The One With The Back Entrance
The first time Zac kissed me, he had an excuse—a damn good excuse, if you asked me. He was drunk and getting into the spirit of the threesome. I had even kissed him first. Compared to having seen his dick and watched him come, that kiss was hardly even a blip on my radar.
The second time he kissed me, though, he only had the excuse of drunkenness.
Even days later, I could swear my lips still tasted like the beer and tequila he’d been downing all night. We hadn’t talked about it, so I honestly didn’t know if Zac remembered the brief kiss at all. It was probably best if he didn’t, because he would try to twist it around and claim that I’d come on to him, especially now that he knew about my history. I hadn’t kept the fact that I’d experimented from him on purpose; it just really didn’t seem important. And maybe this kiss wasn’t important either. Maybe it was just some silly drunken thing, but I would never know if we didn’t talk about it.
“Hello? Earth calling Taylor, come in Taylor.” Cade’s voice broke through my thoughts, and although I registered his soft laughter that followed, whatever he said was lost on me entirely.
“Hmm?” I asked, glancing up from the cup of coffee I’d been staring into.
Cade chuckled. “You were off in La La Land, I think. What’s up?”
“Oh,” I replied, shaking my head. “Just thinking, I guess.”
“About what? Got a hot date after work or something?”
“No!” I blurted out, realizing how loud I was when a kid at the next table jumped in her seat and stared at me. “No, just… thinking about work tonight, I guess.”
Cade nodded knowingly, but I had a feeling he was still confused by how weird I’d been acting all day. He was a good shopping buddy (Zac was absolutely useless at the mall), and we’d usually had a lot of fun during our little trips, but that particular day, I couldn’t get my mind off how awkward things were with Zac.
As much as it probably seemed that way, I really wasn’t trying to avoid Zac by staying out all afternoon with Cade. We both had several important things to cross off our shopping list, and some of them took a while to locate. Maybe I was stalling, though. That was possible. But Zac and I lived and worked together; eventually I would have to face him. Just not right then.
Somehow, once again, Cade and I had managed to spend the entire day at the mall. Coffee and food court pizza wasn’t the best dinner in the world, but it was going to have to do. By the time we dropped off our bags at his apartment, we would just have time to make it to Double Entendre’s for our shift. I’d left Zac a note to go on to work without me if I was late, but who knew what he would do for dinner without me there to play housewife and cater to his every whim—literally.
Then again, there were a few of his whims that I didn’t cater to, but his recent actions were starting to make me wonder if Zac wouldn’t mind having me take care of those for him, too.
After finishing our greasy dinner, we drove to Cade’s apartment. It was so spotless that I felt bad about piling up all our shopping bags in the living room, but he assured me it wasn’t a problem.
“I’m starting to feel like Santa Claus,” he said, arranging the last few bags. “Just a couple months too early.”
“I highly doubt Santa goes to this much trouble over one person,” I replied, tucking some streamers back into the bag they’d fallen out of. Checking my watch, I added, “And that one person is going to be in a seriously pissy mood if we don’t hurry up. Not to mention Ruby…”
Cade chuckled. “Say no more.”
He hurried to the bathroom to wash up, while I assured him that I didn’t mind waiting until we got to the club to clean up. At least I had shaved and showered that morning, so I didn’t think it would take long to get ready for the night’s performance.
A few short minutes later, we were on the road again, this time headed to Double Entendre’s with little time to spare.
“Thanks again for helping me out,” I said.
“It’s no problem,” Cade replied. “I didn’t really make a lot of friends at my last job; you’d be surprised how clique-y computer geeks can be. So I’m just glad I have a few guys to hang out with now other than the dumb jocks from the gym.”
I chuckled. “I guess you wouldn’t really classify any of us as geeks or jocks.”
“I suppose not,” he said with a chuckle. “Although, I haven’t really figured out what I would classify you as.”
“I’m not sure if that was a compliment or an insult.”
Cade chuckled and reached a hand across the car, giving my thigh a gentle pat. “Don’t worry. I meant it as a compliment.”
I returned his laughter, but I couldn’t help glancing down at where his hand had ended up. It was pretty high up on my thigh, and it immediately reminded me of that moment with Zac. A cold shiver ran up my spine at that thought, and I wasn’t sure whether to blame Cade’s touch or the memory of touching Zac.
