Mike shook his head. “My mom’s cooking, I think,” he said. “Can’t miss that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The half-smile on Mike’s face was so sad that Ezra wanted to kiss him until it went away, until he could replace it with a genuine one, until he could shower Mike with as much love and affection as he could handle.
But he could already feel Mike withdrawing, and he didn’t want to make it worse by being needy now. He’d known at the beginning that this wasn’t the first day of the rest of their lives or anything. It was just Ezra satisfying Mike’s curiosity.
And that was okay. Mike was his friend.
It wasn’tMike’sfault that Ezra wanted more. And it wasn’t his problem, either.
Mike stood, pausing as he realized that he couldn’t pull his sweater down without making an even worse mess. Ezra leaned over to the box of tissues by the bed, grabbing them and passing them over.
He wanted to help, to drag Mike into the bathroom and clean him up and then make another mess of him, but he settled for watching as Mike wiped away the worst of it.
“I was thinking I’d come by the sanctuary tomorrow,” Mike said. “If, uh. If that’s okay?”
Ezra swallowed.
That was what he needed to hear. That Mike wasn’tleaving foreveron account of this.
Maybe it was a lie, but he’d take a comforting lie over having to face the possibility that he’d lost Mike for good. It would have been so easy for him to freak out now and never want to see Ezra again.
“Pretty sure we’ve still got your waiver on file,” Ezra joked, allowing himself to feel just a little relieved.
Mike was going, but he wasn’t abandoning Ezra all over again. Just… heading home for dinner after coming to see a friend.
The mutual orgasms were practically irrelevant.
“Then I’ll see you later.”
“Text me when you’re home safe,” Ezra blurted out, because he couldn’t sayI love you, please don’t go, but he could let Mike know he cared. He could still be his friend.
That seemed to be what Mike needed right now. A friend he could safely experiment with.
Ezra was fine with that. Really.
“I will,” Mike said, his smile brightening a little. “I’ll go clean up.”
Ezra nodded, watching Mike leave the room with his heart in his throat.
Yeah. Totally fine with that.
