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“I’ve gotta agree,” Eric said. “Bigger is usually better. Trust me.” He gave a wink at his fiancé, Colton, and kissed him on the cheek.
“Of course you size queens are agreeing,” Tia said with an arched brow. “But I don’t think our character is thinking about peen size, okay? I think he’s ashamed of the fact that he wants to kill. I think the main guy is the actual killer.”
Heads swiveled in Tia’s direction. She sat at the edge of the couch, an arm thrown casually on the back of the couch, the open book full of highlighted notes sitting on her lap. “Really?” Jess asked, moving her feet from under Tia’s legs and sitting up straight.
“Is that an official guess?” Tristan asked. He raised his glass. “Remember the rules for tonight.”
“Right,” Tia said as she leaned forward to grab her drink. “I, Ms. Tia Sherlock Holmes-to-Go, want to put in a guess.”
The group chuckled as Noah announced Tia’s name again, welcoming her to the stage.
It was the game Tristan had come up with. If anyone wanted to make a guess as to the killer and their motive, then they’d have to first come up with a detective-themed drag name and lip-sync to a song,orthey could pass on the lip-sync and take a chug of their drink instead. Apparently, he was a fan of drag queens and promised he’d take me to a show at some point, nearly being knocked over after I told him I had never been to a drag show before.
I tried not to pay attention to how excited that made me. I was beginning to find that any time spent around the intriguing and handsome writer was timeextremelywell spent.
Tia chugged her champagne and wiped her lips with the back of her hand, smiling. The book they were reading was calledTwisting Razors. “Okay, but seriously, look at the way the chapters from the killer’s perspective are written—they seem very similar to Kenneth’s chapters. And there’s the whole mystery about all those cats dying around Kenneth as a kid. I think that’s because he was killing them.”
“That actually… could be true?” Jake said, looking down at his book. He wore gray sweatpants and a black T-shirt, which was the exact opposite of what his husband wore: black short shorts and a gray long-sleeved shirt. “I wrote down that possibility, too.”
“But that’s pretty ballsy on the author’s part,” Steven said. He was sitting on the floor with his back against the couch, legs crossed underneath him. Tristan had told me he was one of the newest members of the Reading Under the Rainbow club, having bumped into Eric in their apartment’s hallway when Eric passed on the invite.
“To have us follow the murderer?” Tristan asked.
“Exactly,” Steven said. He glanced down at his phone and tapped at the screen before leaning over and touching Tristan’s ankle. “Sidebar, but what’s the Wi-Fi password?”
“Hold on, let me show you,” Tristan said as he got up from the couch and went over to the router, which was inside the sleek white entertainment center. “I always have a suspicion that if I read these sequences of letters and numbers out loud, then I’ll accidentally open up a gate to Hell.”
That got a collective laugh out of the group. The smile pulled up at my lips, feeling almost foreign after setting them in a frown for so long. It was refreshing to see a group of friends gathered around and shooting the shit. I’d been missing that in my life lately. All of my close friends were scattered across the globe, working different jobs or settling down with different people. A couple of texts every few months to reassure us that the other was alive was all I got. I never had a home base where I could plant me and my chosen family down, but Tristan clearly did, and that made me happy for him.
It was also good to see him smiling so much. I’d been here for a few weeks now, and his smile—as beautiful as it was—had felt very elusive. And I didn’t blame him. He must have had a mountain of crap on his mind, so I never expected him to walk around with a fake smile plastered on his face.
Still, seeing the real thing was nice. I decided I wanted to see it more often from here on out.
“Thanks,” Steven said, “I’m connected.”
“Do you have to keep up with your Grindr dates? Don’t want the nudes taking up your data?” Noah teased.
Steven’s cheeks didn’t change color but the way he shrunk back into his seat said he had some shyness to him. “I might be deleting that app soon.”
“Oh, found someone worth deleting it for?” Jake asked.
“Possibly. But I don’t like to jinx things.” He looked down at his lap, tapping his nails against the cracked plastic blue of his phone case.
“Well invite them next time,” Tristan said as he took his seat. I was leaning against the far wall with a clear view of the front door, but I was having a difficult time taking my gaze off Tristan. He had on a pair of khaki shorts that bunched up as he sat down, his smooth, muscular thighs on full display. He was barefoot, with the soles of his feet aimed at me as he crossed them at the ankle. They were at least a size eleven, which made me wonder what else he was above average with in terms of size?
“Alright,” he continued off Steven’s silent nod, “I think we can start wrapping up tonight’s book club there. Let’s see if Tia’s guess about Kenneth being the killer is rightorthat his shame has something to do with his donkey dick.”
More laughter spread through the room. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, regardless of the threat that Tristan was under. He needed this. They all did.
Well, maybe not all of them. Evan Wilson didn’t seem to be having much fun at all. He had his arms crossed against his chest and his gaze turned down toward his feet. Yvette appeared to be trying in vain to get him to participate, whispering something in his ear and rubbing his back. Nothing seemed to be pulling Evan out of his shell.
He stood up abruptly and went down the hall to the bathroom. Yvette mouthed out, “Sorry,” to the group. Tristan put up the music a little louder and leaned forward.
“Is everything okay?” he asked, clearly having picked up on Evan’s mood.
“Yeah, I just think he has anxiety around big groups. He warned me about it, but I didn’t realize he’d shut down like that.”
“That’s okay,” Tristan said. “As long as you like him, then we like him.”
