Page 3 of The Virgin
“I took an Uber here.”
“Well, why don’t we all take off, and I can be the big, responsible best friend and give you and Spencer a lift home?”
“You two don’t have to take off just because I’m going home,”he protested.
Damon and Spencer were already standing, though. They’d paid for their drinks, but Spencer peeled a couple of bills off and tucked them under the glass for the waitress.
“I have a ton of shit to sort in my shop.”
“And I have to go home and feed my fish.”
“You don’t have fish,” Jonah said, tucking his hands in his pockets.
“My pet fish takes offense to that.” Damon pulled his keys from his pocket and spun them on his finger. “Come on. If you’re good, we can stop for fries.”
Damon dropped Spencer off first, which made sense because his house came before Jonah’s on the route they took, but it also turned out to be a trap because the minute Damon pulled away from the curb at Spencer’s, he put on his serious best friend face. “Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?”
Jonah sighed and did his best not to fold his arms over his chest since that was his tell when he was upset about something. And Jonah was not upset. He was tired of not knowing what it was like to be with another personintimately. His one circle jerk as a teenager didn’t count because it was every man for himself.It lacked the closeness of another person that he so desperately craved.
“Tom doesn’t want to see me again.”
To that, Damon said nothing. For several blocks he was quiet, then he let out a sigh of his own when they were almost at Jonah’s townhouse.
“You didn’t even like Tom,” Damon said.
“I didn’t dislike him.”
“Jonah …” Damon trailed off, and Jonah didn’t know whether the twist in his stomach was smugness or shame that he’d finally rendered his friend speechless.
“Maybe I’ll take a break from dating for a while. I think I need to reevaluate my priorities.”
“Well, if you ever need to talk, you know I’m here for you, right?”
“I do, thank you.” Jonah absolutely would not be taking his virginity problem to Damon. He was glad he’d been interrupted before doing something stupid like tell Spencer. No, Jonah would deal with this himself. He’d do what any other self-respecting gay man would do.
He’d download Grindr, set up an anonymous hookup, and get it over with. Once it was out of the way, Jonah might not be so nervous about it anymore. He’d spent so long building it up in his head that he’d made it this huge ordeal.
It was time he got over himself—and under someone else.
CHAPTER 2
SPENCER
“Mister Sanderson.I know you’re not horsing around in my shop because you’re practically an adult now, and you’re old enough to know better, right, Mister Sanderson?” Spencer chided Blake, who promptly put the tool away and feigned innocence. He scanned the rest of the room, making eye contact with more of his students to deliver the next part of his message. “I know giving in to impulsive thoughts is all the rage, but if you’re going to give in to those little voices that tell you to do dumb crap, you need to give in outside of my classroom where I’m not responsible for your missing fingers. Understand?”
Blake mumbled his agreement. It wasn’t exactly enthusiastic, but it would have to do. It was Friday, and it was the last class of the day, everyone tired and wanting to go home, Spencer included. Most of the time he taught only shop, both wood and metalwork classes, but this had also been his week to pull lunch hour supervisor duties, and it hadn’t been an easy one. There was something in the air that had made the kids act more like wild animals than usual, and Spencer was exhausted.
“Don’t leave a mess. Remember, the class who has the most stars at the end of the month gets the pizza party.” Over the course of his teaching career, Spencer had learned that it wasn’t hard to motivate a group of teenagers. So long as he had money in the pizza budget, he had students willing to clean up after themselves.
Spencer helped out a couple of the students who were still working on their projects while the rest of the class set about sweeping the sawdust up, putting the scrap wood away, and stacking their half-finished projects on the shelves at the back of the class. With only minutes to the bell and a shop that was as clean as it ever got, Spencer dismissed his students a few minutes early.
He was gathering his belongings off his desk when he sensed a familiar presence. Turning, he found Jonah lingering in the doorway. His messenger bag was slung over his shoulder, his hair looking slightly more rumpled than usual.
“Tough week?” Spencer asked. He quickly checked his desk again to make sure he’d grabbed everything. He still had to lock the shop up, but he’d do that on his way out.
“I had to cover Paul’s history class last period during my free block.”
“You look like they put you through it.” Spencer strode over to the door where Jonah waited for him. He flicked off the lights and pulled the door shut. After making double sure that it was locked, he set off for the parking lot. Most days both of them ended up staying after class to get marking done, or in Spencer’s case, he sometimes had students come in to work on extra credit stuff. A couple of his kids had even volunteered to help other kids get their projects done.
