Trembling, Brian turned to him and in an instant, his shock became fear and there was a touch of accusation in his tone. “Sort what out? What the fuck did you—”
“Nothing,” Andrew hissed, trying to stay calm. Brian was reeling and confused. He couldn’t think Andrew would have said anything to James and Troy about their private life. “It’s just a misunderstanding.”
James approached them while Troy held back, arms crossed, and lips pressed together as if it would stop him from putting his other foot in it.
“Brian, I’m sorry,” James said. “It’s my fault. Elle and I were talking and I misunderstood—”
“Elle? What the hell did she say about me?” Before anyone could answer, Brian backed away from them both. “What? You all had nothing better to do so you sat around gossiping about me and my sexuality?”
“No! It wasn’t like that at all.”
“Really?” Brian snapped at James. “So what was it like? How do you just accidentally decide someone is gay behind their back? Huh?”
“No one thinks you’re gay now,” James said calmly.
Now? Andrew could have throttled James for that single word over everything else he’d just said.
Brian threw Andrew a panicked look and Andrew’s heart stuttered. They hadn’t talked about Brian’s orientation again since they went on that date. It hadn’t seemed important. Things were good between them. Better than good. Amazing and thrilling and so fucking off the charts hot Andrew wouldn’t have cared if Brian gave him a lap dance in the middle of Surfers Paradise. And Brian certainly hadn’t seemed to be questioning anything other than why it was taking him so long to learn to deep throat. But the absolute fear in Brian’s eyes now obliterated the blissful ignorance.
Andrew’s heart hurt so much it felt like it was slowly ripping itself out of his chest as he turned to James. “I’m taking Brian home. Tell Elle we’re sorry about missing the cake tasting.”
“You don’t have a car. Let me drive you,” James offered.
Brian’s headshake was so hard he unbalanced.
“We’ll Uber home. It’s okay. Get Troy and go.”
Troy was walking away down the footpath, hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched. He was going in the opposite direction to where they’d parked and didn’t look like he was stopping. James looked from Andrew to Brian, then over his shoulder to Troy.
“Fuck,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.” Then he went after Troy.
“Come on.” Andrew grabbed Brian’s arm and steered him in the other direction. “Let’s go.”
Brian was silent as they waited for their Uber, and all the way home. Once inside, he threw himself upstairs and into his room—which hadn’t been slept in for over two weeks—and slammed the door shut.
Archy, rudely awoken from his sleep in a patch of sunlight by the front windows, meowed inquisitively, decided he didn’t really have the energy to care after sleeping all day, and tucked his face back into his paws.
Andrew wanted to join him. Right then, he wasn’t sure he had the capacity to parse Brian’s response to what had happened. He cared, though. Because what the hell had they been doing these last couple of weeks if Brian was that panicked by being thought of as gay? And if that was the case, what did he think of Andrew being bi?
He was still wandering aimlessly and frustratingly around the ground level of the townhouse when Troy called.
“I didn’t mean it.” He sounded wrecked.
“I know you didn’t. But I’m not the one you have to apologise and explain it to.”
There was a pause for snuffling. “I know. He won’t answer his phone. I’ve left a dozen messages.”
Andrew had no response to that that wasn’t “duh, dickhead,” so he kept quiet.
“James told me that Elle told him he just assumed from what she’d said and I know it’s wrong but it stuck in my head and it just came out today. I never meant to hurt him, it just— I just—” Troy took a couple of deep breaths. “If he talks to you, let him know how sorry I am and that I’ll beg if it will get him to listen to me, okay?”
“I’ll tell him.”
Troy thanked him and hung up. Elle called next.
“Is Brian okay?” she asked immediately.
“No. Why should he be?” All of Andrew’s anger and hurt crystalized at the sound of her voice. “This is all your fault.”
There was a long silence and Andrew knew he was reacting badly, but all of the little doubts he’d had about Brian really committing to this thing they had going weren’t so little all of a sudden. He felt like shouting and crying because he’d sort of thought this would happen and it was really his own fault for ignoring it. But right then, he shifted it all on to Elle.
Elle took a while to respond and sounded steady when she did. “I know. I’m sorry for ever putting that idea in James’s head. I never meant to, and I never personally thought it. I didn’t think he’d get the wrong idea or tell Troy. And after we spoke about it, I explained it to James and he swears he passed that on to Troy too.”
Arguing with Elle had always been a non-starter. She was too bloody reasonable and level-headed to get fiery about much. Just like usual, her calm soothed him.
Softly, she continued. “I’ve never seen Troy cry, but when James dragged him into the cake shop he was a wreck. He’s honestly sorry. Please let Brian know that.”
The last of his anger faded away. Thank god they had Elle. “I will. If he ever talks to me again.”
“Why wouldn’t he talk to you? You didn’t do anything.”
Except try to turn him into something he was shit scared of being. “He’s pretty upset.”
“I know. It’s terrible when people just assume things about you and I feel rotten for being a part of it.” Elle was speaking from experience. Just because she was Aboriginal lots of people assumed she was a bludger and uneducated, even if they saw her in her professional clothes.
“I’m—” bi. But what came out of Andrew’s mouth was, “Sorry for saying it’s all your fault. It’s not. The whole thing is just stupid and hurtful.”
“I know,” Elle whispered and finally her cool demeanour cracked with a little sob. “Oh god I know.” She sniffled and after some long breaths, said, “We cancelled the tasting. I’ll reschedule it for next weekend. Hopefully Brian will have forgiven us all by then.”
“We’ll see.”
“Love you and Brian. Bye.”
Not quite ready to deal if James and Carly called, Andrew put his phone on silent and decided he needed to do something physical to bleed off some tension. Not wanting to leave the house to go to the gym, he ended up outside, hacking at the front hedge. Archy sat behind the front security door and meowed to join him, but Andrew was too focused on his frustration to watch the cat so he wouldn’t hurt himself on the lead. He barely even noted when the meowing stopped. It was only when it was getting too dark to see properly that he stopped and stepped back to survey his work.
“It’s uneven.”
Andrew spun and found Brian sitting on the front step, Archy on his lap, harness and lead on.