Chapter Eleven #4
Wyatt’s dislike of the man grew exponentially. He hadn’t been hiding; he was in charge of the food for this party so if he disappeared to take care of something, he shouldn’t need an excuse. And now he was being forced to present one.
“This your new guy?” a gorgeous African-American guy with dreads and kind eyes asked.
On cue, Ryan walked over to Wyatt, and finally Eric let him go—probably only because it was Ryan’s turn to take over. Except that Ryan didn’t eagerly walk over, excited to introduce his new boyfriend to his friends. He practically dragged his feet and his whole persona exuded reluctance.
“Yeah, this is Wyatt.”
Wyatt couldn’t explain it. Ryan had kissed him in the middle of the grocery store. He’d hardly been private about it. Never mind that this was all his idea. Wyatt was only playing the part that he’d been asked to play.
Ryan leaned and gave him a quick, perfunctory kiss that didn’t resemble anything like one he’d given Wyatt before the party.
Wyatt told himself that he was thinking too much; if Ryan was a little apprehensive over this whole charade, that was fine.
It wasn’t like Wyatt himself hadn’t had a few anxious moments.
This was a big deal, and the very first time.
It would get better, and Ryan would seem less stiff and less like he wanted to be somewhere else—or with someone else.
“Picture,” Eric demanded, and while Wyatt wanted to refuse, he didn’t.
It was easy enough for him to wrap his arms around Ryan and press a loud kiss to his cheek as the camera clicked, because he wasn’t playing a role. Ryan let him, even leaning in a little, and the soft look in his eyes as Wyatt pulled away made him think that maybe he’d imagined the whole thing.
“Hi, I’m Andrew,” the handsome man said, reaching out to shake his hand, acting like this was all normal. “I’m happy that Ryan’s finally met someone. Where did you meet, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Temple, actually,” Ryan said quickly. “Can you believe it?”
If Andrew looked a little more disbelieving now, it wasn’t like Wyatt could blame him. Nobody ever met a boyfriend at Temple. Found hookups, yeah, but long-term happy relationships, rarely.
“You should go with me sometime,” Ryan added.
This time Andrew looked at him weirdly. “You’re still going to Temple? By yourself?”
Of course he wouldn’t be. You went to Temple alone or with a group of friends to find a hookup. And Ryan didn’t need a hookup if he had a boyfriend at home.
“We like to dance,” Wyatt covered for Ryan, who was just standing there, silent.
“Then maybe I will,” Andrew said. He seemed nice and very friendly, and Wyatt thought they might be friends, except that he had a feeling Ryan wouldn’t be on board with that plan.
He couldn’t say why, exactly, though the reason probably lay with the guarded look in Ryan’s eyes.
“I’ve got to go check on the food,” Wyatt said, excusing himself. “But it was great to meet you.”
Wyatt rarely checked his social media accounts and rarely posted on them.
That hadn’t stopped Eric’s “communications manager” from vetting all of them, even though he had nothing to hide.
He’d been reminded by Eric three times tonight that he would be expected to start posting, beginning with tonight and for the foreseeable future.
So when he checked the tri-tip, he took a pic of the grill, and posted to Instagram. He was still a chef, and food had always figured so prominently in his posts before. He figured it would be good to keep things normal.
He did notice that several people had taken pics of him, and tagged him in them.
One of the posters was Andrew, who was apparently a third baseman for the Dodgers.
Andrew, who Wyatt was about sixty-five percent sure was gay and still in the closet, had tagged him in the picture of him and Ryan, and called them the “cutest couple I know #relationshipgoals.”
They weren’t relationship goals. They could barely speak to each other out here in the yard, though everything had felt perfectly fine before they’d walked out here. Wyatt fought back the inclination to announce that the party was over, and drag Ryan back in the house, where everything made sense.
“Hey.”
Wyatt glanced up and Ryan was standing there, an apology in his eyes.
“Everything okay?” Wyatt asked, keeping his voice light and casual. They were still figuring this fake relationship out, and balancing it with their private lives. That was hard. They wouldn’t get it right instantly.
“That was weird back there,” Ryan confessed. “I knew we were going to do it, I just didn’t think it through.”
“It’s okay, I think everyone assumed it was normal,” Wyatt said.
“Yeah,” Ryan grinned, “because you’re a stealth ninja and you slipped that line in about liking to dance. I thought I’d blown it big-time.”
So Ryan wasn’t really apologizing—or not apologizing—for his general standoffish behavior, but for accidentally inviting Andrew to Temple without Wyatt.
Still, he was here and he was sorry. Even if he hadn’t said it explicitly.
“A ninja, huh?” Wyatt grinned. “I love the sound of that.”
Ryan leaned in and kissed him, this time nothing perfunctory or quick. He even slipped in a little tongue, wrapping his arm firmly around Wyatt’s waist. It was easy to forgive him when he kissed like that—like Wyatt was his whole world and this wasn’t a charade at all.
“Food’s almost done?” Ryan asked, stroking a hand up and down his back. “Smells awesome.”
“Yeah, could you go grab the cold salads? You might need an extra pair of hands. Then we can get ready to slice this in a few minutes.”
Ryan nodded, and took off, collecting Cal to help.
It was so easy to forget the early uncomfortableness in the low-key excitement of the party as the food was served, everyone gathering family style around a big table Ryan had set up outside in the yard.
He took about twenty selfies, and from his constantly vibrating phone in his back pocket, assumed most of them had been posted and he’d been tagged.
The party started slowing down a few hours later, even though Ryan had lit the fire pit.
Wyatt had gravitated towards it, lounging against a bench seat, with a beer dangling in his hand.
He felt so mellow, like nothing could disturb his much-won peace.
A few people had stopped by to chat, including Tabitha and Andrew.
When Ryan slid in next to him, his arm going around his shoulders, Wyatt assumed the party was mostly over.
“It went well, don’t you think?” Ryan asked.
He sounded just about as relaxed as Wyatt felt, and he couldn’t help but be relieved at that.
He’d worried that Ryan would stay uptight, but that hadn’t happened.
He’d relaxed into the role, and even though he didn’t act exactly as he did when they were alone, it was close enough that Wyatt wasn’t going to angst about it.
“I think it went great,” Wyatt said honestly.
“Eric said a few outlets have already picked it up. They all think you’re very cute and that we’re very cute together.”
“Well, that doesn’t feel too far from the truth,” Wyatt said smugly.
“Even TMZ posted,” Ryan said.
“Who’s TMZ?”
Ryan laughed. “I think we did forget one thing tonight, though.” He held up his phone. “We didn’t take a selfie together to cement our very cute couple-ship.”
“I took about a thousand selfies,” Wyatt protested.
“So, what’s one more?” Ryan pointed out.
Which is how they ended up with a very cute picture on Ryan’s Instagram—the palms and twinkly lights of the backyard in the background, with the glow of the fire pit reflected in their faces, pressed closely together.
“I’m going to caption this #bestnightever,” Ryan announced.
“You don’t think that’s a bit of an exaggeration?” Wyatt asked lazily. He was dreaming about bed. Ryan’s or his—he wasn’t sure he cared at the moment. It had been a long day.
“I don’t, actually.” Ryan’s voice sounded serious, devoid of any teasing edge, and Wyatt thought that he might actually be telling the truth.