Elsie Street (MM Romance) by Gabriella West

Author:Gabriella West [West, Gabriella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shaggy Dog Publications
Published: 2015-09-04T23:00:00+00:00

9.

I sat by the fountain at lunch while Vic and I chewed the fat.

“You look tired,” he said sympathetically. “Late night?”

I nodded, munching my puny cheese sandwich. He was scarfing down something from a box, some greasy-looking noodle thing.

“Yeah. Vic, I’m moving out of my girlfriend’s place this weekend.”

“Oh.” He was neutral, watching my expression.

“I’m moving to Bernal Heights.” I couldn’t help smiling.

“Yeah? Which street? I know that ’hood well.”

“Elsie Street.”

Vic nodded. “Nice. How’d you manage that? I hear it’s hard to get a place in Bernal. It’s expensive now. You should have seen it in the early ’90s... Man, it was so dead! There was just a bank and a few liquor stores. Then the Good Life Grocery moved in.”

He was a couple years older than me, that was right.

“I used to go to 30th and Mission for karate class,” he added. “Anyway, so...”

“Well. I met someone who lives there.”

“Not the guy that you took home?” Vic connected the dots. “OK. Are you guys...?”

I was fascinated by how quick he was. Would everyone be this quick? I stared down at the still water. I had to say something. Why not the truth?

“We’re together now, yeah,” I answered. “We started dating.”

The bland expressions didn’t seem to fit what Aaron and I had been doing.

“You date guys?” Vic’s tone was so light he might as well have asked, “You like donuts?”

“Not usually, no. I’ve only dated one other. Back in Boston.”

“I used to go to bars in the Castro when I was younger,” Vic mentioned casually. “Got picked up a few times before I figured things out.”

I glanced at him, nodding. How much had it cost to tell me that? “Are you sorry you did that?”

“No way,” Vic said with a laugh. “I’d probably do it again if I wasn’t too old now.”

Too old at 30! I must have looked horror-stricken because he said “kidding” in a not very convincing voice.

“White guys dug me for a bit,” he said, shrugging. “I liked the attention and all, but I really prefer chicks, so...”

“Can you keep this to yourself, Vic?” I asked. “It’s going to be a hard weekend, and...”

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” he said, looking at me thoughtfully. “I hope it’s the right thing for you.”

“It’s very sudden,” I admitted. “Maybe too fast. I don’t know.”

He shrugged. Finally he said, “What’s his name?”

I blushed, saying it. “Aaron.” Then I added, “He works at Twitter.”

I watched Vic’s expression change, ah, as if he got it now, he understood what I’d done. I wanted to say it wasn’t about security or status, this move from Janine to Aaron, but I wasn’t sure it would come out the right way. Well, he’d think what he wanted to think. There was nothing I could do about that.

“I’ll probably hear his name again,” Vic said with a smile.

“You probably will,” I agreed.

***

There was only one sighting of Mike that weekend. I saw him walking with a woman down a corridor; it could have been a docent. He glanced around and I could distinctly see him curl his lip.

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