She crumpled into tears, throwing herself into his arms. “I’m so sorry, Guy-Guy. I jumped to the worst conclusions.”
“It’s alright,” Guy said, holding her and looking relieved. She peppered him with kisses, practically groveling. Then she turned to me.
“Annie, honey, you too,” Kitty said, standing and coming at me with her arms open. “I’m sorry I accused you of something so awful.”
“I mean, it didn’t look good,” I admitted as we fell into a hug.
“I’m so embarrassed,” Kitty moaned. “I feel terrible about this.”
“Your husband and your best friend wouldn’t do that to you, babe. But I get why you freaked out,” I said. “We’re okay.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, giving me a last squeeze and stepping back, settling on Guy’s lap. “But Annie . . . you’ve been keeping this from me. You’re my best friend. You and Nick are . . . well, what are you?”
Nick took my hand as I sat again, and he gave me a reassuring nod. “We’ve been in an arrangement of sorts since October. It started as no-strings, but you know. He’s pretty great.”
Nick’s gaze locked with mine, a boyish grin broadening his face. And then, we kissed. There, in front of our friends.
“My little boy’s growing up!” Jessie gasped. “Look how cutethey are, Ben!”
“What do you mean, arrangement?” Kitty was still disgruntled. “Annie, your job. You can’t do this.”
The little high I was riding of sharing our joy with our closest friends faded. Nick gulped in a breath and squeezed my knee.
“So, I went to Annie after she moved to town. As you know, we had a not-so-great time together at the wedding, which was my fault. So, I told Annie the truth. And the truth is—”
I lowered my voice and turned into him. “You don’t have to, Nick. If you’re not ready, you don’t have to.”
“I’m ready,” he said with a deep sigh. “Um, well, I’m pansexual, and I’d never been with a woman. I wanted Annie to help me get better at pleasing women so I didn’t make the same mistakes with someone else.”
I put my arm around his back, snuggling him to me. “And I’m bi, so I get the struggle and all the ways people misunderstand you, so I agreed.”
Guy stuck his bottom lip out and nodded. Mikey’s mouth hung open, eyes wide. Jessie just nodded. Kitty had a soft smile.
“We stunned them,” Nick stage whispered.
Kitty laughed. “You know I love you, Annie. And I think it’s cool that you found each other. My second favorite person and one of my favorite people.” Kitty had long known about me being bi, but since my first coming out, I didn’t broadcast my bi status all over the place. It’s kind of inconvenient. Every time you meet someone new, what are you supposed to do? Sayhello, my name isAnnie, and you didn’t ask but I like penisesand vaginas and everything in between?
Jessie broke the awkwardness. “Congratulations! Thank you for trusting us. So pan means men, women, non-binary, and trans, right? Is bi just men and women?”
“For me, they’re kind of two sides of the same coin,” I explained. “Bi generally means two or more genders. I could probably also be called pan, but I’m more comfortable with the terms bi or queer.”
“Got it,” Jessie nodded.
“My mom is gay,” Mikey said, and Jessie laughed, putting her head in her hands.
“That’s Ben’s way of saying he’s supportive, y’all,” Jessie said, doing that ever-confusing thing of referring to someone who goes by their hockey nickname, by their actual government name.
“What? She is! I have a mom, a dad, and two stepmoms. It’s cool.”
“Well, we won’t tell anyone if you don’t want us to,” Guy said. “It’s your news to share. Both about your sexuality and your relationship. We’ll keep it to ourselves. Even Mikey. Right, Mikey?”
Mikey threw a hand out. “Why is everyone looking at me? I’m good at keeping secrets.”
Everyone laughed, and Jessie patted his back. “You’re not, but we still love you.”
Nick spoke over the chatter. “I’d appreciate you not telling. I don’t tell people at work about me, because yeah, sports. But Annie could lose her job. I’m lucky she was willing to stay private, because I wasn’t willing to let her go.”
How could I not be a googly-eyed fool over him?
