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Elio gave James a searching look, and then turned back to Dana. “Yeah. When I was born, my family thought I was a girl. So I had a girl’s name. But it didn’t work for me, so I changed it. I kept my first initial E, and I wanted something Italian. It’s the Italian version of Helios, the sun god.”
Elio kept talking about his name, but James’s mind was sort of reeling. He was attracted to Elio because he was a man. Did that change anything? It suddenly seemed like there were a thousand things he needed to know.
“So you’re trans?” Dana asked.
Had James ever explained that concept to her? Maybe. Yeah, once. There’d been a drag queen on TV, and he’d tried to explain the difference between cross-dressing and being transgender, not that he was an expert or anything.
James had a few colleagues, and patients from time to time, who were trans. He knew it shouldn’t make any difference at all. But now he had all sorts of different questions about what it would mean if they, uh, hooked up.
“Yep,” Elio agreed easily. “I knew when I was probably three or four, but it took another year to convince my family.”
Damn. James was sure it hadn’t all been that easy, but he couldn’t even imagine that easy acceptance. He’d had crushes on boys in high school and hadn’t dared to tell a soul. His parents still didn’t know, and he’d only told Catherine last year.
Those sixteen years between their ages made a difference in some unexpected ways.
Calvin piped up. “I always knew.”
Elio rolled his eyes. “You were a baby. That doesn’t count.”
Calvin slung an arm over Elio’s shoulders, really bro-ing it up. “Yeah, but thinking of you as a girl would be weird. Like, ewwwwww.”
Everyone chuckled, and James found himself joining in.
He really liked these people—maybe even more than he trusted some of his and Catherine’s mutual friends, who were mostly from work or people Catherine had grown up with. Pretentious doctors. Rich folks.
No one who just sang because they were happy or invited kids to catch tadpoles with them on the sandy banks of the river.
It seemed so simple to everyone here. Elio was a gay man, and his family adored him.
They’d even, apparently, already agreed to watch the kids if James wanted to sneak off with Elio later.
And James, god help him, still wanted to sneak off with Elio.
Because Elio looked like a guy, and with that deep seductive voice he sure sounded like a guy.
He could clearly take control like… well, that probably wasn’t gendered, but when James thought of Elio’s words… Have you ever kissed a man? And then the way that he’d leaned in, coaxing at first, and then dominating that kiss…
Yeah, that’s what had happened.
James had had his first real kiss from a man earlier today, and it had sent him soaring.
He watched as Elio strolled around the fire pit, grabbed a loose graham cracker, and then casually sat down beside him on the picnic bench.
His arm was warm where they pressed together, sending tingles of awareness all through James’s body.
“You doing alright over here?” Elio kept his voice low.
“Yeah. Uh… My ex is going to flip out if Dana changes her name.” As if that was the most important thing to mention.
Elio nudged him. “How about you?”
What were they talking about right now? It seemed like any answer would have a million meanings. “Uh, I’m not a big fan of Artemis, either.”
That scored him a laugh from Elio, bright and joyful like a pure ray of light. God of the sun, indeed.
“So, are we meeting up later?” Elio asked, each puff of his breath caressing James’s neck.
James’s heart was beating double time. He could put this off for a day. Or a week. Until Elio went back to wherever he was from and they never saw each other again. But when would another chance like this come along?
