“I won’t,” Sam respondsplayfully.
“Dude, whose side are you on?” Ty asks. “Here I figured we were getting along so well.” Ty’s gaze shoots to me, and hewinks.
When we finish up, we say our goodbyes, and I drive back to Eric’s place, particularly pleased with how my pals embraced Sam. He’s a good kid, and he might actually start enjoying people more if he hung out instead of constantly trolling hookup and dating apps, looking for action. Not that it’s wrong for him to have a good time, but there should be some balance between being friends with people and going and doing the other stuff aswell.
After I return to Eric’s condo, he rushes me straightaway.
“God, I’m filthy right now!” I exclaim, but he kisses me quickly and shoves me back against thewall.
When he finally manages to pull away, he says, “How I prefer you. You smell even more like you than usual.” He winks as he says that, which makes me laugh. “You guys did a great job out there. I wish you’d run around shirtless like some of those otherguys.”
“You see me shirtless all thetime.”
“So much hotter when you’re racing down the field like that. Come on. I want to see those muscles bopping about the way they do in…othermoments.”
I enjoy his tease, adding, “Thanks for coming. It’s always nice to have you cheering us on from thesidelines.”
“Only fair, considering how much you’ve cheered me on from thesidelines.”
“I’m sure Ty appreciates ittoo.”
He doesn’t appear convinced about that. If anything, my suggestion confuses him. “Eh, I don’t take it Ty ever wanted me at games for a long time. I went sometimes, but I always felt like I disappointed him when Icame.”
“Disappointed him by coming to watch? Comeon.”
“I know, it sounds weird, but…it felt like he didn’t want methere.”
“Well, that’s not true, so there, we’ve settledthat.”
I don’t have to ask Ty to see how his eyes light up now that Eric comes to our practices and games. How pleased he is that his dad is actually supporting him in even an aspect of his life that is relatively trivialnow.
Eric takes a shower with me, and I tell him about Sam coming to join us for the game and how good the gang was tohim.
“I’m glad to hear Ty offered to help him out,” he says. He’s genuinely proud of hisson.
Moments like these make being Ty’s friend and Eric’s boyfriend particularly interesting. There are so many insights into both of them that neither of them has the opportunity to see. In some ways, I suspect I could spare us all some grief if I could open each of them up to the complexities of the other. That’s not a possibility, but sometimes, I wish it were. It would make all our lives that muchbetter.
If only life were thateasy.
“Yeah, he’s good at reading people. Knowing when they needhelp.”
Reminds me of when he knew to come over to console me about my granny…or when he recognized that Eric and I had a fight and was there to support me. He’s there when it counts, not only for me, but anyone in need. He’s awesome likethat.
10
Eric
Igetmy footing on the next peg and push up, reaching for another above me. It’s just out of my grasp, and as I struggle to grip back on the one I was holding, I call out, “Falling!” The rope tugs against my harness, holding me in place. I turn back to Ty, who belays on the floor behindme.
“Gotcha.” He lowers me to the ground, and we switchoff.
We’ve spent the past few weeks rock climbing on the odd afternoon orevening.
Progress.
That’s what I’ve been achieving recently. With Ty, withJesse.
I’m staying on top of my therapy, doing my homework, not as resistant to it as I was when I first began heading down this path toward healing. However, the relief I’ve experienced even in the short time we’ve been working through this gives me tremendous hope about what that means for Jesse’s and my futuretogether.
