Page 87 of Common Goal
Kyle was too young for him. It didn’t matter that he was one of the brightest and most charming people Eric had ever met. It didn’t matter that Eric’s heart raced at the thought of kissing him. It didn’t matter that, in the bedroom, when Kyle was the one in charge, Eric didn’t feel older at all.
In fact, the age gap only seemed to exist when Eric was away from Kyle. That was when he had time to think about it, and feel uncomfortable about it. When he was with Kyle, he was barely aware of it.
But it did exist, and so did Eric’s feelings for Kyle. And that was a dangerous combination.
“Hey, that thing is tomorrow night,” Scott said, breaking Eric out of his vortex of confusing thoughts. “The drag show I told you about.”
“Oh.” Eric blinked, and focused on his friend. “Right. The charity one.”
“Yeah. You still want to go?”
He wondered if Kyle would be there. He wondered if he wanted him to be.
Fuck, of course he wanted him to be there. And that was why he couldn’t go.
“I don’t think I can.”
Scott frowned at him, and Eric knew he wanted to argue that he probably wasn’t busy at all. But instead Scott just sighed and said, “No problem.” It was the long-suffering sigh of a man who was friends with a wet blanket.
Eric felt bad, but he knew it was the right decision. He couldn’t think clearly around Kyle, so it was best to stay away.
It had been days since Kyle had heard from Eric. They had gone longer without communicating before, but this stretch felt endless. And significant.
Kyle had handed in his term paper, and found himself with a lot of free time on his hands. He’d thrown himself into practicing Greek, and was now sitting on his couch, casually looking into study abroad programs in Greece. Manhattan was starting to feel suffocating.
The thought of traveling alone didn’t appeal to him as much as it usually did. He kept getting unwanted visions of exploring ruins with Eric. He imagined long days of hiking together along the coast, and swimming in the Mediterranean. Eric probably looked spectacular in a bathing suit.
What were these thoughts? Kyle had hooked up with roughly a billion men, and none of them had him daydreaming about European getaways together.
Not since, well, Ian.
He regretted telling Eric about Ian, but he also knew that Eric deserved to know. Eric had been nice about it, but Kyle wasn’t going to kid himself about getting any more invites to his beautiful house.
His phone lit up with a message from Kip.Drag show tonight. Don’t forget!
Kylehadforgotten. He didn’t feel like going out, but he would do this because he was a good friend.
Kyle:Right. I’ll be there.
It would have been an ideal thing for Eric to go to, he thought miserably. God, that would have been fun.
Another message, which he expected was a thumbs-up from Kip. Kyle made a weird squeak of excitement when he saw that it was from Eric.
Eric:Are you going to the drag show thing tonight?
Kyle wasn’t sure what to say. Did Eric want him to say no, so it would be safe for Eric to go? Did he want Kyle to say yes for the same reason?
Kyle:I was planning to.
Eric:Scott wants me to go.
Okay. What was Kyle supposed to say to that?
Kyle:Do you want to go?
Eric:Maybe.
Lord god. What the hell was this?
