Free Chasing the Rainbow by Kade Boehme

don’t exactly know what I’m doing here.” Bobby was looking steadily at Jody, who was surprised at the admission. Bobby didn’t seem like he was someone who’d be that in touch with his feelings. But didn’t that just make Jody an asshole. Judging the book by the cover and all. He knew Bobby was intelligent. He knew Bobby seemed like a good man, even if he’d hurt Jody’s feelings not wanting to date him. He wasn’t a dumb twenty-year-old. It was just strange hearing Bobby’s truth articulated succinctly but honestly.
                  “What? And you’re assuming I do?” Jody gave him a teasing smile.
                  “Better than me, probably. At least you made it down the aisle.”
                  Jody grimaced. “Don’t remind me.” He took a sip of his beer to wash down the bitter memories of saying an “I do” he’d not meant.
                  “I was so annoyed with you and then myself, today; that I almost went out tonight to just say fuck it. Just to get laid.”
                  Jody hated the green fire of jealousy that burned in his gut. He had no right. It was stupid. He drank his beer in earnest now, hoping Bobby couldn’t read the annoyance on his face. What right did he have to tell Bobby what he could or couldn’t do? “We can be casual….”
                  “I didn’t, Jo.”
                  “Oh?” Jody tried to sound unaffected, but the dimple that appeared on Bobby’s face said he’d given himself away.
                  Bobby turned bodily toward Jody then, drawing Jody’s full attention. His face was so serious; it seemed uncharacteristic. Jody didn’t like it at all, this serious Bobby. “Do you think I’m a cliché?”
                  “Cliché?” Jody wasn’t quite sure what Bobby meant.
                  “Nothing. Sorry. Something my brother said.” Bobby grimaced. “I believe mid-life crisis was thrown around.”
                  Jody snickered. “So it got real at Casa de Gugino.”
                  Bobby shook his head, grinning before growing pensive. “What made you come out?”
                  Jody blinked at the non sequitur. “Uh. Well.” Jody frowned down at his empty pint. He gathered his thoughts while he waited for the bartender to get another round for the two of them. He supposed Bobby couldn’t exactly get mad at him, seeing as they’d been in the same boat. He wasn’t just talking to any old Guido from Iz’s neighborhood. He was talking to Bobby.
                  “Sorry if it’s too personal.”
                  Jody’s gaze at Bobby was level. “I guess having seen me naked, I don’t think of much as being too personal.”
                  “Was that a slut joke?” Bobby’s face was so impassive; Jody started flailing to say no. Bobby chuckled and Jody punched him.
                  “You’re such a dick.”
                  “So my brother tells me.”
                  Jody heaved his best put-upon sigh and took a drink, ordering his thoughts. “I never really meant to marry Iz.” Bobby’s confusion was palpable. “I know, that sounds insane. She thought I was a gentleman because it took me so long to actually try to get in her pants. I didn’t bother her for sex all the time, either. It wasn’t that I was closeted; so much as I just had always thought I was… Fluid.”
                  “Fluid?”
                  “I guess I thought I was more bi or pansexual. I think, more than anything, though, I was trying not to be like my parents. Traditional het relationships scared me, while the boyfriends I dated were always more open. That wasn’t a gay thing; so much as I hung with a pretty hippie crowd. We were pre-hipster hipsters.”
                  “Sounds about