“Nice to meet you,” I replied.
“This is fantastic,” Jack said as he settled into the pool next to Noah. His yellow Speedo sparkled even underwater. “It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve been in a hot tub.”
“Over two years,” Noah added, his eyes wandering to the mountains. “I really thought you were crazy when you told us you’d get rid of the dining room, but this makes so much sense.”
“Yeah, it was the most difficult decision, but it was the right one,” Jason said, adjusting his eye patch.
“And the view from our temporary apartment is just as beautiful, isn’t it?” Nicholas grinned at him.
While I was intrigued by the new gay scene in Seastone, my gaze was inevitably drawn to Alex. He withdrew his handfrom my knee, making me wonder if being this close in front of everyone might have been too much too soon for him.
The next fifteen minutes were filled with small talk about the hotel, how everybody’s day had been, and how nice it was that we had all come together. I tried to engage as if I had known all of them for a long time. Alex didn’t say much, but he laughed when everyone else did. He was just as quiet as when I first met him, and no one seemed to mind.
“Have you ever noticed that the four of you share the same initials?” I asked. “Jack and Noah,Jason and Nicholas. It’s J and N everywhere. Doesn’t that ever get confusing?”
“It makes switching partners easier,” Nicholas said, chuckling.
Jason clicked his tongue and slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t give them the wrong impression.”
All four of them looked at each other and their respective partners as if Nicholas’s joke had opened a can of worms.
“Oh man, that would be such a mess,” Jack laughed as he raised his arm and slung it around Noah’s shoulder. “Not going to happen. I’m happy to share anything, but not him. Sorry.”
“You can have Nicholas, but he doesn’t come cheap, and he’s already married,” Jason joked.
Judging by Nicholas’s chuckles, he seemed to enjoy their weird sense of humor. As if it were contagious, all four of them started laughing as if this were the funniest situation ever.
Alex, on the other hand, tapped me on the shoulder. “I need a short break,” he whispered in my ear. He drew everyone’s attention as he got up, water dripping off him. “Don’t mind me. I’ll be back in a second.”
At first, he walked toward the lounge chair on the right, but then he made a beeline for the changing room.
Something was off.
“I’ll…” I pointed toward him, but the others just smiled at me.
“Take your time. There are plenty of rooms if you need one,” Nicholas said, earning himself another slap on the shoulder from Jason.
I followed Alex into the changing room and found him sitting on the wooden bench between the lockers. His head hung between his knees, and he held his ears shut. He didn’t even notice me when I walked in.
Hopefully, I hadn’t said or done anything wrong.
