Landon was becoming very attached to this robe, and he wrapped it a bit snugger around himself as they walked.

“You better not be changing your mind,” Savannah said as they made their way to the nonfiction books. “I really want to go out with them afterward, and if you bail, it’s going to be awkward to the nth degree.”

“I take it you’re getting along nicely with Rachel?” Landon laughed. Savannah had recently had an ugly breakup from her long-time girlfriend and deserved all the flirty fun. At least one of them was having a good time.

“She’s fun. And unlike Bailey, she’s somewhat local, having moved back to Glendale where they grew up a few months ago to take care of her mom. They’re like adorable twinsies—BFFs since grade school, went together to art school in Oregon, but now she’s back in town.”

“I see you got the whole life story. Good sign, right?”

“I guess.” Savannah sighed dramatically. “But who knows. I’ve had so many promising first dates not pan out that I’m trying to not get my hopes up. But I like her. And Bailey. And you should come out too. They said they’re up for following us back to Pasadena, going to one of the four spots you’re willing to eat at this late at a Friday.”

“Hey, I’m not that picky.”

“Yeah, you totally are, but we love you anyway.”

“I’m just not much of a bar guy.” It had been different when he’d been living with his friend Pike in WeHo as they both finished their degrees. Pike had liked going out, and Landon had been assured a big group to do what he liked to do, which was dance in quiet anonymity. But now that he’d bought his little condo close to campus, he was back to staying in. Besides it was easier, as other than Savannah, most of his friendship circle had now coupled up. All the happiness was stifling.

“Which is a shame because you dance so well.” Savannah bumped his shoulder as they arrived at the nonfiction section, catching up with Bailey and Rachel.

“You dance?” Bailey had a speculative gleam in his eyes. “I’ve got the best idea for a shot.”

“Do I get to keep the robe on?” Landon would happily do whatever the dance of the moment was if it got him out of stripping down.

“Nope. But I’ll shoot you from behind. What I’m thinking is you’re so excited to be learning science-y stuff in the nonfiction section that you’re dancing down the aisles as you grab books, dancing on the table. It’ll make people smile and be lighthearted. Playful.”

Landon had to admit this was a far better idea than covering his junk with a stack of books and holding a pose. “You need music to dance,” he pointed out.

“It’s after hours. We can totally get away with some music.” Rachel pulled out her phone. “I love this idea. Happy dancing for science.”

“If it helps, just pretend we’re not here,” Bailey suggested.

“Ha. No chance.” Now that was pushing it. Landon had grown a lot more comfortable as they’d talked in the atrium, but there was no ignoring Bailey. It had been weird, talking while naked, weirder still trying to reconcile this Bailey with the one in his head. There was no denying that they had a ton in common, though, and that had made it easy to chat.

But still, Landon had been hyper aware of Bailey’s presence—the women had faded away, the setting too, but his senses had remained in constant awareness of Bailey’s nearness as he’d been taking pictures. Bailey smelled good—a spicy orange scent every time he’d come in close with the camera, one that made Landon’s skin heat.

“What do you like?” Rachel asked, scrolling through music on her phone.

“Techno. EDM Club mixes.”

“And here we diverge.” Bailey put a hand on his chest, voice all mock tragic. “Unless it’s in a video game soundtrack, I’m not the most into techno. And I’ve yet to find a club with decent music.”

“If we go to Savannah’s favorite spot afterward, they have great wings and great music. And the music’s more chill.” Landon had forgotten that he was supposed to be coming up with a way out of socializing. Bantering with Bailey was dangerous.

“Sounds awesome.” Bailey grinned at him. “And for right now, just put on whatever you want.”

“Okay.” The faster they did this, the faster Landon could be having wings and a giant iced tea and watching Savannah try to land Rachel and not be the center of attention anymore. Bailey and Rachel set up the portable lights and did the whole light meter thing, before they handed him a physics text. Rachel had an EDM mix streaming.

“Dance. Grab books if you want. Have fun,” Bailey encouraged.

And so, completely sober, on a Friday night, Landon ended up dancing naked down the aisles of the library. Bailey had him repeat the circuit a few times, then had him up on a table, weaving between study lights.

“This is bar none the weirdest thing I’ve done.” Landon looked over his shoulder at Bailey who was snapping away.

“Really? You’ve been to Europe. Nothing weirder?”

“This is Landon we’re talking about,” Savannah answered for him. “He goes over to the Hadron Collider in Switzerland and barely leaves the hotel. We went to Amsterdam for a conference, and I was the one exploring while he was frantically changing notes on his presentation.”

“This is a damn shame.” Bailey winked at him before taking another shot. “We’ve got to get you out more.”

“Hey, I get out. I went to a party just the other week—”

“A LAN party with your friends does not count.” Savannah shook her head at him. “Not unless you brought a date.”

