“Want a ride? We’re going to the same destination.”
“We are?” He kind of squeaked that, which was adorable. “Um, sure. Night, Aunt Beatrice.”
“You boys behave yourself,” she replied with a wave.
Once Emmett was seat-belted into place, Van turned into the thin traffic.
“So, uh, you and Joshua, huh?” Emmett said.
Van winked at him. “Looks like.”
“Guess that works out for everyone.”
“What do you mean?”
Emmett shrugged. “I mean, you don’t do relationships, and Joshua doesn’t do repeats. So it works out.”
Curiouser and curiouser. And maybe a bit disappointing. “How do you know Joshua doesn’t do repeats?”
“Because he has a boyfriend.”
Van nearly slammed on the breaks. “He what?”
“It’s okay, Linc says they have an open relationship, so they can see other people, but only once.”
Only Emmett would refer to fucking as “see other people.” But that wasn’t the important part here. Joshua had a boyfriend, which he’d failed to mention before inviting Van over for sex. In other circumstances, it may not have put Van off, especially with the open relationship thing. But he’d felt something with Joshua. A spark of something unusual and tantalizing and real. What if he realized, afterward, that this was more than a fuck, but Joshua tossed him off like the used condom?
His insides twisted up tight.
“Are you okay?” Emmett asked. “I’m guessing he didn’t mention Benji in passing.”
Benji. Fading Daze. XYZ. Off Beat.
July.
“His boyfriend is Benji Moore?” Van asked.
“Um, yes?”
The night Fading Daze had given a reunion performance at Off Beat, Benji had flirted up a storm with Van, and Van had been incredibly interested. Benji was cute, energetic, and he had a perfect bubble butt. Then Van’s friend Melody had reached out for help and obliterated the chance of a hookup. Benji was gone, back to performing with his band.
Van had never gotten to scratch that itch, and now Benji’s boyfriend was sniffing around him?
Back off, this is too complicated.
His thoughts tumbled all over themselves on the rest of the short drive. He pulled onto the side street, then idled a few houses down from their destination.
“Did I say the wrong thing?” Emmett asked. “You look like you’re about to arrive at a funeral.”
“I don’t like fucking around with people who have boyfriends, open relationships or not.” Mostly true. No way was he admitting to Emmett that he’d felt something with Joshua.He’d come off sounding like a lovesick teenager, and Van had a reputation to uphold.
“That’s understandable. Linc and I talked about it once, when we first started seeing each other. We couldn’t imagine sharing once we committed.”
And that was the fundamental issue for Van: he’d never had anything as solid or strong as what Lincoln and Emmett had, and for one tiny moment tonight, he’d allowed himself to hope. To hope he’d found someone really special for the first time in over a decade.
Too bad it was all an illusion.
“Do you mind walking from here?” Van asked.
