Free The Telling by Eden Winters Page B

registered.
    “You called me?”
    “Yeah, Coach Anders gave me two tickets to the Hawks game, and I thought maybe you might wanna go. But you never called me back.”
    Mouth falling open, Michael grabbed his cell phone. Sure enough, the little icon on the screen displayed a message. “Oh my God, Jay.
    I’m so sorry. I had other messages and thought that was it. I never even played yours!”
    The rigid set of Jay’s shoulders relaxed. “So you weren’t blowing me off?” Michael couldn’t help but
    notice how hopeful Jay looked. Most encouraging.
    “Are you kidding? It was a Hawks game! Do you have any idea how long it’s been…” He shut up with he realized how
    he sounded. “I mean, well…”
    Suddenly that smile he’d been missing made an appearance. “That’s okay,” Jay reassured him. “I know what
    you mean. Just a little missed communication, yeah?”
    “Yeah,” Michael agreed, relieved to see the old Jay back.
    “So, we still on for pizza?”
    “Sure. But you should know that I have a hard time going out sometimes, it makes me really anxious. Does that bother you?”
    Jay leaned up from where he’d been sitting and stared Michael squarely in the eyes. “You obviously have never met my family if you
    think a little thing like anxiety is gonna bother me. Jeez, I think we have all the major phobias covered in my immediate family alone. And don’t
    even get me started on the cousins!” Jay grinned and Michael took it to mean he was joking. Of course, even if he wasn’t
    Jay’s family couldn’t be any worse than Michael’s own cousins.
    “Don’t worry about it, dude, I understand. Believe me, I do. I’d have taken good care of you.”
    That might be a double-entendre. In fact, Michael hoped so, but he had to take this slow. Just because things went well with coming out to his mother
    didn’t mean he was ready to announce his orientation to the world.
    Gramps broke the mood with his return. Jay leaned back into the loveseat as though he’d been there the whole time.
    Grandpa’s gaze darted between Jay and Michael. “Did I miss something?”
    Michael’s heart skipped a beat until realizing what his grandfather meant.
Oh, yeah. He’s talking about the race.

Chapter Six
    Tuesday night found Jay sitting in front of the television in Michael’s apartment, munching burgers and watching a reality show. As Michael
    didn’t watch much prime-time television, his guest’s slow Texas drawl provided a running commentary, filling him in on the details of
    the program that, apparently, Jay adored.
    “So, they all have to live and work on this farm when most of them have never even seen a cow before,” Jay concluded, the camera
    panning to show two inappropriately dressed young women attempting to clean a horse stall while wearing high heels and very tight blue jeans. Michael would
    have bet good money that their breasts were store bought. One kept falling off her own shoes while the other bemoaned a broken fingernail. They’d
    never last a minute at his grandfather’s place.
    The men on the show weren’t faring much better, and he and Jay both laughed, watching Maurice, an aspiring model, run from the barn, chased by a
    small pink piglet.
    Animated expressions and hand gestures accompanied Jay’s dialog, a drastic change from what Michael was used to. Even Angie seemed reserved in
    comparison. The enthusiasm proved contagious, and Michael soon found Jay far more interesting to watch than the program.
    “Oh! Look!” Jay exclaimed, pointing at the screen. “That’s Lisa, a Wall Street broker. She’s gonna win
    this thing, I just know it.” He cocked his head as the meticulously attired blonde scolded the two hopeless cases in the stall. Michael found
    himself jealous of Lisa, wishing those dark eyes looked at him with such single-minded focus.
    Occasionally a flirtatious grin would flash his way, or he’d be on the receiving end of a little light teasing, but that was just Jay,