Chapter Seventeen
My new job is surprisingly awesome, or at least my team is, and that makes going to work enjoyable. I’ve worked for this particular national retail chain for a few years, climbing the ladder from store management to area management and now to the Merchandise Planning team at head office.
At first, I wasn’t certain I’d made the right decision in taking the promotion, but in the weeks since I’ve been here, I’m glad to realize that I did.
But it’s not until a month or so into the job that I’m asked to work closely with the team leader of the Project Management division, an affable guy named Chance.
We click from the moment we meet, which makes our jobs even easier. I’m supposed to be helping him prioritize which merch will work best for his current project —the revamp of one of our east coast stores— but we end up shooting the shit over our shared interests in the process.
By the end of our third day working together, I can comfortably say I’ve made my first real friend in the city. We’ve exchanged numbers and even made plans to grab a beer and a casual meal after work.
“Mind if I bring my boyfriend?” he asks me, and I blink at him in surprise. His face falls.
Shit.
“No, no, no,” I hurry to try to explain, watching as his bushy red eyebrows get closer together with his deepening scowl. “I’m gay, man. I just wasn’t expecting you to be gay. Or bi. Or…whatever.”
And this is why I struggle to make friends outside of the kink community where we literally all wear our hearts on our sleeves. Because, seriously, ‘I wasn’t expecting you to be gay’? What the actual fuck is coming out of my mouth? I know better than to stereotype or assume things about people.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I sigh. “Sorry. I clearly left the last of my braincells at home today.”
Chance’s shoulders have loosened and he’s smirking at me.
“You’re not living this down, dude, that’s for sure.
” He waits a beat. “So, you’re cool with my boyfriend tagging along?
” He cocks his head and rubs at his scruffy red beard.
“Do you have a guy you wanna invite? We could double date.” Glancing down at the phone in his hand he cringes.
“Or, like, quadruple date? Some of my other friends also want to meet up for beers and wings. One of our buddies owns a food truck. We mooch there before hitting the club.”
With the realization that he doesn’t think I’m an awkward disaster and I’m still invited out, I nod. “The more the merrier. And a food truck sounds like a pretty cool investment, but a lot of work. Does it do well for your friend?”
Chance snorts. “When he’s not letting us eat all his profits, yeah. But he writes romance novels as a side hustle, too. And his boyfriend —my best friend— narrates them. It’s a sweet set-up they’ve got going for them.”
My eyes widen, fascinated by their unconventional jobs. “I have so many questions.”
Chance types away at his phone again, then squints at me from across his desk. The door to his office is closed, but I watch as he looks across at it as if to check before squinting at me again. “How open-minded are you?”
***
Two hours later, I am sitting at a picnic table in the brightly lit patch of parking lot behind The Grove, marveling at my luck. The coincidence of Chance being a Daddy like me and having a bunch of friends in the local kink community has blown my mind.
It feels a bit like fate.
Meant to be.
And his friends are just as welcoming and friendly as he is.
The guys he told me about, Tony and Spencer, are the couple who own the food truck and write and produce kinky gay romance books and audiobooks.
Tony’s a Little and kind of shy, which I think is adorable, and Spencer is a tall, lanky guy with a crazy mop of dark hair.
He’s also Tony’s Daddy, and watching them together reminds me of Connor and the Littles he met at camp.
Another couple, Ted and Zephyr, are equally cool.
Ted’s older than me by about a decade, and Zephyr might be a little bit younger than me, but they haven’t stopped giving each other heart-eyes since they turned up.
Ted’s a lawyer, he tells me during our introductory small talk, and Zephyr is a dance teacher, which I think fits their whole vibe.
Especially with willowy Zephyr wearing a very pretty dress that shows off his long legs.
He’s got a gorgeous southern accent, too, and calls Ted ‘Daddy’ in a playful, teasing tone that makes me think of Benji.
Then Chance’s boyfriend, Kade, turns up and that doesn’t do much to stop me from thinking about the Boy that got away, either, because where Zephyr’s sassy, playful air sounds like Benji, Kade actually looks like Benji.
