Page 50 of Romance Languages

We craned our necks toward the living room where Ethan and Ashley were continuing their heated discussion of the rules.

“I don’t think they’ll miss us.” Greg tried to act nonchalant, but he lovingly watched his husband argue before leading us through the back door.

We stepped into Ashley and Jill’s expansive backyard, filled with two mighty oak trees. In the corner was a greenhouse, moonlight glinting off the panes of glass. Greg walked to it. He was never afraid of a challenge. He figured it was better to be asked to leave than to never venture at all. Like a good little brother, I followed him.

“This thing is awesome.” He marveled at the rows of plants growing around us. Fragrant flower smells filled my nose. I dipped my head back to take in the height of one impressive, purple flower in full bloom. “This lets Jill garden year-round.”

“Sweet.”

“So what the hell is up?” Greg asked, no segue. He held up a hand to block the response coming out of my mouth. “And don’t tell me you’re good. You’re not on drugs. You’re not tired. You haven’t been paying attention all night. You’ve been on another planet. Something is up with you.” Greg took a step closer. “Is it a girl?”

Oh, how I wished it were that simple. Why hadnothingfelt simple about this arrangement?

“It’s actually…about a boy.”

As predicted, Greg’s eyebrows flew up to his hairline. Greg Sanderson liked to act cool and collected; it took a lot to shock him.

“I got a blow-and-run last night.”

“Is that the opposite of a come-and-go?” He chuckled. “I thought I heard the front door open as I was falling asleep.”

He had on a poker face, but I truly hoped Greg hadn’t heard any other noises last night.

“Who was the girl? I mean, guy? Are you on Milkman?”

“No. This wasn’t a stranger.” I ground the tip of my shoe into the grass. “Do you remember my friend Julian?”

“Dammit.” Greg threw his head back, silently cursing at the sky.

“What? Is this bad?”

“No, I just owe Ethan twenty bucks.”

I smacked his chest. I wasn’t a race horse. My life wasn’t up for betting on.

“He had a feeling Julian was into you and that you guys might hookup.”

“Jules isn’t into me. He’s never been with a guy, so to help him out, I offered myself up. Like a cadaver, but still alive. And for sex, not surgery.”

“Huh. I didn’t know you swung that way.” Greg leaned against a table lined with small pots filled with dirt.

“That’s the thing. I don’t, for the most part. I offered to do this for him because he’s my friend, and I didn’t want him to cash in his v-card with some random guy who’d pump him and dump him.”

“You offered to have gay sex, but you don’t swing that way?”

“I have a slight bicurious itch. I was intrigued, and Jules is a good-looking guy, so I thought YOLO.”

I paced in the tight quarters, my shoes crunching on the dirt and matted-down grass. “I thought that I could get hard from the friction, and that’d be enough to do stuff with him. But I’ve been…enjoying it. A lot. And last night, he came over in the middle of the night and gave me head andI can’t stop thinking about it.”

“A good blow job will do that to you.”

“But it’s not just the blow job, man. I can’t stop thinking about all of it. The way he looks at me, and the way he smells, and the way he says my fucking name, and the way he can go from classy mofo to sex beast.” I rubbed my hands all over my head, trying to mold these thoughts into something I could understand. They were like Shock and Awe answers: raunchy as fuck but making no sense. “Isn’t there a goddamn chair in here?”

Greg pushed over a stool. He was always the all-knowing, all-wise big brother when we were in college. There was never a problem he couldn’t help me and the other guys get out of, whether it was about an impossible professor or a girl giving mixed signals.

“You’re in quite the conundrum.” He pushed aside some of the pots and sat on the table, making sure it wouldn’t collapse before he put his full weight on it.

“Greg, how did you know?” I asked. “You were the ladies’ man at Browerton, and then it was like, all of a sudden, you’re gay and dating Ethan.”

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