Page 38 of Employing Patience

“It was only a little nudge,” he says. He’s laughing.

The guy I was with spins around, and his gaze lands on the two of us.

“Fuck off, dude, he’s with me.” Faux-Joey stares down real Joey, and I’m the unlucky—or lucky, actually, depending on what angle I look at it from—guy in the middle.

Joey hums, hands sliding down my front to rest above the band of my shorts. “You sure about that?”

Faux-Joey turns wide eyes on me. “Tell him, Art.”

Yikes. Well, that puts me in a shitty spot. On the one hand, I’m right where I wanna be. On the other … admitting that out loud is definitely a trap.

“Remember when you two were fighting over me?” I ask. “Let’s go back to that.”

Joey chuckles while the other guy levels me with a glare. And seeing him take this so seriously makes it very obvious which way I’m going to go if I have to choose. If you can’t take humor over shitty situations, life is going to make an orgy out of you.

The way Joey licks my ear tells me he gets that.

The way douchebag cat-eyes crosses his arms tells me he doesn’t.

I pat Joey’s hand and step out of his grip. “It’s been fun, gents.”

Then I turn my back on them both and walk away.

Doesn’t help though. I can still smell him. And if you’d ever told me I’d be a fan of Axe or whatever the hell that is, I would have cut off my nose to stop it from happening. It reminds me of being back in high school, crushing on the straight boys in the locker room.

Joey’s clearly here to play games with me, and I wish I hated it. Really wish I could tell him to fuck off with his head tricks and take his queerbaiting somewhere else, but I’m a whore for the attention. For thinking there’s an actual possibility he could want me as badly as I want him.

And there is a possibility, isn’t there?

He’s here. Would he really have given up his entire night to follow some old man around, cockblocking him at every turn? The more I think about the guys tonight, the more sure I am that’s what’s happening. I’ve never been through so many potentials before getting my dick sucked.

I tap my fingers against my thigh and figure out how I’m going to play this.

Grabbing Joey and dragging him into a back room is tempting; it’d get me answers once and for all. I’m not interested in harassment charges though, and Joey’s clearly wanting to play a game.

I love games.

My gaze zeroes in on Will. He’s sitting at the bar, staring glumly at the drink in front of him, which he tips back before calling for another.

Target acquired.

The guy’s completely off-limits, considering he’s Keller’s kid’s friend, but when it comes to pissing Joey off, he’s fair prey.

I just have to hope Keller doesn’t spot me first.

Even I can’t pull off a black eye.

“Hey there, cutie,” I say, slipping between him and the guy on the stool next to him.

“Oh, umm. Hi. Hi, uh, there. Art?”

I try for a winning smile, even though I’m worried he’s stroking out. “The one and only. Will?”

“I am.” He laughs. “Will I am. Like the singer. Or swiss.”

“Swiss?”

“You know … doctor. Doctor swiss.”

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