“Embarrassed about what?”
“My sister told me that she confided my secret to you.”
“Your secret?” she asked. A second ticked by and realization dawned in her eyes. “So it’s true. You’re gay?”
I squeezed Frankie’s thigh again just to be sure she got the message. I nodded. “Yes, it’s true. I don’t normally go around telling everyone, though. I know it can make some people uncomfortable.”
“Oh.” Understanding came into her eyes and she reached her hand across the table for the one that was lying next to my plate. “I assure you it doesn’t make me uncomfortable in the least. And for anyone that it does… who needs them anyway?”
I smiled and released Frankie’s thigh. I could feel her questioning gaze on my face, but I ignored her and focused on the Target. “I’m relieved to hear you say that. A guy can never have too many friends.”
She smiled. “Absolutely.”
Score.
After a few minutes of small talk, I mentioned I was looking for a few charities and fundraising organizations to get involved with to help me and my business get established in the community since I was fairly new in town.
What a surprise that the Target needed help with one she was planning.
Score again.
I was feeling quite pleased with myself when dinner came to an end. I was also feeling confident that this job might not be as hard as I originally thought.
On the way out of the restaurant, Frankie leaned in close and hissed, “What are you up to?”
I just smiled and continued on my merry way.
It was none of her damn business.
Chapter Fourteen
“Question – an expression of inquiry that invites or calls for a reply.”
Frankie
I went shopping with Rosalyn. She called me about a week after our pizza dinner and asked me to take her to that vintage store I told her about. I almost said no, but I hadn’t seen Charming either since that night; he was being quiet. Too quiet. I wanted to know what he was up to.
So I said yes and we went shopping. It was actually really fun. Until she started talking about Charming. Apparently, the reason he’d been leaving me alone was because he was devoting all his time to annoying her. Only she didn’t think he was annoying. She liked him. At one point she actually sighed and wished he wasn’t gay.
I actually threw up in my mouth when she said that.
But then she went on about how sweet and fun he was. About how he took her to the local ice arena to go ice-skating and then they went to a fondue restaurant for chocolate.
I had to act all happy and make noises about how fabulous mybrotherwas. I could have spoken up and admitted to all my lies right then and made him look bad. But I would have made myself look bad too. I didn’t want to look bad to her; I liked her.
Ahhh, the tangled web I weaved.
But the worst part? The fact that he ate sugar. That’s right, he who said food was merely fuel. It made me so angry my stomach began to churn. But when I went into the fitting room and looked in the mirror, I saw it.
It was right there in my eyes.
I wasn’t angry about the stupid chocolate.
I was jealous.
And now here I was two hours after our shopping trip and I was still driving around trying to figure out why I had that look in my eye. How could I possibly be jealous about Rosalyn spending time with someone who literally wanted to kill her?
My mind was swirling; it felt like I was on the Internet with about twenty different tabs open and running all at once. And about seventeen of those tabs all had something to do with a positively hideous man with really striking green eyes.
