My Straight Husband by Spencer Spears
Brooklyn
“I’m getting married!” Jesse’s face was split by the widest grin I’d ever seen. “Tomorrow!”
Mark threw his arm around Jesse. “Yep, you are.” He kissed Jesse’s cheek. “Which is probably why we shouldn’t do any more shots tonight.”
“You’re no fun.” Jesse pouted and batted his eyelashes in Mark’s direction.
Mark rolled his eyes at me. “You see what I have to put up with, Brooklyn? He’s so mean to me.”
I laughed. “Sounds like it works out then. He’s mean, and you’re no fun. This’ll be a marriage for the history books.”
Jesse looked up at Mark. “I think Brooklyn’s making fun of us.”
“Nah, he’d never.” Mark laughed. “You must be imagining things.”
“So you’re no fun and you’re making me question my sanity. Perfect.”
“And I’m the one of us who’s supposed to be crazy. But you’re still here, marrying me.” Mark grinned. “So what does that say about you?”
“That I have excellent taste.” Jesse laughed. “Or that there weren’t any other options.”
“Hey, Mark! Get over here!”
A voice soared over the noise of the crowd and Mark turned his head in its general direction. It was hard to see who had spoken, the bar was so packed. I’d never been in this place before, but that made sense. It wasn’t like my social life was hopping to begin with, and I hadn’t spent very many nights on Summersea.
“Uh-oh,” Mark said, smiling and shaking his head. “I think my cousin’s about to shotgun a beer. I’ll be right back.”
He gave Jesse another kiss and squeezed his shoulders before walking away. Jesse looked up at me and sighed.
“Dreamy, isn’t he.”
I laughed. “Yeah, he’s alright.”
“Please, Brooklyn. I won’t be jealous. Validate my life choices. Tell me how hot my fiancé is.”
I rolled my eyes. “He’s hot, dummy. You know that. He’s hot, you’re cute, and the two of you together are so adorable it makes me want to puke.”
“Excellent, that’s just what I wanted to hear.” Jesse leaned one elbow on the bar and looked me in the eyes. “I’m telling you this now while I’m still sober enough that you’ll believe me, Brooklyn. I’m so happy you’re my friend, and that you’re here, and that you’re my best man.”
“Yeah, yeah, I love you too. Don’t go getting all sappy on me.”
“You still mad at me for abandoning you and Savannah for Summersea and the Sea Glass?”
Jesse had been saving up money for the past year to buy a run-down old bed and breakfast out here on Summersea, in the tiny town of Tolliver on the far side of the island. He’d finally done it, and now he and Mark were fixing it up together, trying to get it operational again.
“Oh, definitely.” I gave Jesse my most serious look. “Seething mad. I’ll probably never forgive you, and our friendship is irrevocably damaged. But, you know, aside from all that, I’m super thrilled for you. You deserve your happy ending.”
Jesse shoved me. “Now we just have to find you yours!”
“Oh God, don’t you start too. You sound like Jeff.”
“Your advisor?” Jesse looked at me in confusion.
“Yeah, he was on my case today telling me I needed to get laid because I’m too focused on work or something.”
Jesse threw his head back and laughed. “Oh man, that’s hilarious. And maybe sort of insulting. But also, you know, true.” He cast his eyes around the bar. “Let’s find you someone tonight.”
“No, no, don’t even think about it.” I held up my hands to fend him off. “Tonight, this weekend, is about you and Mark. You don’t get to play matchmaker for me. Besides, I’m too fucking tired to hook up with anyone anyway. I’m sure I’d just disappoint anyone I went home with.”
“Ugh, you’re no fun, Mark’s no fun.” Jesse gave me a long-suffering sigh. “What did I do to deserve you two?”
“Must have been really good in a past life.”
“Or serially murdered people and am now being punished.”
“Gabe!” Both Jesse and I looked up at the sound of Mark’s voice ringing out over the din. He was looking at the front door of the bar, where a cute blond guy with shaggy hair was walking in.
“That’s Gabe?” I asked Jesse, shocked.
He looked different now. For one thing, he wasn’t covered in sweat. Or bright orange. The lack of orange was an improvement. The lack of sweat? Well, it wasn’t necessarily an improvement. But it was an equally good look.
Gabe was wearing a crisp black shirt that drew tightly across his chest, leaving little to the imagination. His dark-washed jeans hung low on his hips and I couldn’t help but want him to turn around again so I could see the view from the back. The muscles in his arms rippled as he raised his hand to wave at Mark.
