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“Nice.” Spencer chuckled. “Your mom sounds great. Things are still okay with her?”
“Yeah.” Abe nodded. “She’s already joined PFLAG, and she’s dragging my stepdad to meetings. It’s only my dad who’s acting like an asshole.” Abe shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t care.”
Spencer knew from personal experience the assertion wasn’t completely true, but he also knew that sometimes it was the only thing you could do to protect yourself. He rubbed his hands up and down Abe’s arms and thought about anything else he could say to help the young man work through what was obviously a difficult time, when a knock on his open door startled him.
He darted his gaze over to the doorway and was surprised to see Emilio standing there, glowering.
“Am I interrupting something?” Emilio asked.
AFTER the weekend he had shared with Spencer, the last thing Emilio expected was to walk in on him with another man. His head was swimming, trying to process what he was seeing, and his body was fighting itself on whether to run away or dash inside and use force to remove the small blond from Spencer. Without his conscious permission, he settled on staying where he was and knocking.
“Emilio!” Spencer said happily, which started taming the fire in his belly. He stepped away from the man he had been hugging and reached his hand out to Emilio. There, that felt better. “Come in,” he said. “This is one of my students, Abraham Green.” He pointed at the other man. “Abe, this is—”
Emilio strode in, wrapped his left arm around Spencer’s shoulders possessively, and tugged him close. “Emilio Sanchez. Spencer’s boyfriend.” He puffed his chest, trying to look intimidating as he held his right hand out.
“Oh, wow.” The man’s blue eyes widened. He put his smaller hand in Emilio’s and shook it as he glanced over at Spencer. “Wow,” he said again.
Spencer chuckled and said, “Tell me about it.”
“So, uh, okay, yeah.” Abe skittered over to his backpack, flung it on his shoulder, and made a beeline toward the door. “Thanks for the advice, Dr. D. See you in class.” He slammed the door behind him as he ran out.
Emilio glared at the door.
“This is a nice surprise,” Spencer said, drawing his attention. “I didn’t realize you were going to be working on campus today. I thought I’d have to wait until tonight to see you.”
“Is that why he was here?” Emilio asked before he could stop himself, and then he winced internally at how stupidly jealous he probably sounded.
“What do you mean?” Spencer looked genuinely confused. “Wait.” His expression turned to shock. “Are you… you’re not jealous of my student, are you?”
Emilio flopped down into the chair across from Spencer’s desk. “Maybe a little.” He paused and thought about brushing it off, saying it wasn’t a big deal, but he knew himself well enough to realize if he did that, what he’d seen would continue to eat at him until he exploded and demanded an answer. Might as well skip the dramatics and get to it now. “Is there something going on with you two?”
Spencer gaped. “You can’t be serious.” When Emilio kept his steady gaze on him, he raised his eyebrows and said, “Okay, so you’re serious, but come on. I don’t know how you could think that. He’s my student and he’s just a kid.”
“Just a kid, huh?” Emilio raised his eyebrows and looked at Spencer meaningfully.
“Yes! He’s an undergrad. He’s not even graduating until May, which means he’s….” Spencer paused. “Twenty-one, twenty-two at the oldest.”
Honestly, for an incredibly intelligent man, it was taking Spencer longer than it should to put this together. It showed that the idea of being with the blond man was so far from Spencer’s mind he couldn’t even process it, which eased Emilio’s concern. And watching him fumble and stammer was sweet. Emilio held his arms open in invitation, and Spencer walked up right up to him, stood between his spread knees, and looked down.
“I’m twenty-two,” he said when he realized Spencer wasn’t going to form the connection on his own.
“That’s different,” Spencer said insistently. “You’re….” He stopped talking and blushed.
“How’s it different, cariño?” Emilio asked as he pulled Spencer down onto his lap.
“I don’t know.” Spencer shrugged. “Abe is a kid, still making his way. That’s why he was here. He had a blowout with his family over coming out and wanted career advice. You’re confident and mature. You know what you want and you go after it.” As if realizing what he’d said, Spencer started stammering. “I mean, uh—”
“You mean like how I went after you?” Emilio asked, feeling good that his approach to get Spencer’s attention had been spot-on.
Not answering the question, Spencer dipped his chin and played with the hem of Emilio’s bright-orange company shirt. It was ugly as hell, but it stood out when they had jobs near traffic. Plus, with as dirty as his clothes got when he crawled through tight spaces checking on wiring, it made sense to wear something cheap and easy to replace.
