Chapter 3 #3
The elevator opened, and an older couple stood there.
Their eyes went wide at the sight of him shirtless.
Sighing, he climbed on and turned his back to them.
As the elevator doors closed, he slid the backpack down and pulled out a pack of wet wipes and hand sanitizer.
Once his hands were relatively clean, he dragged on his t-shirt.
Without a backwards glance, he rushed off the elevator as soon as it hit the lobby.
It took an hour and a half, as well as a train change, before he made it back home to Eastfield.
When he arrived at his apartment above the shop, he immediately took a shower, wishing he could wash the image of Anton from his mind.
He pulled on pajama bottoms, collapsed on the couch, and turned on ESPN.
The door downstairs opened and closed. Jude tensed.
Anton soon appeared at the top of the stairs.
Jude couldn’t look at him. He focused on the television without hearing a word said.
Anton walked closer, reached for the remote, and turned it off.
Awkward silence stretched between them for a few seconds. Jude continued staring at the black tv screen.
“Why’d you run out of there like the apartment was on fire?”
“Because,” Jude said, waving a hand toward Anton. “No one wants to witness their brother getting railed.”
“We aren’t brothers. And you know I’m bi.”
“While you know just about everything about me, sharing what my come face looks like isn’t something I ever planned to show you,” Jude said.
Anton chuckled as he sat down on the coffee table facing Jude. “I didn’t know you went to parties like that.”
Jude scoffed. “As if I knew you did?”
Silence stretched again.
“It’s recent,” Jude said. “A guy I’ve fucked around with on Grindr invited to me to my first a few months back. I’ve only been to a couple more since.”
“I started going a few years back,” Anton replied. He paused a moment, but Jude sensed he wanted to say more. “I stopped when I started seeing Liza but started up again when we broke up."
“Ah,” Jude said.
“I’d appreciate it if you kept it to yourself about me bottoming.”
Jude’s gaze whipped to Anton’s. “Do you really think I’m going to tell someone, Ant?”
Anton shrugged. “I know you wouldn’t, but it felt like it needed to be said anyway.
” Anton paused, rubbing his palms down his thighs.
“Some women are uncomfortable when they find out I’m bi.
They almost always assume I’m a top and I don’t tell them otherwise.
” Anton sighed. “In my experience, women tend to freak out when they find out you’ve bottomed. A top, they can stomach, it seems.”
“Sounds like heteronormative bullshit to me.” Jude said.
Jude didn’t want to admit he was surprised learning Anton bottomed because it was the same heteronormative bullshit that had led him to that assumption. It didn’t help that most bi guys he knew personally were tops.
Anton chuckled. “Heteronormative bullshit. I wish I’d used that with Liza.”
Jude frowned.
“A few months back, Liza walked in on me under a guy. She said I was less of a man in her eyes after that. In her mind, I’d taken the woman’s role in bed.”
“Fuck her,” Jude said. “Just because you bottom doesn’t mean you’re not a man.”
“I know that, but… a lot of people think the same way.”
“Is that why you two split?” Jude asked. “Her walking in on you?”
“Nah. This was a few weeks after the breakup.”
“Wait… How did she catch you in the act after she moved out?” Jude asked.
“She had an extra key.”
Jude shook his head. “I hope you got that back.”
“Yeah, and changed the locks just in case,” Anton replied.
“She said she’d recently found it and was only there to drop it off, but I sensed it was more than that.
She was all decked out… wearing this slinky dress I’d always liked and the perfume I’d bought her.
I think she had plans to win me back and finding me ass up in bed stopped it from happening. ”
“Good,” Jude said. “She wasn’t good people and doesn’t deserve you.”
“Which she proved time and time again.” Anton shrugged. “I’m amazed it hasn’t spread all over town already. I suspected she’d talk, but maybe it was too embarrassing for her.”
“I haven’t heard anything, but I don’t really see much of her crowd,” Jude said. He noticed the worry in Anton’s eyes. “If it gets out, the people who matter won’t care, you know?”
“I know, but seeing you race out of there like that… My mind went to what she said and… I guess I worried you thought it, too,” Anton said.
