Page 79 of Dare to be Different

“Every morning should start like this,” he says, breathless but laughing.

Then move in with me.

The tone of the shower turns… locker room. We chat easily, passing bottles back and forth while sharing the water stream. He brushes his teeth in the shower like a fucking heathen, and when I give him shit for it, he puts toothpaste on my brush and shoves it between my lips. And alright, I’m kinda on board with it now.

The coffee is ready by the time we’re dressed, and like it’s a normal morning, we drive to work together. It’s absurd, but I’m smiling like an asshole all day about it.

After work, we lock down our planes and head to the docks to load a few seaplanes for tomorrow’s run. As we’re gearing up to call it a day, we run into Cami walking down the docks, her fingers linked with the fingers of her… friend?

She notices us, stiffening a bit. “Hey,” she says awkwardly.

“Hey, Cami,” Zahn demolishes the awkwardness.

“Hey. Hi. Yeah, this is Sarah, my girlfriend.” She widens her eyes at us in warning.

Come on, Cami! Really? That night we spent with her was a fucking lie. I hate cheaters. I hate that she dragged us into her infidelity. I might have picked her up that night, but she didn’t even whisper about a girlfriend.

“Nice to meet you, Sarah.” I shake the girlfriend’s hand. She’s a tall, leggy blonde with nice eyes and a kindness about her that sets my guilt off the charts. Goddammit. “Remy. This is Zahn.”

She shakes his hand. “Nice to meet you both. How do you know Cami?”

We fucked her together and gave her three orgasms. “We met at that get-together I went to while you were away,” Cami says. Cheater and a liar.

“Oh, right. You two are part of the local business committee?” Sarah looks at us, still smiling.

“We own a local business,” Zahn says through gritted teeth. It’s not a lie, but it’s not the truth Sarah deserves. “Planes.” He points back to the docks.

Sarah looks at our planes while Cami begs us with her eyes to keep our mouths closed. I don’t want any part of this. I think we sort of decided to keep things between the two of us, but now I’m regretting that night for a whole new reason.

“It was nice to meet you, Sarah, but we gotta go.” I smile at her and ignore Cami.

Zahn says his goodbyes and the two of us keep walking. “Fuck,” he mutters under his breath. “I feel like such a piece of shit now.”

“Guys, wait!” Cami jogs up to us. “She thinks I’m gay.”

“Why lie about something like that?” I bark at her, still walking away.

“Because if she knew I was bi, she’d always assume I wanted both.”

“Clearly, you do,” Zahn says, all attitude. “But that’s your insecurity. Not hers. Lose our numbers. Don’t call.”

“I’m going to tell her,” Cami says, begging for forgiveness without actually begging. “She’s the only person I’ve ever loved.”

“You have a weird way of showing it.” If Sarah knew and was okay with it, that’d be a different story. But Cami is keeping secrets, and I don’t like how it feels to be that secret.

“Remy.” Zahn grabs my wrist and tugs me away from Cami. We leave her there and get into the truck.

We grab a pizza and some beers on the way home, stewing in thoughts about that revelation. I don’t think I’ve ever been a homewrecker, but now I’m thinking about how I’d feel if Zahn went off and… lied about what he was doing.

“Hey, Rem?” he asks once we’re three slices deep in my living room.

His eyes are serious and his face is contemplative. Any time he starts a question that way, it’s bound to be something good, so I look at him and wait.

“What are we?” he asks, laughing a bit.

“Oh, we’re back to that question?” I laugh. I still don’t have an answer. Neither of us knows what the fuck we are or what we’re doing.

“Alright. We’re best friends, right?” he asks.

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