Page 13 of Last Resort

“Absolutely. I know you’ve found what you needed here in Cape May, and I’m happy for you, dude, but I just never fit here.” Sean looked away as he took a sip of his Coke.

“Nothing wrong with going where you should be.” Ben raised a mock toast with his soda. “I never figured all those summers ago that I’d leave the ‘big city’ and settle here, but…I guess if you’re lucky, you find what you need.”

“Didn’t the Rolling Stones sing about that?”

“Shut up.” Ben’s fondness took the sting from his words. “Find anyone you wanted to keep for more than one night?”

“Not ready to slow my roll yet,” Sean replied.

“God, you are so Jersey.”

Sean loved to play the field, and since he was pansexual that field was broad.

“I’m having a good time.” Sean dropped the macho front. “Darius, Matteo, and Taylor are awesome bros to room with. It’s not perfect, but it’s the wild teenage years I didn’t get to have when Iwasa teenager.”

Ben had escaped problems at home with an overly religious and homophobic mother and an equally unaccepting stepdad by spending as much time as possible with his Aunt Meg and Uncle Stewart in Cape May. He’d gone into the police academy as soon as he was old enough and felt like he had lived several lives in the years after that on the tough streets of Newark.

At the time, he’d envied Sean his protected life, and felt tremendously grateful that Meg and Stewart took him in for long stretches at a time. But he’d always known that Sean chafed at the same protections Ben had craved.

“Just don’t piss off any more mobsters,” Ben cautioned.

Sean laughed. “Look who’s talking.” He drained his Coke. “So…you and Erik. How’s it going?” He exaggerated taking a look at Ben’s hands. “I see he hasn’t ‘put a ring on it’ yet.”

Ben couldn’t help the warm smile that came in response. “Not yet. Give it time.”

Sean leaned forward. “Do tell.”

Ben smacked Sean’s arm with a half-hearted backhand. “No juicy details for you if that’s what you’re angling for.”

“You two could rake in a second income online. Neither of you break mirrors,” Sean volunteered.

“Eww. I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that,” Ben bantered.Just what we need—wiseguys from our past seeing us doing the deed on the internet.

“Everyone has a side hustle.”

“I don’t want to know,” Ben replied, and he really didn’t, although he could totally believe Sean flirted with online fame.

“I wasn’t going to tell you. You’d tell my mom.”

“You’re a grown-ass adult,” Ben returned. “Not her business. Not mine, either. But now I need to bleach my brain.”

“Back to you and Erik?—”

“So far, so good,” Ben said. “I moved the rest of my stuff into the apartment. That makes it seem less like I’m just sleeping over, and I love spending more time together. It’s just strange. Caleb and I had been together longer, but we never moved in together. It never seemed to be the right time. But with Erik, it didn’t feel like we were rushing it.”

“Keep your monogamous cooties to yourself.” Sean pretended to brush bugs off his arm. “But seriously—I’m happy for both of you. You deserve someone like Erik. He makes you happy?”

Ben nodded. “He does. I’m still rather gobsmacked that he loves me back. I’m punching above my weight class.”

Sean gave him a look. “Are you serious? First off, much as it pains me to say it, the two of you are equally attractive. Even if, when you were a kid, you looked like that possum that lived behind the dumpster.”

“Hey—”

“It was the ears. You grew into them,” Sean assured him.

“Thanks for that. I’ll need therapy.”

“You already needed therapy.”

---