“Precisely!”
“I thought you were really hot,” the guy said.
“And I thought the same thing. We were physically attracted to each other. We were horny. And we were drunk. We may be Puritans at heart, but we are animals in our bones.”
Sleeping Beauty buttoned up his shirt and buckled his belt. Cameron handed him his shoes, which had gotten kicked off by the door.
“Yeah, I get it.” The sophomore’s eyes lit up like he cracked a long word in a crossword puzzle. “I always hate the awkward texting after hooking up with a guy I’m not interested in.”
“Let’s not do that to each other.”
He pulled out his phone. “Do I have your number?”
“No.” But he still had his phone out, ready to take it down. Puritanism was a hard force to shake. “No need.”
“What if you wanted to do this again?” His eyes shifted to the bed.
“I’ll know where to find you.”
Sleeping Beauty smiled and nodded. He tied his shoes and nodded again. “This is awesome.”
“I’m glad I could enlighten you,” Cameron said while walking to his bedroom door. When he opened it, the guy knew that was his cue to go.
“Seriously. I hate that everything has to mean something all the time. And so it won’t be awkward if we see each other at another party?”
“Nope.”
“Because we’re not Puritans.”
“You got it, man.” Cameron led him to the back porch of his apartment, which had a staircase to the street.
Sleeping Beauty froze at the door. Awkwardness rained down on him. The goodbye. No matter what, the guys always made the goodbye part weird.
“So…I guess I’ll see you around?”
“Probably,” Cameron said, refusing to let the moment get the better of him.
The guy’s face flushed red. He lifted a tentative hand to Cameron’s cheek and gazed into his eyes. “I had a really good time, Cameron,” Sleeping Beauty said softly.
Cameron eyed the errant hand and then shot the guy a look.
“Right.” Sleeping Beauty snapped out of it and removed his hand. “Old habits.”
Cameron shut the door once the guy left and breathed a sigh of relief. If only he could spread his message to more than one guy at a time. Sex was not love, nor was it a gateway to relationships. And relationships were just a gateway to disappointment. He thought that maybe one day, when he was working in the entertainment business, he would write a movie where the two leads were friends who had sex but had no desire to be in a relationship. Not every story had to have romance.
CHAPTER TWO
Walker
Walker Reed watched the minutes of his life drift away. He couldn’t remember what day it was. They all blended together, like his closet full of dress shirts. Maybe it was Tuesday. It didn’t matter much. Each day was the same. The same routine, the same motions, the same conversations. The other day, in the elevator at work, one guy turned to his female co-worker and said “Another day at the grind.” She laughed and responded, “You know it.” Why was she laughing, he wondered. It just made Walker depressed.
The minutes were passing even slower with the same morning traffic. Walker scratched at his beard and turned on the radio, his usual routine for dealing with traffic. A song came on that instantly transported him back to his college days, just as he drove past his alma mater Browerton University. He remembered strolling to class with his boyfriend, giving him a clandestine ass squeeze before running into his lecture hall. The biggest worry on his mind was writing a five-page paper. He had to laugh when kids got stressed out about homework.You think that’s stressful? Wait until you get a mortgage.
Since he was stuck in gridlock, Walker pulled out his phone and looked up some of his old college friends and acquaintances on Facebook. He was grateful to have a way of knowing what’s going on with people without having to ask them. A tinge of sadness crept inside him when he saw just how old some people looked. This hot straight guy with flowing, Jesus-like blond hair from his political science class was now bald. Another guy he used to see at the student gym had major love handles. But Jesus was a partner at a huge Manhattan law firm, and Love Handles was a junior senator for Indiana. And Walker was still crawling down Susquehanna Avenue.
“Another day at the grind,” he said to himself.
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