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.Bastard.He grabbed Baxter s neck. You don t want me, Baxter, so you have no rightto be jealous every time I meet someone.Baxter jerked back. Fuck off. He twistedand grabbed Sam s arm, attempting to pull him offthe floor back to the bar.Sam resisted. You go ahead.I want to get to know Dougbetter.Even with the music and the noise of thecrowd, Aidan heard Baxter s enraged gasp.Heburst out laughing and followed his friend to thebar after letting Sam and Doug know where he wasgoing. What s up with you, Bax? Aidan nudgedBax s arm. Can t handle it unless you re the onepulling them in? Fuck off, Aidan.Aidan realized Baxter was serious.His friendwas really upset that Aidan came with Sam. Come on, Bax, you only met him tonight.Youcan t be that serious already. He s the one I was telling you about,asshole.Aidan jerked back. Sam? My Sam? Helooked toward the dancing crowd. Really? Not him, idiot.Doug. When Aidan stared atBaxter in surprise, Baxter relaxed a bit. Youreally didn t know?Aidan shook his head. He s the guy who sbeen getting rid of my snakes for me. He jerkedback. That s why he always smells like DG.Baxter was suddenly in his face again. Howthe hell do you know how he smells? Just howwell have you been getting to know him?Laughter bubbled inside Aidan, but heruthlessly pushed it down, knowing it would pushBaxter too far. Take it easy, Bax.I told you aboutthe snakes and how he rescued me from them. Heflicked another look at the crowd. So, Bax isfinally in love, is he? he teased. Fuck you, Baxter groused, then ruined it bygrinning sheepishly before sighing despondently. He s not talking to me since the other night. The other& ? The light bulb lit insideAidan s sluggish brain. He s the blowjob fromthe other night when I was there.Baxter nodded. He won t believe me that Ijust said your name because you were there.Hedidn t see you.He thinks I ve been using himbecause I can t have you. You had me, Bax, and it didn t work.Didyou tell him that?His friend nodded miserably. He says I veprobably been pining for you ever since, and he snot going to be a substitute for anyone. He raiseddespairing eyes to Aidan, then seemed to collecthimself and shrug. Well, there are plenty moremen out there I haven t tried.No point in gettingbogged down with one, is there? It s too muchtrouble. Don t do this to yourself, Bax. I don t know what you re talking about. Yes you do.Every time you start to careabout someone, the first obstacle you hit, you bail.Why do you always have to think it should beeasy? It shouldn t be so bloody hard, that s forsure, Baxter retorted. Love isn t hard, Bax, but relationships canbe.At least to start with.It takes time to learnabout another person and work out how to fit yourlives together. It wasn t hard with us.Aidan laughed. You have a very selectivememory, Baxter Finch.We fought most of our waythrough primary school, remember? It took thewhole eight years of that before we settled intobeing steadfast friends.Baxter looked surprised, then laughed, thensobered, all so fast Aidan thought he d havewhiplash by the end of it. Shit, does that mean Ihave to fight with Doug for eight bloody yearsbefore we can be comfortable together all thetime? Don t think about it like that.Think of all themake-up sex you ll be having.Baxter brightened. I like the way you think,my friend. He turned to look at the crowd,noticing Sam and Doug weaving their way throughbut not heading toward them. What the hell? Hasyour date just stolen my boyfriend? Boyfriend? Dear God, Bax, when youdecide to fall, you don t muck around, do you? Justthe other day,  boyfriend was the worst sort ofdirty word to you. Aidan sucked in a tight breathas he realized that Baxter had really fallen forDoug.He told himself it was because of therobberies and the possibility that Doug wasinvolved, but there was still a little pang at theconfirmation that all he and Bax would ever bewas friends.Aidan truly didn t know why he kept holdingonto the wish for more.He knew, logically, that heand Baxter were better as friends.He d never beable to live with the other man full-time.They ddrive each other crazy.He looked over the sea ofheads and bodies performing complicated socialrituals and realized it was probably just that hewas lonely and grasping at the nearest straw.Atleast one of them had the sense to recognize it andstep back so they could save their friendship.He noticed Doug head to the bathroom andthought there was one thing he could do to helpBaxter in his quest for his first boyfriend. I ll beback in a minute, he said absently as he slippedoff his stool and headed toward the back.As the door opened, he noticed Doug washinghis hands.Aidan stepped to the sink beside himand stuck his hands under the cool water. Hey.He looked around, but none of the other menseemed interested in them. I m sorry about theother night. Doug looked up, startled and wary. Iheard the door slam and thought Baxter had comehome drunk and fallen or something. He lookedup into Doug s scowling face. I sure as hellstartled Bax, standing there staring at you both likethat.It was a bit of a shock, and I froze for aminute.I went straight to the guest room, but Baxsaid you left. He dried his hands and threw thepaper towel in the trash. So, um, sorry.I m backat my place now, so there won t be any moreinterruptions from me, and I know Bax wants tosee you again [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]