My Prince by Anna Martin Read Free Book Online Page B

girls.”
    “Yeah,” George laughed. “Caroline is six years younger than me. It was just me and Maggie for a while, then the rush of estrogen started.”
    “Wow. I can’t imagine having seven brothers and sisters.”
    George shrugged. He’d grown up in a big family, though having the one brother made all of the sisters bearable. They were both close to their dad too and his dad’s brother, who co-owned the garage where his dad and Maggie worked.
    “Are you out to them?” Alex asked.
    “To my mum and dad and Maggie, yeah. And my nan.”
    “No one else?”
    George shook his head. “Not right now. It’s not a massive secret, you know? I just… I don’t want to be the ‘gay brother’ or the ‘gay uncle’ or ‘Paul’s gay son.’ I need to figure it all out for myself first. I only told them a year ago.”
    “Really? Wow.”
    “I only figured it out for myself about six months before that.”
    Alex’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
    “Yeah.”
    “You only knew you were gay a year and a half ago?”
    “Yeah,” George said again, feeling defensive. “Not all of us figure it out when we’re ten, you know.”
    “I know,” Alex said. “I’m sorry. It’s just… everyone I know came out when they were teenagers. It seems mad to me that you could be in your midtwenties before you know about your sexuality. Were your folks okay?”
    “Pretty much. My dad asked me if I was sure about a hundred times. He wasn’t upset or mad or anything. It just took him a while to get his head around it all. Which makes sense, I suppose. He’d known me as straight for almost twenty-five years before I corrected his assumptions.”
    “Did you go out with girls?”
    “Yeah. I went out with Laura Churchman for about five years, from when I was sixteen until I left uni.”
    “Wow.”
    “And I know what you want to ask,” George said, a slow smile spreading across his face. “Yes, I had sex with her. Not that often, though. She said she didn’t like it, that it hurt too much, so sometimes she gave me a blow job or whatever. We just didn’t, you know.” He sipped his cocktail again, liking it more than he wanted to admit. “How about you?”
    “When did I come out? Or when did I know I was gay?”
    “Both.”
    “Well, I went to an all-boys private boarding school. And then I went to another all-boys private school.” He shrugged. “I never really worked out women, what to do with them, what the appeal was supposed to be. And I know it’s a cliché and all, but there’s a lot of show-and-tell that goes on at boarding school. I always thought, what’s the fuss about with girls, when you could have one of those studs?” He laughed and stretched, clearly comfortable in his surroundings. “I had crushes on older boys for years before I even knew what ‘gay’ meant. You never had that?”
    “No, not at all. My parents never put any pressure on me to behave a certain way. I suppose they watched me grow up and interpreted from my behavior that I was straight.”
    “Let me guess,” Alex said, leaning forward so his forearms were resting on his knees. “You liked sports. Video games, riding your bike, messing around with boys your age. Being dirty, being loud, doing okay in school but never exceling because you’d prefer to be outside. You had strong male role models who showed you what it meant to ‘be a man.’ You’d drink beer, get into fights, stumble home and apologize to your mother.”
    George frowned. “Okay, but I also liked to be with my mum. I would help her out with my sisters—I could change nappies from when I was about fourteen. I helped her out with making dinner and stuff, and I loved reading, and adventures, and playing with my sisters too.”
    Alex cocked his head to the side. “Aren’t you the little enigma?”
    “Not really. I’m just a person, Alex. Not a caricature.”
    “Point taken.”
    “Can I ask you why you live here, rather than in the Netherlands?”
    “Oh,