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Evan pushed open the doors of the Midtown restaurant where they’d celebrated his birthday and looked around for Russ and Stephen. He couldn’t see either of them, so he waited until the crowd around the hostess stand had cleared. He and Russ had gotten together for lunch or dinner a few times, but in the four months since he moved out of Russ and Stephen’s place, he’d only seen Stephen twice.
“I’m not sure who made the reservation, but I’m looking for Russ Bishop and Stephen Parker?” Ugh, why did statements always come out sounding like a question? It was a habit he’d been unsuccessfully trying to break.
“They reserved a private room for the party. Follow me, I’ll take you right back.”
They wove through the crowded restaurant, no surprise since it was after ten on a Saturday evening. When Russ called to invite him, he’d been scheduled to work until ten but Bernard had let him leave the second the visitation was over without staying to clean up after as usual. Evan had run home, showered, changed, and made it back to Midtown, but parking was a nightmare, and he was so much later than he wanted to be.
“Here you are, sir,” the waiter said, stopping in front of a door leading to the lounge behind the bar. “Your party’s right through there.”
“Thanks,” Evan murmured, stepping through the doorway. No one noticed him at first, and he had time to look around. Expecting to see a packed room, he was surprised to realize they’d rented out the entire lounge area. It was cozier than the restaurant portion with dimmer lights and booths at one end, and a bar area at the other. There was a large table with food set up, and he scanned the room for Russ or Stephen. He spotted Russ after a moment and made a beeline for him.
Russ grinned and slid out of the booth where he’d been sitting with a girl about Evan’s age with long dark hair, a cute guy who was maybe a few years older, and an older man with gray hair.
“I am so glad you made it, Evan.” Russ enveloped him in a huge hug. He looked ridiculously handsome in light gray trousers and a dark purple button-down shirt with the cuffs rolled up.
“Sorry I’m so late.”
“No problem.” Russ’ grin stretched from ear to ear, and when Stephen approached with a matching grin on his face, Evan finally remembered to congratulate them.
“That’s amazing you’re getting married. Congratulations! I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks, Evan. We are too,” Stephen said. He looked stylish in dark gray pants, a teal button-down shirt, and a white jacket. By comparison, Evan felt incredibly boring in his navy suit trousers, white shirt, and dark gray jacket. Lame, but it was pretty much all he had, and he’d felt brave mixing two different suits together. “How have you been?”
“Good, thanks,” Evan said. “You?”
“Fantastic.” Stephen glanced over at Russ with a smile before looking back at Evan. “I’m sorry we haven’t made time to get together recently. The three of us will have to catch a ballgame or something sometime soon.”
“That would be nice,” Evan said.
Russ chimed in. “I’ll have to introduce you to everyone later, but let me give you a quick rundown on who’s here. My dad, my sister, and her boyfriend are all over there.” Russ gestured to the booth he’d left. “The rest are Stephen’s friends or our co-workers. Oh, and Monty and Emily were here earlier but you missed them. He had to head to work.”
“Oh, too bad.” As weird and rude as Monty was, Evan kinda liked him, and Emily seemed sweet. He wanted to tell her he hadn’t killed the plant she’d given him yet. Plus, it would be nice to know someone other than Russ and Stephen here. Evan’s stomach rumbled. “Um. I’m kind of starving. I haven’t had anything since lunch. I think I’m going to go grab some food, if you don’t mind.”
“Shit, sorry,” Russ said. “I didn’t think about that. Go eat, and we can catch up later.”
Evan nodded and made a beeline for the table. There was plenty of food left, and it all looked amazing. He piled a plate full and looked around for a place to sit. Most of the booths were taken, and he felt weird joining a group he didn’t know, so he walked over to one of the unoccupied tall tables. He looked around as he ate, noticing Stephen talking to an incredibly hot guy.
At first glance, the guy looked familiar. He reminded Evan a little of Russ, enough to wonder if he was a brother or cousin or something, but on closer inspection, he began to second-guess himself. They did both have dark hair and tanned skin, but this guy had a stronger jaw and a cleft chin. Besides, Russ had never mentioned any family except his dad and sister.
As he ate, Evan found himself distracted, looking at the guy and not really tasting the food he put in his mouth. The guy wore a pink button-down shirt, a tan jacket with the sleeves pushed up, and jeans that made Evan’s gaze stray to his ass more than it should. He laughed a lot, showing off white teeth and a great smile. He had a scar at his temple, the skin pale and puckered where it disappeared into his hairline. He rubbed his left thigh every so often, the gesture unconscious, as if he did it more out of habit than anything else. Evan chalked it up to a nervous tick at first, but then he noticed the man grimace when he shifted his weight, his jaw clenching.
Something in the guy’s conversation with Stephen made him glance back. He gave Evan a half-smile and wink when he saw Evan looking. The gesture made Evan flush and look down, but something about it triggered a memory. The sporting goods store, that’s where I recognize him from, he thought. The guy had been nice, and Evan had definitely noticed how cute he was. He’d been kinda disappointed when the fit specialist took over. He couldn’t remember her name. She’d been nice too, just not Evan’s type. This guy, though? Yeah, he was definitely Evan’s type.
Of course, a guy that hot wouldn’t ever notice him, but Evan could enjoy looking, right?
Evan realized his plate was empty, so he looked around for a place to put it. There was a tray with a few empty glasses on it near the food table, so he took it over there and went to the bar. He was tempted to order one of the peach lemonade things he’d had there before, but he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to pay for his own drinks or not. Since he’d just paid bills and his budget was looking a little tight, he went for a rum and Coke.
