Page 28 of Out of the Storm

Jealousy twisted in Jeff’s stomach. And, fuck, what a stupid reactionthatwas.

“Oh?”

“Her name is Lisa.”

Lisa.She sounded terrible.

“Do you like her?” Jeff asked, even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer.

“Uh, no. I mean, she’s my student.”

Jeff fiddled with the phone cord, twirling it between his fingers.

“But you would,” he said, “if she wasn’t.”

As soon as the words left Jeff’s mouth, he squeezed his eyes shut, like he maybe could hide from Gary’s answer, and then every single muscle in his body tensed, bracing for the inevitable heartbreak to come. Why hadn’t he been able to stop himself from saying that?

“Oh . . .” Gary paused, and Jeff’s stomach tightened. “No. Jeff, I . . . uhm . . . my interests lie elsewhere.”

Stomach still in knots, Jeff sucked in a breath. Was Gary saying what Jeff thought he was saying?

Gary cleared his throat and said, “You know . . . uh . . . men?”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Uh...” Dammit. Now Jeff kind of wanted to be honest too. “Mine too,” he sputtered. “I mean, my interests lie elsewhere too.”

“Oh.”

Uncomfortable silence followed while Jeff’s heart thundered in his chest.

“Do you . . . have a boyfriend?” Gary asked.

“No,” Jeff said. “I haven’t had one in... in years.”

“Me neither. I haven’t evenbeen withsomeone for... yeah, it’s, uhm, it’s been a long time. Embarrassingly long, really, so I’ll spare you the specifics. But I’ve been... okay with my, uh, my forced celibacy. I mean, everything with the, uhm, the virus that’s on the news...”

Jeff’s heart sank, some of his earlier nervousness subsiding, only to be replaced by unease. He swallowed hard. While Jeff hadn’tpersonallyknown anyone who had passed from AIDS, it wasn’t as though he’d been unaffected by the news coverage. It was still fucking sad and terrifying to think about.

“Yeah, I... feel the same way,” he said.

Silence. Depressing and horrible silence. Damn.

Finally, after another moment, Gary said, “Sorry to bring that up. Just... I think about it sometimes, you know?”

“Yeah,” Jeff said before clearing his throat. “Me too.”

Even more silence. Christ, how could they move on from this?

Eventually, Gary spoke again, his voice tentative. “What’s your type? If you were to... want to be with someone, I mean.”

Well, that was one way to move past it. Jeff’s heart started thumping wildly again, and now he could barely focus through thewhoosh, whoosh, whooshof blood rushing past his eardrums.

“Uh . . .”

“Just asking,” Gary said.

Jeff’s mind was scrambling to come up with a way to answer. He kind of wanted to say thatGarywas his type, but that wasn’treally true. Gary was the opposite of his type. Jeff typically went for bigger men, men who looked like they worked out. Gary was, what,maybefive foot ten? Probably shorter. He wasn’t very built either. But, Christ, he was cute. Silly too. Smart. Funny. Kind. Besides the physical, there weren’t even other similarities to his previous boyfriends or crushes either. Because before Gary, Jeff’s crushes had been...

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