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“So, I saw the press conference.”
George took a deliberate sip of his water, swallowed. “Yeah?”
“Months, huh?”
George shrugged. “It’s true what I said, thought he could use the support.”
“Hey, I think it’s cool of you, but I was thinking…”
George looked at him and waited. He was calm, but those handsome features—the serious eyes, strong jawline, classic profile—were chiselled by time and transformed to guarded more readily with each year.
“You were thinking?”
“We should have Finn over for dinner,” Joq swigged his beer.
“Why?” George sounded scandalised, like Joq had suggested they have Finn over for a threeway.
Joq raised his eyebrows.
“He should know we’re together.”
“What? Why should he know that?” George stood.
Joq looked up at him. “Because he’s gay and you’re friends?”
“He’s not,” George shook himself before he could finish the lie. “He doesn’t need to know about us. Why would I tell him that?”
George cleared the plates and went inside.
Joq watched him through the windows. He waited. Why wouldn’t you tell him? He wanted to yell. But he wasn’t much of a yeller, and anger got him nowhere with George. He cleared his throat, tapped his fingers on the table.
George came back out, beer in hand. Joq hid his surprise.
“You should tell him,” Joq said.
George glanced at him. “I don’t see why.”
“You said it yourself, he needs the support. If he saw this,” Joq waved his hand with the beer between them, “he’d see what was possible.”
George sighed, took a drink of his beer and looked at the pool. Joq waited.
“I’ll think about it,” George said after a while.
“Yeah?” Joq smiled up at him.
George huffed, but returned the smile, small and quick. He knew Joq wanted more, wanted more people to know, still wanted to be open one day. Joq had told him he got it, but telling another person was an olive branch—a way for George to concede more ground on keeping them so secret.
That’s what Joq told himself this was. And he knew that’s what George would see this as. Joq didn’t think too much about the part of him that knew that wasn’t all this was.
8
A couple of weeks later, George came home from training and said, “Friday.”
Joq raised both eyebrows. “Friday?”
“Yeah,” George breathed out. “We’ll be here at seven.”
“We?”
