Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 8

astringence was wonderful. He sipped for a bit, wondering if he should think about dinner. But food had no appeal.
    Eventually Trey refilled his glass, took it upstairs, and stretched out on his bed with the laptop. As he got online, his email pinged with new messages. Most of them were spam or work-related. But there was one from Josh. He clicked it open.
    Hey Trey, so sorry about showing up unannounced like that. I didn't think you'd mind. We used to practically live in each other's pockets. I should have called first.
    Anyway, if you do want to swing by on the weekend, here's the place. (He'd attached a little Google map.) Come by anytime. Otherwise I guess I'll see you on the way home. I'll call and check before I drop in this time.
    Don't worry– the pony and I have an arrangement. I don't touch him and he doesn't kick the shit out of me. It works. And how hard can selling knickknacks be, right? I assume they'll all have prices on them. If people want to bargain I'll just tell them no. There must be some teenager around who wants to earn a few bucks helping with the farm. I can do this.
    Have a good week,
    Josh
    Damn. Damn, fuck, shit, damn. Josh hated selling stuff. It was almost a phobia for him. When they used to have to sell chocolate bars for the baseball team in middle school, Josh would trade Trey just about anything if he would take on Josh's allotment as well as his own. Tending a store was the last thing Josh would want to do, given a choice. But he loved his aunt and uncle. After his parents found out about Felix, Josh had lived on the old hobby farm for a couple of months, while his parents concentrated on his brother. His Aunt Julie had realized how hard Josh was taking it and she'd really been there for him. He would never say no to her about anything.
    It was the holiday week coming up; Fourth of July. How likely was Josh to find help? His email smacked of false optimism. But what really stung was that Josh thought Trey had minded him showing up at his door. Well, he had, but not the way Josh thought, not like they weren't friends any more. Trey suddenly couldn't stand the thought that Josh was apologizing for coming to see him. He looked at the time on the message. 4:10. Josh must have sat in the rental car outside the townhouse and drafted that before even driving away. Or worse yet, pulled over out of sight down the road to say he was sorry.
    Before Trey could rethink it, he began typing.
    Josh, you dummy, of course I didn't mind. I was surprised, but in a good way. I've missed your ugly face around here. Anyhow, I rethought my work schedule and managed to clear my plate for the week. I should be out there in the morning. I assume you'll be the one sleeping on the couch, right? I'll help sell crap, but you're on your own with the vicious pony.
    -Trey
    He hit send, without even rereading it. And sat staring at the screen. What had he just done?
    After a few minutes his email pinged.
    Trey, You know you don't have to, right? I'll probably hug you to death if you do, but you don't have to. J
    He sent back,
    J, keep your hands to yourself and we'll be fine. See you in the morning. T
    And then Trey felt a little sick and wanted to call it back. Not just because he'd promised to spend the week with Josh, but for the little crack about his hands. Trey didn't want Josh to touch him, that was for sure, for fear of pretty much going up in flames. But that line made it sound homophobic. And they'd been getting better about that. For a while, they'd made a thing of not touching beyond a manly slap on the back. When Josh's tears had dried, on that hot concrete slab under the bright sky, he'd pulled out of Trey's hold. And Trey had let him go. They'd talked, and cursed, and gone round in homophobic circles for hours, and after that for months they'd rejected anything that could even remotely be considered gay. But even before Josh left town back in high school, that had eased just a little, like they'd both agreed silently never to bring up the topic again. Trey wondered what the hell had prompted him to make a comment like that now. If it would have been hard to confess his orientation to Josh before, Trey figured he'd just made it pretty much impossible.
    And he was obsessing again. Trey sighed and logged out without even checking his other email. He called his boss at home and told him he needed the week off, starting Monday. Trey's boss was surprised, but with the Fourth on the Wednesday, the week was