Page 87 of Prince Charmless
Sure. I bet if I said I’m scared of clowns, which I’m not, he’d give my apartment keys to someone with a big red nose and tell him to hide in a closet.
“What areyouscared of?” I ask instead.
“I’m not scared of anything,” he says. “Needles, if that counts as a fear, but who enjoys needles?”
“What about that Jamie guy, you turned white when you saw him?”
Taylor recoils at the name. “I’m not scared of that crumpet-eating leech,” he grumbles.
“Okay, what the hell is going on there.” I’ve been dying to know.
“He’s my enemy, blackmailer, and an all-around awful person.”
“Blackmail?”
I can’t hide the concern in my voice. I remember the conversation between them being odd, but I didn’t sense that much animosity. What the hell could Taylor be blackmailed over? The worst-case scenarios run through my head, scenarios involving drugs and royal crime syndicates. I’ve always felt like there’s something he hasn’t told me.
“Yeah,” he answers. “We had this friends-with-benefits type relationship. Well, maybe less friends and more just benefits.”
“What type of benefits?”
Taylor rubs his eyes. “Oh my God, Melina.”
Is he?“Are you—”
“I refuse to do this with you.”
“You’re gay?”
Wait, that doesn’t make sense.
“Ah yes. Us gay men. We really love sucking girls’ faces on balconies and in planes and in empty Dartmouth classrooms.” He pauses. “Surprisingly there’s one area of my life where I’ve never been that picky.”
I squint, trying to reassess some of our previous conversations.
“You know, like, David Bowie and that one dolphin at the St. Claire national zoo,” he says, mistaking my expression for confusion. “I’m not sure how this hasn’t come up yet.”
“It has come up. At the wedding. When you walked away from me.” At the moment, my comment seemed so off-hand. I just assumed he was straight after all the lower back touching. “I’m sorry. The B in LGBT isn’t a silent letter.”
He takes my hand across the table. “Thank you for that, Melina. I can feel the world healing.”
I retract and go for my wine. He’s making fun of me.
“I may have thought you were trying to steer the conversation on purpose,” Taylor says, scratching his eyebrow. “I soon learned you’re not that type of person.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, leaning forward.
He takes a short breath before speaking again. “Everyone is obsessed with getting me to spill about my personal life. Do you know how many times a random person I don’t even know has come up and asked if the rumors are true? How often it’s been shouted at me by paparazzi? I can’t tell the truth because I don’t want the whole country, hell,planetto destroy itself in a royal bisexual explosion, but I also can’t lie because I don’t want to live in a world where I feel like I have to. Usually, I end up either changing the subject or walking away like a douche. I think you got the latter because up until then I liked talking to Julien’s hot bridesmaid. And I’m not a fan of talking to new people. Even if they’re hot.”
I figured he was cool with rumors after that joke he wrote about his mother’s missing necklace.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“You don’t have to apologize for flirting with me, Melina. At the time, I couldn’t believe it was your intention. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but I thought you didn’t like me at first. Now I know you’ve liked me from the start.”
I roll my eyes. “How does this fit in with the blackmail?”
“How doyouthink it fits in with the blackmail?”