Jesse cocked his head at me. “Yeah. Cute, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, I guess. Maybe.”
Understatement of the century.
“Too bad he’s into girls.”
“Oh no, how ever will I go on?” I hoped the sarcasm hid my disappointment.
Mark walked up to give Gabe a huge hug, then brought him over to us, grinning.
“Gabe, you know Jesse, obviously,” he said, beaming.
“Hey, man.” Gabe pulled Jesse in for a quick hug. “Good to see you again. And congrats, to both of you.”
“And,” Mark continued, “this is your counterpart, Brooklyn, Jesse’s best man.”
Gabe blinked, seeming to really see me for the first time. Then he smiled. Fucking hell, who told him he could have such a cute smile?
“Actually, we kinda met already,” Gabe said. I flushed, unreasonably pleased that he’d recognized me even though there was no reason for him to.
“When?” Jesse asked, looking between the two of us.
“Met might be a strong word,” I said. Gabe blinked again, and now I wondered if I was offending him. Shit, was I? “We just saw each other when Gabe was out running today. Must be a Chicago thing,” I said, glancing at Mark, “you guys both being runners and all.”
“Yeah, you showed me where the path was.” Gabe smiled. “Thanks again, man.”
“No problem.”
“This has got to be some kind of omen.” Jesse grinned brightly. “I don’t know what for, specifically, but it’s gotta be good.”
“Really?” Mark gave him a skeptical look.
“Yes.” Jesse nodded, all seriousness. “And you know what that calls for.”
“I swear to God, if you say—”
“Shots!”
Mark groaned while Jesse turned to the bartender and ordered for us.
“We’re going to need to chug coconut water before bed tonight,” Mark sighed.
“Or Pedialyte,” Gabe put in. Mark raised an eyebrow, and Gabe flushed. It looked cute on him, of course. “What? I’ve learned some things from my friends over the years”
Jesse handed me two shots of tequila and then turned back to get the remaining two for him and Mark. I held the one in my left hand out to Gabe. His fingertips brushed my skin as he took the glass from me, and I tried to suppress a shiver. When I looked up, his eyes were focused on me. Had he noticed?
“To good omens!” Jesse said, raising his glass. Gabe’s gaze locked onto mine, and when I tossed the shot back, I wasn’t sure if the burn I felt was from the tequila or the feel of his eyes on me. A lick of salt, the tang of lime, and a headrush from staring at a pretty boy. Dammit, I was in trouble.
“Holy shit,” Mark said, looking over my shoulder all of a sudden. “My grandma just got here. Sorry, guys, I think Gigi might draw and quarter us if Jesse and I don’t hug her immediately.”
Jesse smiled and shrugged as Mark dragged him away, leaving me and Gabe standing at the bar together. Fuck. We each ordered a beer and then stood there in a silence that threatened to extend into eternity if one of us didn’t say something.
“So did you have a good run?”
I kicked myself for not thinking of something more interesting to say, but I wasn’t quite prepared to be alone with the guy I’d spent the rest of my afternoon not-thinking about. I’d not-thought about him all through the nature walk, and the bike ride to my hotel, and, yes, even during my shower.
But now that he was in front of me? And he’d turned out to be Mark’s best man? Like I said—fuck.
“Yeah, it was good.” Gabe’s smile was suspiciously easy-going. Why couldn’t he be having a quiet freak out, too? “I saw some gnarly trees laying down across the path. Eventually I got to one that was so big, I had to turn back.”
“Oh, yeah. Apparently there was a big storm here a little while ago.” I felt like a total idiot. Talking about the weather? I wanted to smack myself. “Sorry, that’s like, the most boring sentence ever to be uttered by a human.”
Gabe had the grace to laugh. “I was about to say that I was surprised there were palm trees here, because I didn’t think we were far enough south. I think that makes me equally boring.”
“Fair enough.”
“So can I switch from boring to embarrassing?” he continued. “Because I really should know this, but I can’t remember how you know Jesse. I’m sure Mark’s mentioned it, but—”
“No worries,” I jumped in. “Why should you catalog details about a perfect stranger? Jesse and I met because we used to work together at a coffee shop, Cardigan Cafe. Well, I still work there, but he obviously doesn’t anymore, now that he and Mark are fixing up the Sea Glass.”
“That’s cool. Are you a bartender like Jesse was too, before he and Mark bought the inn?”
