Page 71 of The Mayor and the Mystery Man

Friends weren’t supposed to lie, but I lied. Ihadn’tgotten it out of my system. It was the opposite. My feelings for Leo were taking over my system. That scared me most of all.

Sex didn’t have to ruin a friendship. But if Leo found out I was full-on pining after him now, and he still saw me as just a friend, that was the kind of thing friendships couldn’t come back from.

19

LEO

“What do we think? Red or blue?” I held one tie up to my shirt, then the other. Dusty and the twins studied both choices, and I kept turning around to see for myself in the mirror.

“Red feels aggressive,” Lucy said.

“But aggressive can be good,” Dusty said. “Like, a mayor that knows how to fight.” He did some shadowboxing to underline his point.

“I don’t want to seem like I’m beating up Rita. Big bad mayor beating up his sweet little opponent.”

“Just because she’s a woman doesn’t automatically make her a fragile figurine, Dad,” Lucy said, making me proud to be raising a feminist daughter.

“Why don’t you wear both?” Ari suggested as he chomped on a slice of pizza. “Or wear one around your head like a bandana.”

Dusty pointed at my son. “I like that idea.”

“Not helping.”

The first debate was held at the Arden MacArthur Community Center, which Cal and Mitch had dubbed the Bea Arthur Center just in case the world didn’t already know they were gay. Rita and I would debate on the stage that usually held community theater productions. On the walls of my dressing room were signatures and dates scribbled in by actors of Sourwood community productions past.

I put down the red tie and held the blue up to my neck. “Blue feels warmer, don’t you think?”

I looped the blue option around my neck, my hands moving to knot it instinctively. I’ve put on so many ties in my life I could do it with my eyes closed.

Lucy gave me the thumbs up. Ari followed her lead.

And Dusty?

“I like it.”

The way he looked at me made heat rush up my neck. Time stopped, but only for a second because my knuckle-headed kids began cracking up with laughter as they watched us.

Dusty turned away to check his watch. “We should probably leave you to finish preparing. But yeah, the blue tie. That’s my vote.”

“Mine, too,” Lucy said with a knowing smile.

“I vote for bandana.”

“Ari.” Dusty pointed to the door.

Ari handed me his uneaten crust, which would be my pre-debate meal. Bread was about all I could handle between the debate, Harlen Carruthers showing up, and Dusty continuing to seize my thoughts.

I stopped my son before he left. “Hey buddy, maybe tonight after the debate, I can take another crack at your video game. I think I’m close to beating the second level.”

My son’s face lit up. I’d had Ari show me his game a few days ago, and while my video gaming skills pretty much sucked and I wanted to put my fist through the screen at all the losing I was doing, I was immensely proud of the creativity on display. Would he go on to be a professional game designer? It was too soon to tell. But seeing that he had the grit to create something so complex gave me the confidence that he’d find success in life, no matter which path he chose.

Lucy and Ari both gave me kisses on the cheeks, and I gobbled them up into a massive hug.

“Good luck, Dad,” they said.

“I’ll meet you in the audience,” Dusty said to them as they left the dressing room. He hung by the door, looking drop-dead sexy in a blue-and-white plaid shirt tucked into gray pants, topped off with a knit navy tie. He was like a college TA who I wanted to bend over the desk.

I’d resisted his charms over the past few days, ever since our sexual combustion. It was hard—er, difficult. Very difficult. (And very hard.) That night between us was one for the history books. It exceeded every dream I ever had about us fucking. But we agreed it was a one-time sexual tension breaker, and I had to stand by that decision.

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