“Hey,” Dylan paused on his way past where Scott was measuring up windows, a hammer swinging casually in his hand. Of all the people Scott worked with, he felt as though he connected with him the most. They weren’t great friends or anything, but they seemed to have a mutual understanding with each other.
Maybe Scott should have made an attempt to actually become friends with him, but he wasn’t sure where he stood with any of the guys here. He was still the newest. He still didn’t feel like he fit in.
Dogs were way easier than people.
“Hey,” Scott responded, marking his spot with a pencil and then shoving it back behind his ear. “Something up?”
“Just wondering if you’re coming out tonight. Some of us are heading a few towns over for beer and wings.”
“I can’t,” Scott said automatically. He probably could have, but he wasn’t in the mood to deal with most of his workmates. They seemed like great guys, they just weren’t his kind of people. Aside from Dylan, he didn’t think any of them liked him, either.
Scott had never been very good at being one of the guys. He’d spent most of his life trying to keep his head down.
“I have to go to the library,” he added, realizing that he needed to provide some kind of excuse. Especially since Dylan looked disappointed.
Dylan chuckled. “You spend a lot of time in that library. You got a thing for sexy librarians, or what?”
Scott blushed all the way down his neck at the suggestion. “The librarian’s a guy.”
“So?” Dylan asked.
Scott turned to meet his eyes, confused by that response. He’d expected something different entirely.
“Are we about to have a problem, here?” Dylan asked. He sounded… defensive.
Which was weird, because he was usually the happiest, easiest-going guy Scott had ever met.
Eventually, Scott’s brain managed to join all the dots together. He couldn’t believe it had taken him this long, but then, he apparently had a hard time figuring stuff like this out.
“You’re gay,” he said, almost the moment he formed the thought.
First Charlie, and now Dylan. Being able to tell the difference between a straight guy and a gay one clearly wasn’t one of Scott’s skills.
Or maybe there just wasn’t all that much of a difference, and he was trying to mentally shove people into boxes that didn’t actually exist. Dylan was definitely one of the guys, he got along with everyone, and as it turned out, he liked dick.
And that was okay.
“And?” Dylan raised an eyebrow.
“Uh,” Scott said, grasping for something more intelligent to say. “It’s fine. Totally fine. Good, even.”
Dylan’s eyebrow rose higher, forming an impressively dramatic arch.
“I’m screwing this up,” Scott said. “What I mean is: I didn’t realize, but no, we’re not gonna have a problem.”
“Good.” Dylan nodded, looking down at his shoes. “So, uh. I guess you’re not, then?”
“No,” Scott said. “I try not to be that guy who keeps announcing how straight I am every ten seconds, y’know?”
Dylan smiled at that. “Must be why I like you. You’re one of the good ones.”
“Thanks.”
Scott liked the idea of being one of the good ones. He didn’t want anyone to hate him.
“Hey, uh, forgive me if this is insulting, but have you been flirting with me?”
Dylan burst into laughter, leaning against the doorway he’d come through to get into the room. “Seriously? Seriously? Only the whole time.”
“Oh.” The tips of Scott’s ears burned. He wasn’t that clueless, was he?
He could tell when girls were flirting with him. It had just never entered his head that another man might be attracted to him.
“It’s okay. If you weren’t looking for it, I guess it just seemed like I was being friendly. And I was, I guess. That’s my whole flirting style. We weren’t at the complimenting your butt stage yet.”
“I can’t apologize enough,” Scott said. He felt like an idiot now.
Why couldn’t he see that?
Did this mean that when he’d been talking to Charlie, he really had been flirting with him?
That seemed so unlikely. Charlie could do way better.
“Would you have complimented my butt?” Scott asked, suddenly desperate to know.
“It’s a good butt.” Dylan shrugged. “Before you start worrying, I’m not, like, secretly in love with you or anything. Just constantly looking for my next hookup.”
Scott snorted. That was a relief. He would have hated to reject someone he worked with. “Sorry to disappoint you. But I probably would’ve disappointed you anyway, since I have no idea what I’m doing with guys.”
“Hey, virgins can be fun. Communication is the key to great sex.”
“You sound like one of those grocery store magazines,” Scott pointed out.
“Well, they’re right. I mean, not so much about eating a donut off a guy’s dick. There are so many reasons that’s a bad idea. But asking people what they like? Telling them what you like? Basically magic. Turns any hookup into mind-blowing sex.”
“You sound like you know a lot,” Scott said. The tips of his ears were still burning, but he desperately wanted to be as cool as Dylan was about this. If he gritted his teeth and dealt with it, maybe one day he would be.
“My other job is sex education for adults. The local college is even hiring me to talk to students.”
Up until this moment in his life, Scott hadn’t known that was an actual job. He was starting to realize that the list of things he didn’t know was practically infinite.
“That sounds like an awesome opportunity,” Scott said.
“It is. And while hammering nails into walls is what pays the bills, it’s more rewarding work.”
Scott got that part. He knew that this was a good, steady job, and that he was heading into a career that would be harder to break into, but he knew it’d make him feel better about what he’d accomplished at the end of the day.
“What made you think I was gay?” Scott asked. Now that he realized Dylan had thought he was, he wondered what he was doing that made him seem that way.
“Nothing in particular, everything in general? You flirted back. Or I thought you did, anyway. I guess you’re just a nice guy.” Dylan shrugged. “I usually drop it if I think someone isn’t interested. I just thought you were a little shy. Maybe a little closeted.”
Scott paused to consider that. He liked Dylan. He’d gotten along with him from the beginning. He wasn’t remotely attracted to him, but looking back, he could kind of see how they’d gotten their wires crossed.
“Thanks. I was starting to worry that I was putting out some kind of unconscious signal or something.”
“Would it matter if you were?” Dylan asked. “I mean, you seem cool. Do you really care if people think you’re gay?”
“No,” Scott said automatically, not even pausing.
Did he? He’d never really thought about it before. He’d just assumed everyone would somehow magically know he was straight.
Obviously not.
He still wasn’t about to start announcing it regularly. He always got uncomfortable when other guys did, like the idea of being gay was so unpalatable to them that they felt the need to push it away constantly.
Scott just wanted people to be happy. That included not making them feel like there was something wrong with them.
Dylan smiled at him, a soft, genuine smile he hadn’t seen on him before. It was nice to be on the receiving end of. So nice that it made a little swarm of butterflies explode in Scott’s stomach.
“You know, you’re all right,” Dylan said. “I believe you when you say you’re busy tonight, but we should hang out sometime. I could use a token straight friend.”
Scott chuckled at that. “I could be that,” he said, already liking the idea. Maybe he didn’t have to force himself to make friends. Maybe the friends he needed would come to him.
“Cool. Now get back to work.”
“Yes, Boss,” Scott said, though he was pretty sure Dylan was just another contractor like him. The way Dylan grinned at being called Boss meant Scott would keep doing it regardless.