Abby and Emilio rushed to Cole and swarmed him in a hug while Elena gazed at them fondly. To Cole, it wasn’t a true celebration without that pop of color—emphasis on the word pop.
When he was finished hugging the departing pair, he grabbed his phone off the table.
“Oh, let me see the photo. I hope it came out okay,” Abby said.
“Please. I had it on record and we’ve got video of the whole thing. The clicker in my hand was for the cannons,” Cole said with a big smile, passing his phone over to Abby and then turning to Tobias. The man was standing there looking disgruntled and holding out a broom and dustpan for Cole, who went right to work cleaning everything. Colin was even helping by picking up all the green pieces of confetti, adamant about only collecting that color.
“Must you always get confetti everywhere?” Avery asked, though his face said he was amused.
“Please, be glad I had enough restraint to not do it at the airport when we picked up the girls from their Italy trip.”
Yup, that would have been a disaster.
Riley and Josh lent a hand with the rest of the mess as guests began to say their goodbyes to the couple of honor.
Riley sidled up next to Josh as he was collecting empty cups and bottles from a table. Riley held up two cups.
“I scooped some of that cookies and cream pudding you loved into this cup, and I stole the rest of the charcuterie board fixings in this cup so we can take them home,” he said.
“Damn, you are the most perfect person ever, Ri,” Josh said as he gazed at his best friend, a beaming smile on his face.
Riley was absolutely perfect in every way, but Josh had only ever thought about him platonically. Now, he was thinking about what Elena said when they were together on the ski lift. Could the perfect match have been next to him his whole life?
If he was, wouldn’t one of them have figured it out by now? Well, Josh rarely figured out anything. Wouldn’t Riley have figured it out?
Riley set the cups on top of some workout equipment and put his phone on top of them so people wouldn’t think they were trash, then continued with his cleanup duties. Josh watched as he tied off a trash bag and heaved it onto his back, his flexing muscles visible through his shirt as he walked it outside to throw in a dumpster.
Josh couldn’t deny that the orgasm they shared was the best he’d ever had. He wasn’t kidding about that. Would it feel as good a second time? His brain wasn’t sure, but his dick was saying yes as it plumped, pressing against his zipper.
He wasn’t sure how to navigate these new feelings, but he felt like he wasn’t good enough to be a real partner to Riley. He deserved someone as perfect as him, not someone with such a black mark on his past. Not someone who couldn’t even handle his own nightmares.
The thing was, no one in the world knew Riley better than he did, so how could he not know his friend might not be straight?
All Josh was sure of was that he and Riley had to have a conversation. Was it possible to do more touching if it couldn’t lead to more? Did Riley even want more? He’d had a bit of a dry spell lately, so maybe he was desperate. Maybe he wasn’t even attracted to Josh. Fuck. This was way too complicated.
He noticed Tobias duck into his office and decided he needed a completely unbiased opinion from someonewho wouldn’t treat him with kid gloves, so he followed him.
Tobias was turning off his computer when Josh knocked on the open door.
“Hey, do you think I could be gay or maybe bi?” he asked, and Tobias froze.
“Why are you asking me?” he said, no longer moving but giving Josh all of his attention.
“Because I know you’ll tell me the truth and you won’t beat up any bushes.”
“You mean, beat around the bush,” he said. Josh crinkled his forehead in confusion, but Tobias continued. “But are you asking me… Josh, do you think you’re straight?”
“I—yes? What do you mean? Do you think I’mnot?”
“Holy shit,” Tobias whispered. “I thought you and Riley have been dating this whole time, like a poorly kept secret. You’re saying you really aren’t dating?”
Josh couldn’t do anything but blink.
“Wow, I am the worst person for this,” Tobias said. “Josh, you look at Riley like he hung the damn moon. The way you look at him, I thought you were head over heels in love with him, and I thought he felt the same about you.”
“No, no, we’re friends. We’re best friends.”
“Let me ask you something. Could you ever love someone more than him?”
