58. Ari
fifty-eight
Ari
“Holy shit, Luc,” I pant, crashing onto the bed behind me.
She smirks and crawls over top of me. “I love sucking your dick.”
“And I’m grateful for it,” I laugh and pull her in for a kiss. “You’re amazing.”
“Because I give incredible head?”
“Oh, your head is the best I’ve ever had, sweetheart. But you know damn well that’s not why I think you’re amazing.”
“I know,” Lucia smiles, and the light from that fills me with warmth.
I can’t believe how badly I almost screwed this up.
If I hadn’t gone to talk to the guys yesterday, I don’t know how long it would have taken me to come to the realization that, yes, I love Lucia.
I was so hellbent on not turning into my dad that I almost lost what was right in front of me.
Maybe I should thank John for being what I needed to open up my eyes.
Nah.
We ended up where we wanted, but the fucker did still ask my girl on a date. No man but me is allowed to look at her that way, so John can go touch grass.
Lucia is mine.
I wrap my arms around her and softly peck her lips. “What time are we going to Lane and Liv’s?”
“In about an hour. Gotta go early so we can all get to the stadium by noon.”
I slip my hand between our bodies and rest it between her legs. “Sounds like I have time to make you come then.”
Lucia bites her lip and moves to straddle me, spreading her legs open.
And before I can do a damn thing, my phone rings.
She laughs and looks over at the screen. “Your mom is calling.”
I groan. “How does she always manage to cockblock me?”
Lucia leans down and kisses me. “You already got your cock sucked, baby. Just make me come later.”
I nip her lip. “Fucking promise it, love.”
She rolls off of me, and I reach for my phone and bring it up to my ear after I answer it. “Hey, Eomma.”
“Good morning, Jae-Hyun,” she says happily, completely unaware of what she just interrupted.
“It’s like ten in the evening for you,” I chuckle. “You really gotta fix your sleep schedule.”
“But you awake. I just talk to you instead.” I smile and shake my head. “Your friend wake you up again?”
I sigh before throwing the phone on speaker. “Yes, Eomma. Lucia woke me up again.”
“It’s nice to talk to you again, Hye-Won.”
“My son being good?”
Lucia smirks, and I know whatever she’s about to say is far from innocent. “Jae-Hyun is a very good boy.”
My dick twitches, so I tickle her side while she laughs loudly. It just makes me smile to see her this way.
“So,” I say, cutting back into the conversation. “Lucia isn’t actually my friend anymore.”
Lucia looks at me in surprise. She must not have been expecting me to tell my mom yet.
“Girlfriend?” my mom asks, and I can hear the excitement in her tone.
I take Lucia’s hand in mine. “Yeah, Eomma. As of last night, Lucia is my girlfriend.”
She screeches from the other side. “We TimeFace now, Jae-Hyun.”
She hangs up the phone immediately, and I can’t help but laugh. Her FaceTime call comes through a moment later.
“Uh, you might want to get some clothes on, Luc.”
“You too, Ari. Not sure your mom wants to see your dick and all the jewelry it wears.”
We quickly throw on some clothing—me just a pair of athletic shorts, Lucia a pair of panties and that hoodie she stole from me.
When we’re both covered up, we lean back against my headboard, I throw my arm around her, and I finally answer the call.
“Hello, Eomma.”
“It’s nice to finally see you, Hye-Won.” Lucia’s voice is so warm and inviting.
“Jae-Hyun,” my mother gasps. “She gorgeous.”
Lucia actually blushes and turns her face into my shoulder. I kiss the top of her head. “She is gorgeous, isn’t she?”
“Thank you,” Lucia says. “That’s very sweet.”
“You love her?”
“Very much,” I smile. “Just took a while to finally see what was in front of me.”
Lucia beams at me, and for the moment, we’re in our own little bubble.
A bubble that gets popped as soon as my mom screeches again.
“I happy, Jae-Hyun.” My mom’s smile stretches from ear to ear. “You give me grandbabies now?”
Lucia throws her head back and howls in laughter.
“Jesus, Eomma,” I sigh. “We’ve been together for less than a day.”
Sure, we both dream about getting her pregnant, but my mom doesn’t need to know that. She can find out when Lucia actually is.
“No babies right now,” Lucia chuckles. “Maybe one day.”
I’ve been so open with Lucia lately that I don’t even register what I say to my mom next.
“What would you be asking if I ended up with a man?”
“I ask when you adopt and give me grandbabies.”
Lucia looks at me in shock, and that’s when it registers.
“Wait, you didn’t even hesitate with that answer, Eomma.”
She shrugs. “I know my son, Jae-Hyun.”
I stare at her, dumbfounded. “So you know…”
“That you like boys?” she smiles. “Yes. You my son, and I know my son.”
I shake my head in disbelief while Lucia grins at me. “I know you didn’t mean to say that, but I’m so proud of you for telling her.”
The conversation carries on, but I hardly hear a thing.
I just opened up again. Unintentionally, but there’s one less person I’m hiding from.
And it feels really damn good.
Maybe I don’t need to keep hiding from everyone.
