Chapter 46
I’d had a crush on him for years, but he was Matt’s little brother, and besides…what would he see in someone like me?
I pulled in my stomach and sat a little straighter. Not that it helped. My belly couldn’t be hidden.
“Becks! Where’d you go?”
“Huh?” I blinked and turned my attention to Matt. “Sorry.”
“Whatever. You gonna tell me what was so funny just now?”
We were interrupted by the waitress before I had time to answer. For a second, I considered ordering something healthy, like one of those fancy avocado sourdough sandwiches that were so popular. But Matt would have a million questions if I did, and I’d always been a terrible liar and would never be able to fool him. So, I ordered my usual: a stack of pancakes with half a pig’s worth of bacon on the side, and their biggest mug of hot chocolate to top it off.
After taking our orders, the waitress brought our drinks and Matt asked again what I’d been laughing about when they arrived.
“What’s your sign?” I asked.
Matt downed a big gulp of coffee, yelped, and started fanning his mouth. Levi smiled at me and shook his head. Matt never learned.
“Your birthday is in July. You’re…what? Cancer?” I asked when he’d calmed down.
“Oh! I guess.”
I woke up the screen on my phone, cleared my throat, and read out loud. “Until the end of the year, Jupiter continues to bring fullness to your life in the areas of creativity and romance, and this influence is extra strong tonight. So maybe take what your boyfriend offers this evening and leave the extra-large dildo in the drawer for once. You’ll be stuffed enough tonight without it.”
Matt’s eyes grew wider and wider as I read until I feared they would pop out of his head. When I finished, he stared at me as if I had emerged from the depths of Hell. “Dude! What the eff?” he choked out.
I glanced at Levi. His face flamed bright red and he bit his lip, looking everywhere except at me or Matt.
“What the heck are you reading?” Matt rubbed his ears as if he was trying to erase what he just heard.
I held up my phone and showed him.
QX—your guide to all things LGBTQ+
Matt squinted and turned to Levi. “You programmed that site, didn’t you?”
Levi nodded. He was a computer wizard and had started programming almost before he could read and write. He’d designed his first webpage professionally his freshman year in high school and if his parents hadn’t been adamant he had to graduate, he would have dropped out and started his business before his junior year.
“Why are you reading…that?” Matt hissed out the last word.
The waitress took this moment to arrive with our food. As she placed pancakes and bacon in front of all of us, I stared at him with eyebrows knitted together. “What do you mean?”
“It’s a site for gay people.”
I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “It’s for everyone within the LGBTQ+ spectrum,” I said, unable to keep an annoyed edge from my voice.
“Yeah, yeah.” Matt stuffed his face full of pancakes. “But you’re not…that.”
That? I rolled my eyes. Matt could be such an idiot sometimes. “No, but I ambi.”
“But I thought…” He shoved a piece of bacon into his mouth, luckily stopping himself from saying anything even more stupid.
“You thought that since my last partner was a girl, I’m straight. Is that about it?” I was so fucking tired of this topic. If it wasn’t Matt, it was someone else. Like my parents.
“Yeah,” Matt muttered with his gaze downcast. His reply earned him a sharp elbow in the side from Levi. “Hey, don’t you start, too,” he said to his brother.
“Get off your brother’s case, Matt. Don’t be an ass.”
He looked at me as if to say ‘what’?
“We’ve had this conversation a million times. Don’t be a bigot. Your own brother is gay, for fuck’s sake. What did your mom do when she found out?”
“Switched churches.” Matt’s reply was barely audible.
“That’s right. Your very religious parents accepted Levi’s identity and moved heaven and earth to make him comfortable. But you…” I threw my hands up in the air. “Stop. Just stop, okay?”
Matt rubbed his ears again. “Yes, okay. Sorry.” He nudged his shoulder against his brother’s. Levi nudged back and then gave me a wide, grateful smile, making the tip of his nose turn down slightly. Swoon
“The question stands though.” Matt had clearly moved on from the uncomfortable discussion. “Why do youread horoscopes? You don’t believe in them.”
“I don’t. But didn’t you hear what I just read? It was hilarious!” My hot chocolate had cooled down enough to drink and I took several gulps. “Someone is apparently sending these horoscopes anonymously to the site, but everyone loves them. I log on every day just to read them.” I took another sip and when I put down my cup, Levi smirked at me and tapped his nose with a finger and flitted his eyes between my face and my paper napkin.