Defined By Deceit

“Actually. Yes, I can Llew,” his brother said, sadly.

“Damnit. I’m sorry, Leslie. That was stupid. Taking over our dad’s business wasn’t any easier than Moss taking over as CEO for his father.”

Leslie waved his hand dismissively. “Yeah, it is a big difference. Moss is expected to be a certain way, Llew. Gay is definitely not an acceptable part of that. Not now, not in college, and for damn sure not after college. He’ll be the owner of one of the nation’s largest heavy machinery distributors, and he’ll never make it in a corporate environment with a man on his arm.” Leslie tapped Llew’s arm to get him to look at him. “Be his friend Llew, please. Don’t try to keep this up. I know you love him, but you’re young, you will meet new guys.”

“I don’t want new guys.” Llew got up again. This time he really was done with this conversation. He’d love Moss forever, there was no getting around it. “I got work to do.”

“Alright.” His brother sighed.

Llew was almost to his room when Leslie called out to him. “Hey, you wanna go bowling with us in downtown Norfolk this weekend? A few of the guys are heading down there to get away, have a little night-life fun. Bill’s mom has a condo she’s letting us stay in for a night. Whaddya say? That sounds like fun, right?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Fine, go cry about it, punk. You’re such a little girl, Llewellyn,” his brother said, playfully accenting his name when he said it, his voice taking on a lilting tone.

“You’re the one with the bitch name… Leslie,” he shot right back.

“We both have bitch names, then.” His brother joked, following him down the hall to his own room.

Llew laughed hard, his bad mood already lightening up; his brother had always had a way of doing that for him. “Why’d Mom do that to us?”

“She wanted girls.” Leslie shrugged.

“Well she got one when she had you. Why didn’t she leave me out of it?” Llew joked, running to slam his door when he saw his brother turn around and sprint towards him.

Llew closed his bedroom door and locked it, just before Leslie’s shoulder slammed into it. “You ass!” he yelled.

Llew grinned, looking around at the small space of his bedroom. A sad sigh left his chest at the thought of how different it was from Moss’ large bedroom, with a sitting area and his own en suite bathroom. He frowned, unable to remember the last time Moss had been over to his place. Did he not want to be seen in this neighborhood anymore? Had his father told him not too? Fuck! This was driving him crazy.

His brother’s logic rang in his ears. Leslie always had Llew’s best interest at heart; he would never want to see him hurt. So, he was going to have a serious conversation with Moss real soon. He needed to know where he stood. If he had to only be Moss’ friend, and not his boyfriend, it would hurt like a son of a bitch – but he’d accept it.

He’d been working on his model house for the next couple hours, when his phone rang. He looked at his watch before answering Moss’ call with a curt, “What.”

Moss used the sexy voice that always made Llew bend to his will. “I know you’re not mad at me.”

“Then you don’t know shit,” Llew answered, curtly.

“Come on. You can’t blame me for my father’s ignorance.” Moss huffed.

“Is it only your father’s?”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“You’re smart Moss, figure it out.”

“Llew this is bullshit, man. What’s up with you?”

“You sit there and let him talk to me like I’m shit. Like I’m nothing. If you love me like you say you do, then that would bother you. I’m still your friend, too… right?”

“Yes, you’re my friend. You’re my boyfriend. You’re the one I love,” Moss said, quietly.

Llew rolled his eyes. “Words, Moss. Those are just words.”

“Goddamnit, Llew. I said just chill out for the next few months, until we leave for school and we can be together like you want us to—”

“Like I want us to? Are you saying you don’t want that?”

“Why are you picking apart every fuckin’ sentence I say? You know I want that, that’s all we ever talk about.”

He heard Moss let out an exasperated breath. Usually that made Llew back down, not wanting them to have an argument, but he wasn’t going to this time. As much as he hated to admit it, his brother had made a damn good argument.

“Moss. Are you gonna run your father’s company as a gay man?”

Silence.

“Moss?” Llew looked at his phone to see if he’d lost the connection. He saw the seconds continue to tick past, when he finally heard a tired sigh. “Moss?”

“What?”

“Are you gonna answer me?”