Page 2 of Mine to Keep

“Nope. It was in my closet. But that’s the least of it. He pointed to a picture of Trinity and said, what’s that?”

“That?” Darnell whistled.

“Mmmhmm. Trinity was dressed up in one of their awesome creations, and I told Tony they were my ex, Trinity. He slammed the book closed and yelled that he thought I was gay.”

Darnell held his hands up. “Whoa, he looked at Trinity and…I don’t get it.”

“You know how Trinity hates labels: pangender, nonbinary. I told him Trinity was fluid, didn’t conform to one gender, and in this picture Trin was wearing a dress and makeup.”

“And he thought they were a woman?”

I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter; I didn’t feed into it. I just told him that I never said I was gay, and that I was, in fact, pansexual. Then I explained that Trinity was nonbinary, and did my best to educate him as well as I could. He shook his head and was all, ‘No, there’s only straight, gay, or lesbian.’”

“No, he did not!” Darnell pressed a palm to his chest.

“Oh, he did, and I explained that he needed to go home because if he felt that way, we weren’t a good fit.”

Darnell slapped the table. “Good on you. How’d that go?”

I chuckled. “We broke up, remember?”

“Shit…well, you dodged a bullet with him. What a dickhead.”

“For sure.” I drained my drink and stood. “I’m going to get another. I’d like to be drunk tonight.”

Darnell beamed. “Fuck, yeah. That’s why we Ubered it here. Go get all the alcohol.”

I headed to the bar to order myself and Darnell the next round of drinks since he’d gotten the last. While I waited, I scanned the club. Lewis and Joan were really going at it…Hmm, maybe theyshouldfuck and get it over with.

“Here you go.” The bartender slid the drinks to me, and I tossed him a twenty.

For the next hour or so, I drank, danced, and drank some more. I had nowhere to be tomorrow, and I was going to stay in bed in my apartment. It was nice to have weekends back.

“Shots!” Lewis shouted.

“I’ll go up with you.” I followed Lewis cautiously. Seriously, the floor moved when my feet touched it.

“Four Nasty Nipples,” he ordered, and I glared at him.

“What the fuck is that?” I thought that was what came out of my mouth, but judging by the look on Lewis’s face, maybe not.

“Hey.”

I spun around…too fast actually, and stumbled. Steady hands gripped my arms. “Careful there.” The man’s voice was low and gravelly.

“Sorry.”

“I got him,” Lewis said as he tried to pull me away.

“I don’t need to be gotten.”

The stranger smiled with perfectly straight white teeth. Oh, he was lovely. “You carry the drinks; I can walk…what’s your name?”

“Matt.”

“I can walk Matt back.”

“Fine.”

---