Chapter Twenty-Three
David
I wasn’t surprisedthat I liked Max immediately, after all, he was Joel’s best friend. If Joel had struck a friendship with him so easily when they were young and they were still friends after all these years, then there was a reason for it.
I had a feeling that there was more to him than met the eye. On the outside, he looked a picture of confidence, almost unflappable, but when we’d talked last night, I could see another more vulnerable side that I’m not sure I’d have seen if Joel wasn’t there.
After we’d gone to my apartment last night, Joel couldn’t stop talking about Max, how his parents had treated them both like brothers, and all the things they got up to together. It was quite endearing. I could see how different Joel was when Max was around. Good different, like another vital piece of the Joel puzzle was back in place with the rest of him.
Joel and Max were spending the day together, probably on the beach. I had promised to help Isaac with some stuff at the center, so I’d taken the train to Lisbon. Joel would drive in later with Max, and we’d all go out dancing to an LGBT club we knew well.
I was glad there wasn’t a queue at the door when we arrived. Inside, the club was busy but not packed as it would typically be on a Friday night or during the weekend. We saw a table in a corner and claimed it as our spot and got some drinks.
“So who is this friend that Joel is bringing?” Isaac asked.
“Oh, you’ll like him,” I said. “You have a lot in common, and he’s definitely your type.”
Isaac raised a brow but took a sip of his drink. “Can’t wait to get on the dance floor. This friend better be a good dancer.”
I saw Joel as soon as he walked into the club despite the relative darkness of the place. It was like my whole body knew he was close, and fuck if he didn’t look good tonight.
He was wearing a pair of black jeans that were tight enough that they showed off all the right parts of his body without being too tight, and a red T-shirt that was just a tad shorter than normal. I was sure that if he lifted his arms only slightly, I’d be able to see his gorgeous flat stomach and the blond hairs of his happy trail.
Max was just behind him, looking around at the guys who were already on the dance floor getting down and dirty.
I got up to greet him with a kiss and whispered in his ear, “I’m going to make you pay for looking so fucking sexy tonight.”
I put a hand on Joel’s lower back to keep him close, happy that he put his arm around my waist too, and turned to introduce Isaac to Max.
Joel and I must have been too caught up in ourselves because we’d both missed what had happened around us. Isaac, who’d been sitting down, was now standing up and staring at Max with an expression of total disbelief and something else I couldn’t read.
Max was equally frozen in place and staring at Isaac. Even in the darkness, I could tell a lot was being said between them just through their eyes. What the fuck was happening?
“Oh, fuck,” Joel said. It sounded like a whisper because of the music around us, and I was pretty sure no one else had heard him.
Suddenly, I felt like I was the only one missing a piece of vital information, but I didn’t have time to ask any questions or do any introductions because Joel grabbed my hand and pulled me to the dance floor.
“What’s going on?” I shouted in Joel’s ear since the music was much louder in this part of the club.
“They’ve met before.”
“What? When?”
“Last Christmas, in New York.”
Things were slowly making sense. Isaac had been different when he’d come back from New York before Christmas. All he’d talked about was the youth center he’d visited and the couple he’d met last summer that ran it. We spent a lot of time together just after Christmas going through some of his ideas for fundraising and getting through red tape to turn the center into an emergency shelter.
Isaac had at no point mentioned he’d met someone while in New York, and from the body language emanating from both of them, it looked like it hadn’t just been a fleeting encounter either. Both Max and Isaac were now sitting on opposite sides of the small round table, leaning forward, so they could hear what the other was saying. They both looked tense, but from this distance, I couldn’t see their faces.
A pair of hands coming from behind me, settling on my waist with a distinct hardness against my ass pulled me from my observation. Suddenly, my attention shifted from the two men at the table to the sexy man pressing against me.
A breath of air tickled my ear. “Hey, gorgeous, do you come here often?”
We were gently swaying in time with every other beat of the music. Everybody around us was moving to the same beat but at a different speed. There were groups of a few guys dancing in circles, some couples closer together, and even a few girls dancing on their own. Even though I didn’t come out with Isaac often, I’d always liked this club because it was truly diverse; there were guys and girls just enjoying the music together regardless of who was gay, lesbian, bi, or trans.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back between his shoulder and ear. “No, but I think I’ll change my mind.”
“Anything I could do to make your decision easier?”
