Page 24 of Advanced Chemistry

“Oh, shut up.” Sebastian gave me a playful shove. “Shit. I can’t believe this.”

I was so overcome that when Sebastian turned to me with watery eyes, I threaded my fingers through his hair and pulled him close, our foreheads touching. We’d done this many a time in the past: before championship wrestling meets, after we graduated. It was like our version of a mindmeld.

It all felt different now. More intimate. Our hearts were melding as much as our minds. We were post-whatever Saturday was. Our dicks had rubbed against each other.

Sebastian pulled back, always the sensible one.

“We have to start prepping. We need to pull out all the stops,” he said.

But I wasn’t ready to return to business, though. There was no way I could continue with life as usual until The Conversation was had.

“Seb,” I said, a nervous lump in my throat. “We need to talk.”

8

SEBASTIAN

Ikept my fingers wrapped around the steering wheel. Anton wasn’t one for talking about things. Correction: the guy loved to talk. He schmoozed and chit chatted and shot the shit. But talk? This kind of talk? The kind of talk that could veer into serious territory…that wasn’t like Anton.

“What did you want to talk about?” I asked.

“Yo, so I think maybe…” His face twisted with internal struggle, which made it even cuter. He swept his hand as if he were clearing a table, a classic Anton move that meant a do-over. “Look, we need to air things out about Saturday. It was wild. Just get everything out in the open.”

That was the problem. Everythingwasout in the open, most notably our dicks.

“Anton, we don’t need to…it was…” Hot. Epically, earth-shatteringly hot. “It happened, it was a good time. And it’s cool, you know.”

It was a very good time. But I was not cool about it. My mind was all sorts of screwed up. Anton and I were naked together, and he kissed me, and all those feelings that I told myself to forget returned to the surface. I was still hopelessly in love with my best friend, and we’d crossed a line that couldn’t be undone. For Anton, it was a wild, impulsive afternoon. For me, it was a revelation. I couldn’t let my feelings jeopardize our business at such a crucial moment.

“Pull over,” he said.

“No.”

“No?”

“Why do I need to pull over?” I asked. We could have a conversation while driving. It was better that way. I didn’t have to look at him as he told me Saturday was an epic mistake.

“Just do it, Seb. I don’t want to drive back in awkward silence.”

Won’t there be awkward silence once we talk about it?

I turned right into the parking lot for a Revolutionary War site that we’d visited on a field trip years ago. Anton had gotten yelled at for trying to climb into the cannon.

I put the car in park and turned to my friend, prepared to face the firing squad aimed at my heart.

“Dude, we had a threesome. Our lips and our dicks touched.” Anton was not one for subtlety. His best quality was cutting to the chase and being direct. A great quality in a salesman, but in a friend, it made my stomach clamp up. “We need to talk about it because things have been weird all weekend. I don’t want us to keep tiptoeing around this thing. Our friendship and partnership are too important to me.”

“Okay, then talk,” I said. Like hell was I going first. Not when my head was still a mess.

“How are you doing?”

“That’s not fair. You’re supposed to talk first.” I shifted in my seat, my eyes narrowing at him. “How are you doing?”

“I loved it. I loved every second of it.”

“You did?” I asked, my voice trembling a touch at Anton’s directness.

“I can’t stop thinking about it.”

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