After Christian’s class dispersed, Shea helped him clean up so that they could get out of there faster. They then went to a quiet little Italian restaurant and had a delicious dinner. Finally, after Shea paid for dinner, they were on their way to the movies.
Shea pulled into the movie theater parking lot and pulled his truck into one of the spaces. They both got out and headed towards the doors. Shea reached over and grabbed Christian’s hand, lacing their fingers together. Christian turned a surprised and wary glance at their hands before looking at Shea.
“What are you doing?” Christian asked and tried to take his hand back.
Shea frowned. “I’m holding my boyfriend’s hand.”
“But…but what if we see someone we know?” Christian hissed.
Shea shook his head in disgust. “You gave me shit about not telling Tara, but you don’t even want to be seen in public with me?”
“Shea, I haven’t told my family yet. I can’t be seen getting touchy feely with you and have word get back to them,” Christian said in irritation, tugging on his hand again.
“I don’t give a shit. You need to tell them, anyway, and stop trying to pull away. I’m not going to let go,” Shea snapped in return.
Christian made a noise of annoyance but stopped trying to pull away. They walked into the theater and got in line behind a small group of older women. One of them glanced back at them. She glanced at their faces, then down at their hands. Her eyes flew back up to their faces and the look on her face changed from passive to horrified and disgusted. Shea ground his teeth together. Christian let out a low groan and dragged his free hand down his face.
Shea couldn’t believe what the lady did next - she nudged her friend and motioned with her head to Shea and Christian, then made the universal hand sign to tell her friend that they were gay. Well, Shea freaking lost it. Who the fuck does that shit in front of people?
“You got a fucking problem, lady?” Shea barked.
The group turned around to look at him, startled. Shea only had eyes for the one who made the gesture. Christian’s grip tightened on his hand.
“Shea, let it go,” he whispered.
“No! That was the rudest thing I’ve ever seen! First, I get called a faggot to my face, and now I got some fucking stranger making frou-frou hand signals to let her friends know that we’re gay! So back to my first question, you got a fucking problem, lady?”
The lady gasped and put her hand to her throat. “Don’t you know how to respect your elders?”
“Why should I respect you? You obviously don’t respect me. You see this?” Shea pulled up Christian’s and his intertwined hands and stuck up his middle finger. “You can shove this right up your ass.”
“Jesus Christ.” Christian breathed and hung his head.
The next thing Shea knew, Christian and he were being escorted back to their car by security. Shea was so fucking furious, though, he didn’t even care. He couldn’t have sat through a movie after that. The two of them got into Shea’s truck, Shea slamming his door shut, and clutching the steering wheel.
“How did that not bother you?” Shea bit out.
Christian sighed heavily. “I never said it didn’t bother me, I just chose to ignore it.”
“How do you ignore shit like that?”
Christian sent Shea a sad smile. “I’ve seen and heard worse than that directed at me for most of my life. I’d be a hermit if I let it get to me. I would never go out because it happens almost every day. No matter where I go, someone is always looking at me funny, or whispering to friends thinking I can’t hear them, saying things like I wonder if he’s gay or he dresses too nice to be straight. It’s never ending, Shea, and if you are going to be a part of this life, of my life, then you are going to have to learn to live with the hate.”
Shea closed his eyes and dropped his head to the steering wheel. “It fucking hurts, man.”
“I know. After a while you sort of become numb to it, at least I did anyway,” Christian murmured.
“I’m sorry I ruined our date,” Shea whispered.
“It’s wasn’t all that bad. That lady’s face when you told her to shove it up her ass was priceless.” Christian chuckled.
Shea kept his head on the steering wheel but turned it to look over at Christian. “It was, wasn’t it.” He smirked.
Christian nodded and smiled. Reaching over, he placed a hand on Shea’s thigh.
“How about we go home and make our own movie?” Christian purred, squeezing Shea’s thigh.
Shea sucked in a sharp breath as he straightened up and stared at Christian in shock. “Are you fucking serious?”