AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You sure?” Kai asked.
“Oh my God. Go home, Daddy and Stepdaddy. I need my space.”
Everyone laughed.
I pretended to type on my phone as they all walked away, everyone but me going home with someone who loved them.
CHAPTER TWO
Spencer
I couldn’t stop thinking about Corbin, and it was annoying as hell. Men didn’t usually take up this much space in my head if I didn’t want them to. I worked hard to be able to compartmentalize things. I didn’t obsess, except when it came to him, apparently, because I’d done the same shit after that one night we spoke in college.
When it had just been us on that beach, there had been an undeniable spark on my end. He’d felt different…special. Then I’d heard what he’d said and realized I was wrong. Years later, when I’d found The Vers podcast and realized he was The Charmer, I couldn’t pretend I was surprised by his antics. One look at his Instagram page or the one from The Vers, and it was clear he was part of a queer community who weren’t too welcoming to people who looked like me. Sometimes we could be our own worst enemies.
But then other times, he would say something on the show that surprised me, that sounded like it came from a deeper place, and like maybe Corbin wasn’t as superficial as he came off. Like he felt really fucking alone. Typically, he promptly ruined it by saying something ridiculous afterward.
So yeah, this was basically how I’d spent most of my week, and as I sat in my office at work today, it seemed it might be all that was on my agenda for the day. I couldn’t figure out why Corbin had disappeared when I started talking to Matt at the fundraiser, and quite frankly, why I gave a shit. I hadn’t seen him lately around our apartment building either, but then, it hadn’t been long, so that wasn’t unusual. It wasn’t as if we ran into each other every day and… “Ugh!” I rubbed a hand over my face. What was it about Corbin Fucking Erickson?
“That doesn’t sound good.”
I looked up to see my friend Morgan standing in the doorway, arms crossed, and leaning against the doorjamb with a smirk on his sexy face. Morgan and I had met about five years before, at one of the fundraisers I’d attended, and had connected immediately. He was this cross between confident overachiever and mysterious. The overachieving part likely paid off in his day job as the CEO of a local beverage company.
I didn’t know a whole lot about his past because Morgan didn’t talk about it much, and out of respect, I didn’t push or dig into it. All I knew was he had a dad and two brothers he didn’t have a relationship with, who lived somewhere in Michigan.
Morgan sauntered into my office and took the seat across my desk from me. “Usually, it’s all about work with you, but that sounded very much like the kind of sigh someone gives about a man.”
“No comment. What are you up to today? It’s not like you to stop by in the middle of the day.”
“I had a meeting close by and thought I’d say hi.” He quirked a dark brow at me. “And no comment?”
I waved that off. “It’s not a thing, I swear.” One way or another, I needed to evict Corbin from my thoughts for good.
“If you say so.”
“How’s Rob?” He and Morgan had been together for two years, and they were a shitty match. Rob didn’t deserve my friend, and frankly, I didn’t understand what Morgan saw in him. Rob was the king of empty promises, of making plans and never following through. He spent more time with his friends than with Morgan, and didn’t seem to care much about anything other than himself. Though maybe that was one of the things Morgan liked about him…that Rob didn’t care enough to expect him to share.
“No comment,” Morgan replied, using my own words on me. When I didn’t respond right away, he relented. “Rob is Rob and always will be.”
“You deserve better.”
“Do I?” Morgan asked, surprising me, then shook his head. “Never mind. Pretend I didn’t say that. I really just stopped by to say hi. I need to get going.”
I sighed and stood, knowing there was no way to change Morgan’s mind once he decided something. That was likely why he was still staying with Rob. “I’ll walk out with you. I need to check on some things anyway.”
We chatted a little about this new restaurant that would be opening soon not far from the center, as we headed along the hallway to the main area of the LGBTQ center and then toward the door. I loved working here. I felt thankful for my job every day. It was hard, and we never had enough funding, and there was so much work that needed to be done, but it was important for me to make the world a better place, to be there for queer people and especially queer youth, because not all of us had family like mine.
