Page 174 of Charming Like Us
My eyes tighten on him with more concern.
“Do you want to start?” Maximoff asks his sister.
“No,” she says flatly.
Tom lifts the hammer. “I’ll go first.”
Kinney looks relieved.
I pass my Rocky Road pint to Jack. He offers a half-hearted,no thanks, smile. Usually Highland will eat my snacks.
“So…” Tom scratches his head with the toy. “I still haven’t found theperfectdrummer to replace my old one. And the guy that got away is now playing for a mega-popular band that’s blowing up—and that could’ve been me.” He sighs out, and his eyes land on Maximoff. Tom looks like he’s a second from exploding by whatever else he’s holding in. “And I confess that I might’ve had a small,tiny…like so small you can’t even really see it. Is it there? I don’t think so. Yeah, that kind of crush on Farrow—waaaaybefore you two ever banged.” His face turns into a wince. “Ahhhh, that didn’t feel as good as I’d hoped.”
Farrow is sucking in a breath that sounds like a cringe.
I’d be laughing my ass off if I wasn’t worried about my boyfriend. Jack, though, looks more shocked at this revelation. I knew about Tom’s crush.
Farrow knew.
And I’m pretty sure he already told his husband too.
“It’s okay,” Maximoff says, not caught off guard or jarred.
“Is it?” Tom has sunken forward, forehead on the table.
“Yeah, it was a long time ago.”
Tom pops up, eyes on the ceiling. “My heart has definitively stopped beating.”
“Man, lots of people had crushes on me.” Farrow shrugs, and it’s just so easy. I can’tnottake the swing.
“I didn’t,” I say into a grin. “Not even for a half-a-second.”
“That’s because you have questionable taste, Oliveira.” He holds out a hand to Jack. “Present company excluded.”
“Appreciated,” Jack says into a strong swig of root beer. Like he wishes that were actually liquid courage.
Tom starts to ease back. I wonder how long that has been weighing on him.
“Who’s next?” Kinney asks.
Maximoff takes his turn. “I confess that in the twelfth grade, this guy on my swim team told me that being a slut must be hereditary, since I like to get it in the ass just like my mom. I guess he assumed I had already bottomed because I’m bi.”
Wow, I’m shocked he shared that with anyone but Farrow.
Kinney looks overwhelmed. “You never told me that.”
“Kin,” he says. “You were eight.”
“Oh. Right.”
He nudges her shoulder. “I’m telling you now.”
She nods a lot, thankful he opened up. My idea is working like a charm so far.
So I go ahead and speak. “I didn’t have any LGBT friends in high school, so I looked up a lot online. My dad walked in on me searching the web forHow to Douchefor Idiots. Literally the title.”
Farrow laughs, which lets the younger ones like Tom and Kinney feel free to laugh. I’m glad. It’s a hilarious story as an adult, but damn was I mortified to hell as a teenager.
