I gave him a strained laugh. “All play and no work makes you Jeremy Wyatt.”
Adam chuckled and clasped me on the shoulder. “Well played, my friend. Come on, I’m just getting the meat on the grill. This will probably be the last decent weekend of the year, so I went all out. I have enough food to feed an army, so I hope you brought your appetite.”
“I could quite literally eat a horse,” I told him honestly. I was starving. The show had gone for much longer than they usually did. After the first thirty minutes, the customer messaged offering me more money. A lot more money. They wanted a different kind of show. One that I didn’t offer unless it was to a regular client. But the payment was due for Sam’s residential facility in two weeks. And Mom’s mortgage had yet to be paid for the month. The anonymous customer offered five thousand dollars.
So, I took them up on it. All they wanted was to watch me masturbate.
I laid on the floor and thought about Skylar. It was the easiest five grand I had ever made in my life.
“Good. What’s this?” Adam asked, indicating the bakery box in my hand.
“It’s Tiramisu cake from the Dandelion Bakery downtown,” I told him.
“Oh, you’re about to become Skylar’s favorite person. She would live off this stuff if you let her.” Adam took the box as we headed toward the back of the house to the patio.
“I know,” I said without thinking. Adam gave me a funny look but didn’t say anything. He was a good friend but was pretty much oblivious to anything that didn’t involve his work or his family. He knew that I had spent quite a bit of time with Skylar a few months ago but had never really questioned me about it. He had never known me to date in all the years we had been friends. He and Jeremy asked me several times if I were gay, that they would be perfectly fine if I was, but that they hoped I’d be open to telling them if they were.
I had assured them that if I were into guys, they’d be the first I’d tell.
We walked through the kitchen out to the back yard where I could see Adam’s massive grill smoking. Meg and Sky were playing with Tyler on the swing set. Both women looked up as we arrived.
“He finally showed up. I guess I can call off the search team,” Adam announced, setting the cake down on the patio table.
Meg came over immediately and gave me a long, strawberry-scented hug. “You look tired. You need to take better care of yourself,” she lectured. Adam’s wife was one of those people who worried about everyone else all the time. Being a single guy living on my own, she seemed to think I lived off Ramen noodles. She didn’t seem to believe me when I told her that I often cooked meals for myself and that I actually enjoyed it.
“The man doesn’t know when to stop, Meg. He works more than I do,” Adam quipped, grabbing a beer from the cooler and popped the top. He handed it to me, which I accepted gratefully. I noticed that Skylar hadn’t joined us. She continued to push Adam and Meg’s son on the swing, higher and higher as he squealed in delight.
“Well, no shop talk tonight you two. I think it’s wonderful that you all are so invested in your jobs, but it’s a little boring to those outside of the lawyer circle,” Meg said, making a face.
“Fine. But you and Skylar are forbidden from discussing that reality dating show the two of you are addicted to,” Adam warned.
Meg stuck out her tongue at her husband before turning back to me and looping her arm with mine. “Come with me and say hi to Skylar.” She pulled me along toward her friend.
“Sky and Tyler, look who's here!” Meg called out.
Her son flailed his chubby arms in greeting and Skylar gave me a halfhearted wave.
The tension radiating between us was so noticeable I was surprised Adam and Meg weren’t commenting on it.
“It’s been a while since the two of you hung out, right?” Meg asked. Skylar glared at her and I got the impression that Meg would get an earful later. Adam’s wife gave a “what?” look to her friend.
“Yeah, it’s been a few months. By the way, Sky, I got that Bruce Lee box set finally,” I said, trying to make small talk, wanting to bridge the gap between us in any way that I could.
“Oh yeah? That took a long time to get here.” Skylar went back to pushing Tyler on the swing, her back to me. She wasn’t going to make conversation between us easy, that’s for sure.