“I still want you,” Aspen said, jiggling their foot against the side of the couch. “And I’m not even sure if we should date either, but… I am open to the idea.”
Noah soothed a hand down Aspen’s calf. “Can I have some time to figure things out?”
“Of course.”
“And if you decide you don’t want to do more than kiss, we can still go over any aspects of nonheteronormative sex you wantto know more about,” Noah said, a note of something Aspen couldn’t identify in his voice. Was it…concern? Desperation?
“Yeah, I mean, like I said. I’d love to do more, but ifyoudon’t want to, I understand.”
Noah slowly looked Aspen up and down, his tongue swiping out to wet his bottom lip. “I definitely want to. I just don’t know if I should, or if we should, or if it’s dangerous to our friendship, or?—”
Aspen kissed him because they couldn’t stand any more questions today.
Noah let out a soft huff against Aspen’s lips.
“You’re right,” Aspen said, running their tongue over the slight stubble on Noah’s upper lip. “This is useful.”
Noah dragged them back down onto the couch, and they kissed for a while longer, the faint smell of chopped vegetables the only hint that this hadn’t always been their plan for the night.
Finally, Noah returned to his responsible senses and announced it was time for dinner. Aspen did their best to keep their hands to themself as Noah fired up the wok, but they had to get a few more kisses in while they still could. It seemed like, since they’d already broken the metaphorical seal on this type of intimacy, both of them felt fine continuing it, at least for tonight. Aspen was pretty sure that no matter what Noah decided, if he wanted to try dating, thought maybe they could date in the future, or that they were better off as friends, Aspen still wanted their first post-divorce sex experience to be with him.
It would all just depend on him and what he wanted.
And if there was any way it could possibly be Aspen.
Chapter 3
Noah
“If you just took my advice and brought Gordon home with you, you’d never have to question your relationship with him. No matter what you do, you’ll always be his favorite person,” Charlie said, clapping Noah on the back like he’d just solved everything.
Gordon, for his part, looked like he agreed.
Noah had only gotten a few minutes into debriefing Charlie on what happened with Aspen the previous weekend before he’d declared, “This sounds like a Gordon problem!”
Noah wasn’t sure if even Gordon could help him right now. But maybe Charlie was right, and this was the only relationship Noah would ever be successful at. He’d known Gordon for years, and they’d shared so much. Noah had told him before anyone else in his life that Aspen was getting a divorce. To this day, he and Charlie were the only ones who knew how grateful Noah was for the divorce. Ethan had been fine enough when they were fresh out of college, but he’d failed to grow with Aspen, preferring to stay in the stagnant ways of his bigoted parents and backwards friend group.
Not that Noah had much of a leg to stand on when it came to parents, but at least he didn’t let them end a marriage for him.He just answered every one of their calls, even when each one left him more unhappy than the last.
“Is that true, Gordon?” Noah asked. “Do you promise I’ll be your favorite person, even when I have no idea what I’m doing?”
Gordon stared at Noah, his big, brown eyes holding the answers to all Noah’s questions.
Too bad dogs couldn’t talk.
“He’s loved you as long as I have, buddy. Pretty sure you’re stuck with him just as much as you’re stuck with me.”
Noah clipped Gordon’s leash to his collar as Charlie wrestled Princess into her harness.
“I will happily be stuck with both of you for life,” Noah said, shouldering open the door so poor, arthritic Gordon could hobble his way outside. He’d been at the shelter since the first day Charlie invited Noah to come walk dogs with him over five years ago. Back then, Charlie had just been a loyal volunteer, but now he was the harried owner, doing his best to give old boys like Gordon a second shot at life.
“Alright, so start at the beginning. You went home to visit your parents, and somehow that affects your ability to fuck Aspen?” Charlie asked in that blunt way of his.
Gordon huffed as they began walking up the trail into the small woods that surrounded the dog shelter. “I went to visit my parents, and it made me realize that I don’t actually know what I want in life.”
Charlie and Princess, the bedraggled miniature poodle who had been there almost as long as Gordon, detoured off the path so Princess could pee on her favorite tree stump. “And was this before or after they finally started using your name and pronouns?”
“It happened at the same time,” Noah said, gently pulling on Gordon’s leash when he showed a bit too much interest in a squirrel.
