Page 110 of Make the Play
Emerson squirms beside him, clearly uncomfortable. As if reading Emerson’s unease, Andrew effectively draws everyone's attention off Emerson with one single sentence.
“Charlie’s seeing someone.”
“You are?” both their parents gasp.
“What the fuck?!” Alec yells, throwing his hands in the air. “Is everyone keeping secrets from me?”
“Thank you,” Jason mouths to Andrew, who winks at Emerson.
“You threw me under the bus,” Charlie groans, shoving Andrew like they’re thirteen and not thirty-two. “Andrew has a crush on a hockey player.”
Andrew’s cheeks flush a deep red while he turns to shoot daggers at Charlie with his glare. “I do not have a crush. I said he was aesthetically pleasing to look at. I don’t even know him.”
“You know you can have crushes on people you don’t know. You can even fuck them,” Charlie points out.
“I don’t want to fuck him,” Andrew hisses. “Besides, you’ll fuck anything or anyone so you’re not one to talk about the parameters of a crush. Which again, I do not have.”
“If you say so,” Charlie shrugs, entirely unabashed by everyone listening to this conversation.
“Was no one going to tell me anything?” Alec butts in, clearly still put out.
“I wanna know about the bet,” Jason interjects.
“Oh that,” Charlie shrugs. “We’ve all had a bet going for years about when you’d finally realize you weren’t straight and bring a guy home.”
Jason blinks, entirely unsure how to respond to this.
“To be fair, we were notallpart of the bet,” Theo clarifies.
“Theo wasn’t part of the bet because Theo would’ve told you about the bet,” Alec pipes up. “You two can’t keep secrets from each other for shit.”
Theo looks like he wants to argue then shrugs, making Jason laugh. He fucking loves his family, ridiculous antics and all.
“I think I’m going to go put on a pot of coffee,” his mom announces, reaching for his dad’s hand. “Help me,amor.”
“Of course,” he answers, following her out of the entry like a besotted teenager.
“You’re coming with me,” Alec says, grabbing Theo’s hand and dragging him towards the stairs. Jason does not want to know what they’re going to do, so he turns his attention on the twins who are back to quietly bickering.
“I can’t believe you told them about—” Charlie stops when he realizes Jason and Emerson are watching them.
“Told us about who?” Jason prompts, dying of curiosity. To his knowledge, Charlie hasn’t had a relationship in almost a decade, seemingly content to fuck his way through Southern California without care or commitment.
“No one,” Charlie answers. “By the way Emerson, you’re looking enchanting tonight. Green is really your color.”
A now familiar feeling burns in Jason’s chest that he finally recognizes as not heartburn. He frowns at Charlie. “Get your own boyfriend.”
“I don’t want a partner, thanks. I’m very happy being a manwhore.”
“Manwhore implies women are the default. You’re just a whore,” Andrew supplies with a charming smile.
Charlie opens his mouth then closes it. “Shit, you’re right. Fucking internalized misogyny.”
“Are they always like this?” Emerson whispers.
“Afraid so,” Jason replies, realizing that his brothers were on much better behavior at the tailor’s. Now that he’s brought Emerson home, he’s privy to their unfiltered chaos.
“Okay,” Emerson nods, taking it in stride.
