If Tyler kept his thoughts to himself, they were going to eat him up from the inside. As it was, Tyler was having a hard time thinking about Jaime as just another student. He had to settle this, or it would continue to haunt him.
“How did I know what?” Jaime prompted Tyler when he kept silent.
Tyler took a drink from his beer as much to buy time as to steel his courage.
“How did you know you were gay?” Tyler couldn’t even look at Jaime as he asked the question.
Jaime laughed. “I think I always knew. Why?”
“So women never appealed to you?” Tyler continued to prod Jaime, although he wasn’t sure what he was searching for.
“Not really,” Jaime replied and blushed sweetly. “Once in college I had a girlfriend who wanted to be more even though I was up front about my interests. We fooled around a little, but other than the eroticism of the motion, I really wasn’t into it. I’m a man’s man. I like rough and ready, not soft and pliant.”
“Not every woman is soft and pliant.” Tyler thought about some of the more aggressive women he’d been with. They hadn’t been able to kindle the kind of passion that Jaime started in him.
Jaime flashed Tyler a wry smile. “Maybe, but I know what I like. Now tell me what kind of woman you like, and I’ll play wingman. Women dig the gay friend routine.”
“I don’t think a woman is what I need right now.” Tyler sighed. This was harder than he could have ever imagined. Tyler might as well be naked for the exposure he felt at laying bare his deepest secrets. “I was thinking maybe I should try hitting for the other team.”
* * * *
With a choke and a sputter, Jaime set down his beer and struggled to keep a straight face.
“Come again?” Jaime asked. Maybe he’d misunderstood what Sempai Tyler was getting at. Sempai Tyler’s unwavering gaze was all the confirmation he needed to know he hadn’t misheard. “You don’t mean that. It’s the breakup talking. Just give it some time, and you’ll be back to your skirt-chasing self in no time.”
“I don’t chase skirts.”
“I know.” Jaime stared at his beer with a wan smile. He had to be in a pretty bad place to be saying something so drastic. Even though Jaime had only known Sempai Tyler a couple of months, he’d never heard or seen anything to indicate the man was anything other than a red-blooded heterosexual. “You’re a good guy. The kind that’s few and far between. Any woman would be lucky to find herself in your arms.”
“What about you?”
“I told you, women aren’t my thing,” Jaime stopped short and looked at him. Sempai Tyler couldn’t mean what he just said. Jaime felt his mind freeze on the possibility of a thousand what ifs and if onlies. “You mean, literally me? In your arms?”
Sempai Tyler nodded.
Jaime opened his mouth then closed it again. He made another aborted attempt at a response while he continued to stare. Leave it to him to find the one bi-curious guy to have a crush on. The unobtainable was suddenly within his reach. That was if Sempai Tyler really meant what he was saying and wasn’t just having a momentary crisis. Although Jaime had never heard of someone turning gay from stress. A faint blush touched his cheeks, but he didn’t look away. Sempai Tyler was being honest with him.
“I need to know.” Sempai Tyler started and struggled to find his words. He ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. “I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
Jaime longed to reach out and put his hand on Sempai Tyler’s arm if only to ground the man. The poor guy must be feeling pretty confused and lonely. Jaime felt compelled to reveal himself even though it went against his normal arm’s reach distance he preferred to keep with most people.
“Would I be interested in you, if you were gay?” Jaime wanted to give him room to back out of his comment. Jaime had been wrong before about an attraction being mutual when it wasn’t.
“I’m not gay.”
Jaime pulled back. Sempai Tyler might as well have hit him with a back fist for all the force behind his denial. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard that line, even from a guy about to go down on him. The thought of Sempai Tyler on his knees pleasing Jaime lit his senses like a pinball machine.
“But you are,” Sempai Tyler said quickly without any accusation or slander. “And I trust you to help me figure this out.”
Finally, Jaime was starting to understand what Sempai Tyler was looking for. His unobtainable man was still unobtainable. Sempai Tyler was asking him for help not proposing a committed relationship. Jaime thought about Tomas and how excited he had been for the promised second date. And he still was. This thing was different. It was more like a favor for a friend. And he’d only gone on one date with Tomas. Jaime struggled to see the situation from all angles before he made a decision they both would regret.
“Won’t that make being in class awkward?” Jaime asked.
“Randy and Sarah hooked up while they were both students,” Sempai Tyler pointed out. He scraped at the label on his beer bottle until it was coming off in shreds. “It wouldn’t be the first time two people in class had more intimate associations outside of class. Besides, you said you never sleep with a guy twice. Call it an experiment. We’d never have to speak of it again.”
Jaime had been in enough onetime experiments to know how to walk away. He wasn’t sure if Sempai Tyler could do
