Page 14

James

“ Y ou’re the actual best,” I tell Ev as I toss my overnight bag into the backseat of my car. “I tried to get them to send Moira, but—”

“Baby, it’s fine,” he soothes, then stills my anxious movements by placing flattened palms over my chest. “You’re gone for two nights. Pretty sure I can keep your sixteen-year-old alive until you get back. She’s easier to look after than that godforsaken houseplant you had.” Sighing, he shakes his head. “I still don’t know what you were thinking getting a plant .”

“Funny, most people find plants easier to keep an eye on than children.”

As usual, he’s managed to ease my anxiety with a few words and a smile.

When Collin told me that I had been chosen to represent our firm to our largest client, I’d been thrilled. It was my campaign pitch which had won them over, after all, so it made sense that I head up the planning meetings. Except, the client demanded that the meetings happen in person, at their head office in Sydney, and there was no way I could get out of the three-day work trip.

Thank God I have a boyfriend who loves my kid as much as I do. He volunteered to say with her for the two nights I’ll be gone without me needing to even ask.

We’ve been together —really, officially together— for just over a month now, and nothing between us has really changed. We’re more affectionate with each other, and we’re not pretending that the orgasms we’re sharing are just ‘bros helping bros’, but…that’s it. We still hang out and watch sports together, still share beers and talk shit, and still go out for dinner and drinks just like we used to. We just…kiss now. Hold hands. Play footsie. It’s like the missing piece in our friendship has been filled.

Not that either of us knew there was a missing piece to start with. We’re just…closer now.

“You sure you don’t want me to drive you to the airport and pick you up on Thursday?” he asks, shaking me out of my musings.

“Nah. Work is covering all my expenses. Might as well make them cover the exorbitant parking, too, right? No sense making you come get me when I get in at stupid-o’clock on Thursday, either.”

Evan pouts exaggeratedly and tugs me in by my beltloops. “It just means I have to wait that little bit longer to see you again.”

“Oh my God, you’re ridiculous,” I laugh, and he cracks up, too. Then he swats my butt and gives me the shooing motion.

“Go,” he says, “I’ve got this. I promise Mia will still be in once piece when you get home.”

“My plant was still in one piece,” I grumble. “Just drowned.”

“I promise not to drown Mia.” It’s the exaggerated, nearly-teenaged way he says it that gets me laughing again.

“You’d better not,” I point my index finger at him sternly. “We can’t make a replacement.”

His grin turns positively wicked. “But we can try . Come back soon and practice knocking me up, Jay. Oh, hi, Mrs. Wakerley.” He waves over my shoulder.

I feel heat climbing up my neck and over my face as I turn to find my elderly neighbour frozen at her mailbox. Her cheeks are pink, and she’s clutching her fuzzy lavender-coloured bathrobe tightly at her chest.

God, I hope we haven’t scandalised her into a heart attack…

“Hi,” I practically squeak, offering her a wave of my own.

“I didn’t hear anything,” she says, snatching up her mail and shuffling back up the path to her front door. Then, right before she shuts the door, she adds, “Be safe, boys!”

Evan loses it. His laughter is loud and infectious, and soon neither of us can breathe.

“You’re awful ,” I tell him through wheezing breaths, tears blurring my vision. “I’ll never be able to look her in the eye again.”

“That” —he points in the direction of Mrs. Wakerley’s shut front door— “sounded like a ringing endorsement to me.”

He really is so ridiculous.

God, I love him.

“You’ll miss your flight if you don’t head off soon,” he says, interrupting my moment of mooning over him.

Shit.

“Right. Ugh . Behave,” I tell him. “And call me if you have any issues. If I have to get an earlier flight back, I will.”

“We’ll be fine ,” he insists, planting his hands on his hips. “I’ve scheduled the house parties to end at ten p.m. Mia will be tucked in bed by curfew.”

“You’re not cute,” I tell him, then lean in to peck my lips to his. I gasp as he grabs my hips and yanks me in, deepening the kiss. My cock twitches in my jeans —a Pavlovian response to his kisses at this point— and I pull away reluctantly. “I’ve gotta go. I love you.”

“I love you,” he replies. “Let me know when you’ve landed safe and sound. I’ll see you Thursday night.”

***

“I can’t believe they only booked one room,” I mutter, placing my overnight bag on one of the twin beds in the hotel room booked for the trip.

Andi drops hers on the matching bed and then sits down on it, bouncing in place, presumably testing its firmness. “Is it really so bad rooming with me for a couple of nights?” she teases. “We’re both adults here.”

Yeah , I think uncharitably. And I was hoping to at least have phone sex with my boyfriend.

I certainly won’t be doing that in a shared room.

