“No one asked your opinion, Jude!” Gem cried, shoving his phone back in his pocket as it continued to trill. “I have to go take care of something majestic and… girthy.”
Everyone cringed. Except for Tad. She leered.
“Are you proud of that word choice?” Oliver asked, and Gem crossed several arms over his torso.
“Not really, but it’s too late to take it back, so I stand by it.” Inhaling deeply, as if to gather himself, Gem smiled too wide and said, “I’ll see you all Monday. ’Kay, buh-bye now!”
“Who’s sexting you?” Toni demanded as Gem shoved through the group in the doorway. “Gem, whose dick is on your phone right now?”
“I have way too many dicks on my phone to remember whose is whose, Toni! You have unrealistic expectations of me that I will never live up to,” Gem wailed from inside the condo as Toni chased after him. “It was nice seeing you again, Bryce. Next time, I wanna hear all about the cows and—ah, Toni, that’snotmy pocket. Get your hands out of my shorts or you’re gonna touch something that will surely alter our friendship forever.”
Shoulders slumped, like a man on his way to face the executioner, Jude trudged back inside. “I suppose I should go sort that out.”
“I don’t envy you,” Liel said as he and Oliver trailed behind Jude.
Without so much as a word to either Bryce or Zef, Tad waddled further into the garden, disappearing between two carnivorous shrubs.
“Is it always like that?” Bryce asked, gesturing vaguely toward the condo where Toni was hollering about Gem keeping secrets and acting weird while Jude attempted to calm him down.
“Usually,” Zef admitted. “You grow accustomed to it after a while.”
With a nod, Bryce propped his hands on his hips and side-eyed Zef. Since they were not sure what to do now that the garden tour had gotten so thoroughly derailed, they made their way toward the back door.
“I suppose we can complete the garden tour later.”
“Hey, Zef?” Bryce stepped toward them, but this time, he made no move to reach for them.
They stopped and waited, head cocked as the human opened his mouth, then closed it, brows furrowing like he sought evasive words. It was familiar, that searching, and another sliver of comfort wriggled through their chest. Bryce was human; Zef was not. But perhaps they were not so different from each other.
“Yes, Bryce?” they prompted, curious what was causing the lines of consternation wrinkling his forehead.
“I’m sorry I hurt your feelings before. When I said…” He drifted off for just a moment before continuing, “What I should have said was: I wasn’t expecting your honesty because most people don’t say what they’re thinking, but I like that you do. I like how you talk.”
They fought the urge to duck their head. They may have been wired differently than most, but they were not wired wrong. Tad told them so, and Tad did not lie to them. She stretched the truth, omitted it sometimes, but with Zef, she never lied.
So they held their head high, infusing their voice with strength. “I recognize not all people appreciate candor, and I try not to offend. But I prefer honesty. Perhaps it is not always nicer, but itisalways kinder. In the long run, as you humans say.”
Bryce smiled at that, close-lipped and small, and he looked even more handsome. “That’s an honorable way to live.”
“It is not entirely altruistic,” they confessed, bottom hands fidgeting with their thumb nail. “I find it difficult to read people, to know what they are thinking or feeling. So by modeling openness, I hope they return it. Then I know where we stand. It is less stressful.”
Like their words had surprised him again, Bryce’s features did something complicated. Those thick eyebrows and their expressing. Zef had a feeling they would have a love-hate relationship with those brows.
“I’ll try and be open about what I’m thinking, if that’s what you want,” the human offered after a fashion, and warm relief bloomed in their belly.
They pressed a palm to it, truly touched at Bryce’s immediate acceptance. “Thank you,” they whispered. “I shall do the same.”
As Zef held the door open, Bryce walked inside, keeping enough distance between them that not even his flannel sleeve made contact. Before he was fully inside, he paused, shoulder in line with Zef’s biceps. He turned his head, face a little flushed as he wet his lips.
Then he said, “For what it’s worth, you’re also handsome. I mean, pretty. I mean, you’re, um, pleasing to look at too.”
Zef’s words on the human’s tongue sounded strange and oddly precious, and they found themself smirking minutely at the blushing man. “Oh? I had the impression that my appearance makes humans uncomfortable.”
At that, Bryce scowled. “Who said that?”
“No one. I simply observed the way Oliver and Jude refuse to retain eye contact with me. As if I unsettle them. And Maggie and Greg grew very uncomfortable when I asked them about the night Oliver was conceived.”
Bryce’s eyes grew alarmingly large. “You asked them aboutthat?”