He sighed instead of replying. Landon had been the only single guy. Again. This was the hazard of all his friends hooking up and getting boyfriends and girlfriends. He had a brief pang for what it might be like to take someone with him, not have to face the endless “I could introduce you to…” offers.

“I went to the best LAN party in Portland last month.” Bailey motioned for him to keep dancing. “We gamed until almost 4:00 a.m. You would have loved this raid we did.”

“Yeah? Tell me.” Strangely, Landon really liked keeping Bailey talking. It took his mind off how his dick was flopping about and how the air had the crisp sting of over-powerful air-conditioning. He listened as Bailey told him all about the level he’d played, and he was almost a little disappointed when Bailey set the camera down.

“Okay. I think we’re done torturing you. I’ve got some usable stuff, and it’s getting late.” Bailey yawned, which Landon found strangely endearing. Rachel handed him his robe, but this time Landon wasn’t nearly as eager to get it on. Somehow he’d gotten over the being naked thing. Had fun almost.

“So how about it? Food?” Bailey’s eyes were cautious.

“Yeah. I could eat.” What the hell. Landon had to eat right? It wasn’t like he was promising a hookup or anything, and Bailey seemed like a genuinely cool guy.

“He’s coming.” Savannah punched his shoulder. “The place has retro video games. He can’t resist that. Or the wings.”

“Awesome.” Bailey and Rachel started packing up the equipment. Landon went to get changed, much more chill about this whole thing. He didn’t have to marry the guy. Just hang out. He could do that without tripping his usual limitations, he hoped.

* * *

“Are you any good at Street Fighter?” Bailey asked Landon while they were waiting for a table at Barcade, the new-ish place in Pasadena near the university with pizza and wings that both Landon and Savannah apparently loved. Bailey was always up for trying new places and hadn’t minded the detour. He’d make it back to his mom’s in Glendale eventually. Plus, he wanted more time with Landon with his clothes on. Not that this was a date. That ship had sailed the second Landon’s blue eyes had filled with disappointment, but maybe a friendship wasn’t out of reach.

“I’m okay I guess.” Landon shrugged.

“There’s not a game in here that he can’t get the high score on.” Savannah bumped his shoulder. Landon seemed to have tensed back up, which was a damn shame—relaxed and dancing, he’d been so…captivating. Fun. Filled with the sort of mischievous energy Bailey had expected from their emails.

“Do you want to play a game while we wait?” he asked Landon, gesturing at the nearby console.

“I guess.” Landon shrugged as he stepped over to the game. Bailey followed. He wanted to get things back on familiar territory—they both gamed, so it seemed natural to suggest that they do it together. But he’d underestimated the effect of Landon standing right beside him. His fine hair was escaping his ponytail, curling against the nape of his neck in a really distracting fashion. He smelled like something beachy—a shampoo maybe, and Bailey wanted a gallon of the stuff, because damn the scent was addictive.

Also addictive? The way Landon gave the game his full attention. He’d been prepared with quarters and quickly proved himself to be a fierce competitor. He knew all the combos for the character he’d selected, Guile, who looked not unlike a super buff version of Landon himself. Landon threw sonic booms and left Bailey with little more to do than react and block. Landon seemed to shut out everything out other than the match, and Bailey couldn’t help wonder what it would be like to be the recipient of all that focus. Did Landon kiss like he gamed?

No. Stop. He’s straight. Don’t drive yourself crazy. Too late. And it wasn’t even necessarily in a sex way—just to have some of that intense attention pointed his way would be a rush. Not surprisingly, Landon won the first match handily.

“Haven’t played in a while?” he asked Bailey, voice not unkind, more apologetic, like he hadn’t meant to go that hard.

“Uh. No.” Bailey knew he was turning as red as the console. No way could he confess that he was distracted by Landon. So the next match, he tried to ignore Landon’s scent and thoughts of what might have been, and actually gave Landon a fair fight, kicking and jabbing with his character. He’d picked Blanka, same as he usually did, identifying with the Hulk-like player who could scare challengers off with his electric superpowers. I do a great job scaring people off.

“Hey. No biting my face!” Landon laughed as Bailey tried one of Blanka’s signature moves, where it appeared that Blanka took a bite out of Guile’s face.

“Hey, you’re tasty. What can I say?” Oops. The flirty tone had crept back into Bailey’s voice, and he was about to apologize when Landon came back with a vicious combo, kicking and throwing another sonic boom.

“Ha.” Landon grinned as Bailey’s health meter quickly approached the knockout level where Landon would win the round. “That’s for making me dance.”

“Oh come on, you enjoyed it.” Bailey tried to block, but Landon got the KO easily.