Suddenly, two nights apart feels like forever .

Dear God, I sound like Mia.

“I just like my privacy,” I tell her, because it’s rude not to reply, and I don’t want to start this trip by upsetting my project partner. I force a smile her way. “I’ve gotten used to it.”

Andi snorts. “I would think you’d enjoy having a single woman sharing a bed — er — room with you after years of being single yourself.” She flops onto her bed, then rolls onto her side and bats her lashes at me.

I laugh at her antics. “That’s a HR drama waiting to happen,” I snicker, then pull out my phone to text Ev as promised. “Good one, though.”

Andi grunts and gets back up off her bed. “I’m going to get changed,” she declares, a hint of annoyance in her tone. “Then we can get a taxi over for meeting number one.”

Ah, that explains the annoyance: client meetings are the worst. All the brown nosing and pandering we have to do…I hate it. I just want to plan marketing campaigns and analyse data. Everything else is just frustrating. I’m sure Andi feels the same way.

“I’ll make sure all the presentation stuff is ready to go,” I call after her.

She doesn’t answer.

My phone lights up in my hand with Ev’s reply.

Ev

Glad your flight was good. What’s the hotel like? Did they spring for a nice room?

Me

Nope. They cheaped out and I’m sharing a twin room with Andi.

Ev

Is he hot?

Me

She.

Ev

Is *she* hot?

I snort.

Me

I don’t check out my colleagues.

Besides, I’m in a committed relationship.

Ev

Oh? Is *he* hot?

Me

Did I say it was with a he?

Evan sends me back a string of emojis, including ‘the finger’ and the emoji poking out its tongue and squinting.

I reply with a blown kiss emoji and look up as Andi clears her throat. I must have missed her coming back out of the bathroom. She arches an eyebrow at me. “We good to go?” she still sounds a bit miffed.

I slide my phone into my pocket and nod. “Yep.” Slinging my laptop bag over my shoulder, I smile at her and sweep my hand towards the door. “Ladies first.”

She rolls her eyes, and I smother a sigh. Great . It’s going to be a long-arse couple of days if she’s going to be in a mood the whole time.

“So,” I ask as I follow her down the hallway, after double checking that our hotel room door definitely locked when I shut it, “are you seeing anyone?”

“I just told you I was single,” she huffs.

It starts to dawn on me that maybe her mood hasn’t got anything to do with work. I pause mid-stride. “I’m sorry, I was a little distracted earlier.” I was too concerned with texting Evan when we were talking, and now I feel guilty. Maybe I owe her a bit more of an explanation. “I, um…” I stall, not sure what to say.

It hits me that I might just be about to come out for the first time, and I’m not sure how to feel about it. Nervous? Yeah, I’m a bit nervous. But also relieved. Excited, even. Because I love Evan, and there’s a part of me that wants to shout about our relationship from the rooftops.

But, at the same time, it’s still so new, and so different. And we haven’t even told Mia yet. We came close at the end of the school holidays, when we were rostered to assist with the drama department’s after school rehearsals for the musical, but in the end we opted against it. Maybe I was being too cautious, but I want to be able to sit down and talk it out properly with her, not just drop the bomb without giving her adequate processing time.

“Um?” Andi prompts with folded arms from a few feet away, drumming her fingernails over her biceps.

She arches an eyebrow, and I confess, “I’ve started dating someone. It’s…new. And a bit different.”

Andi’s expression seems to flicker through a variety of reactions —not all of which I can place— before she gapes at me with wide eyes.

It’s not that surprising, is it? I mean, I haven’t even said I’m dating a man. I kept it all gender neutral.

“Well, shit,” she says, and I blink.

“What?”

Her pale, freckled cheeks turn a deep red, matching her hair. “God, I’m sorry, James. I was flirting with you.” Her cheeks darken further while I try to come to terms with that revelation. “I just threw myself at you back there and everything.” She waves her hand in the vague direction of our hotel room. “I’m so embarrassed.”

“You…wait…what?”

Exactly how long has this been going on? I’ve never noticed any flirting. How could I have not noticed?

Andi’s a really attractive woman. With her wild red hair and porcelain skin, and ample curves, she’s got a natural sensual vibe about her. I mean, yeah, she’s joked about us dating before but…

Oh, God, I’m a moron .

The joking was her flirting. She was coming on to me, and I was cracking jokes about HR violations.

I want to facepalm.

Covering her face with her hands, she shakes her head. “Can we just forget all of this ever happened?”

“I…yeah, sure.” I have no idea what else to say, or how else to handle the whole situation. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I was so oblivious…”

No, not oblivious. Distracted.

By Evan.

A buxom, beautiful woman has been throwing herself at me for months, and I’ve been too wrapped up in Ev to notice.

