Page 12 of AJ’s Fire

We shared a plate of nachos and another round of drinks as I watched my two friends get to know each other and wished my life could be simple.

As we said good night to AJ, he hugged me, pulling back to stare at me but not letting me go. I fought to keep the emotions off my face.

“I’ve missed this.”

“I’ve missed Lucy's nachos,” I retorted as I extricated myself from his embrace. “Hey.” I aimed for casualness, my heart racing just from the memory of his touch. “Ems and I might come back to town before Thanksgiving because really, who wants to spend an entire week with their parents? Maybe … maybe we can catch up before you head to Hampstead? You’re leaving after your shift on Wednesday, right?”

“Yeah. Let me know if you come back. We’ll hang. Do whatever you want. ‘Kay?”

“‘Kay.”

I walked off as bewildered as I’d been all summer.

“Go ahead and ask,” Emily prodded, so I did.

“You insisted you didn’t want to go out with him; now you’re going to be kissing him on New Year’s Eve?”

“Something like that.”

“Ems …”

“Trust me.”

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my parents insisted that I stay in the Hamptons through Monday, and by Tuesday evening, AJ would need to be at the fire station, so it looked like we wouldn’t be able to see each other before the break. I did tentatively start to text AJ again, like we had in the past, though with fewer discussions about hookups. I wasn’t having any, and I pointedly wasn’t asking AJ about his.

My mind flashed back to one particular night a few years into my friendship with AJ. He had been very drunk. We’d run into a woman I had been seeing casually, Nina, and she and I had planned to go home together, but we dragged AJ to his apartment first and made sure he was safe before we took off. I was watching him drunkenly climb into his bed, crawling, tighty-whities-clad ass in the air, when he turned his head around, from that position, to talk to me.

“Bro, put my phone on the charger for me. I want you to check in after Nina goes home. Since I’m living vicariously through you tonight. Unless …” He laughed at himself.

“You know,” he slurred, “how chicks are always propositioning both of us?”

I laughed at my friend, thinking nothing of his drunk ramblings other than that he was horny. “I’m gonna stop you right there, dude. Lie the fuck down. I’ll call you later.”

AJ flopped on the bed while I rooted around the pockets of the jeans he’d left on the floor in the bathroom. I plugged in the phone and took Nina back to my place.

We’d been propositioned together before and laughed it off every time. But that night had stuck with me, and I remembered picturing AJ as I ran my hands up and down Nina’s sides, watching her enjoy herself as she rode me. My phone started buzzing before we were finished, but we ignored it until after Nina had leaned back, rocking frantically while I thrust up, and we both chased that elusive end goal. Her long moan and the tightening around my dick helped me lose control, and we both grunted through our orgasms. Nina dropped down over me for a minute, coming down from her high and steadying her breathing before jumping off me and the bed practically in one motion. I fiddled with the condom while she tossed my phone on the bed next to me.

“Go ahead and answer that. Your boyfriend is impatient when he’s wasted,” she said with a lilt to her voice.

I watched Nina throw her clothes on and give me a quick kiss before leaving. The phone buzzed again as I heard my front door close.

“Bro, is she gone? How was it?”

“AJ, why aren’t you passed out? It was hot, she’s hot. You know that. You know the hottest part. She’s totally on board with the no-strings thing.” I paused, but AJ didn’t comment.

“Can I share a little secret?” I sighed.

“Anything,” AJ breathed out like it was a sacred proclamation.

“Truth be told, I’m almost feeling a little lost with the complete lack of cuddling.”

“Bro code,” my drunk friend whispered. “Do you need someone to cuddle with? Cuz, you know, I offered to …”

As I recalled the memory, my dick tightened as it had that night, even though I had literally just come. At the time I’d brushed it off as an aftershock or a thought about Nina as I responded, “Shut the fuck up, dude, and go to sleep. You horny dumbass.”

Thinking back on that night, I couldn’t help but wonder why my drunk best friend had offered to not only have sex with me but to cuddle me afterward.

Ugh! I had to shake my feelings about AJ! Emily’s ridiculously repeated adage popped into my brain as I stared at Guys4Guys. “The best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.” I set myself a deadline. A New Year’s resolution of sorts, to hook up with a guy before the new year.