“He was cute, sweet, kind of shy.”
Gideon smiled. “Sounds appealing.”
“Yeah. Very appealing.”
“Go on.”
“We hit it off and I… I asked him for a date.”
When Derek stopped there, Gideon asked, “What did he say?”
“He said he would go out with me.”
The young man was clearly despondent about something. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. “I mean, I thought so at the time.”
“And now you don’t?”
Derek laid his head against the back of the seat and closed his eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“May I ask why?”
Derek groaned. “We have different…priorities,I guess.”
“I see. So, why did you ask for a date in the first place?”
“Because I didn’t know until after I asked him out.”
“So, you retracted the invite?”
“Not exactly,” he whispered. “But I think he knows.”
“Mm.” Gideon stared forward.
“What?” Derek raised his head.
“Well, you did ask him out and he agreed to go. If you’ve changed your mind, the respectful thing to do is officially break the date.” He glanced at Derek. “You don’t know, maybe he still thinks the date is on.”
The young man groaned. “Fuck. You’re right. But…”
“But what?”
“I’m afraid if I hear his voice, I won’t go through with breaking the date. But I don’t want to text it to him ’cause that’s kind of a shit move.”
“Not kind of.”
Derek sighed. “Exactly.”
The two men fell silent for another stretch. Gideon switched on the headlights as dusk set in and the trees alongside the two-lane road deepened the shadows in their path.
“What did you find out about him,” Gideon murmured, “that made you want to break the date?”
“He’s a Christian.” Derek looked at Gideon. “AcelibateChristian. Like—celibateforever.”
“Oh.”
“Have you ever heard of the wholeSide AandSide Bgay Christian issue?”