“God, no. I forced him to make cocktails for me for years and I didn’t pick up a single trick.” I laughed. “No, I’m actually working on my PhD. The coffee shop thing is just on the side.”
Gabe’s eyes went wide. “Really? That’s amazing! What’s your dissertation about?”
Well, that was a far more flattering, and slightly unexpected, reaction than I usually got. And nice, considering I was feeling pretty fed up with my whole course of study at the moment.
“Biology, generally speaking,” I began, not sure how much detail Gabe really wanted.
“Yeah, but like, what are you studying specifically?”
His eyes were laser-focused on me, and I reminded myself not to flush just because this cute, apparently straight guy was paying so much attention.
“The effects of prolonged exposure to a natural environment on human stress responses, particularly the hormone cortisol?” I hesitated, waiting to see what Gabe made of that.
“That’s awesome. What are your findings?”
“Hardly groundbreaking. Would you believe that being in nature makes people feel good?” I laughed. “But it is pretty cool. My advisor set up this charity that works to get kids outdoors, and we’ve been partnering with different schools to do extracurricular science programs, learning about the environment. It’s actually really fun.”
“Wow. So you’re making scientific discoveries and you’re making a real difference in people’s lives. That is awesome.”
Dammit, was Gabe’s enthusiasm single-handedly causing me to start liking my dissertation topic again?
“I mean, I hope so.” I shrugged. “I feel like volunteering helps to balance out the rest of what’s involved in getting a PhD. It’s basically just jumping through a series of ever-smaller hoops so I can get a piece of paper that makes people listen to me. Because let’s face it, is publishing obscure articles in academic journals actually making the world a better place?”
“Maybe not directly. But it could ripple out, right? People read what you write, think you have some good ideas, and the impact of it spreads.”
I barked a laugh. “That’s the most optimistic take on academic publishing I’ve ever heard. Everyone I know is either like, ‘yep, it’s pointless,’ or is just completely cynical about it, saying you have to do it for your reputation.”
“Sure, but presumably that’s not why you got into this, right?” Gabe squinted at me.
“God, no.” I paused. “You know, I don’t think I had any idea what I was getting into at first. I just knew that I liked science and that test tubes and beakers weren’t going to call me slurs in high school if I spent too much time looking at them.”
“That’d be some pretty homophobic lab equipment if it did.” Gabe laughed. “So you’ve been studying this for a while, then?”
“Yeah. I don’t know, my mom moved us around a lot when I was a kid, and my ninth-grade biology teacher was the first person who really took an interest in me. But honestly, sometimes I think I just liked the idea of tenure and job security.” I blinked. “Shit, I’m doing the boring thing again, aren’t I? I’m sure you didn’t actually want to know all my thought-vomit about that, did you?”
“No, it’s cool.” Gabe smiled. He was going to have to stop doing that. Or at least dial the intensity down a few watts so he didn’t give me a heart attack. “I love hearing about people who care about their work. Because even if you’re frustrated sometimes, it’s clear that you do. I wish I had that.”
“Yeah?” He seemed a little wistful, and I was overcome with a sudden desire to know more about him. If only to shift the focus of the conversation away from me for a minute so I could catch my damn breath after all the smiles he’d been giving me. “What do you do?”
“Oh God, you really don’t want to know.” He shook his head. “I promise you, it will out-boring anything you’ve ever heard of.”
“I just talked your ear off about academic publishing. Try me.”
“Management consulting?”
I paused. “I feel kind of stupid, but I don’t know what that means.”
“Nobody does!” Gabe bit off a laugh. “That’s the thing. It’s my own damn job, and even I’m not sure. But apparently I needed an MBA for it, and companies are willing to pay through the nose for the services we provide.”
“But, like, what services though?”
“Well, say you have Company X, right?” Gabe gestured with his beer. “They feel like they didn’t make enough money last quarter. Or their employee turnover is too high. Or they have too many workplace accidents. For whatever reason, they’re not happy with how things are working. So they call us in to come analyze the situation and propose solutions to get them to their goal.”
“That sounds…”
“Heart-stoppingly dull?” Gabe grinned. “It’s okay, you can say it. Trust me—it is.”
“That’s actually not what I was going to say.” I needed a second to find the words I was looking for. “I was going to say that it sounds like problem-solving. Or solution-oriented. It must be cool to work with so many different companies and approach each one as a challenge.”
