“A couple minutes ago,” Ezra whispered. “What did he say?”
“You’re in luck.” Jake smiled.
“Awesome.” Ezra smiled back. Then his smile faded. “You didn’t tell him about me, did you?”
“Oh, no.” Jake shook his head. “No, I won’t. Unless you want me to.”
“Cool. Thanks.” Ezra grinned again, and Jake noticed for the first time that Ezra had dimples when he smiled.
“You’re welcome,” Jake said as Ezra went back to his seat, the choir filled up, and Dr. Martin rolled in to start rehearsal.
In order to beavailable on Saturday afternoon, Jake had to switch around his shifts at the country club.
He also thought it would be better if Ezra met him at his place—a townhouse he shared with two other guys—so they didn’t get any weird looks at the library. They’d also have the place to themselves since both Jake’s roommates worked all day on Saturdays.
Jake was picking up pizza boxes off the coffee table when Ezra knocked. When Jake let him inside, Ezra walked in like he thought he might get pummeled with water balloons.
“My roommates aren’t here,” Jake assured him. “And even if they were, they’re cool. Relax.”
Ezra relaxed a little.
Once they were seated at Jake’s poor excuse for a kitchen table, Ezra turned on his teacher self, which was far more confident than who he was flirting. Jake was so amazed by the difference; he got distracted a few times. Ezra like this was stern, but also easy-going, and he even made some jokes that were justas funny as his shirt today. It had a drawing of a cluster of grapes laying in a bubble bath withGrapes of Bathwritten above it.
And Ezra was so articulate and knowledgeable that Jake was learning far more and a lot faster than he did in his actual class. It was really amazing how smart Ezra was, and Jake said so at the end of the hour.
“Smart doesn’t always get you places,” Ezra replied, closing some books.
“I just don’t understand why you can’t be like this while just pretending to flirt with somebody,” Jake said. “You seem so confident, and then you’re not.”
“It’s a curse, I guess.” Ezra sighed. He rubbed his fingers together. “So, there’s this LGBTQ club on campus, and they’re having a dance in a couple of weeks. It’s kind of like a Gay Prom, I guess, since a lot of us couldn’t go with who we wanted to in high school.”
“Really? Cool.” Jake smiled. “You going?”
Ezra chewed his bottom lip. Jake was starting to think that was a nervous habit. “I want to ask Sean to go with me.”
“Is he in the club?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t actually ever been to any of the meet-ups or events. I just saw a flyer.”
“So, you haven’t even talked to him yet, but you want to invite him to a dance?”
“I know.” Ezra stood up and paced while he talked. “I was thinking I could talk to him in choir and then ask him on a date. Then if it’s not a complete disaster, I’ll ask him to the dance.”
“Seems pretty ambitious,” Jake said. He watched Ezra pace around for a second. “Do you even know how to dance?”
Ezra shoved his hands into his pockets. He looked insulted. “It can’t be that hard. Just kind of swaying around, right?”
Jake raised an eyebrow. “Right.” He went over to the stereo in the living room and began looking through all the CDs.
“What are you doing?” Ezra asked, coming over.
Jake found a mix he’d made and had embarrassingly labeled “Kool Tunez,” but he popped the CD into the player before Ezra could see. Jake turned up the volume on “Return of the Mack.”
He gestured to Ezra. “All right, let’s see it.”
Ezra’s face turned scarlet. “What?”
“Let’s see your moves,” Jake said, bobbing his head to the beat.
