“Nice to meet you,” Tysays.
As we step inside, I notice Julio in the far corner, seated at a desk, next to an open wardrobe packed with speedos on hangers. Reds, blues, yellows, neon pinks—it’s a clusterfuck of some sort of rainbow that’s exploded across theinterior.
Julio pushes to his feet and approaches. “Hey, boys,” he says with a pleasant smile, giving Ty a warm hug before sharing one with me. “You guys looking for trouble again this year?” Julioasks.
“Jesse’s not really looking for trouble this go around. He’s settleddown.”
“Really? Got a girlfriend, do you?” heasks.
“A boyfriend,” Icorrect.
“Oh, family here?” Martinasks.
“This sounds like a new development,” Julioadds.
“All verynew.”
I see some discomfort in Ty’s expression. I more than understand, considering bringing this up means we’d possibly have to reveal that the guy I’m seeing is hisdad.
“Well, where’s the boyfriend?” Martinasks.
“He’s around,” Ty replies. “I’m just playing thefield.”
He starts chatting about the woman he was seeing from Tinder for a while, but how they sort of fizzled out. He’s only finding a clever way to evade discussing my situation with his father, which I very much appreciate. His efforts work, and soon the conversation shifts to the party Eric’s taking us tolater.
Julio asks us to check out some of the premade suits he has for the season, as well as new patterns and designs he’s added to his collection. We grab a few options, and I step behind the silkscreen as Ty slips into thebathroom.
My first is an aquamarine-colored square-cut with white stripes down the side. It’s not something I normally would have tried on my own, but Julio insisted, and I figured I could at least try it on to see what I lookedlike.
As I head around the screen to check out my reflection in the floor-length mirror on the other side of the room, Julio calls out, “Ooh, there wego.”
“Yeah, you think?” I ask, checking myself out in the mirror. Ty steps out in his red speedo, far flashier. He approaches the mirror with confidence, clearly not fazed as he says, “I like this. Look at that ass.” He slaps his own ass and winks at me, which makes melaugh.
“You are so full of yourself,” I say, but what I’m really thinking is,You are so much likeEric.
“That looks good on you,” Julio says, approaching and eyeing him for a second. “I think you might like the shorter cut,though.”
“There’s one shorter than that?” I ask,stunned.
“Speaking of which, it wouldn’t kill you to get something a little more…revealing.” Ty sizes me up, clearly referring to my square-cut.
“What do you mean? I like a square-cut. That’s what I usuallyget.”
“We’re going out to the big gay party this evening, Jesse. You can flaunt this hot body you’re rocking. Don’t be shy here. No one knows us. We need to have fun and live itup.”
“Come on,” Martin eggs me on. “You gotta want to impress yourboyfriend.”
“Yeah, impress your boyfriend,” Ty adds, and I can read in his mischievous expression that he’s trying to embrace the awkwardness of Martin’ssuggestion.
“Julio, can you grab something that’ll show off my boy’s legs?” Tyasks.
“Coming rightup.”
We continue perusing the selection, going with options that aren’t as safe as ones I’d normally choose, yet I have to side with Ty and Martin—I should get something that Eric would like mein.
I settle on a charcoal-gray suit with black horizontal stripes down theside.
As I inspect it in the mirror, Ty is to my right, scanning me over. “That’s muchbetter!”
