I clapped him on the shoulder with a thanks and nudged Julian ahead of me into the freezing cold night air. Julian didn’t need a recommendation since I lived here and he’d visited me plenty enough times to know where to go, but he had a knack for treating people well and engaging locals wherever he went.
The town of Vail sparkled with lights here and there despite the late hour. Even though it wasn’t currently snowing, it was cold as balls.
“Fuck. Why didn’t we stop for our coats?” Julian grumbled.
I put my arm around him. “I’ll keep you warm, Peanut.”
He shrugged me off and shoved me away. “Don’t call me that, Shortbread.”
“Fuck,” I grumbled, forgetting that nicknames went both ways. Julian seemed in a pretty bad mood, so I stopped teasing him long enough for the silence to settle comfortably between us. Silence with Julian had always been comfortable. Being around him was, in some ways, like being alone, only… being alone with the best part of myself.
“Are you mad?” I ventured after a block or so.
Julian shrugged and looked up at the night sky. Despite predictions of an incoming snowstorm in the next couple of days, the sky was inky and clear. The stars were out in bucketloads. It reminded me of the nights we’d spent camping in his parents’ backyard with our sleeping bags and flashlights.
“Not really,” he said with a heavy sigh, as if he’d suddenly lost his never-ending patience with me. “Nolan and I weren’t serious. But fuck… he’s good in bed, and the man has a talented mouth.”
I growled at him. He knew how much I hated hearing about him having sex with his boyfriends and hookups. I just… didn’t like it. I hated thinking of him with someone like Nolan. Someone who didn’t understand or deserve him.
“I still don’t get the attraction. The guy sounds like a surfer. Dude.”
“So?” Julian returned. “He’s charming. He’s fun. He’s got a unique, interesting way of looking at the world.”
Hmph. “What was about all his ‘be free to pursue your passions’ stuff?”
Julian shrugged. “What about it? He was honest about what he wanted from the beginning. And open relationships are very common.”
“But they’re not for you,” I said confidently. “You’re a one-guy guy.”
I knew from previous conversations that Julian wasn’t into open relationships himself. It was something we’d talked through several weeks ago when he’d first hooked up with Nolan. Julian was a serial monogamist. I wasn’t sure the man knew how not to throw himself all in with one person. He was god’s gift to whoever he was dating, too. A giver.
“Yeah,” Julian said after a long, long pause. “Yeah, Parks, I’m a one-guy guy.”
I nodded happily. “That’s why I refrained from kicking his ass for abandoning you.”
“Abandoning me? You told him to leave!”
“Yeah, but he went along with it.” I shook my head, still unable to comprehend it. “Dumbass.”
Julian shook his head with a kind of fond exasperation that made my chest warm. “Down, boy. No black eyes at Erin’s fancy Valentine’s Day wedding, especially on the groom. My sister would kill me since she’s probably in charge of Erin’s makeup.”
His mention of the wedding brought all of my nerves back in full force. Thankfully, I’d been told many times over that having cold feet was very normal. I just had to suck it up. In twenty-four hours, it would all be over, and things could go back to normal.
“Then let’s get you drunk,” I suggested, pulling open the door to Bert’s and gesturing Julian inside. “We can drown your sorrows over losing your, uh… talented friend and help drown my nerves.”
“Erin would kick my ass if I let you start her wedding day hungover,” he said, moving past me into the dim bar. It was exactly the kind of place we needed. Scuffed wood floors, red vinyl booths, and mismatched neon beer signs hung all over the place. It was doing a brisk business tonight, which I was grateful for. I wanted to lose myself in the buzz of the crowd noise and be able to talk to my best friend without worrying about who was listening.
After wandering toward the back, we found an empty booth and slid in, taking opposite sides the way we’d done a thousand times before. A young woman came by to take our drink orders and left as soon as we’d spouted off our favorite beers.
“Besides,” Julian continued, “I don’t have any sorrows to drown. I’d already decided to break things off with Nolan tomorrow before I left for Aster Valley.” He hesitated before looking down at the beer mat the server had left and flicking it between his hands. “The only reason I hadn’t was because I wanted him here as my plus-one. I didn’t want to be single for the wedding.”
His voice was so low, I could barely hear what he was saying. I reached across and used my finger to tilt up his chin. When those baby blues locked onto me, I felt the same warm surge of affection I’d always felt for him.
“Why the fuck not? You know nobody gives a shit except maybe your mom, and that’s only because she wants little gay Jules babies since Hazel’s too busy with her job to ever start a family.”
He shoved my hand away. “Fuck you. You’ve been dating Erin on and off for a hundred years. You have no idea what it’s like to go to a wedding as a single guy. It’s the most depressing thing on Earth. Especially when your two best friends are the ones getting hitched and all the heteronormative bullshit is flowing more freely than the champagne.”
His words made my stomach hurt. I never, ever wanted him to feel alone. Not when he had me. Not when he had Erin and Hazel and Tiller. We would always be his ride or die.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “You’re right. I don’t know what it’s like. But I do know that if all you wanted was a date for this weekend, I could’ve found you a much better guy than Nolan.”
Julian snorted, and it took a little of the worry off my shoulders. “Like who?” he asked, leaning back and crossing his arms in front of his chest. He’d taken off his suit jacket and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. I could see the barest hint of the tattoo that adorned the left side of his chest and almost up to his throat. People were always surprised to learn my little geeky friend was secretly covered in some killer ink, but whenever his tank top revealed it at the gym, the gay guys were always all over him.
Drove me nuts. Only because it interfered with our workouts.
I snapped my fingers. “Layton from the gym.”
Julian’s jaw dropped. “Layton who’s married to Rick and has two little kids?”
“Oh.” I put some more thought into it. “I got it! Sex Pants from the coffee shop.”
Julian laughed again and flushed pink in the cheeks. Bingo. I knew he’d had eyes for that guy.
“His name is Michael, and he makes a living doing OnlyFans stuff. I’m not sure that’s for me.”
I flashed a big smile for our server when she showed up with the beers. “Thanks a ton. Hey, you guys have anything like nachos this late?”
Julian groaned. “Seriously? It’s after midnight. We had a full dinner.”