“So you’re Devin’s new boyfriend?” Brad asked, rolling a jar of peanut butter between his hands and pretending to read the ingredients.
“We’ve been dating a few weeks,” I interrupted. That was as long as I could get away with claiming without raising suspicion.
Brad whistled. “Moving fast, huh?”
“Devin’s pace,” Morgan said, since Brad was actually talking tohim. “He invited me along, and I figured, y’know, why not? I like being around him a lot.”
This time, Brad snorted. “See how you feel at the end of the trip,” he said. “He might be a nightmare to share a room with.”
“Doubt it,” Morgan responded without missing a beat. “Besides, who saysI’mnot a nightmare to share a room with? We could be made for each other.”
“I think we are,” I said. If we were stuck with this now, there was no point in half-assing it, was there?
“What do you do for a living?” Brad asked, moving further down the aisle to hover by the breakfast cereals.
“I’m a florist,” Morgan said. “I run the shop next to the tattoo place in Slow Falls.”
“Huh,” Brad said. “Never been.”
I grabbed a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and decided not to be embarrassed about it. This was supposed to be a break, I could have what basically amounted to lumps of sugar pretending to be food for breakfast. Besides, I’d need the energy. Kayaking wascold,and I was going to burn through a lot of calories this week between practice and the competition itself.
“Are you seriously planning on putting that crap in your body?” Brad asked. “Jesus, Devin.”
“It’s his body,” Morgan said before I could respond. “He gets to do whatever he wants with it.”
Brad wrinkled his nose, but didn’t say anything else.
I could’vekissedMorgan. I’d never heard anyone shut Brad down so effectively before.
I turned to mouththank yousilently at him, and earned myself a warm smile in response.
Maybe things were okay. Maybe Morgan was all right with this, after all.
“Lemme get that,” Morgan said, extracting himself from my grip and heading over to help Julie, who was even shorter than I was and climbing the shelves to grab something from the top one.
I watched her laugh, eyes sparkling as Morgan lifted the box of tea she’d been trying to grab down for her, and if I hadn’t known for sure that she was, firstly,incrediblygay and secondly, sickeningly in love with Marta, I might’ve worried. ShelikedMorgan, genuinely liked him, and I hoped the spark of friendship between them caught.
Especially since otherwise, Morgan was stuck spending all this time with only me for company. I couldn’t speak for him, but that would have drivenmeinsane pretty quickly.
Besides, Julie was sweet. Morgan was sweet. Theyshouldhave been friends.
“You’re not afraid he’ll roll over in the night and crush you?” Brad asked beside my elbow.
“He’s the sweetest, kindest man I’ve ever met,” I said, which was easy to say, because it wastrue. “I’m less afraid of Morgan than I am of, like, being hit by an asteroid.”
“Hey,” Chris appeared at my other side, rescuing me from this conversation. “Come help me pick marshmallows, I lost Alex in the haircare aisle and we’re not gonna see him again until we leave,” he joked.
I’d complained to Chris about Brad as well, and I knew he reallywasrescuing me. That was why we’d become friends so quickly, even though it usually took me a geological age to warm up to new people. Chrisgotme.
I liked Alex, even though I barely knew him. Jokes about his hair aside, he was funny and warm and he had a really pretty smile. He was maybe a little loud for my tastes, but that suited Chris, who was on the outgoing side too.
I followed him to the candy aisle, struck by how many marshmallow options there really were. Thiswascamping country, I supposed, and what was even the point of a campfire without marshmallows?
“Oooh, Cinnamon Toast Crunch,” Chris said, peering into my basket. “Oh, uh… do we need to, umm, visit the toothpaste aisle?”
“The toothpaste aisle?” I asked, frowning.
Chris looked at me for a few seconds, hesitated, then took a breath to speak. “Where they also keep the condoms and lube,” he said.
