Page 72 of In Plain Sight

Dean: is it because it’s a gay club? You worried you’ll get hit on?

Dean: just spend the night with one of Elle’s friends and you’ll be safe

He sent a winking emoji, then the smirking one.

I rolled my eyes. I knew Dean didn’t really mean anything by these kinds of comments, but I was getting tired of them. The problem was they weren’t blatant enough for me to call him out without raising suspicions.

After so many years of letting these things slip, it would look weird if I suddenly had a problem with them. Unless hesaid something outwardly homophobic or dropped a slur, there wasn’t anything I could do without risking my secret getting out.

The fucked-up thing was, I had no idea if Dean would be okay with me being bi. Even after all these years as friends, I couldn’t get a read on if he’d be able to accept it or not.

I knew a few of our friends would have issues if they ever found out, but most of them were also a mystery. They tossed out these mildly homophobic jokes all the time, but it was the same shit I’d heard guys say my entire life. It was locker room talk, so to speak, but because we weren’t the type to have deep conversations about things, I had no clue if they were actually homophobic or just assholes who didn’t think about the words they used.

Luka: I’m going to pass. Have fun

Dean: I plan to

I exited out of my texts and slipped my phone into my pocket.

“Did you guys figure it out?” I asked as Zander walked past me on his way back to his workstation.

“Yeah.” He paused. “At least I think we did.”

“That bad?”

He nodded. “Hopefully no one needs to look at those files again. We really reached on a couple of them.”

“Hey, guys?” Nate called from the door to his office.

“Yeah?” I called back.

“Want to get started on the closing routine? I’m calling it a night and locking the doors. No point sitting around for another thirty minutes with our thumbs up our asses.”

“Gross, Dad,” Cass complained loudly through the door to the front of the store.

“Sorry, kiddo. How’s this? There’s no point sitting around for another thirty minutes twiddling our thumbs?”

Cass popped her head through the door. “What the fuck does twiddling mean? That sounds worse.”

“Language,” I called teasingly.

“Fuck off.” Cass shot me a sweet-as-pie smile.

Zander and I both laughed.

“This.” Nate held up his hands and rolled his thumbs a few times. “Is twiddling your thumbs.”

She snickered. “You look and sound ridiculous right now.”

He made a big show of doing a silly little dance, almost like skipping but with a little twirl, as he twiddled his thumbs again. “How can you call this ridiculous?”

Cass dissolved into giggles, and I had to cover my mouth to stop from laughing. A quick glance at Zander told me he was also fighting a laugh.

“I have no idea what you all think is funny,” Nate said, doing a pretty good job of looking bewildered. “But how about we start shutting down, and I’ll lock up.”

“I’ll do it.” Cass held out her hand for the key. “You always forget to turn off the ‘We’re open’ sign, and it drives me crazy.”

“Why does that drive you crazy?” I asked.

---