Free Bitter Taffy by Amy Lane

said no, and then I saw him with Finn. You don’t get in the way of that sort of thing. It’s bad karma.”
    Rico let out a breath. “Is the gay community in Sacramento really that small?” he asked almost dryly. “I mean, I’ve been back and gay for five minutes and the whole world’s in love with Adam.”
    “I was never —”
    “I know.” Rico sent him a crooked smile. “I was trying to joke about it. I don’t know what to say.”
    “How about tell me why you lived here for six years and don’t know what the community is like?”
    Derek had a big window surrounded by spring green drapes, with blinds to keep out what would probably be brutal afternoon sun. Rico stepped over and raised the blinds, delighted to see a view of the tree-shrouded street. “I didn’t come out until I went to New York,” he said. “What did Miguel say, fifteen—”
    “Why not?” Derek asked, leaning against the front of his desk and crossing his arms.
    “You’re out to your family?”
    “Yeah.”
    “They throw you a parade?”
    “They didn’t disown me, and only my mom’s sister stopped talking to me. Mom doesn’t like her much anyw—”
    “Did you see that scar on Adam’s forehead?”
    Derek’s defensiveness dropped a little. “Yeah.”
    “Our grandmother slammed the door in his face before he had a chance to take that final step out of her life. Broke his nose too. Made it through two tours in the Middle East unscathed, but that bitch split open his forehead and broke his nose. I came out to myself in New York. Adam’s the only family I’ve talked to about it. Isn’t there some sort of code about not telling people unless you want them to know?”
    “I didn’t see the bylaws. I’m sorry about—”
    Rico swallowed. This man could make business personal like no one he’d ever met, not even Ezra. “Can we sign contracts today?” he asked, voice broken and a little desperate. “And talk about nothing except the job? And maybe where we eat for lunch?”
    “Yeah,” Derek said softly. “Sure. I hear you. Just business today.”
    “Thanks,” Rico said, relieved on so many levels. For starters, he’d just said his first no—and Derek had done just what he’d promised.
    It sort of made Rico want to confide in him—but not today.
     
     
    T WO HOURS later Rico had signed all the contracts, double-checking to see the language Derek had promised was there, and then he’d gone through the orientation binders Derek provided.
    He liked the business more by the passing minute.
    Miguel had come in and quietly and competently led him through the steps of securing a job on his own if he wanted, and the pros and cons—mostly pros—of referring a potential client to Derek’s business.
    “Derek protects the client too,” Miguel said earnestly. “But generally his lawyers—he’s got two of them—keep everything clean and legal. And I’ve seen him go after people trying to welsh on a deal a couple of times—he’s relentless. If his people do the job, he goes to the mat for them.”
    “That’s good to know,” Rico said, feeling better and better about this deal as they went on. “My last boss, not so much.”
    “What was it like?” Miguel asked, stars in his eyes. “Working in New York?”
    Rico smiled, remembering that he’d felt the same way less than a year ago. “You know how you look outside that window and you look down on all those trees?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Not so much.”
    Miguel thought about it. “How’d that feel?”
    “I really missed the sky.” But he would have been willing to stay there, chafing under Kellerman’s boots and eating the old guy’s shit, if only for Ezra. Now he asked himself, when would that have started to pall? When would he have needed to break out of there because being trapped in that job was almost as bad as being trapped in the closet, and he finally wanted to know what it felt like to be all the way free?
    “Yeah,” Miguel said, face falling.