“It wasn’t as bad as it could have been.” Landon gave him an impish grin, one Bailey really wished he could capture on camera.

“Good.” Bailey smiled back.

“We’ve got a table, guys.” Savannah and Rachel came over and all four of them followed the server to a hightop with four stools. Even though he had the height for the stool, Bailey always hated how ungainly high tables made him feel, and he didn’t look Landon’s direction as he got settled.

They quickly made the decision to split a pizza and two different flavors of wings. Landon got iced tea, and Bailey followed suit. Last thing he needed was a beer headache. After the waitress left with their order, Landon ducked off for the restroom.

Savannah waited until Landon had disappeared down the back hallway before she leaned into Bailey. “Be patient with Landon, okay? He doesn’t handle change or unexpected results the best, but he’s a truly great guy.”

Bailey sighed. “I’m sure he is. And it’s not his fault he’s straight and was expecting a woman.”

Savannah laughed, a warm tinkling sound. “He was expecting a woman, but he’s not straight. He’s bi.”

“What?” Bailey’s eyes flew open so hard his eye sockets ached.

“Oh, I’m not outing him or anything—he’s brought dates of all genders to school functions and is a faculty adviser for one of the QUILT BAG alliances on campus.”

“Huh.” Guess it really is just me. Fuck. This tidbit didn’t make Bailey feel any better about Landon’s reaction. Maybe a different guy—someone not Bailey—would have gotten a far different greeting. Bailey tried to not get too down on himself, but he knew he was far from the slim, toned, twinky ideal that too many guys seemed to have as a preference for hookups.

“Just give him a chance to warm up.” Savannah smiled encouragingly at him.

Bailey was all for a friendship with Landon, but he doubted anything short of global warming would thaw Landon’s icy reception.

“Hey, they got a rare Gauntlet two-player machine in. Who wants to give it a go while we wait for food?” Landon approached the table with another of his rare-but-disarming smiles.

“I’m just here for the wings.” Rachel laughed.

“You beat me too badly on Cyber Ball last time we were here,” Savannah protested. “You play dirty.”

“I’ll play you,” Bailey offered, even though he was pretty sure Landon hadn’t meant the invitation directly for him.

“Great.” Landon’s smile didn’t waver, which gave Bailey the barest inkling of hope that they could get beyond their initial awkwardness. The game was a simple multi-player dungeon crawl fantasy game where players defeated ghosts while collecting keys and potions for upper levels. The players were supposed to work together, and since Landon was quite clearly the expert, Bailey was happy to let him take charge.

“I like being the wizard,” Landon said as they selected their characters. “Do you want to be the warrior? You can do more hand-to-hand combat that way.”

“I’m easy,” Bailey said and pushed the button for the warrior. “Just tell me what to attack.”

Landon called out orders to lure the ghosts into corners where they could be defeated easier and directions to find the exit to go to the next level.

“You’re good at this,” he praised Bailey as they jumped to level three.

“Hey, I’m happy to be your muscle. You’re doing the real work.” Bailey didn’t like the way the compliment made his pulse speed up. Don’t start hoping, he warned himself. The next level started up, and Landon’s voice seemed warmer as they worked together to defeat the newest round of monsters.

“Food’s up.” Rachel came to fetch them right as their health meters dipped close to the point where they would have needed to feed the machine more money.

“If you liked that, I think you’d really like the latest Space Villager expansion pack,” Landon said as they dug into the food. He hadn’t been lying about the wings being top-notch—crispy with a tangy sauce that managed to walk the line between incendiary and savory. “It has an almost mystical feel to it, with alien ruins to explore, and these weird ghostlike creatures. Would you and Rachel want to follow me back after this? I could share the stuff Josiah gave me at the last LAN party. I’ve got some extra early access codes.”

“Rachel has…other plans.” Rachel cast a sly glance Savannah’s direction. “But you go on, Bailey. I know you’re crazy about that game. I’ll find my own way back to Glendale, no worries.”

Oh, this was delicate. Should he decline since Landon had rather deliberately made the invitation for both him and Rachel? But, on the other hand, they’d had a lot of fun playing Gauntlet together. And Bailey did want the codes. Rather badly. Almost as much as he wanted Landon’s friendship, wanted to figure out how to get to an in-person version of their easy email banter.

“I should probably get back to Mom’s,” he hedged. “You’ve had a long night…”

“Nah.” Landon shrugged, but a little of his earlier tension had returned. “Come over. If I give you the codes, maybe we can get on the same server together later this week, try it out.”

“That sounds awesome.” See? Maybe things were looking up after all. He might have not made a romantic connection, but a new gaming friend was a win nonetheless. Now if he could just convince the stupid hope coursing through him to give up the ghost of his pointless crush on Landon. Never happening.