“So, was he any good?”
“Who?”I did my best to sound innocent.
“Flynn, asshole.”
“No comment.”
Another snort.“Can’t have been that good, if you came back home again.”
My hands tightened on the wheel.“I had work.”
“Right, right.”Kyle shifted on the seat, stretching out his other leg.“Because it’s so important that the decade-old t-shirts get sorted through, and the odd socks paired, and the broken umbrellas pruned out.”
Conveniently we were at a stop sign, so I had time to turn to him and glare properly.“Fuck off.My job is a little more than that.”
Kyle widened his eyes, as though my curse had come as a horrible shock.Then ruined the effect by smirking at me.“Did he ask you to move to the city with him?”
Clenching my jaw, I looked back to the road ahead.“Don’t be ridiculous.We had sex, once.”
“My dear Jesse, your capacity for self-deception is legendary.”
“Don’t call me that.”Only Kyle did, any more.
He shrugged.“Fine, fine.I mean, at least Jesse - stolen photos aside - was honest.About what he wanted from guys.”
“He wanted sex, if I remember correctly.”
Kyle hummed under his breath.“True.But there was other stuff there, too.In-between your cringeworthy attempts at flirting and dirty talk.About wanting a guy you could connect with; be friends with, but also date.”
I narrowed my eyes, frustrated by the reminder of my teenage self and his naive attempts to explore what felt like the worst secret in the world.“You read fast.”
“The text was broken up by dick pics,” he teased.“Thankfully, none of your own.”
“It gets no complaints,” I said, frostily.
“Imagine if you’d done the sensible thing, and stayed on after the weekend.Then Flynn could’ve experienced that for himself.”
I huffed in frustration.“What part of ‘it’s complicated’ do you not understand?”
Kyle reached over, to prod me in the cheek with his forefinger.Laughed as I pretended to snap my teeth at him in response.“The part where you deny yourself a good thing, because you’re...I dunno, afraid of moving away, and nervous about trusting someone, and pathologically insistent on keeping your brain and your crotch firewalled from each other?”
“All of the above, probably,” I admitted.
He was quiet for long enough, I had to glance over.Found he was staring back at me, blinking in what seemed like genuine confusion.
“That was disconcertingly honest,” Kyle said, finally.
“He’s a nice guy, but it’s not like it could go any further,” I said, shrugging.“We’re in very different places.”
“It’s a three hour drive away, Oli.”
“You said four, just before.”
He grunted.“You’d drive faster, if you knew there was good dick waiting.”
“Let’s hope the traffic cops buy that excuse, then.”
“Seriously, though.Why does this have to be such a big hurdle?”