“No.”
Alex reached the end of the path and turned down the sidewalk it let out into. “Because I’m going to bethere.”
Bo gasped. “No!”
“Yes.”
Bo made a high-pitched noise somewhat like air escaping a balloon. Alex winced and took the phone away from his ear. When the sound stopped, he returned the device to where it belonged and continued. “But you know, if you don’t listen to your dad and go to bed like he says you’re supposed to, you’ll sleep all morning, and when you get up, I’ll already begone.”
“No!” Bo gasped. It was one of the best dramatic gasps that Alex had ever heard, and his lips twitched as he held back another laugh. “Gahha go.Bye.”
This time, the phonewasdropped. There was a thunk noise, then the sound of Gage calling after Bo, who Alex assumed was hightailing it to bed. “It’s rude to drop things that don’t belong to you,mister!”
“Am I on speakerphone, Gage?” Alex asked. He waited for Gage to respond, but when he didn’t, Alex had hisanswer.
A few moments later, Gage was back on the line. “Hey, Alex? Sorry about that. I don’t know what you said to Bo, but he just dropped the phone and ran into his bedroom. You didn’t tell him that C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S was coming early, didyou?”
“Nope?”
“What about Februaryeleventh?”
“Nope. I didn’t bribe him with Christmasorhis birthday, if you can believe it. All I told him was that if he didn’t get enough sleep, we wouldn’t be able to have fun together tomorrowmorning.”
“You told him that you’re going to play with him in the morning?” Gage asked, incredulous. “It’s your funeral. Prepare for four-thirty AM creepy giggling in your ear, and hands all over yourface.”
“Worth it. Besides, who knows if that’ll happen or not. You said he was up early today, and it’s late for him right now. He might sleepin.”
Gage scoffed. “I’m pretty sure I inadvertently birthed the world’s first infinite power supply. I swear, Alex, he never stops. There is no off button. He’s either running around like the house is on fire, or he’s knocked out cold… usually when it’s most inconvenient forme.”
“Ofcourse.”
“Right?” Gage sighed. “But, thank you. Does this mean we can do something adulttonight?”
Alex grinned. “I think your definition of adult and my definition of adult are very different. I love you, Gage, but I’m into older men, and I’m definitely not into doing my sort-ofcousin.”
“Oh my god, Alex. I meant watching something other thanPeppaPig.”
Alex laughed. Sickly shades of yellow and green continued to flash before his eyes, but he knew they wouldn’t last long. Gage and Bo always had a way of making him feel better. As long as he wasn’t alone, he wouldn’t dwell on what he’d lost tonight. “We can definitely watch something other thanPeppa Pig. You know what I really feel like watching right now? That old classic,Dorathe—”
“I’m hanging up on you,” Gage said with a laugh. “The pullout bed will be ready when you gethere.”
Pullout.Shit.
Alex frowned. “Yeah. I’ll be theresoon.”
The call ended. Alex rolled his shoulders back and pulled up his Uber app. In the morning, he’d figure out what to do about the fact that he’d been so turned on that he’d encouraged Laurence to come inside of him. His heat was due any day now, but as long as he dealt with the issue soon, nothing would come of it. It wasn’t all that big a problem. Figuring out how to shake the yellows and the greens from his vision now that he’d left Laurence for the last time?Thatwas a problem. But he’d get throughit.
There wasn’t a man in the world that was worth feeling upset over. Not even LaurenceGwynn.
12
Alex
Alex leanedagainst the wall beside Gage’s apartment door and pulled his phone from his pocket. He knew better than to knock or ring the doorbell. If Bo had gone to bed, he didn’t want to wake him, so he sent Gage a textinstead.
Knock knock, open up the door, it’sme.
There was noise on the other side of the door—footsteps, the click of a lock, the slide of metal as the chain was released, then the rattle as the doorknob turned. Gage peeked out through the crack, then smiled at Alex and opened the door the rest of theway.
