“Hey, come on.” Jordan at least had the decency to set his breakfast down.
“It wasn’t cool. And if you can’t see that, then that’s going to be a problem.”
“What do you mean?”
Fuck, he hated having to spell out stuff like this. You heard all the time about gay rights progress. They could get married. They qualified for benefits. But then assholes like Derek cornered Avery in a bathroom, and their antics were laughed off as drunken shenanigans.
Until it turned out to be something more serious, and Avery was left lying on the ground with a split lip and broken ribs.
No, not Avery—Mickey.
People like Derek were why Linc couldn’t be completely honest with himself about who he was, let alone honest with someone like Avery.
“It’s not safe, okay? Because it’s impossible to know when a joke is going to be something else. You can’t take the risk. It’s not safe for people like Avery. For people like—”
He’d been so caught up in the tangled image of Mickey and Avery, one blurring with the other, that he’d nearly saidpeople like us.
Jordan’s eyes bugged out of his head, and Linc was ready to leave. This queer education session had not been on his plan for the morning. “People like what?”
“Nothing.” He needed a new apartment. New roommate. New life. Everything.
Jordan wouldn’t be put off that easy. “Like who? Like you? Are you gay?”
The denial was there, on the tip of Linc’s tongue, like so many times before, but he couldn’t find the energy to spit it out.
Jordan’s eyes widened. “But you don’t—”
“Please don’t finish that sentence.”
They stared at each other.
“It wouldn’t matter if you were.”
Linc squared his shoulders. “Look. I didn’t come home last night because I’m tired of living on the set of your personal porn channel. And now this thing with Derek? If you’re going to have people like him in your life, then maybe it’s better if I find a new place.”
Jordan’s head was bobbing like he’d fixed it on a spring now. “Yeah. Yeah, of course. I mean... Don’t move out. I’m sorry. I never thought about—I’ll talk to him. Let Derek know he can’t be like that anymore. Don’t go.”
That wasn’t comforting. Derek would need more than a stern talking-to in order to complete his personality transplant.
“I’ll think about it.”
“And Chelsea and I can be quieter, man. Sorry. I didn’t realize it was bothering you so much.”
“It would bother anyone.”
“Yeah.” He was back to the bobblehead again. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I’m a jerk. I’ll talk to Chelsea. And to Derek. And then it’ll be cool, right?”
Linc grimaced. “Let’s just see how the next week or two go.”
He drove to the fire station and pulled in as Vasquez was getting out of her car.
“Hey, rookie!” He glared at her, and she held her hands up, backing away slowly. “Rough night?”
The night part had been good, what with the sleeping and all. The parts around it, though, had been less than awesome.
Well, that wasn’t true. Dancing with Avery had almost been fun. And their conversation on the walk home had been hard, but Linc hadn’t told anyone about Mickey. Ever. Not even the half-complete version he’d shared with Avery. Talking about it brought a gentle current of relief Linc hadn’t expected.
“This town has a cute exterior and a nasty underside,” he said.
