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I turned back to Marcus to get a better look at him. He wasn’t my type the way Cali was, but he was still very attractive. He was nowhere near as built as the Adonis standing next to him, but he was fit and shared Cali’s dimples.
“I can take you back to Dr. Sonya’s,” Marcus said, too sad to meet my eyes.
“Thank you,” I said as if I didn’t want to stay as much as he did.
“I’m sorry again about what happened to your mother,” I said, capturing Cali’s attention but not his gaze.
He barely acknowledged me. Staring at him, I desperately wanted to wrap my arms around him and tell him that his mother would be alright. But there was a prickly armor covering him that I couldn’t penetrate.
Maybe he could see that I was gay and didn’t like it. In the world I grew up in, hiding your weakness was the first step to survival. My attraction to guys was my weakness. At least, my father thought so. That was why I did my best to hide it.
Unfortunately, when I met guys who were hotter than sin, me hiding how I felt was like an elephant hiding behind a lamp pole. Cali is that hot. And maybe he doesn’t like elephants.
Leaving as Cali requested, Marcus and I were silent as we drove back to the bed-and-breakfast. The entire way, he looked as confused by our interaction with Cali as I was. Cali didn’t seem like a bad guy. Could he just not be very talkative? Did he have a history of being quiet?
Speaking of histories, did he and Marcus have one? Was there reason things seemed tense between the two? Had the two been sexual?
“I need to apologize for the way Cali reacted. He isn’t usually so…” Marcus paused.
“Quick to get rid of people?”
Marcus laughed. “No, that part is typical Cali. He’s usually a little nicer about it, though. You shouldn’t take it personally.”
“Do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Do you take it personally?”
Marcus’s mouth opened, but he didn’t speak. It took a while for him to say,
“Sometimes. He and I went to the same high school. Cali was on the football team and had girls throwing themselves at him. We didn’t exactly hang out in the same circles.
“Our mothers are friends, so we were often forced to spend time together. I always felt like such an inconvenience for him. I guess nothing changes.”
“So, Cali had a lot of girlfriends?” I asked, unable to hide my intent.
Marcus looked at me joining the long line of people who could see straight through me. He chuckled.
“Funny enough, although there was an endless line of girls after him, I never really saw him with any of them. He is more of a brooding, loner type.”
“He mentioned two guys joining him. I take it that neither is a boyfriend?” I asked hesitantly.
Marcus laughed again.
“No, Claudee and Titus are his long-lost brothers.”
“Long-lost brothers?”
“Yeah. Last fall, Titus’s boyfriend passed around a DNA test and it turned out that the three of them share the same father.”
“Oh, wow!”
“That’s exactly what the rest of the town thought. It was a real scandal. Cali’s mother was one of the people everyone couldn’t stop talking about. ‘Did the three of them all have the same father? How are they so close in age? Who was this man?’
“None of the mothers said. Supposedly, they wouldn’t even tell their sons. Cali and Dr. Sonya we’re pretty close until then. Now, Cali spends most of his time back at university.”
“Cali attends college?”
