Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 3

withhold her praise until her son was a business owner. My dad was giddy at me just finishing college.
    I realized I had made a faux pas when the energy at the table became tight. It dawned on me why JJ's mom may not be proud now just as JJ answered. "She passed away a few years ago." He said it kindly, as if trying not to embarrass me. I was seriously beginning to think that JJ had a twin brother and that I was dealing with the good twin. But even so, I felt bad.
    "I'm very sorry," I answered. And I was. JJ's mom had been a very nice lady.
    "Thanks," JJ said. "You know, she always liked you a lot. Remember the time you set up that petition to have the school district have a compost heap and not send out so much garbage?"
    "Schools are horrible trash producers," I replied.
    "You were only eleven," my mom said with a smile.
    JJ was smiling too. "My mom not only signed it, but encouraged everyone she knew to sign it, too. She thought you were pretty tough and tenacious with a big heart."
    As I was floundering again, my mom answered, "He is. Your mom was a very good woman."
    "She was," JJ said.
    The checks came and my dad and JJ tussled when my dad grabbed both to pay. My dad won, which I had never been in doubt of, and JJ relented, but uncomfortably so. "Take Nate out to show him the other changes in town and I'll consider it a fair trade," my dad said.
    The hell? "I can show myself around my own damn town, Dad!"
    "No, it'll be fun." JJ was smiling. "We can go out for drinks right now, if you don't have anything else going on."
    "Good, good." My mom was grabbing her purse and my dad as if they were late for something. "We'll see you boys later."
    I watched, in disbelief, as my parents nearly ran out of the restaurant.
    JJ chuckled beside me. His chair scraped as he stood up. "Come on, Nate. Let me show you that I'm not the thug I used to be."
    I stayed sitting. "I thought this was about showing me the town I grew up in, and not about you," I sniped. Although, I was surprised he did understand that he had been a nasty piece of work, he wasn't excusing his behavior. But I still wasn't forgiving him.
    He sat back down and grinned. "You already know the town. Now you can learn about me."
    "Why would I want to?"
    "Because I want to learn about you."
    "Why?"
    He laughed. "What are you, four?" He stood again. "Come on. I won't bite. Unless you want me to," he said with a wink.
    A wink? Biting? What the hell? Now I knew I was dealing with a twin brother. I stood up and quickly followed him out of the restaurant. He stopped at his truck which was parked under one of the few parking lot lights in the gravel lot.
    "What was that supposed to mean?" I demanded when I got there.
    "What?" he asked, innocently.
    "No. No, what. You know what."
    He opened the passenger side door and said with wide eyes, "I don't know what you're talking about." He walked around the truck and hopped in on the other side. He put the keys in the ignition but didn't turn them. Instead he watched me through the cab, a smile on his face.
    "What, are you fag-baiting now?" I inwardly winced at the term. I had been vice-president of my university's GLBTQ center for two years, and that language was not tolerated. But I had wanted to provoke a reaction, to get him to admit what he was doing. If he wanted me to get in a truck with him, I wanted him to know that I wasn't going to get bashed without bashing back, harder.
    His smile dropped. "That was pretty nasty, wasn't it?"
    Great. He made me feel bad. Angry, I said into the truck, "What are you up to?"
    He looked at me for a moment, then looked out the windshield. "I wasn't… baiting," he said, before turning back to look at me. "I was… Well, I was trying to flirt. Apparently it didn't work."
    My stomach made a strange thud, as if my heart had fallen into it. "Flirt?"
    "Yeah."
    I stood on the broken asphalt, watching him watch me. Slowly, I stepped into the truck and shut the door. We sat in the dark quiet for a few minutes. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, so much as it was expectant. Although who was expecting what, I wasn't sure.
    "Are you seeing anyone right now?" he asked.
    "No."
    "That's good."
    Another few moments of silence passed.
    "Are you?" I asked.
    "No. I wouldn't be trying to take you out if I was." He seemed slightly offended.
    "Have you ever? Dated a boy?"
    "Yeah."
    My head spun around and I stared at him. "You have?"
    His shoulders relaxed and he grinned a little, his teeth bright in the