“I cannot believe our friends are making us come over this early,” I grumble as Lucia and I ride the elevator up to Lane and Liv’s penthouse.
“Really?” Lucia deadpans. “You can’t believe our friends who always teased us about getting together would set something up the day after we do so they can see it?”
I rest my head against the back of the elevator and laugh. “We should just ready ourselves for the interrogation.”
“We’ll do it together,” she smiles, taking hold of my hand. “We’ll be just fine.”
The elevator stops, and the doors open right into the penthouse. Lucia and I step off, still hand in hand, and pause when we find literally every one of our friends just staring at us.
Lucia squeezes my hand, and we continue to walk inside, joining them in the living room.
“Could you be a little less creepy?” I ask, taking an open spot on the sofa. Lucia yelps and laughs when I pull her down onto my lap.
“We’ve literally all been waiting for this to finally happen,” Cole says.
“And now it’s happened,” Lucia shrugs. “Staring at us like we’re a spectacle won’t change that.”
“Uh uh,” Ella pipes in. “We’re so not going to just let you two off the hook right now. We’ve waited years for you two to even be friends, much less anything more.”
“What happened after we left yesterday?” Harlow looks on with rapt attention.
I sigh. “I came home and asked her not to go on the date.”
“He begged me not to go on the date,” Lucia teases.
I pinch her side. “I’m not too proud to beg, baby. Not when it comes to you.”
“You should’ve seen him yesterday, Luc,” Lane chuckles before turning to Sage and urging her to go play in her bedroom. “I’ve never seen someone sulk so hard.”
“Dick,” I chide under my breath.
Lucia rests her palm on my cheek. “He was just a little dense.”
“Even my own girlfriend is going to give me shit?”
“Girlfriend?!” Rory exclaims.
“Didn’t think we actually had to spell that out,” I laugh.
“I mean, we literally walked in holding hands,” Lucia adds.
Olive sighs happily. “I’m so glad to see you get what you wanted, Luc. You were so torn up yesterday.”
I look at my girlfriend and smirk. “You were torn up over me, huh?”
“Obviously. I thought you were going to let me walk away.”
“I would’ve come to my senses eventually.”
Knox snickers. “You didn’t even come to your senses yesterday until Cole yelled at you that you were jealous.”
Lucia looks at me mischievously. “You were jealous of John?”
“Fuck yes, I was jealous of him,” I admit. “He asked my girl on a date.”
Josh smirks. “She wasn’t your girl yet, though.”
“Okay, we get it,” I chide. “Lucia was at home, upset; I went over to Cole’s and threw myself a pity party. It all worked out in the end.”
“It’s so nice to see you guys together,” Harlow smiles.
“Ari’s a one-woman man now,” Josh chuckles.
Lane adds, “Never thought I’d see him stop looking for women every time we went out.”
Lucia squeezes my hand softly to comfort me. Not at the reference to my past; I’m open about who I used to be. It’s not who I am now, but I’m not ashamed of who I was.
What does make me a bit uneasy, though, is the mention of women. Of the nine other people in this room, only two of them know about my attraction to men, too.
I inadvertently came out to my mom earlier, and it felt great.
I wonder if I’ll get the same feeling again.
“So, uh… about the whole ‘women’ thing…”
Cole looks over at me in surprise, but Lucia gives me a soft smile. It’s enough to calm my racing nerves.
I take a deep breath before I let it all out.
“It was never just women.”
They look at me in curiosity, and Ella speaks up. “What does that mean?”
“We all know that I slept around, but it wasn’t just women… I’m bi.”
“Shit,” Knox says in surprise. “We had no idea.”
“I was only out to a couple of people. I told Cole way back when we were still in the Huskers’ farm system, and I told Lucia last month. Accidentally came out to my mom this morning, though.”
“We never made you feel like you couldn’t come out, did we?” Harlow asks nervously.
“No, not at all,” I reply quickly. “There’s still such a stigma around it. I just wanted to be Ari Morgan, the baseball player, not Ari Morgan, the bisexual baseball player. It would become my identity, and I’m more than my sexuality.”
“The stigma around it is so stupid,” Liv states in annoyance. “My sister is a lesbian, and the amount of hate she and her wife receive is appalling.”
Rory looks on with a mischievous smile. “Did Cole know because you hit on him when you met?”
I bark out a laugh as Cole sighs. “I never hit on Cole. We just clicked when we met, and I knew I could trust him.”
“Yeah, but I’m still hot enough for him to have hit on me,” Cole smirks.
I shrug. “Yeah, you’re not too bad, Pierce.” I squeeze Lucia’s hand. “I’m good with my girl, though.”
“It seems like I need to amend my earlier statement,” Josh says. “Ari is now a one- person man.”
“Thank you for sharing that with us, Ari.” Ella’s tone is sweet and comforting.
“I’m proud of you, man,” Cole smiles.
“I’m proud of you, too, Jae-Hyun,” Lucia whispers before kissing me softly.
Not re-signing in Atlanta two and a half years ago was the best decision I’ve ever made.
The group of friends I have here is so supportive, and I now get to share my life with the most incredible woman.
I fucking love New York.