art, but a start nonetheless. Have we heard back from Stephen Morgan yet? Or any of the others?”
Jeremy startled before tearing his gaze away from my mouth and shaking his head. “Not yet. Probably later on in the week. I’ll keep on them, just to be sure.” He frowned as he looked down at his computer. “Would it be bad if I left Brad out of our thank-you response?”
“Absolutely not,” Marina said, grinning fiercely. “Because from what you’ve told me, fuck that guy.”
FRIDAY MORNING, Jeremy decided to up his game.
All I was doing was deep-throating another banana, so it absolutely wasn’t my fault.
I should have known I was in trouble when I saw him jogging with a water bottle, something I’d never seen him do before.
I choked on the banana when he stopped again on the opposite side of the street, tilted his head back, and poured the water on his face, rivulets dripping down his neck and chest and stomach.
I sprayed banana all over the window.
He smirked before he jogged off again.
Thankfully I managed to clean it up before Sandy stumbled into the kitchen.
“OH NO,” I said as the cable for my phone charger slipped from my fingers behind my desk. “I’m such a klutz.” I bent over the desk slowly, only because the desk was old and I didn’t want to break it. The space between the wall and the desk was small, and it took me forever to get it out. I grunted and groaned in absolute frustration. “Of all the things. Oh. Oh, I almost got it. Just gotta pull on it a little bit harder. There. Right there. Oh, here it comes. Here it comes!”
I heard the door to the office slam. I glanced back over my shoulder to see Jeremy had left what remained of his lunch behind. Poor guy. I hoped everything was all right.
IT WAS easy to fuck with each other since we weren’t actually fucking each other. And while we kept it mostly out of sight (we weren’t that stupid; impressionable kids and all that), it was escalating toward something I didn’t know if I was in control of any longer. August stretched out before us, hot and dry, and the days were moving by so damn slowly.
But we kept a certain distance. While we skirted the boundaries, we never crossed them. Jeremy knew how important Phoenix House was to me, not just because of what it would mean in terms of my education.
And he understood what it meant when, on certain mornings, I came out wearing heels and makeup. He would smile at me, and it would be softer, somehow. Less wild. We didn’t play our games those days because it wasn’t something I wanted. Oh, there was still the thrill of the unknown, of what the future might bring for both of us, but it was… different, somehow. I was still having a hard time believing that I could be whoever I needed to be and it didn’t matter to him. I had learned to live with it a long time ago, but it was still nerve-racking at times.
He didn’t go out of his way to reassure me about anything. We didn’t talk about us that way. But I didn’t think we needed to, and I didn’t need to hear from him that it didn’t matter if I was Corey or Kori. I was working through it on my own, and he was giving me the space to do so. We had time, though as the summer stretched on, whatever we were going to be was getting closer, come what may.
Classes started at the university the last week of August, and we were both gearing up for the school year. The kids were doing the same.
I had already made plans to return to Phoenix House as much as I was able, but it was clear I wouldn’t be here as much as I was now. A lot of the kids told me how bummed they were about it, and I was touched. I hadn’t expected to have them mean as much to me as they did.
Which meant, of course, things went awry.
Spectacularly so.
Twice, in fact.
One was my fault.
The other was his.
IN THE second week of August, we got an unplanned visitor. I was with Marina in the front with some of the others, making plans for the Tucson Pride Parade next month. Marina had already entered Phoenix House to walk the route, and she had ideas for a float she wanted to share with the rest of us.
I’d gone last year, and it had been great, though I hadn’t actually been in the parade. Helena had, of course, sat in the back of a fancy convertible, regally waving at her subjects while twinks from Jack It danced behind her, wearing only the tiniest of briefs. Mike had offered to let me be on the float too (“Add a bit of variety”), but I’d told him plainly that he could go fuck himself. And while Pride had always been loud and boisterous, this year felt different. There was an edge to a lot of us, worry about our futures.
But that’s the funny thing about fear: the more you try to scare us, the more we’re going to kick your fucking ass.
And kicking someone’s ass was the first thought I had when the front door to Phoenix House opened and a man I recognized stepped in.
He smiled cheerfully, waving as he walked toward us. He was wearing what could only be described as a power suit, and it was cut perfectly to his heavy frame.
“Hey,” Griffin said. “Sorry to bother all of you. I’m actually looking for Jeremy. Is he in?” He held up a sack I hadn’t noticed he was carrying. “I was downtown for a meeting and figured I’d stop in and surprise him with some lunch if he wasn’t too busy.”
“Griffin,” I said as politely as possible. Marina glanced at me, so she must have heard the cracks in my tone. “It’s nice to see you again.”