“Had sex with perfect strangers?”I could hear the annoyed edge to my voice; forced myself to chew back my frustration.Losing my temper wouldn’t help anything.“I guess we both learned something about the other, then.”
He frowned, staring down at his cup.“That’s...”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” I interrupted.“Or make excuses for what you’re into.”
The glare was sharp, as though Flynn had soaked up all the ire I’d just swallowed down myself.“I wasn’t going to make excuses for it.”
My shrug felt awkward, like my shoulders were unbalanced.“I just thought...”
“Just because you know what the inside of my boyfriend feels like, don’t assume you know anything else about me.”
I made myself hold his furious gaze.“So did he let you screw him, after I left?Or did he make you go jerk yourself off in the bathroom, like a horny little kid?”
Flynn’s mouth tightened.I waited for the retort.
“Why are you so fucking angry at me, all the time?”
Not the question I was expecting, the direction I was prepared for.My vitriol feeling like it’d been punctured, surprise suddenly letting out the angry head of steam I’d been building.
“I’m not.”
He almost looked amused.“Oh, no.Of course not.Not like you roll your eyes at me whenever I say something, or as if you’ve ever missed an opportunity to be caustic, or condescending.”
“Let me guess,” I spat, “everyone else in your life is just tripping themselves up to fawn over you and tell you how goddamn perfect you are.”
Flynn shook his head, in disbelief.“What does that even mean, Oli?What the hell am I meant to have done, here?I thought we were friends.”
I snorted.“We were convenient.And then you managed to figure out a way to leave, and have a big, fancy, impressive life, and give your mom something to crow about whenever she fucking can, to me and my parents.”
“You’re mad, because my mom is proud of me?”
It was a laugh, but there was scant humor in it.“Good thing she doesn’t know that her precious, clever, talented son is a hopeless cuck, who can’t get off unless he’s watching his boyfriend get plowed by another man.”
“Don’t worry, Oli.”Flynn’s voice was cold.“There’s plenty my mom doesn’t know about, that she could be disappointed over.”
I sneered at him.“Let me guess, the fancy SUV was just a rental.”
“No,” he said, placidly, “it’s a lease, and the monthly payments are killing me.”
Scowling, I sat back in the chair.“How relatable of you.”
“But then, at least they’re not as much as my rent, which is fresh levels of can’t-really-afford-it,” he added, as if he hadn’t even heard me.Just watching me, with that tight, almost mask-like expression.“And the student loans, of course,”
“Sorry if I don’t sound entirely sympathetic, but nobody made you lease a luxury car, or rent a nice apartment, or do some expensive degree.”
Flynn’s smile came nowhere near his eyes.“Oh, no.I did this all by myself.”He chuckled, mirthless, into his drink.“But hey, I did just get to watch my boyfriend get fucked by the guy who hates me.That’s gotta count for something, right?”
“Your dick said you liked it,” I reminded him.
“William said yours felt pretty good inside him, too.Though he likes it when people pull his hair more.While they’re nailing him, I mean.”
I glanced around us, suddenly self-conscious.Not that we’d been speaking particularly loudly, but still.
“I’ll bear that in mind,” I said, annoyed at myself for feeling uncomfortable.“So, what do you get out of it?”
I wasn’t sure it was the sort of question you were meant to ask, but it wasn’t like Flynn had been holding back.
He grimaced.“My therapist used to say that, in a world which otherwise feels out of control, withholding your own gratification can feel like a kind of success.”Flynn shrugged, as though he wasn’t sure if that was laughable or an insightful read.
