath as he pulled into the side parking lot of the little sports bar and turned his car off. The place was called Pipe and Pine, and it was co-owned by a couple Wren had met when he was taking his first official ASL class at the university years back. Cole was Deaf, his wife, Danielle, was hearing, and they were both hockey fanatics.
Wren didn’t totally get the hockey lingo—or sports for that matter—but both Cole and Danielle made it a point to hire people who were at least conversational in ASL, which made it everyone’s favorite hangout spot when they were all sick to death of coffee.
Which was pretty much all the time.
Wren was a regular, even without his friends, so he caught the bartender’s eye and gave her a wave before scanning the sparse Wednesday evening crowd. He eventually spotted Percy at a table near the window, away from the line of TVs, which Wren appreciated.
He wondered if the Deaf professor he’d been learning from had suggested that.
He knew Percy was mortified by the language mix-up, but it was clear he was at least doing his research, and Wren couldn’t fault him for that. He smiled when Percy caught his eye and dragged his middle finger up his chest. “What’s up?”
Percy’s brow furrowed. “That’s…not a sign I know.”
Wren mostly read his lips until he was close enough to sit, and he repeated it before translating. “It means what’s up. Casual though. Like, don’t say that shit to your boss.”
Percy bit his lip, and his gaze darted out the window for a second, like maybe he was contemplating his escape. “I, erm. I managed to find an ASL course taught locally. I looked at the university, but they don’t have any courses that I could start immediately, and I don’t want Lila to wait.”
Wren felt oddly touched. “You really like this kid, huh?”
Percy cleared his throat loudly, twisting his pint glass between his hands. “My sister’s been wanting to be a mum for a really long time.” There was a sudden crash from the kitchen that overtook the sound coming out of Percy’s mouth. “She…and I…disaster…Last…now.”
Wren lost the thread when a bunch of customers started screaming loudly at the game, and he blinked, fighting back a sigh. “Sorry. Missed most of that.”
