He looked up when I walked in, his expression shifting from concentration to concern in an instant. “You’re back early. I thought you’d be out until at least midnight.”
“Yeah, well. Plans changed.” I shrugged off my jacket and tossed it over the back of a chair.
James closed his laptop, giving me his full attention. Brittany had never done things like that. “What happened?”
“Nothing. Just wasn’t feeling it.”
“Kent.” His voice was gentle but firm. “You look like you either got in a fight or are about to start one. What happened?”
I sank down onto the couch beside him, suddenly exhausted. “My coworkers were being assholes. Making jokes about you. About you being gay.”
His expression didn’t change, but I saw something flicker in his eyes. “And?”
“And I told them to fuck off. More or less.” I rubbed my face with both hands. “I kind of made a scene and stormed out.”
James was quiet for a moment. “You defended me.”
“Yeah.”
“To your coworkers. The ones you have to see every day.”
“Yeah?”
“Kent, you didn’t have to do that. I’m used to?—”
“Well, I’m not.” The words came out sharper than I intended. “I’m not used to sitting there listening to people talk about you like that. Like you’re some kind of... I don’t know. Like there’s something wrong with you. And I couldn’t just sit there and laugh along anymore.”
James shifted closer, his thigh pressing against mine. “What did they say?”
“Stupid shit. One of the guys was going on about how weird it must be for me, living with you. Implying that you’d be checking me out or whatever.” I let out a bitter laugh. “If he only knew.”
“Are you okay?”
The question caught me off guard. After everything I’d just told him, after I’d basically blown up my work relationships defending him, he was asking ifIwas okay. Brittany would’ve asked if my paycheck was in danger.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m pissed off. And I’m scared because I probably just made everyone at work suspicious. But mostly I’m just... tired of pretending.”
“Pretending what?”
I turned to look at him, taking in the concern in his eyes, the way his hand had found its way to my knee without me noticing. “Pretending that this doesn’t matter. That you don’t matter.”
James’s breath caught. “Kent?—”
“I know we haven’t talked about what this is. What we’re doing. But I need you to know that I’m not just messing around here. This isn’t some experiment or phase or whatever the hell I was worried it was.” The words were coming faster now, like a dam breaking. “When I hear people talk shit about you, it makes me want to punch something. And when I come home and you’re here, I feel like I can finally breathe. And I don’t know what that means or what label to put on it, but it’s not nothing.”
James was staring at me, his eyes wide and maybe a little glassy. “Youreallytold off your coworkers for me?”
“Yeah.”
“Even though it could cause problems at work?”
“Yeah.”
He kissed me then, soft and sweet and so full of emotion that it made my chest ache. When he pulled back, he was smiling. “You’re an idiot.”
“Thanks.”
“A brave idiot, though.” His hand came up to cup my face, his thumb stroking my cheek.
