Page 6 of Method Acting

His dark eyes cut to mine. “You heard?”

“I’m bi,” I replied. “And I’ve been to the LGBTQ center a few times.” I didn’t want to admit that I hadn’t been there in a while, but still. “We talk.”

“You gossip.”

“No, we talk. We discuss things and we open up to each other. It’s a safe place, and Ross might have mentioned you.”

“Ross...” Amos sighed. “I dated Ross in my freshman year.”

“He’s a nice guy,” I allowed. “And he never gossiped or spilled any deets. He mentioned you in passing two years ago; I think you must have been dating at the time. I don’t even know why I remembered...”

Sure, Chase. Just give yourself away in the first two minutes.

You remembered because you noticed Amos, and you remembered that he was gay every single time you saw him.

Amos pulled at a thread near the hole in the knee of his jeans. “He is. We just... we’re still friends, I guess. We weren’t compatible for anything more.”

“So have you dated anyone recently?”

He shot me a look that pretty much said what business is that of yours.

“You know, in case I gotta watch my back if the world thinks we’re a thing.”

Amos rolled his eyes and sighed. “No. No one recently. What about you? Still a serial non-dater to be forever playing the field?”

I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Was that snarky sarcasm pure distaste? Or did I detect something else?

Keep dreaming.

He’s the sarcasm king.

“Forever playing the field,” I replied. Then I shrugged. “It’s how I like it. I’m too young to be tied down. I want to be free to see as many people as I can, and as long as they know from the get-go that it’s a one-time thing, then no one gets hurt.”

He made a face. “No one’s warranted a second look?”

“Look? Sure. I look all the time. But a second date?” I sighed. “Nah.”

“That’s kinda sad.”

Sad?

I shot him a what-the-fuck look. “How is that sad?”

“You could’ve completely bypassed your one person, just disregarded them because of your own rules.”

“My one person? Like a soulmate?” I tried not to laugh. “Do you honestly believe in that?”

Amos pressed his lips together and pulled at the loose thread in his jeans some more. “I don’t know. Maybe I do.” Then he shrugged. “The idea that there’s one person we can connect with better than any other person, that we understand, that we gel with. I think that’s true. Do I believe in the ‘one person is half my soul’ kind of soulmate, and I need to find them?” He made a face. “Statistically speaking, I think that’s improbable. Some people are supposed to be in our lives short term; other people forever.”

Okay, wow. I wasn’t expecting things to get so deep right off the bat.

He exhaled loudly. “I think it’s all kinda connected with past lives and who we were, and maybe your best friend in this life was your brother in your past life. Stuff like that. I think it’s all connected somehow, like our souls recognize each other. Kinda weird, and I don’t know why I just said all of that, sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s a nice idea.”

We were quiet then for a few seconds.

“Anyway,” he went on, then cleared his throat. “So we really do need to convince the entire campus that you, the serial non-dater who never does repeats, is suddenly interested in dating one person?”

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