Swish by E. Davies Read Free Book Online Page A

he said. “But thanks.”
    Floyd nodded, then glanced back at the table. “They went off on a tangent. Ashley thinks hockey came from Scotland. They're Googling it.”
    “Oh, Jesus, he challenged Cam?” Thomas laughed. “And Kevin? Good luck.”
    Ashley, Ryan, Kevin, and Cam were all hunched around Jackson's phone. Noah and Chase rolled their eyes at each other.
    “Fuckin' eh?” Kevin exclaimed when the page loaded, and Thomas laughed quietly. He wasn't particularly close to these guys, but at least he had friends to see every week. He was luckier than most. He tried to pay attention as the argument was won with the power of technology.

Chapter 10
Alex
    “How did you guys know you were right for each other?”
    It was a weird question to ask his parents, but Alex was curious. He'd been thinking more about his ideas around romance and marriage, and the inevitable failures of both. His parents had been married for almost three decades now.
    “Oh, that's easy,” his father laughed as he leaned back in his chair. “I met your mother and I wanted to pull my hair out right away.”
    She rolled her eyes and pretended to throw her newspaper in his direction while Alex laughed. “And I thought he needed swatting like a dog trying to get into the pantry.”
    They were being lighthearted, and Alex's heart almost hurt. This kind of love was something totally different from what he saw every day on the job.
    It was the kind of tender laughter forged by intimacy that he thought he might have shared for a minute with Thomas...
    But that was moving way too fast. He swallowed and refocused on them.
    He needed a more serious answer. Dad cleared his throat and straightened up when Mom gave him a stern look.
    “I think it's what they always say – we just knew. But there was a lot of work that went in behind the scenes to making it work. Compromises, learning to live with differences. And if those differences had been too great...”
    “We never would have made it this long,” Mom agreed.
    That was a lot more helpful. “What do you mean? Life values?”
    “Yes, and plans. We both wanted a kid, and to raise him a certain way. We wanted to live in the same kind of place and share the same kind of values.”
    “Things are different for you, though,” Dad spoke up. “I assume you're still dating other men...”
    Alex laughed, and so did his parents. “Yeah, that hasn't changed.”
    “Guys can be a little different, you know. We need a little more time to grow up. You're not even halfway through your twenties. Don't feel pressured to settle down. It was normal while we were young, but you can get away with being single a lot longer, until you find the right one.”
    Alex nodded. “It... wasn't just about me,” he laughed, lying through his teeth. “Just this weird case.”
    “Another cheating one?”
    “Yeah.” Lexy hadn't let him finish the investigation yet. She wanted more, and it was dragging at his newly-improved mood. There were daily ups and downs with his... whatever his depression was, anyway.
    “You need to keep taking those cases?”
    Alex winced. He couldn't exactly tell his parents why he had to take every case he was offered: because he'd be broke if he didn't. He didn't have a fallback plan. Nobody in Ontario would hire him for an agency, so he'd had to move out here and start his own. It had come out that he was working in a high-end gay boutique in the day and as a gay men's honeytrap at night. The jobs were surprisingly compatible.
    That had paid wonderfully, but one day he'd just woken up and realized he didn't like it anymore. Plus, he was struggling even to get private event security jobs for straight people, no longer trusted in his own community. Then, he'd given up and moved back here.
    He'd told his parents it was all to move back to Fredericton and be closer to them, of course.
    Besides... if it weren't for work, he wouldn't have a reason to get out of bed some days.
    “Yeah, my business is