Page 87 of Romance Languages

“Welcome to the party!” Greg gave me a thumbs-up.

“Coming out is strange for everyone. You’re basically informing the world about who you like to have sex with,” Ethan said.

There was only one man I wanted to have sex with.

“Do you think Jules is going to freak out?” I asked. “The other night, he said this was all just physical and nothing more.”

“Greg used to say that all the time about us hooking up in college.” Ethan rolled his eyes.

“It started off that way,” Greg bickered back.

“Please. You were a goner for me the first time we met up in the library stacks.”

“Agree to disagree,” Greg shot back at Ethan with a knowing wink. They locked eyes in a cute moment. Would Jules and I be this mushy for each other in a decade?

Ethan turned back to me. “The point is, I promise you it’s not just physical. If being intimate with Julian has conjured up all these feelings for you, then he has to be feeling the same way. He’s probably as scared as you are. I mean, he still assumes you’re straight. Gay guys falling for their straight friends is like a rite of passage.”

I mashed my fists together like they were defibrillator paddles, something I’d done since I was little when I was concentrating hard.

“Okay,” I said at the end of my thinking. Maybe it was time that I got off the bench and let my heart have another shot.

I texted Julian for us to get together tomorrow night. It would be a night of firsts. His first time having sex. And my first time telling a guy I liked him.

* * *

My nerves wereon fire for the rest of the evening. I channeled my energy into editing a batch of videos and scheduling them, as well as researching other popular content creators with sponsored videos. My follower count continued to swell, which had to mean something to brands.

Sometime after eight, Greg knocked on my door.

“Someone’s here to see you.”

“Jules?”

“No, some guy named Vince.”

“Vince?”

He shrugged. Vince sounded familiar to me, but I couldn’t place it.

A minute later, it all came back to me. I stepped onto the front porch where Lauren’s brother Vince, a large, beefy guy with a shaved head and a seeming inability to smile, waited for me.

“Hey, Vince. Long time no see.”

“I wonder why that is.”

I’d met Vince a bunch of times while dating Lauren. He’d been a welcome presence during happy hours and holidays, his stern outer shell hiding a wicked sense of humor. We were just starting to bond as everything blew up between his sister and me.

“Good to see you,” I said, matching his seriousness. “Considering you came to my home, there must be a problem.”

“Listen, man, Lauren’s been real patient with you, but she needs the rest of the money you stole from her.”

“Stole? I didn’t steal from her.”

“What would you call it?”

My throat went dry. Maybe the word was accurate. I didn’t consider what I did stealing, but I was going too easy on myself. Was that how she described it to others?

“I’m working on paying her back. I have a plan in place.”

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