“Not what I imagined for you.”
He chuckles and gestures for me to follow. I wait behind him as he opens the door. “I lived in a fancy apartment downtown, close to everything, and paid out the ass for it when I had a home fully paid for here all along.”
“I’m dying to know how all this happened for you.”
“Come on in, then. I’ll tell you.”
I step inside, and I’m immediately hit with a thousand memories as the scent of tomato sauce and garlic wafts around me.
Nantes grins. “I hope you still like lasagna.”
“Dude. You made your nonna’s lasagna?”
“Sure did.”
“Hell yes.”
I kick my shoes off and follow Nantes through the house to the kitchen. It’s bigger than it looks from the outside, but stillcozy. I pictured Nantes living in some big-ass house in a posh suburb with gates and fancy cars, a pretty wife who also had a badass job, like a lawyer or some kind of doctor, their adorable high-achieving kids, and, of course, a dog.
Instead, he’s back where he was when I met him. There’s something really comforting about that.
“Want some wine?” Nantes asks.
“Yeah.”
“Have a seat.”
I watch him as I sit at the dining room table, noticing him in different ways than I did in the past. Was I so blind I didn’t even notice that he was hiding something from me? Sure, he never dated girls, but he played it off as being too focused on school and said girls were a distraction. I believed him even though we spent almost every waking moment together. While I fucked my way through every girl who would let me, he was at home, waiting for me to scale the trellis and crawl through his window at night to tell him about my latest hookup.
He dutifully listened and acted like every guy does, high-fiving me, letting me gush about the details. He was a good-looking kid back then, and plenty of girls would ask me to put in a good word for them. I thought his standards were too high, but now I know he was hiding from me.
“I was such an asshole,” I say as soon as Nantes returns. “I get why you didn’t tell me.”
Smiling, he hands me a glass of ruby liquid and sits next to me on the couch. “It’s a lot to process in high school, and I…” He shakes his head. “I was fucking scared you’d ditch me.”
“I don’t think I would’ve, but I might’ve been weird for a while. I didn’t know anyone who was gay—at least, not that I knew of—but obviously that was a long time ago and I’ve matured.”
“Of course.”
“I feel bad though. I probably said shit in front of you that I thought was funny.”
“You did.” He sips his wine. “I didn’t correct you because I was afraid of sounding defensive.”
I nod. I feel like an ass. “How did you know?”
“How did you know you liked girls?”
“Stupid question, sorry. I know better. I guess I just didn’t see it.”
“Do you remember Scott Chamberlain?”
I pull my head back slightly. “Yeah. How could I forget him? He was the most popular guy in school.”
“He was. He was also bi.”
“No way. Really?”
“We hooked up a few times.”