Guilt stabbed Jude in the chest. No way had he meant for Anton to take his reaction that way.
“Ant… did you not see what I was doing when you noticed me?”
“I did, but I wasn’t exactly being logical in that moment,” Anton said, the corners of his lips suddenly curling up. “Two?”
“Can we please pretend you didn’t see anything?” Jude closed his eyes and scrubbed his face. He dropped his hands to his lap and sighed. “I’m sorry if I upset you. I just… it felt wrong. Like walking in on your parents having sex level wrong.”
“I get that,” Anton said. “Not gonna lie, I was a bit thrown, too, but mostly because I had no idea you bottomed. You give off top energy.”
“I assumed the same about you.”
Silence stretched for a few seconds, but it wasn’t uncomfortable like it had been earlier.
“Us crossing paths was bound to happen, you know? Especially if we’re both being cumdumps at parties,” Anton said.
Jude lifted a brow. “Can’t be a cumdump if you make them wear condoms.”
“True,” Anton said. “Just so you know, I’m not freaked out seeing you get yours, but I can respect if you don’t want to see me get mine.
If you plan to go to another party, maybe let me know and I’ll do the same…
if we’re both invited to the same one, we can make sure only one of us goes,” Anton said.
“If we have to, you can go to one, I’ll go to the next. ”
“I’d appreciate that,” Jude said.
Anton leveled his gaze at Jude. “We good now?”
“Of course,” Jude said. “Wanna beer?”
Anton grinned. “Yeah.”
Jude grabbed the remote and turned the television back on. “You know where they are. Go get one.”
Anton punched him softly on the thigh. “Asshole.”
“Always,” Jude said, adding a cheesy grin.
Anton rose and walked to the kitchen.
“Grab me one while you’re in there, will you, sweetie?” Jude called over his shoulder.
“Keep playing,” Anton said, humor in his voice. “I’m going to kick your ass.”
“Like to see you try,” Jude said.
Anton marched back in and handed him a bottle. With the cap still on. It wasn’t the twist-off kind. “You bring the bottle opener with you?”
Anton sat down beside him and took a long sip from his bottle. He lowered it and made a dramatic, “ahhhh…” like it was the best beer he’d had in his life. He turned to look at Jude. “Oh? A bottle opener?” He took another quick sip. “You know where it is. Go get it.”
Jude barked with laughter. “Who’s the asshole now?”
He rose and patted the side of Anton’s cheek while passing.
Once he’d opened his beer, he returned to sit beside Anton, glad his best friend was sometimes his polar opposite.
Anton never let beef sit and fester—though that night wasn’t exactly beef.
Where Jude ran from drama, Anton confronted it and cleared the air.
It was probably the only reason they were still so close after all their years as friends.
Jude would’ve fucked things up long ago.
He turned to look at Anton. “You know I love you, right?”
Anton grinned, never taking his eyes from the screen. “I know and back at ya.”
Jude turned to watch the tv, propping his feet on the coffee table.
“I am so sore. Tomorrow’s going to be hell,” Anton muttered.
Jude chuckled. “Lightweight.”
“That dude was huge,” Anton said.
Damn… maybe I should’ve fucked him instead of Scott.
Anton sighed. “I thought I could, but I was struggling.” He took a long drag from the bottle. “I’m sure you’re sore, too. Maybe we should cancel with Roan?”
“The only time we cancel Sundays is for bad weather and holidays,” Jude said. He eyed Anton. “I hardly see him anymore as it is. Don’t cancel.”
“You’d see him more if you made things right with his wife,” Anton said.
Jude glared at Anton.
“You know I’m right,” Anton said.
“I didn’t do anything!”
“Well, that’s not exactly true, either, now is it?” Anton asked.
“I’ll get around to it,” Jude muttered. “But we’re not canceling tomorrow.”
“I’ll just suffer through, I guess.”
Jude nodded. “Yep.”
Anton sighed, shaking his head. “Seriously, are you not sore? Two, Jude…”
“Are you judging me?”
“No… I’m in awe.”
Jude chuckled, shaking his head.