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I hoped he was right.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Harrison
I sat on a stool at Brew House, a local brewery where I often met up with my friend Warren. He was about my age and married to a lovely man he adored. The two of them had been together since college. Both were each other’s first relationship with a man, having met right after acknowledging their sexuality. As the younger generation would say, they were couple goals, and Christ, I couldn’t believe I’d actually thought the words younger generation. Especially as I seemed to be fond of spending time with a particular person who was seventeen years my junior.
“Hey, man. Sorry I’m late.” Warren slid in the seat beside me.
“No problem. There’s nothing I love more than waiting for you.” Warren and I had always liked to give each other shit.
“Someone is feeling mischievous today.” He held his hand up, and the bartender came over. We both ordered a beer.
“I’m always mischievous. How was your vacation?”
He rambled on about his trip to Hawaii with his husband, George, pulling out his phone to scroll through photos with me. I listened…mostly. I tried to, but my thoughts were with Zander, as they were so frequently lately. He was so incredibly nervous about the school year starting, and getting more and more anxious with each passing day. He tried to hide it. I wasn’t sure it was something that would be obvious to anyone else, but I paid attention to him. I had since the first night we met, and I’d learned his tells—how his ears pinkened and his gaze would dart away when he was unsure, and he fidgeted with his hands. How some days he was more active than others, like he was full of electrical currents that kept shooting through his body. That last one had happened more and more recently.
I wished there was something I could do to reassure him, but nothing would other than him getting into the classroom and actually teaching. Still, I was a fixer by nature and wanted to try. Plus, I didn’t think Zander had many people who’d done that for him in his life.
“And then this shark flew through the sky, dipped down, and plucked me from the water before flying away with me. He was a mutant shark who wanted to mate.”
“That sounds fun,” I replied, half hearing what Warren was saying.
He playfully smacked me on the back of the head. “You think it’s fun to fuck a shark?”
“Ouch. Shit. No, I don’t.”
“Well, that’s what I said.”
I sighed and took a drink of my beer. It was strong, wheaty, just the way I liked. I set the mug down and turned my stool toward him. “I fucked Ross’s best friend.”
Warren’s pupils blew wide, his mouth dropping open, then closing and opening as if he were a fish out of water.
“It’s not that big of a deal.”
“I’m gonna need you to start at the beginning and not leave out any details.”
“Troubles in the bedroom?” I teased.
“I’m not falling for your attempts to sidetrack me from the bomb you just dropped in my lap. Spill the beans.”
I groaned. I probably shouldn’t have said anything at all. “I didn’t know he was Ross’s friend when I slept with him. It was in Chapel Hill when I went for his graduation. I was at a bar, and this beautiful younger man approached me. I was a little shocked, to be honest. Not that I’m not quite the catch myself.”
“Had to point that out, did you?”
“Stop interrupting my story. He is… Jesus, he’s pretty, War. I wanted him right away, but I was in town for Ross’s big event. I hadn’t gone for sex, and he’s young, obviously. So we just talked at first. He made it clear what he was there for and why he’d approached me. He never said he was graduating, but now I know…” I sat up straighter. “Well, apparently he has good taste because I was his graduation gift to himself.”
Warren rolled his eyes. “Proud of yourself, aren’t you?”
“As I should be. Anyway, we talked for a while, hit it off instantly. We have a similar sense of humor. He’s going to be an English teacher, and he’s so passionate about it. It’s really beautiful to see someone his age so inspired for education.”
“You just said the words someone his age. That should tell you this is a bad idea.”
“I’m not gonna do it again.” I wouldn’t. I’d make sure of it, though fuck, I wanted to. “Back to my story, I took him back to my room, and we did our thing, fully expecting never to see each other again, but then—”
“Oh, this is getting juicy.” Warren rubbed his hands together.
“Would you stop interrupting me?” I said playfully. “So then Ross tells me he’d like me to meet his friend—the man who will be moving to Atlanta and living with him, I might add. He takes me over after graduation, and guess who it is.”
