“Cause they’re shitty sketches.”
“That look amazing in frames.” He reaches out his hand and Liv passes it to him. “You could get some sucker to pay fifty bucks for this, easy.”
Liv protests, “Hey,” as she moves to sit on the bench. Her feet swing back slightly, and her pink slippers—the ones Carey bought her last week because she’s here so damn often now—tap against the cupboard doors.
Keeping some distance between us, Carey places the framed sketch in front of me. “It looks good.”
“It’s not worth fifty dollars.”
“I think it is,” Liv says.
“So you are a sucker?” I tease.
“How? That picture in ink on my ass is gonna cost me two-hundred. How is the same drawing by the same artist not worth anything?”
“She’s not wrong.” I look up at Carey, and he smirks down at me. Just a little, just the slightest tweak of his top lip. But my ears burn and my stomach flips, so I look away before he drags me out to the back room.
“Urgh,” Liv moans. “Just kiss already. Put me out of my misery.”
Carey snickers without shame, but I just stare down at the desk in front of me, because what the fuck?
Liv hops down from the bench and approaches the opposite side of the desk. “Seriously. I’m gay too, remember.”
Carey corrects her. “We’re not gay.”
“Whatever,” she sighs. “But girls aren’t gonna give a fuck about whether you like them too when they find out you’re both off the market.”
“Some already know,” Carey mutters while fiddling with a pen.
“That’s right. Word on the street says that you,Mister I don’t date anybody, is finally taken… But by who?” She slumps forward on the desk, her chin on her fist. “Who, in this whole town, could possibly be the lucky lady?” She starts tapping her cheek with her index finger. “Except… What if it’s not a lady at all?”
I exhale. “You’ve made your point.”
“Have I?”
I can feel Carey’s eyes burning into the side of my head.
I’m not surprised that Brooklyn couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Though by the state of me when I told her I was seeing someone, I am shocked she didn’t put two and two together. I’d be lying if I said, at least part of me, didn’t hope she’d be the one to tell everybody so I didn’t have to. I know most people don’t want to be outed by somebody else, but I’m starting to think it’s the kind of push I need.
Liv points at Carey. “I can tell this one doesn’t care, so what part of it has you so worried? The two guys thing? The age difference? Your… family?”
“All of the above?”
“Eck, boring.” She pulls a face, but it makes me laugh. She’s so much like Carey it’s hard to not find her endearing. “As far as I see it. The only real problems will come when his brother gets back. Your parents will accept it, or they won't. They’ll get over it, or they won’t. You have no control over that. I went through it all with my family, and it can suck, but it’s your life. You need to be willing to walk away if you have to in order to be happy. But here...” She presses her finger into the desk.“You share a business. And you’re fucking your best friends little brother. Guy, or girl, it wouldn’t matter, you’re gonna be in the bad books… Now, if you want my opinion, I think Carey is more than old enough to decide who he wants to be with.And,the two of you together is hot as fuuuck—”
“I thought you were gay?” I tease her again.
“And I thought you’d have big enough balls not to hide this amazing guy away.”
“I’m not hiding him.”
“But you’re not showing him off either.”
“We spend every day together.”
“Hold his hand then.”
Carey doesn’t move, and I really need him to.
