Triangles of all Shapes and Sizes (Book One - ManXMan ManxManxWoman)

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Sarah got you with a winky pass, huh?" Steve spotted it almost immediately.

Spence grinned at him but didn't say anything.

To say that things were tense between James and Steve was an understatement, they hadn't spoken, the glared at one another whenever their eyes met.

There would be no reconciliation.

They were behaving like a couple of typical ignorant jocks. Anyone who saw them could see it. Both with their chests puffed out, and their walls were up. Drinks in hand and not a word passing between them.

They were in a pub. The most blokey bloke pub that James could google at short notice. But this being the city; that didn't actually mean anything.

Since they'd been here, James had seen several same-sex couples holding hands or kissing. It was tame for the most part, and they did this without drawing attention from any of the locals.

Steve watched each couple with more interest than he was letting on, but Spence seemed comfortable, so that was a good sign.

James happened to be watching Spence when Steve reached a hand towards his friend's thigh. Spence slapped it away.

"No, buddy, it's not your winky pass," Spence advised him, and James suppressed the desire to punch the meathead.

Hard.

In the face.

"You might as well take it off, you know Sarah never goes back for seconds," Steve muttered swigging the amber liquid from his schooner.

Spence shrugged, eyeing James subtly, though James noticed it.

"You know winky passes are our thing, right? Mine and Sarah's?" Steve finally spoke directly to James, seeming to have grown bored with the walls, the television, and possibly with Spence.

This bucks party was not going well.

"What's that supposed to mean?" James challenged him, waiting for Steve to say something all night that he could take offence to.

Spence looked at James with alarm in his expression, and James backed down immediately.

"Calm down swimmer boy, we never did anything," Steve admitted, though he seemed to relish in James' mind jumping to conclusions. "Well no, that's not exactly accurate, we hooked up, once."

James moved involuntarily towards Steve, but Spence was suddenly between them. James vaguely had a memory of one time thinking Spence had the graceful speed of a vampire.

Where had that even come from? A dream maybe.

"Stop talking shit," Spence muttered with reluctant agitation. "You dated Sarah when you were fifteen, and you didn't lose your hetero-card until Brittany reluctantly sucked it out of you when you were eighteen."

This had played on James' mind many times in the lead up the weekend away. The five of them had grown up together, they were all well put together and very close. The fact that one or even both of these guys might have a history with Sarah that wasn't strictly plutonic hadn't occurred to him. Still, now that Spence had cleared the air, James felt his whole body relax just a bit.

"Sarah wouldn't touch you or your ten-foot pole," Spencer's words were undoubtedly accompanied by an eye-roll James couldn't see from where he sat.

James also didn't think that's how that saying actually went. But his relief overshadowed any desire to correct Spence.

"Makes sense this would be your idea," James said pointedly looking at Spencer's winky sticker. "Graduated from honesty, though did you? Adultery has an extra syllable, I suppose it makes sense."