He’s got similar white-blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and is just as pretty and twink-like.
“You okay?” Chance asks after he’s introduced us. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I give myself a shake and nod. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. Sorry.” I sigh, then smile ruefully at Kade. “You remind me of someone, is all.”
Kade smiles back at me, a knowing glint in his eye and a touch of melancholy in the twist of his lips.
“A Boy?” he asks gently. When I just nod, he says, “This might be overstepping, but I know a little something about missed connections and regrets. That’s kind of what was” —he gestures with an open palm over my face— “painted all over your expression when you saw me. Plus, Chance said you’ve moved here from the other side of the country only recently.
And, look, I know we’ve only just met, but this whole group is very… ”
“Involved,” Ted deadpans while Kade searches for the right word.
Snapping his fingers before pointing in Ted’s direction, Kade nods. “Yes. Involved. So, if you want to talk about it, we’re all good listeners. Plus, we get the kink side, too.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve gotten to meddle in a new friend’s happily ever after,” Zephyr adds with a grin, leaning forward over the table with excitement glimmering in his eyes. “Seeing as everyone we know is all partnered up and locked down.”
Chance snorts, glancing at me apologetically. “I did try to warn you that we’re a lot, right?”
I can only grin back at him. Honestly, I’m touched that this group has welcomed me so readily into their fold. It lessens the sting of missing Connor, Dan, and Sophie back home. In fact, listening to these guys bicker and tease each other feels a lot like hanging out with my old friends.
“I won’t bore you with my woes,” I eventually answer, once the tightness in my throat has eased a bit. “At least, not tonight.”
What kind of a first impression would I make if I spent this first meet-up talking about a Boy I only knew for a couple of days, no matter what kind of lasting impact that short time had on me.
“Tones, you should booze up his thickshake,” Zephyr teases, shooting me a wink. “That might loosen his lips a bit.”
Tony shakes his head and cuddles into Spence’s side. “I feel like that’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.”
Zephyr chuckles and pats Ted’s forearm. “Lucky my Daddy’s a lawyer, huh?”
“He’s not a criminal lawyer,” Tony responds, frowning a little.
Spence kisses the top of his short, dark hair. “Zeph’s just joking, sweetheart.”
Tony’s cheeks turn a bit pink. “Oh. Sorry.” He slouches and, to me, explains, “I can miss things like irony and sarcasm sometimes. Jokes go over my head a lot. Just in case you ever make one and I don’t get it. It’s not you, it’s me.”
His Daddy cuddles him closer and I want to know so much more about their story.
It might just distract me from my own ridiculous wallowing.
“There’s nothing wrong with not getting jokes,” I reply with a shrug, earning a short, appreciative nod from Spencer.
“And a lot of mine are just me being silly anyway.”
“All the best Daddies are,” Kade says sagely, giving Chance a nudge with his elbow.
Chance smiles indulgently back at him. “Spoken like a true brat,” he tickles Kade’s sides for emphasis, making him squawk indignantly.
“I was being nice!”
Smiling to myself, I eat my wings and listen as the group bickers and chats, occasionally answering questions as they’re thrown my way.
There’s no pressure from this group, even though some of their questions are a bit personal for a first meeting.
Then again, interactions inside the kink community do generally tend to get intense pretty quickly.
That’s probably why I’m still mooning over Benji.
Despite having zero intentions to make any serious connections at that camp, my heart went ahead and got attached anyway.
I can’t really blame it.
Even in a community like this, finding someone who ticks all your boxes and then some doesn’t happen every day. I wasn’t looking for a relationship, but I would have liked to at least stay in touch with the guy whose interests and personality were so compatible with my own.
Ah well. That ship sailed weeks ago. It’s time to stop mourning what might have been and start looking towards the future.
Laughing at the conversation taking place around me, I can’t help but think that that future might not be as lonely as I imagined when I first moved here.