“No, no,” he said. “You’re okay, though, right?”
“Me? Sure.”
“It’s just—you found him.”
“Don’t remind me,” I answered, dropping the food on the counter. I grabbed a knife and began cutting the avocado. “Jun was there to scrape me off the floor.”
“Yeah,” Adam answered, and he sounded a little—I don’t know—unimpressed? Maybe Jun was right about him being jealous. That would be like a May/December romance, with me being the old guy, though, wouldn’t it? Yuck, no thanks.
“Anyway—”
“How long is the house closed?” Adam asked.
“I’m not sure. I’m hoping only a day or two, but I need to talk to the board and the police to confirm what’s happening. I’ll give you an update when I have a bit more to go on.”
“Sure. Hey, Aubs?”
“Yeah?”
“If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call me.”
I set the cut avocado down. “What could I need?”
“I just mean, you know, in a week and a half, I’ll still be here.”
Ah-ha. Okay. Jun was good. I had to put an end to this before it got serious. And I had to be nice about it, because I certainly didn’t want Adam quitting on me and I really did like him. But friends only, please and thank you. Adam really needed to focus on kids within his own decade.
“That’s really sweet, Adam. I appreciate it, but I need you to know that… Jun and I… it’s an official thing now.”
“Oh.”
And here I’d been thinking for months that Adam was just a naïve straight boy who moved to the Keys to find himself after college. Forget broken gaydar—apparently I never had any to start with.
“Right,” I stated.
“That was fast.”
“It was a long time coming,” I clarified.
Adam cleared his throat. “Give me a ring when we’re supposed to be at work again.”
“Will do.”
“Bye.” He hung up before I had the chance to respond. I felt a little bad, but I didn’t want him to get any more invested in whatever feelings he had for me. It would only make it that much harder to let go of them.
I heard Jun walking around upstairs again, so I decided to make my last call—to the nonprofit board—after breakfast. Yes, I was putting off what I didn’t want to do, thanks for checking.
Calling the board meant getting the receptionist, Liz Blake, who always patched me through to Mr. Horner, since they were a couple, but only in Horner’s wildest dreams was he in charge. Then I’d have to convince Horner to put me on with Ms. Price, the president, but Bob Ricci would always intercept the call, claiming Price was busy and he’d take a message. It was always a mess. It’d take me an hour to reach the president, and then it was a crapshoot whether she’d pick up or was out to the world’s longest lunch meeting.
Mostly, I ran the Smith Home on my own.
I toasted some bread and put it on plates before setting a dollop of cottage cheese on top of each slice. I added drizzled honey, raspberries, blackberries, all of the avocado, and a sprinkle of sea salt. A healthy and gorgeous breakfast, perfect for wooing my new man with.
Jun stepped into the kitchen as I swallowed my prescription stimulant with some lukewarm water from the tap. I froze, watching him retrieve the glasses he’d left on the counter. God. How did he look so hot all the time? I mean, seriously. I’d just had an incredible orgasm, so my dick was more or less behaving itself, and hestilllooked good enough to eat my breakfast off. He wasn’t even wearing anything super fashionable today, just dark jeans and what looked like a homemade Dead Kennedys T-shirt. His thighs looked great in that tight material, though. And short sleeves on a man who had muscles to show off was always A-OK in my book.
“Something wrong?” Jun asked.
“Adam likes me,” I blurted. “Er—you were right.”