He’s going to get a kick out of that.

“You’re such a man,” she chuckles, and even though it’s an awkward attempt to break past the tension of whatever the fuck this past few minutes has been, I grab onto it and run.

“I am. You need to be way more blatant with me, Andi. I’m dumb and oblivious.”

She snorts and finally things between us start to feel normal again. “Can I record you saying that?” she asks, and we start to head towards the elevators again. “I want to make it my ringtone.”

“Nope, you missed your chance.”

I catch her wince out of the corner of my eye. She sighs as she presses the call button for the lift. “In more ways than one, apparently.”

Okay, maybe the tension isn’t all gone.

“Andi…”

She waves my attempted apology off. “No, it’s my bad. I should have realised you weren’t picking up the signs.” Giving me a little smile, she leans over and bumps my bicep with her shoulder. The lift dings as the carriage arrives and the doors slide open. It’s empty and, as we step inside, she prods, “So…tell me about her.”

“Who?”

“Jesus, you really are dense, aren’t you? Her . The woman who snapped you up right out from under my nose.”

I swallow roughly, feeling my heart rate pick up. Butterflies beat their wings in my belly, and I wonder why I ever thought it was a good idea to bring up my love life to begin with. “She, um,” my stomach swoops as the elevator descends, and hesitate again. “She’s a he, actually. Ev. Um, Evan. It’s…it’s Evan.”

The doors swish open at the ground floor, but Andi stands in place, staring at me as if she’s seeing me for the first time.

I guess she kind of is. The real me, anyway. The me who has been infatuated and half-in-love with his best friend for decades.

An older guy clears his throat, clearly wanting to get into the lift, and that’s enough to shake Andi out of her stupor. She apologises and hurries out into the hotel foyer, and I follow after her, also muttering an apology to the man as we pass.

“Evan?” she asks as we make our way out through the reception area and to the pickup and drop off zone. “As in…your best friend?”

Still feeling a little sick with nerves, I nod. “The one and same. I’ll, uh, book us an Uber, yeah?”

I pull out my phone and bring up the Uber app, plugging in the details for our trip while I feel Andi’s gaze boring into me. The app tells me a driver will be with us in three minutes. Three long, agonisingly awkward minutes.

“Done,“ I tell her, fingers itching to type an SOS message to my boyfriend.

“Wow,” my colleague shakes her head. “Well, I can’t exactly compete with a dick, can I?” She grins at me. “They’re pretty awesome, huh?”

What the hell is happening?

“I…”

Looping her arm in mine, Andi gives my bicep a squeeze. “I’m going to need to hear the whole friends-to-lovers story,” she continues to chat happily, completely unaware of my brain melting down at the turn the conversation has taken. “It’s so sweet. And, oh , you’ve known him since you were kids, right? So he’s also been there for Mia’s whole life…it’s so romantic!”

Ignoring the fact that I haven’t told her our getting together story, I nod. “It kind of is, yeah. Took us both by surprise, but” —a goofy smile works its way across my face— “yeah.”

“I’m so happy for you, James. Really.” She gives my bicep another squeeze. “Am I the first person you’ve told?”

“Am I that obvious?”

“I mean…you just seemed really nervous, but that could have been because I was propositioning you all of fifteen minutes ago.” She cringes. “Sorry again about that.”

“I’m sorry I was too wrapped up in what’s been going on with Ev to notice. If things were different…”

“Oh,” she blinks as our Uber pulls into the hotel’s driveway, “you’re still into women?”

“Uh, yeah. I’m bi, not gay.”

Her red, lipstick covered lips draw up into a smirk, and she playfully teases, “Then maybe I can compete with him after all.”

Something inside me settles at how easily she rolls with my coming out. Like it’s not a huge deal. I laugh and shake my head. “Nah; I think he’s the one.”

The Uber pulls up and, as I open the front passenger door, confirming my name with the driver, I gesture for Andi to take the seat. She hesitates and softly says, “Thank you for trusting me with this, James. I’m honestly honoured that I’m the first person you’ve told.”

Then she slides into her seat, and I take the one behind her, the conversation ended now that we’re in the car.

My heart feels lighter, and I can’t help but grab for my phone to text Ev.

Me

I just came out to Andi.

It went well.

I think we can tell Mia now. And our parents.

I get his reply just as we pull up to the client’s building twenty minutes later.

Ev

I’m so proud of you, baby. As soon as you come home, we’ll tell the whole world.

There’s no sense of anxiety over that promise. Instead, all I feel is excitement and a sense of rightness.

Me

God, I love you.

Ev

I love you, too.

I tuck my phone back into my pocket and head into the meeting with a huge smile on my face.

The future is looking bright.