After a year of celibacy, twenty-eight-year-old Los Angeles native Elijah Abrams decides he's ready to try being in a relationship again. In the span of a week, he meets three interesting---albeit universally different---men that he considers potent...
Kwame called me every day for nearly two weeks following our passionate night together. Surprisingly, I wasn't feeling annoyed by it one bit. I actually looked forward to working out with him even though we looked like two buddies just hanging out at the gym most of the time. I can't lie though, it did feel like our relationship was slightly more intimate since it was private. I didn't have to worry about some jealous guy making moves on him the way jealous men used to make moves on Theo when I was with him. At the gym, I was pretty sure most gay or bi guys—closeted or out—automatically assumed Kwame was straight; and therefore, didn't make moves on him. It was the first pro I experienced out of the many cons of dating a guy on the downlow.
With all the time I was spending with Kwame, I didn't entirely neglect Zade and Micah. I hung out with them when I could and talked on the phone with them when it was more convenient. Still, it felt like I'd made a big breakthrough with Kwame and that there was a breakthrough on the horizon with Zade. However, when it came to Micah, I honestly had no idea if there would ever be a breakthrough. I wasn't ready to give up on him but I had the feeling he'd do something to change that.
"What are you up to?" I asked him over the phone while at work.
"Just got back from court," he told me. "How are you?"
"I'm good. I was calling to see if you'd like to have lunch at the place where we met."
He laughed a little and asked, "The Coral Tree Café?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm, I can go for one of their turkey paninis. Sure, I can meet you there for lunch."
"Great. I'll see you there in about...fifteen minutes?"
"Sounds about right. See you when I get there."
I ended the call and smiled as I finished up work on my laptop. After finishing it, I went to Micah's Instagram page because I wanted to see if he'd put up new pics of his kids after going to visit them that past weekend. When I didn't see any new pics of them, I assumed he just didn't take any. However, I noticed there were some new pics uploaded by someone else that Micah had been tagged in. One of them was a pic of him and some white guys and according to the hashtags, the pic was taken in Nevada. He'd lied to me about going to Sacramento that weekend to spend time with his kids.
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"We should have lunch here more often," he said to me as he finished his sandwich. "I can't believe we actually got a table inside this time."
"I know, right," I said while wiping my mouth with my napkin. I sat up in my chair and asked him, "So, how was it spending time with your kids this weekend?"
