Page 27 of Unicorn Unashamed

“He invited me into his home—he trusted me when he wasn’t thinking straight and I still—”

“Raymond!”

Raymond stopped talking, breathing hard.

“Raymond, all of this sounds like you’re beating yourself up over the fact that he came onto you.”

Raymond rubbed at his face. “No, you don’t understand. You weren’t there, you didn’t… you didn’t see him. Hear him.”

“Was he really that out of it?” Curtis asked after some more silence.

“You’re not asking, I’m offering.”

“Please, Raymond. Please let me help you?”

“Come on. Come on, it’s okay.”

“Maybe not… maybe not at first,” Raymond said quietly. “I think he was more worried about me.”

“Worried about you how?”

“He, um, he kept saying I looked sick.”

“Why would he say that?”

“I was… I was trying to keep myself in check,” Raymond said shifting on the couch. “I’d never really gotten that much of his scent before, it was always so faint, which is probably because he uses blockers, and then the drive over was kind of, um,” he swallowed. “Kind of dizzying.”

“Wait,” Curtis said. “You’ve known him for a year, you’ve been in love with him for at least half that time, and you’ve never gotten to learn his full scent before?”

“No.”

“And then the first time you did, it was during his virile period, and you spent most of that in an enclosed space.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Fuck, Raymond, no wonder he thought you were sick. You know those pheromones are serious.”

“I thought I could handle it,” Raymond whispered. “I thought I was better than this.”

“Okay, who made the first move?”

“H-he did.”

“Did you try to push him to do anything?”

“No, but—”

“Did he seem into it? Like, was he responding? Having a good time?”

“I… yeah.”

“It sounds like you handled things fine,” Curtis said. “He was in the mood, you were interested, and you guys had a good night. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Raymond didn’t say anything, remaining deeply unconvinced.

Curtis sighed, audible through the phone. “Look, it sounds like you were actively resisting until he broached the subject. If he wasn’t out of it… okay, so maybe he figured it was going to be a one-time thing, but in the end, you were both consenting adults here. Unless…”

“Unless?” Raymond prompted, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

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