I meant it. Gabe might think it was dull but frankly, I was having a hard time finding anything about the guy boring. He was too fucking cute. And enthusiastic. I could almost feel my tiredness seeping away the longer I spent with him.
“Now you’re the one being optimistic.” Gabe made a face. “The truth is, I only went into the field because I knew it would pay well. The plan is to work there long enough to pay off my student loans, save up some money, and then travel the world.”
“That sounds cool. But couldn’t you do that while you were working?”
He scrunched up his nose at the suggestion. “I don’t have enough time. And I don’t want to stay there that long. I travel all the time for work now, but only to, like, Tallahassee, so I can tell a wallpaper manufacturer how to make their assembly lines slightly more efficient. It’s horrifyingly boring. I need to get out before I just curl up and die. I swear, I can feel my surrender looming.”
The thought of Gabe surrendering to becoming boring—the thought of Gabe surrendering to anything—seemed laughable. The guy had this irrepressible energy. I’d known him for less than an hour and even I could tell that.
“What would you do instead? Once you quit, I mean?”
“I don’t know. Anything! Everything! I want to sail across the Pacific in a four-person sailboat, navigating by the stars. I want to see a quetzal in the wild. Hike the Appalachian Trail. Spend a month in Paris eating croissants and visiting every room in the Louvre seventeen times. I don’t care if it’s cliché, I’ve never done any of that stuff and I’m dying to.”
“Clichés exist for a reason. That all does sound pretty cool.”
“Yeah, well, tell that to my parents. They’re pretty sure I should have found a nice girl and produced two kids by now. As if their relationship is anything to emulate. And Christ, I’m only twenty-four.”
Twenty-four years old. Ouch. Definitely too young for me. Not that he was a possibility anyway. He was straight. That was what Jesse had said, and he should know. I had to remember that.
Still, finding out his age did make his whole puppy-dog energy more understandable. God, it was infectious.
“Oh, yeah? That’s not in the cards for you?”
“Ugh, maybe someday.” Gabe shrugged. “When I’m fifty or something. But right now, it’s like, why would you want to tie yourself down, get stuck in a relationship when there’s so much world to see, so much life to live?”
“I guess I can see that.” I laughed ruefully. “I mean, I’m twenty-nine and I still haven’t managed to figure the relationship thing out. But life definitely sounds more exciting when you talk about it than when I do. All I do is work on my dissertation in the morning, work on my dissertation in the afternoon, and then, for a fun break in the evening—”
“Work on your dissertation?”
“Pretty much.”
“If it makes you feel any better, all the fun stuff in my life is completely hypothetical. I’m actually entirely boring right now. I’m surrounded by all these cool people with their passions. Mark and Jesse have the inn, you’ve got your PhD, even my little brother is out there trying to make it as an actor. And I’m just the idiot who messes with spreadsheets for a living and tells himself he’s going to Tahiti one day.”
“But your job doesn’t have to be interesting if you have passions outside of work. You have hobbies, right?”
Gabe groaned. “I don’t even have any good ones, unless grabbing beers and watching a game with my friends counts. This is what I was realizing on my way here today, man. I’m fossilizing. If I don’t do something different and exciting soon, I’m just going to sink into a swamp of boring and forget I ever wanted anything else.”
“Well, you can’t be that boring because I’m not bored talking to you right now.”
He flushed, and I smiled. Partly because it was cute and partly because it was nice to make him flush for once. “Maybe you should be.”
“You’ve got running, right? That’s totally a hobby.”
“Great, so drinking, watching football, and going to the gym are my hobbies.” Gabe looked dismayed. “Jesus, Brooklyn, I’m having a quarter-life crisis right here. I’m like, every bro ever.”
“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself.” I reached out to squeeze his shoulder before I realized what I was doing and turned it into an awkward punch on the arm at the last second. “At least you go to the gym. It shows. That’s never a bad thing.”
“Oh, don’t do that.”
“What?” My heart flip-flopped in my chest. Had touching Gabe made him uncomfortable? God, I knew the shoulder punch was awkward, but I still thought it was better than—
“That thing. That thing that makes it sound like I’m some kind of Adonis while you’re a troll who lives under a bridge. You look fine.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Fine? Great, definitely what I was shooting for. ‘Nice going, self, you’re completely unremarkable. Looking at you won’t make anyone vomit today. Good job.’”
Gabe rolled his eyes. “I meant good, dude. You look good.”