Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88207 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“No, because you’re finally getting laid on the regular,” Tad said, playfully pushing my shoulder.
“Jealous?” I threw back. He’d been the cooler of the two of them, and no doubt it had everything to do with Mia, who probably wouldn’t easily admit that she liked him too—she spent almost the entire barbecue hanging out with him. She was all smiles this morning and told me she loved Seth, and coincidentally enough, Tad was all smiles too, so who knew what the hell that meant. None of my business.
Speaking of my business, I looked back at Brett, who was scrunching his nose at me, either in disgust or confusion; it was hard to decipher. I folded my arms across my chest. “What the hell, dude?”
He opened his mouth, then shut it, before opening it again and settling on, “So…you’re really like…dating a guy?”
“Don’t be rude,” Tucker said as he passed by us with a new canister of oil for the Mazda he was working on.
“I’m not,” Brett replied in an exasperated tone. “I’m trying to wrap my brain around it.”
“Okay, I hear you. So get it out. Ask whatever the hell you want so we can move on.” And be done with this. Imagine if I asked him five hundred questions about his dating prospects. He wouldn’t like it one bit. Or maybe he would if he could tell me all the salacious details.
His cheeks flooded with color, and I hoped that meant he was embarrassed, but when it came to Brett, I highly doubted it. “I just…didn’t even suspect it. You’ve been with women. Were you really gay this whole time?”
Okay, then. I took a moment to try to rein in my thoughts in order to respond calmly. He was allowed to be curious even if it bordered on ignorant. I could answer him the best way possible, then be done with it.
But Tad beat me to the punch. “Have you never heard of someone being bisexual, you moron?”
Brett narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, sure, but I always thought that was a cop-out.”
“A cop-out?” I scoffed. Why was I even surprised?
“Yeah, like, you either can’t decide, or you use that term as an excuse until you make up your mind.”
When Tad stepped forward to spout off at him, I held up my hand. I could fight my own battles. And then some.
“You honestly don’t think someone can be attracted to both sexes and then choose to spend their time with whoever makes them most happy?” I wasn’t even going to bring up the term pansexual because it might confuse his pea brain even more.
“Fuck, dude,” Tucker said suddenly from beneath the truck. “Use the Internet and look shit up. Educate yourself. It’s not up to Jake to do that for you.”
There was a long pause, and I almost felt guilty, but Tucker did have a point.
Brett dipped his head, apparently self-conscious enough. Hallelujah. “Yeah, okay, I’ll do that.”
It got quiet after that as we all went back to work, and I was afraid it might be awkward between us from there on out. But the payoff will have been worth it. The stuff I’d shared with Seth, the way he’d taken care of me after my little breakdown all because my mom was finally moving on with her life, was something I would always be grateful for. He could’ve freaked or had any number of reactions. Instead he held me while I melted into a damned puddle, but it had been such a release to get it out, I would’ve done anything to make it up to him afterward.
Putting my mouth on him had been my reward, and maybe his too, even though I probably wasn’t very good at it my first time. But you wouldn’t know it because Seth’s response had been nothing short of incredible. And then that other thing—having my finger inside him—was something I’d only ever fantasized about after watching gay porn. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine it would come to fruition with someone I was wildly attracted to and more. So much more. I rubbed at a spot on my chest that ached with the knowledge of my growing feelings for him.
That night, as I drove to my mom’s place to return her pasta bowl from the party and to eat dinner together, my phone buzzed with a text from Seth.
I read his message as soon as I pulled into a parking space at her apartment building.
Check out this awesome cabin when you get a chance. It looks almost like the one I used to go to with my dad.
I smiled at my phone. Will do. About to go up to see Mom.
Behave, he wrote, adding a wink emoji. And tell Bonnie I said hi.
I smiled all the way up in the elevator and until I got to her door. I half expected Bruce to be the one to greet me, and my stomach unclenched the moment I realized it would be just the two of us. Because I was still a jerk and needed time to get acclimated. Not that I wanted Mom to know I had cried on Seth’s shoulder because I was still having trouble with the idea. I didn’t want to ruin anything for her, so it was better if I kept my shit together.