“I guess they’re trying to be polite?”
“I can’t decide whether this is polite or not.” Oscar shrugged. “Maybe it is. We used to put like… homemade cookies and a new face cloth. Seasonal soap. Nothing fancy, just a kind of…you’re welcome heredeal.”
“Actually kinda sounds like a nice thing to do,” Ryan said. He was still getting used to the ways things were different here, and he wasn’t even sure if this was a Florida thing or a these-specific-people thing. He’d probably never know.
“It is.” Oscar nodded, reaching for the lube and turning it over. “This is also actually anal-safe. Which implies that someone knows what they’re doing.”
“There’re different kinds?” Ryan asked, unsure how stupid the question was.
Oscar looked up at him, unimpressed. “Wow. I knew you were straight, but…wow.”
“What, I’m supposed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of lube?”
Clearly, it was a pretty stupid question. Oscar was smiling, though, so maybe asking stupid questions wasn’t all that bad.
“You could be alittleadventurous,” Oscar said.
Ryan shrugged. “I always wanted to try out being bisexual,” he said.
As soon as the words escaped him, he panicked. Was that offensive? Would Oscar think he was making all this into a joke?
He hoped like hell that Oscar wouldn’t ask what he meant by that, because Ryan wasn’t even sureheknew. It was just… a thought he’d had.
Multiple times.
This was the first time he’d actually voiced it, though. The first time he’d let it get pastthoughtand into actual words.
Oscar’s complete silence seemed to echo in his ears.
Great.
He’d said the wrong thingagain, and he was probably going to spend the whole weekend putting his foot in his mouth. Oscar reallywouldhate him by the end of it.
He didn't even know what to say to fix it.
“I should apologize to you. Properly, I mean,” Oscar said, which was the last thing Ryan had been expecting.
“What for?” He frowned, not following Oscar’s thinking at all. What hadhedone?
“For being mad at you about this. I overreacted. You were trying to help.”
Ah. They were changing the subject.
Ryan wasn't sure how he felt about that, but the way the knot in his stomach eased was a relief. Oscar wasn't outwardly mad at him, at least.
“I was,” Ryan agreed. “But my mom taught me that intention isn't magic. I still did the wrong thing, even if it came from the right place. So no. You don't need to apologize to me.”
Honestly, as long as Oscar wasn’tstillmad at him, that was enough for Ryan. He was okay with screwing up, and apologizing, and promising to be better.
Hewouldbe better. He’d learned his lesson. No more volunteering Oscar into weekends away, not without consulting him first. It seemed like the kind of thing he should have justknownnot to do.
But he’d been frazzled and anxious and made a mistake. Oscar didn’t need to apologize for calling him on it.
“So we can just skip straight to mutual forgiveness?” Oscar asked, pulling his socked feet up on the bed.
They’d taken their shoes off at the front door, which was maybe the one thing Ryanhadn’tbeen surprised by.
“Mutual forgiveness sounds good,” Ryan agreed, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders.