I didn’t have a long time to consider those thoughts, though. Cade only let his hand linger for a few more seconds before pulling it back. Only a few minutes later, we had pulled into the parking lot at the bar. Since we were late, there was already a crowd, so we headed toward the back door in hopes that we could bypass all the women hanging out by the front waiting to be admitted.
“After you,” Cade said, holding the door open for me. “Since you finally admitted that you are, in fact, a fan of the back entrance.”
“I said no such thing,” I replied, giving him my most innocent smile.
Cade mumbled something in reply to that, but I couldn’t quite make it out. I headed on down the hallway toward the ready room, knowing I only had a little bit of time to get myself cleaned up and dressed. Zac was just walking out of the bathroom when I walked in, and we passed each other without a word. I wanted to say something, anything at all, to him, but I had a feeling that would just make it even more awkward.
Thankfully, by the time I emerged from the bathroom a little cleaner, Zac’s mood seemed to have improved. He was already in his first costume and was even tossing his Nerf football back and forth with Cade. It was a strange and sudden change in Zac’s mood, but I was glad to see them getting along. They had certainly gotten off on the wrong foot at the gym, but while Cade was a huge flirt, he was a genuinely good friend. Maybe Zac was starting to see that.
I had just dropped my pants—earning a loud whistle from Cade in the process—when Ruby barged into the room.
“Oh, good,” she said. “You guys made it in time. Fashionably late as usual, huh?”
“Yeah, you know me,” I replied with a wink. I didn’t even bother covering up as she continued to stand in the doorway; instead, I just made my way to the clothes rack and looked through it for my costume.
“Well, I’m glad you could make it,” she replied. “You’ve all got about five minutes before the first song.”
With that, she left. I finally located my leather pants and began to wiggle my way into them. Five minutes wasn’t a lot of time to get ready, but luckily, Zac and I were on second.
“So,” Eduardo said. “You boys have anything fun planned for the weekend?”
We all replied that we didn’t, which wasn’t especially surprising. Other than Zac’s failure of a date, I couldn’t remember the last time either of us had hung out with anyone other than Cade and Eduardo, and I really couldn’t remember the last time we’d had any dates worth speaking of.
“Isn’t your birthday coming up, Zac?” Eduardo asked.
“Tuesday,” Zac replied with a pout. “And I have to fucking work. On my birthday.”
“Sucks,” he replied. “So no party for the birthday boy?”
Zac shook his head so sadly that I couldn’t help laughing a little. I didn’t know any other grown men who cared so much about celebrating their birthdays.
“Well, hey,” Cade cut in. “I think Ruby said something about having a Halloween party next weekend. If you just wanted to party. I’m sure there will be more than just us gays—I mean guys—there.”
He gave Zac an exaggerated wink at that, and Zac only responded with a roll of his eyes. For a second, I was worried that he was going to say something douchey and refuse to go the party, simply based on the way Cade had chosen to invite him. When he gave a shrug and a slight smile, I let out a breath.
“Sure, why not? As long as there’s alcohol, I’m sure I’ll have a good time.”
Zac shot me a strange look after he said that, and I couldn’t help wondering if he was thinking about the threesome, our male bonding night or both. It wasn’t as though he’d had a bad time at either of those; if he had, I was sure he would have complained to me plenty. He might have done a few things he didn’t normally do, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
While Cade and Zac were discussing Halloween costume possibilities, Ruby poked her head into the room to announce that the first song was starting. Cade and Eduardo followed her out, leaving me alone with Zac. The awkward silence around us was so tangible that it might as well have been another person in the room with us. I finished putting on my costume as slowly as possible, just to keep myself occupied.
“So,” Zac said. “Did you know about this Halloween party? First I’m hearing of it.”
I shrugged, not turning around to face him. “She mentioned it once or twice, yeah.”
“That means you’ve already got some gay little matching costumes picked out for us, right?”
“Actually, no,” I replied, turning around as I slipped on my vest. “I have a few ideas for my costume, but you’re on your own.”
“Well, do you think you can break one date with your boyfriend to go costume shopping with me?”
I shot him a glare, but otherwise ignored the ‘boyfriend’ remark. “Just steal something from the closet here. I’m sure you can find something, and as long as you don’t ruin it, Ruby won’t mind.”
“You’re a genius, Tay,” he replied with a huge smile.
I decided that didn’t even need a reply. For once, he was actually complimenting me. I could definitely get used to that. Seeing a genuine smile on Zac’s face as we lined up behind the stage for our first performance was good, too. Things had been weird between us since that threesome, but perhaps they were getting back to normal. I could only hope so.