Page 30 of Xavier

Down on the main floor were a couple of tables with the chairs put up on top of them. A lone janitor was buffing out a part of the floor a few feet away from us with headphones covering his ears.He barely glanced up at us as we walked toward the stairs and took them up to the next level.

“I know it’s going to sound lame, but I actually do like to study,” he said, clutching the railing as we stepped. “I like learning. A lot of people think that’s a nerdy thing to say, but it’s genuinely true.”

“Nothing wrong with that, kid. We need more booksmart people in this world.”

He blew out a breath. “Yeah, I guess. It kind of makes me feel like an outcast, though. People my age care about social media and followers. That sort of thing. There’s nothing wrong with that, I just don’t... care.”

“Can’t say I do, either. Gage was trying to get me to join this online platform a few weeks back so that we could share pictures and videos back and forth like our own camera roll. I’m clearly getting old, because I had no idea what the hell I was doing on it.”

Dexter was quiet when we reached the top step. I waited for him to pick a direction, but when he didn’t, I grew a little worried.

“You okay?”

“You kind of talk about him a lot,” he blurted out.

That had me blinking in surprise.

Shit, did I really?

Jesus, this whole time I was trying not to be obvious with my relationship by keeping my hands to myself and this whole time it was mymouththat got me in trouble.

“Uh.”

What did I even say to him?

Yeah, it’s just because we’re best friends?

Calling Gage anything like my best friend or whatever felt too small on the scale of what I felt for him. He wasso muchmore than that. He was my confidant, my heart, my rock. Our relationship extended past the boundaries of mere labels at this point.

How could I hope to convey that, though, without sounding like an absolutely lunatic?

Especially to my seventeen year old.

“Are... you guys...” Dexter was struggling to get the words out.

A pit in my stomach formed. “We’re... uh.”

Fuck.

This was like trying to have the damn birds and the bees talk.

Why was this so fucking awkward?

I wanted my son to get to know me, just as I did him. I’d never considered that this would be torturously cringy to speak my true feelings for the man that I was in love with.

He watched me with a pinched expression.

Sighing, I said, “We’re dating, Dex.”

He nodded slowly. “How long?”

“A year... just about.”

He blinked a few times. “Oh.”

I slapped my hand to the side of my face to rub at it, scratching a finger through my beard. Hopefully, my cheeks weren’t too red. “Yeah.”

His expression was morphing into more of a curious one while he watched me carefully. Whatever was going on inside of his head had to be a million questions. He knew I was gay, but he hadn’t said what he felt about it outside of him expressing how much it’d hurt Kate, and him by proxy.

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