It turned out there wasn’t a charge, so he took a seat at the bar and sipped his drink, trying to work up the courage to go talk to people. The problem was, Russ and Stephen were both engrossed in conversations at the moment, and he was not comfortable walking up to strangers and making small talk. He shuddered at the thought.
Which was why he’d been living in Atlanta for almost six months, and he still hadn’t made friends. Or met a guy. He was fine at work, and he got along well with the people he worked with, but almost all of them were older and had lives of their own. The only people under thirty had wives or husbands and kids. It wasn’t so bad if he had a reason to talk to them, but he wasn’t good at getting to know them outside of work. As the weeks and months passed, he thought maybe it would get easier, but it never did.
He went to work, came home, and read or watched movies. Alone. He’d signed up for a dating site but kept writing and erasing his profile, so it was only his name without any picture. The one time he’d tried to go to a gay bar, he hadn’t even made it in the door before feeling panicked and uncomfortable, so there was no way in hell he was going to try again.
Atlanta was every bit as amazing as he’d dreamed about. Too bad he was the same old Evan Harris he’d always been.
“So how do you know the grooms?” The man he was pretty sure he recognized from the sporting goods store dropped onto the stool to his left, and Evan jerked, spilling some of his drink on the bar.
“Oh, um, I met Russ and Stephen last fall when they were in Stephen’s hometown. I worked at the funeral home there when they buried his father.”
The guy frowned. “So you’re just visiting Atlanta then?”
Evan shook his head still trying to process that the guy had come over to talk to him. “No. I moved to Atlanta in February. When we met last fall, Russ was nice enough to kind of”—he struggled to find the right words as he mopped up the spill—“take me under his wing, I guess. Once I moved here, Russ and Stephen helped me get settled and find the guts to go off on my own.”
The guy chuckled and nudged Evan’s elbow with his. “I dunno, seems like you must have had some guts in the first place.”
“Maybe.” Evan blushed. “I’d like to think so.”
“How do you like Atlanta?”
“It’s lonely,” Evan said, surprising himself with his candor. The drink he was working on must’ve loosened his tongue. “I mean, it’s fine, I guess. I just haven’t met anyone yet.” In his head, Atlanta had been a gay man’s paradise where there would be available guys everywhere he looked, but it hadn’t worked out that way. At least, not for him.
“Amen, kid.” The guy raised his glass and clinked it against Evan’s. “What’s your name, anyway?”
“Evan Harris.” He glanced at the guy out of the corner of his eye.
“Nice to meet you. Jeremy Lewis.” He narrowed his eyes at Evan. “Wait a minute, you came into Johnson’s sporting goods a while ago, didn’t you? You needed running shoes, I think.”
“I ... yeah,” Evan replied, shocked but flattered that the guy—Jeremy—had remembered him. “I did. Russ suggested I go there, actually. Um, thanks for your help, by the way. The new shoes are much better. The fit specialist did a great job.”
Jeremy grinned. “Glad to hear my employees know what they’re doing.”
Evan wasn’t sure what else to say about running shoes that wouldn’t make him sound like an idiot, but he didn’t want Jeremy to stop talking to him, so he changed the subject. “How do you know them?”
“Stephen and Russ? I just met Russ a few months ago, but Stephen’s my ex.”
“Really?” Evan gaped at him for a moment before all the pieces fell into place. Stephen had mentioned his ex’s car accident. That explained the limp and the scar. “Oh.”
“Mmmhmm. Stephen’s always had a thing for younger guys. We met when I was twenty, and he was ... oh, must have been about thirty-two, thirty-three, maybe? Hell if I can remember. It’s been fifteen years.”
Which meant Jeremy was in his mid-thirties now. Up close, Evan could see the lines around his eyes when he smiled. Evan liked them.
“You’re not jealous of Russ?” he blurted out, then bit his lip, hoping Jeremy wasn’t offended.
“It’s complicated,” Jeremy said with a sigh as his lips twisted in a bitter smile. “I know Russ is a hell of a lot better for Stephen than I ever was, and I’m glad they’re happy together. It’s ... it’s not that I want to be with Stephen, and, hell, I’m not a relationship kinda guy, but something about seeing them together makes me envious, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.” Evan sighed.
Jeremy nudged him with his elbow again. “Come on, kid, I’m sure you can’t have any trouble picking up guys.”
Evan sputtered, nearly choking on his drink and wondering how the guy knew he was gay. Am I obvious? he wondered. “Umm, I haven’t exactly ever done it before ...” he muttered into his glass, embarrassed to confess his lack of dating experience but unable to hold his tongue.
“Don’t tell me you’re a virgin?” Jeremy’s gaze was disbelieving, and the tips of Evan’s ears went red-hot.
“Okay, I won’t then.” Evan tilted his drink back and shook an ice cube into his mouth, crunching down on it. He refused to look at the guy next to him for fear he’d turn tomato red.
Jeremy whistled quietly. “Kid, if you go into a gay club it’ll be like waving a steak at starving tigers. They’ll be all over you.”
“I think you’ve had too much to drink,” Evan protested. “I’m nothing special.”
“Oh, Jesus, you have to be kidding me.” Jeremy stood with a groan. “Okay, unless you’ve got somewhere you need to be, I want you to come have a seat with me at a booth over there. My leg is fucking killing me, and we need to have a long talk about why you don’t realize you’re the kind of pretty little twink who makes gay men cream their jockstraps.”
Evan blushed, but he followed Jeremy toward the cozy booths anyway, embarrassed, terrified, and completely intrigued by the gorgeous guy who had called him pretty.