“Never,” he said, voice completely serious.
It was an echo of the conversation we’d had a few weeks before, when Rhys’s manager had mentioned setting up another tour. I’d panicked so fast and so hard that there wasn’t even the option of hiding it from Rhys. After our knee-jerk I don’t have to go and Go, I’ll be fine, I lay down with my head on Rhys’s stomach and made a decision. I’d go with him, simple as that. It didn’t have to be for the whole tour, and it didn’t have to be forever. But for now, for the next time, I’d take time off and go. See places I’d never seen before, spend time with Rhys, go to some of the shows. That easy? Rhys had asked. I’d shrugged, and promised I’d try my damnedest to make it okay, even if it wasn’t easy.
We were sweaty and covered in come, but when Rhys went to pull out, I stopped him.
“I need you tonight,” I said. He knew what I meant. He hummed in pleasure and kissed me. Then he rearranged us so he was behind me. I could feel his release leaking out of me around his softening dick, and I tightened my hole around him, wanting to keep it inside. Rhys twitched and traced my hole with his finger. Then he slid his finger inside me alongside his cock.
“You’re perfect,” he murmured. “So perfect for me.”
I matched my breathing to his and drifted off with him inside me.
* * *
—
By the time Grin’s car pulled up the next day, I was so nervous I was freaking Max out with my constant pacing. Rhys had intercepted me in the kitchen a little while earlier and dropped to his knees, going down on me so hard and fast I couldn’t think. I’d come down his throat in a moment of bliss, and been pacing again five minutes later. He’d told Max to make sure I didn’t drink any more coffee and gone to double check the guest room.
But when the car door opened and my old friend reached through the driver’s side window to clasp hands with the driver, saying, “Thanks, man. Good luck with the winery. It sounds great,” my nerves disappeared and I almost ran toward Grin. As the car drove away, Grin dropped his bag on the ground and spread his arms wide.
“C’mere you little shit!” he crowed, hugging me tight, and though I hadn’t seen him for years except in goofy selfies, his smile was just the same.
I grabbed his bag and led him inside, and I thought I saw a flash of nervousness in Rhys’s face before Grin stuck out his hand and said, “Hey, man, it’s the guy who taught Grim here how to smile.”
Rhys clasped his hand and met Grin’s grin with one of his own. God, I was surrounded by smiles.
When we dumped Grin’s stuff in the spare bedroom, he shot me a look. “Can’t believe you have a guest room.” But it wasn’t teasing, it was proud.
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “Me neither.”
We shifted in the doorway for a minute, not looking at each other.
“You, uh, you seem good, bro. You good?” Grin asked.
“Yeah. I really am. You good?”
Grin’s smile was calm and steady, and he nodded. “Yeah, doing okay, man. Doing okay.”
The three of us sat outside for the next hour or so, having a couple beers and catching up. Grin and Rhys got on great and before long I came back outside with more beers to find Rhys cracking up as Grin told him the story of how he’d coated the tips of all my pencils in super glue the day we took our chemistry final in tenth grade and did an impression of my shocked and confused face as I tried to mark the scan-tron with pencil after pencil that wouldn’t write.
By the time Rhys’s parents rang the doorbell, I was tipsy and had forgotten they were coming. Which I had a feeling was not unplanned by Rhys, and potentially not unassisted by Grin.
“Oh my God,” I said. “Oh my God, they’re here. Oh God.”
I put my head in my hands and tried to get a full breath.
Rhys squeezed my shoulders and said, “It’s gonna be fine, baby,” then went to answer the door.
Grin smacked me. “Get it the fuck together, bro.”
“They’re normal, perfect parents,” I snarled at him. “I’ll probably burst into flames when they touch me.”
Grin started snickering and couldn’t stop, and the next thing I knew, a voice called, “Matt! Come give me a hug, sweetie!”
“Hi, Mona.” I got shakily to my feet. Mona was a couple of inches shorter than me, but she hugged like someone twice her size.
“Hi,” I said again, stupidly.
“You’re so handsome in person,” she said, patting my cheek.
I ducked my chin. “Uh, thanks. You too. Or. You’re. Hi.”