I snorted. “I guess so.”
“One Friday night, Joey came sobbing back to our room at like two in the morning. I woke up from a dead sleep to try and calm him down. Not half an hour later, Mouse burst in sobbing just as loudly. I remember him moaning Joey’s name as if Joey was dying from a rare form of cancer and had only moments to live. So there I was in my underwear trying to calm down a screaming pair of queens in the throes of romantic discord. There may or may not have been tequila involved beforehand, if the smell and slurring were any indication. So emotions were right around stratospheric levels.”
Aiden took a minute to chuckle as his memories seemed to wash over him.
“I wish I had it on video. These days, Joey is the evening news anchor for one of the cable news networks. If only his loyal viewers knew what a drama queen he really is.”
I couldn’t help but gasp. “No. Not Joe Hamill. Please. I’ll never be able to watch the news again.”
“Yep. The one and only. He also loved to wear tiny thongs and showed me more ass crack that year than I ever thought I’d want to see during my lifetime. Think about that the next time you hear the word newsflash. Brings on a whole new meaning.”
I was dying laughing at this point— barely able to get out the words. “Hey, don’t knock tiny thongs. I saw a guy in them at a club one night and they were hot as shit.”
“I’m not knocking them at all. If you were the one wearing them, I’d probably stroke out and die on the spot. But this wasn’t you. It was my roommate, who could be wearing nothing but whipped cream and a jock and I’d still only see him as a friend.” Aiden paused and looked at me with darkening eyes. He must have been picturing me in a G-string because his pupils widened and his nostrils flared.
I cleared my throat to keep from jumping him on the spot. “So, what happened that night? When they were fighting.”
“Another guy came in right behind Mouse. He was trying to calm him down while at the same time apologizing over and over to me for interrupting my night. So there I am, trying to calm Joey down and this stranger is trying to calm Mouse down. Joey and Mouse are alternately crying and making out until finally Mouse declares they can no longer be together because of Joey’s decision.”
“What decision?”
“Good question. I had no idea what he was talking about. Mouse storms off down the hall, and the stranger looks at me for a beat before rolling his eyes and throwing up his hands. We both burst out laughing which, of course, set Joey off again.”
“The stranger was Bennett?”
“Yes. He was Mouse’s roommate. We spent the next two hours brokering the Great Joey/Mouse treaty… wait. Gus. The guy’s name is Gus. Why can I never remember that? Anyway, in the end, it turned out that Joey had confessed his decision to go premed. And Mouse… Gus… thought that meant he wouldn’t see enough of Joey during all those years of schooling. Bennett and I finally convinced the two of them that plans change and for all they knew, Gus himself would decide to go premed, too. There was no reason to stress about it in the middle of the night early in their freshman year.”
I smiled at him and took another sip of my beer. “But Joey ended up not going premed after all.”
“Right. The two of them were broken up by Christmas break. But in the meantime, Bennett and I had spent so many late-night hours together trying to calm the two of them down, we’d bonded.”
I could tell by the look on his face and the experience of seeing Bennett worried about Aiden that the two of them were important to each other. There was a twinge of jealousy in my gut, but there was also a competing streak of gratitude that Aiden had someone who cared about him. Still, I couldn’t help but ask.
“And the two of you didn’t…”
Aiden’s eyes were watchful. “We did.”
Air gushed silently out of my lungs as my eyes cast down to the label of my beer bottle.
“Oh.”
His fingers reached for my face to tip up my chin. “Baby, it was short and stupid because he and I make way better friends than anything else. Please believe me.”
“But—”
“No. No buts. Bennett was always meant to be Xander’s. Always. And I’m thrilled that they finally figured their shit out and found their way back to each other. The only thing of Xander’s that I ever envied was the fact that he’s got someone to come home to every night. But now I have you. I do, right? Have you?” he asked softly.