Page 55 of Whiskey Neat

I reach across the table and squeeze his hand. “It fucking sucks. Lowen told me stories too, and it’s not fair and it’s not right.”

Salem dabs his eyes with a napkin. “No one ever said life would be, right?”

“No.”

“It’s better now being grown, of course, but old wounds heal slowly.”

I nod. “I get it.”

Cristo approaches, dropping off our drinks, and we order entrées. Once he’s gone, I swirl the whiskey in my glass, inhaling the scent before taking a sip. Decent.

Salem takes a larger gulp of his drink then shudders as it burns its way through him. “That’ll put hair on your chest.” He sputters a laugh. “My grandad used to say that.”

I chuckle. “Do you like it though?”

He nods. “It’s tasty.” After a second, he sets his glass down. “Tell me something embarrassing that happened to you so I don’t feel so lame.”

“You’re not lame, Salem.”

“Please? Something?”

One memory immediately comes to mind. “It was a threesome.”

Salem’s eyes light up and he makes an O shape with his mouth. “Do tell.”

“I was into this girl in my environmental biology class, but she had a boyfriend. One time she invited me to a party, as friends, and introduced me to her man. Turns out they had talked about her fantasy of being with two guys at once, and figured I’d be down. I was.”

Salem rubs his hands together. “Juicy. Go on.”

“We went back to the boyfriend’s apartment and got into it. We were focused on her, but slowly, I noticed he was subtly touching me, making his curiosity known.” I chuckle. “Man, I haven’t thought about that night in a long time.”

“I’m dying to know what happened.”

“He was fucking his girl and I kissed him. He kissed me back and within a few minutes, I was sucking him off every time he pulled out of her.”

Salem’s eyes go wide. “Wow,” he whispers.

“Things took off from there and next thing I know I was fucking him while she sucked him off. Once his girl figured out what was happening, she lost her mind, and I mean, freaked the fuck out.”

“Oh no.”

“She jumped out of bed and started throwing shit at us and yelling at him that he ruined it again. The ‘again’ part got me because they’d both told me I was the first guy they’d invited to join them.”

“Oooh.”

“Turns out they’d tried inviting women and her man always ended up fucking them even though they had a rule that it was about her and her only. She thought a man was safe because her boyfriend insisted he wasn’t attracted to men at all.”

“Oh my god, then she sees him getting absolutely railed by you and loving it.”

“Yep.”

“Great story, but I don’t see how that’s embarrassing for you.”

“I wasn’t done yet.”

Salem grins. “Go on.”

“So at that point, I’m looking for my clothes trying to get the fuck out of there, but all the screaming and breaking of shit around the apartment got the attention of neighbors and someone called campus security. They bust in, thinking this poor girl is getting assaulted, only to find the three of us in the bedroom. They’re both still naked, and she’s screaming and throwing pillows and clothes at him, and I’m in the corner, clutching my jeans and shoes.”

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