Page 24 of Good Friends
He’d never felt like that before.
Ever.
Already, he felt like he was forming new roots, stronger ones. Like maybe this would eventually be okay and for the best. He’d had some friends in Lakeland, but most of them were in some way affiliated with the airport or with work, and most of them didn’t even know he was gay. All their kinky friends had been in Orlando or Tampa or St. Pete.
Now? It looked like he might be able to make kinky friends right there in Sarasota. That was pretty typical in Florida, too. A lot of the coastal areas were more liberal—or, at least, more accepting—than many of the inland areas. Orlando notwithstanding, since it was such a huge tourist region.
It’d be nice to feel like he could go out and be himself. Not that he had plans to march down the middle of downtown Sarasota in assless chaps and a chest harness or anything, but it’d be nice to be able to go out on a date and not worry about every little innocent PDA between him and another guy.
Who am I kidding? Like I’ll be dating anytime soon.
Gavin still hadn’t called him back. Porter knew better than to hold on to hope. He’d need to figure out how to move on, somehow.
Gavin wasn’t posting anything on social media, though. At least he hadn’t blocked Porter, or even unfriended him. Porter suspected it wasn’t a case of Gavin posting stuff on Facebook set so he couldn’t see it, because none of his friends had mentioned anything to him about it. They had dozens of friends in common. Certainly one of them would have said something.
* * * *
The next Sunday evening, Porter sat on his couch in his new efficiency apartment and stared at the boxes lining the walls of the living room.
Eh, dining room. Or…kitchen?
Correction—bedroom.
Answer D—allof the above.
This sucks.
Not that he could go back and undo any of this, but he’d long had it in his mind if he moved anytime soon, it’d be because he and Gavin bought a house together and were moving into it.
Together.
Not…this.
Not this loneliness and pain.
He still didn’t know what the hell he did wrong, but it was obvious from Gavin’s last words to him that he damn sure thoughtPorterdid something wrong.
He’d thought about e-mailing him, but wasn’t that just pushing and forcing himself onto the guy after telling him he’d go away?
At least he’d confirmed the bad feeling in his gut had been dead-on.
Again.
Unfortunately.
Hopefully this time it wouldn’t mean something as tragic as a death.
Well, the death of their relationship, but not a literal death the way it’d been with Dane.
It wasn’t even a point of pride, of wanting to “clear his rep” with Gav.
He just wanted to know what he’d done that’d been so horrible Gavin would cut him off like this after tenfrickingyears. He’d wondered if it had something to do with Jayce, but that’d be stupid. Gavin had been the one to ask himforJayce about playing. And it wasn’t like he’d fucked the guy.
Gavin wouldn’t be so petty as to hold playing with Jayce against him…would he?
No, he couldn’t believe that. That’d be completely unlike Gavin.
Tomorrow would be his first official day at his new job. He could’ve taken a week off to get settled, but…why?
