“I’m not a part of Jamie’s life. As much as I want to be friends with him, I know how badly I fucked up our friendship. I know it’s damaged beyond repair.”
“You’re wrong. He still cares about you. He always will.”
I said, “He feels sorry for me. That’s it. Jamie’s way too nice a guy to let me reach my full potential as a homeless, unemployed loser. And let’s face it, without his intervention, that’s exactly what I’d be right now.”
“No you wouldn’t. You would have landed on your feet.”
“You don’t know me very well. When I fail at things, I fail epically.”
“You know what this conversation needs?” Dmitri said. And then he and I both said in unison, “Alcohol.”
He got up and brushed off the seat of his dark jeans, then perused the shelves for a moment. “I’d suggest vodka, but I don’t like it warm,” he said. He grabbed another bottle off the shelf and held it up for me to see. “Tequila?”
“Why not?”
He popped the top and offered it to me first, and I took a long drink. And then I immediately erupted into a massive coughing fit. I happened to have one of Dante’s monogrammed handkerchiefs in my pocket, and I pulled it out and dabbed my tearing eyes as I handed the bottle to Dmitri.
He sat back down beside me and took the bottle from me as he said, “Oh my God, that’s hilarious.”
“What is?”
“The fact that you and I have so much in common.”
“Meaning you’re also about to embarrass yourself with an alcohol-induced coughing fit?”
“No. Well, probably. But I meant that when I was going out with Dante, I somehow always ended up with a hankie of his in my pocket. I still don’t know how so many of them found their way into my possession. To this day, I still find one occasionally among my things.”
“It’s probably because you never wanted to embarrass yourself by handing them back to him once you’d used them.”
“Probably.” Dmitri tipped back the bottle and took a long drink, and then a moment later had a coughing fit even more embarrassing than mine had been. I grinned and handed him Dante’s handkerchief.
“I’m so glad you just did that,” I told him with a big smile, once he’d stopped coughing and was blotting his eyes with the square of fabric.
He laughed at that. “Thanks.”
“It’s just such a pain in the ass, being around that much perfect,” I grinned, gesturing at Dmitri by drawing a circle in the air around him with both of my hands. “It’s nice to see you’re actually human.”
“Very human. And very far from perfect. Let’s see if I can do better this time,” he said, and took a cautious sip from the bottle. “It’s better if you don’t chug it.”
He held out the tequila, and I took it and tried a couple cautious sips as well. “You’re right. I was trying to look manly in front of you, so that’s why I went for the chug earlier. I should have known better than to try to pull off that kind of bullshit macho posturing.”
Dmitri chuckled and said, “You’re a very candid person, Charlie. I like that about you.”
“Speaking of candid, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why didn’t it work out between you and Dante?”
He considered the question for a moment, leaning back against the wall behind him and adjusting the rolled back cuff of his dark blue button-down shirt. “I really like Dante, I always have. But mainly, we just didn’t click as lovers.”
“So, you and he…you slept together.” I didn’t know why that bothered me so much.
“Actually no. We fooled around a bit, but we never actually fucked. He only tops, and I wasn’t about to bottom with Dante. I knew better than to give up control with him.” Dmitri grinned at me and said, “That’s probably totally TMI. Sorry if I just over-shared.” He’d already been drinking a lot with lunch, and apparently the tequila was now working its magic on him as well.
“What do you mean about giving up control?”
“Well, you know. I knew it was a mistake, letting him feel he was in charge. He’s the kind of man that will totally take over your life if you let him. And his control issues were something I wanted to steer clear of.”
“He has control issues?”
“Big time. Haven’t you noticed?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a bit. He definitely, um, takes the lead when we do anything physical. But I actually…I like that,” I admitted embarrassedly. I took another drink of tequila while considering Dmitri’s question, then said, “He did buy me a ton of furniture without asking me first. Is that a control thing?”
Dmitri grinned and said, “Probably.” I handed the bottle back to him and he drank some more before saying, “I hope you can look past the control issues, because I think you two could be really good together. I actually hope you end up with Dante long term. Jamie wholeheartedly disagrees, because he only sees the line of work Dante’s in. He doesn’t see the man behind it.”