When all this was over and Iwas back home, I’d buy the other guys pizza and beer and ask them. They’d know,they’d been doing this longer than me.
“Thank you for tonight,”Ashley said as he came back, leaning with me against one of the drinks tables.Mostly empty now.
The wedding had been onehell of a success. Kimmy and Faith were long gone, off on their honeymoon withMia.
I’d offered to take care ofher myself, but neither of them seemed to want to part with her for that long.They both loved that kid. She was going to be so much luckier than her mom hadbeen.
Ashley had been playinghide-and-seek with her earlier. It was hard to tell who’d been having more fun.
“You’re welcome,” I said. “Gladyou had fun. You seem… hyped.”
Ashley grinned broadly atme. “I’ma genuine extrovert,” he said. “I love being around people.”
Right.
And he was heading back hometo a small town where, I got the impression, people didn’t love beingaround him.
“I think I’m the opposite,”I said. I’d never thought much about it, but I liked quiet time by myself orwith a couple of close friends. What Ilikedand what I couldhave didn’talways match up, so I hadn’t exactly sat down and thought about what would makeme happy.
I could do that now, Irealized. I had a stable life and a relatively normal job. Days off. Time tomyself.
Right now, I spent most ofit anxious to go back to work. That probably wasn’t a good thing.
I’d snatched this job outfrom under Lucas because I couldn’t stand the thought of sitting around anylonger waiting for a new one to come along. He’d gotten one the next day,running security at a gallery opening—the kind of easy job we had to drawstraws over.
I was glad I’d gotten thisone, though.
Ashley was… Ashley hadchanged my life. For the better.
The sense of peace thatsettled over me as his hand brushed against mine was like nothing I’d ever feltbefore. It was gone in the next heartbeat, but I wouldn’t forget it so easily.
“I love all your friends,”Ashley continued. “Quinn is adorable? I remember listening to that one hit songhe had and he’s just so… sweet and humble in person. And Miles is so smart andcaring, Gray’s so warm, Fox would make thebestdrag queen andthat accent…”
I chuckled. “Bring you hereas my plus-one and you go and fall in love with everyone else.”
“I fall in love witheveryone,” Ashley said. “I like people. Iadorepeople. If Ithought I could befriend everyone on the planet, I’d try.”
“You could. If anyone couldmake friends anywhere they went, it’d be you.”
Every friend of Ashely’s I’d met hadbeen a little in love with him, and every one of my friends who’d met him hadfallen for him. Popularity was his superpower.
Except it wasn’t something thathappened because he’d been bitten by a radioactive celebrity. It was all him,his natural charm and grace, the way he always had a smile for everyone nomatter how he felt inside.
Ashley had a kind ofstrength I’dnever seen before. The ability to be everything to everyone, friend and loverand entertainer.
He deserved a break. Hedeserved so much more than he was getting.
And all he’d asked for wasme.
That was a lot to thinkabout.
“Should have seen me as ashy, awkward teenager desperate to be loved and secretly fucking the closetedquarterback.”
“The guy your sister caughtyou with? Mike something or other?”
Ashley nodded, his fingerscurling around the edge of the folding table. “It… wasn’t a goodrelationship. He wouldn’t be seen with me, obviously, but I was fine forsucking his cock when he wanted to get off. And you know, I was so stupid thatI loved him anyway and thought we were gonna run away together after highschool.”
The sadness in Ashley’s voice was enoughfor me to guess the rest, but I wanted to listen to him if he wanted to talk.
