Page 39 of The Marriage Policy

My gut twists uncomfortably, and I suddenly wish I hadn’t suggested he call Ana. “Oh…okay. I hope you guys have fun!” I say, too enthusiastically. What the fuck is wrong with me? I’m being such a weirdo right now.

“I’m sure we will.” He turns around and disappears down the hallway.

For a moment I consider going after him, but he literally just said he’s going to call Ana. Am I supposed to then be like,Nope, you can’t go out with her? And even if it’s a friend thing like he said, I was with Hayes and Anthony last night. Eric deserves time with his friends too.

I answer the call, though what I really want is to ask Eric to curl up on the couch with me and watch stupid shows on TV all day.

“Hey, Pops. How’s it going?” I ask, then go into the backyard.

“Not bad. We haven’t heard from you in a while, so I wanted to check in.”

He’s right. I usually talk to him or Mom every couple of days. They don’t even know Eric moved in with me.

And they definitely don’t know I’mmarried.

“Sorry. Things have been busy. Eric moved back in with me.”

“Oh, wow. Mom saw Sylvia yesterday, and she didn’t mention it.”

Shit. Eric hasn’t told his mom either. Guilt weighs me down. I didn’t mean to share something Eric hasn’t talked to his mom about yet. “Maybe don’t mention it? I’m sure he wants to tell her himself.”

“Sure, kid. No problem,” Dad says, and I smile at him calling me kid. He always has. “Honestly, I’m surprised you boys ever stopped living together.”

His answer is absolutely not surprising to me. My parents and Eric’s mom are always talking about how close we are and how special our relationship is. I know my parents wish Eric was queer and we’d settle down together. They’ve said it more than once. “We’re not that bad,” I tell Dad.

“Who said anything about it being bad? You know how much we love Eric. The two of you are practically married.”

I suck in a deep breath and then proceed to choke on it, coughing and spurting.

Dad laughs, not realizing why I’m dying. “I know he’s straight and the two of you are just friends. You don’t have to tell me again. We’d love it if the two of you were together, but we have accepted it won’t happen. We just…we just hope you don’t let your friendship hold you back from finding someone for yourself.”

“Eric would never do that,” I defend.

“I’m saying this all wrong. I’m not good at this kind of thing. We just love Eric, and we want you to be happy, is all.”

I nod, knowing what my dad means. “Yeah, well, I tried that with Malcolm, and look how that turned out.”

“He wasn’t good for you. Even before we knew how much of an asshole he is, I knew he wasn’t right for you.”

“You never even met him!”

“Exactly,” Dad says. “One of many reasons, but…I don’t know. I could hear it in the way you talked about him. That spark wasn’t there.”

What he doesn’t say is that he thinks I talk about Eric that way. I’ve tried to explain a million times that it’s just because he’s my best friend.

“How’s work going?” I ask.

It’s the change of subject I need. Dad talks about his job, then asks about work and the hospital. We chat for a while, and when we end the call, my pops gives me an, “Okay, be cool,” the way he always does when we get off the phone.

I go into the house to see if Eric is leaving…but he’s already gone.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Eric

“This is allyour fault,” I tell Ana as I sit in the passenger seat of her car. She’s running errands for Hayes today, and she took mercy on me and agreed to let me tag along. I’d been so excited to tell Donovan I’m at least a little bisexual, but then I started overthinking it. Would he be weirded out that I watched gay porn for the first time after our simultaneous jerk-off session?

I talked myself out of that worry because it’s us, me and Dono. My favorite person in the world. The one who never makes me feel stupid about anything, even though I’m known to do some ridiculous things. But then something strange happened. He got home this morning, and I…it’s like I had a lobotomy or something, which only got worse when he began talking about me having orgies and brought up Ana again.

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