Page 14 of Pull
“I’m sorry! I just never knew you were…” Bill’s voice trailed off.
“What? Gay?” I narrowed my gaze at him. He shrugged, to which I scoffed and shook my head.
“Have you ever hooked up with Tate?” He asked again, still quiet, as if he expected Tate to be right around the corner.
“Uh, no.” I mimicked gagging. “Why would you ask me that? Because Tate is the only gay guy you know, soobviouslynow that I like dick I must have hooked up with him?”
“I know other gay guys…” he mumbled with petulance.Yea,right.
“Bill, I’m not gay.” I sipped my drink slowly. “I’m not attracted to miscellaneous dudes.”
“Only Ryan?”
“Yea…”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Because I love him.” I gave him a pointed look. I had never seen someone so confused in my life. It was almost comical.
“Did you love him right away? Like, at Thanksgiving?” His questions were spiraling, but I didn’t mind as much anymore, since it was obvious he was just trying to get an understanding of what changed in his best friend.
I thought for a moment. “I think so. But I didn’t know it right away. It was just so… confusing, I guess. Iwasn’t preparedto ever havethose kinds of feelings for a guy, let alone someone my daughter was dating.”
“So was it you and Jess with him from the beginning?” Greg asked.
“No…” I swallowed hard. “It was me and him first. Jess got involved later.”
“You cheated on Jess with him?”
“Is this conversation going anywhere? Or are you getting off on making me relive painful memories?”
They both looked slightly taken aback. “Sorry, man. I was just curious, I guess…” Greg slugged back the rest of his drink.
“No, I’m sorry,” I sighed. “I don’t mean to get defensive. I just feel like we’ve been explaining ourselves to death, and it’s getting a little frustrating. For the three of us it’s easy. We just love each other, and nothing else matters. But everyone else wants answers to all these questions… It’s beensortof draining.”
Bill and Greg shared a look. Then Bill patted me hard on the back.
“It’salright, Lockwood. We get it. You fell for someone you never expected to fall for. I can’t say it’s happened to me, but I can understand it.”
“Yea, and we support you. No matter what,” Greg added with a smile.
“Thanks, guys.” I grinned. “I appreciate it.”
We went back to watching baseball… For about five minutes.
“So you’re not attracted to us?” Bill asked, glancing at me.
A laugh of incredulity puffed from between my lips.I should’ve known that wouldn’t be theend of it. Someonekillme now.
“No,” I sighed, leaning my head back on the couch. “I’m not attracted to either of you.”
“Why not?” Greg asked, sounding offended.
I laughed, “Because… I’m not?” I was still chuckling as I watched their faces, apparently having wounded their egos.
“I get it, I guess,” Bill murmured. “I mean, look at the guy he’s with.”
I shot him an evil smirk. “You suredomake an awful lot of comments about how good-looking my husband is…”
