Page 77 of Not That Ridiculous

It should have been Craig, considering I’d had Kevin’s hand down my trousers and his tongue in my mouth, but still. I rather thought it was me.

“He’s your…?” Craig frowned. “You’re not gay, though.”

“No, I’m not,” Kevin said.

Craig seemed stumped.

“And would it be a problem if he was?” I demanded.

“What? No, of course not.” Craig sounded genuinely baffled at the thought. “I’m just used to his endless parade of girlfriends. Didn’t know he was branching out.”

Endless parade?I turned to Kevin.Branching out?

Kevin’s face did something then that I’d never seen before.

I’d seen him sweet, happy, and cheerful. Recently, I’d seen him focused, aroused, and determined.

I hadn’t seen him angry before. I’d rather not see it again.

His brows lowered, his jaw tightened, and his gentle brown eyes turned into hard, glittering slits.

Craig took a step back. “Calm down. I said I don’t care if you’re gay.”

“I’m not gay and I’m not branching out,” he said.

Craig’s gaze bounced to mine. I almost felt sorry for him. “It’s all right, Kevin,” I said.

“It’s not all right. I’m notbranching out. That makes you sound like an experiment, and you’re not.”

“I know.”

Kevin took hold of my shoulders and turned me to face him, saying earnestly, “You’renot, Charlie.”

“I know.”

I knew now, anyway. It was one of those many questions about him that had crossed my mind. Of course it had.

While I wouldn’t categorise it as anendless parade, I had seen Kevin with plenty of girlfriends over the years. He was popular.

I’d seen him notice women. I’d seen him very much not notice men.

Even Adam.

I still had no idea why he was interested in me, but if Kevin said I wasn’t an experiment, I trusted him.

“Great!” Craig said. “That’s…great! Glad we’ve got that all cleared up. Charlie’s your, uh, boyfriend. Great. You’re allowed to do a bit of work on the side for your boyfriend?—”

“I’m allowed to work for whoever I want,” Kevin said. “As long as I’m off the clock.”

Craig hesitated before he said, “Okay.” He switched his attention to me. “If you want to fix your house up, Charlie, you should give me a call and we’ll work something out. I’ll give you a discount, since you’re Kev’s boyfriend.”

I turned to face him. “I won’t do that, Craig, but thanks. Also, my eyes are up here.”

He lifted his gaze guiltily from where he’d been staring at my chest, said goodbye, and hurried off.

“Was he checking out your tits?” Kevin said, his voice going high in outrage.

“I think he was checking out my lack of tits, actually.”

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