Page 74 of Romance Languages

The guys were more intrigued than concerned.

“And it’s great that you do,” Hutch added. “Palates are cool. But yeah, just a turnaround from the Seamus we knew in February.”

Had I really changed that much? What kind of effect was Julian having on me?

“Guys, can I talk to you about something?”

They leaned forward. Now they were more concerned than intrigued.

“Is everything okay?” Raleigh asked. “Did you need a kidney? My organs are in tip-top shape.”

“No organs needed. I appreciate it, though.” These guys could give me shit, but they were good friends who cared about me. I was lucky that I’d wound up at South Rock. “If I tell you something, can you keep it a secret?”

They nodded yes. I hoped to God they were telling the truth.

“Since the beginning of March, I’ve been fooling around with this guy.”

Raleigh slammed his hand on the table and pointed at Hutch. “I knew it. Toldja.”

“We knew something was up with you.” Hutch shrugged.

“I got a little bit of a wholesexual vibe from you,” Raleigh said.

“A what vibe?”

Hutch smacked a hand on Raleigh’s chest to keep him from elaborating. “Ignore him. Who’s the guy?”

“I don’t want to say. I want to protect his privacy.” Considering I was talking about Julian to his friends’ boyfriends, I had to tread lightly.

“That’s cool. I get it.” Hutch had been in the closet when he first came to South Rock. Julian had told me that he and Amos secretly hooked up in high school, and it took him a full decade to work up the nerve to be openly gay. He understood all about privacy.

“We’ll call him Bert, in honor of Bert and Ernie,” Raleigh said.

Between this and me utteringFrottage Rockto Julian, no childhood memory was safe.

“Fine.” I rolled my eyes. “Bertand I have been fooling around for the past few weeks. He wanted more experience with a guy, and I was like, sure.”

“Why did you say yes?” Hutch asked.

“What was your motivation? All characters are driven by motivation.” Raleigh smiled proudly, another theater tidbit Everett had likely ingrained in him.

“Bert was self-conscious about not having much sexual experience. I didn’t want him to find sketchy guys on the internet. We’ve been having fun running the bases.”

“What was in it for you?” Raleigh asked.

I stammered for an answer. “I was being a good, bicurious friend.” I didn’t want to dig into this line of questioning more because my logic at the time seemed fuzzy now. “Look, is there anything that comes before sex that we missed?”

I listed off what Julian and I had done so far. I was a bit embarrassed to be asking for sex advice when I was thirty, but in my defense, same-sex sex was a whole new frontier for me.

Raleigh smacked his hand on Hutch’s chest to beat him to the punch. “I’ll answer this. I’m technically the gayest person at this table.”

“Says who?” Hutch asked, shoving his hand away. “We’re both bi.”

“But I’ve been with more guys than you. Probably more girls, too.” Raleigh licked his thumb and smoothed out an eyebrow.

“I wouldn’t brag about that.”

“Way to sex shame, Hutch. You are sex negative, my friend.” He turned to me. “I can field your sex questions. Give it to me.”

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