Second Chances in New Port Stephen - Chapter 35

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Second Chances in New Port Stephen - Chapter 35

Nick saw movement across the room. A tall, skinny guy of indeterminate age wearing a ton of
glitter makeup on his cheeks perked up at the sight of Eli. He made his way over without taking
his eyes off him. Nick wasn’t sure what to do; it wasn’t a crime to approach someone at a club,
but he’d secretly hoped any interested parties might see them together and assume they were a
couple.
“Can I buy you a drink?” the skinny guy shouted in Eli’s ear, loud enough for Nick to hear him.
“Thanks, but I already have one.” Eli held up his faux cocktail as evidence. “Your next one,
then?” the guy asked.
Nick’s stomach knotted up. He tried to look disinterested in the conversation, but he was certain
his face was giving him away.
“That’s sweet of you, but I’m good.” Eli gave him a consoling pat on his arm. “Have a nice night.”
He sipped at his drink and meandered deeper into the dance floor.
A little tension slipped out of Nick’s body, letting him breathe again. He gave the skinny guy a
sympathetic shrug as he followed Eli. He knew better than most what it felt like to get the Ward
Brush-Off.
“Why’d you turn that guy down?” he asked as they worked their way around some dancers.
Nick racked his brain for some of the lingo he’d come across recently. “Was he too much of a…
bottom for you?”

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Eli stopped and whirled around, a shocked laugh bursting out of him. “Who taught you that
word?”
“No one! I live in a society, okay? I pick things up.” No way was he going to admit he’d spent
several hours that afternoon trying to google his way through queer culture in addition to his
research on demisexuality.
“Wow. Okay. A society.” Eli shook his head with a smile on his lips. “And for your information,
I’m actually a true vers these days.” He winked and resumed his study of the crowd while he
sipped at his drink.
Nick stood there frozen, flipping through his mental notes. He knew what a vers was, but these
days? Was that in reference to the kind of sex they’d had as teenagers? It sounded flirtatious,
but maybe it was just Eli being smug. Delighting in yet another way to make Nick squirm.
Referencing their past sex life was certainly one way to do that.
Happy screeches rose from the dance floor as a particularly bendy person began to vogue. Nick
couldn’t clap because of the beer in his hand, so he joined in the hooting and hollering. It was a
relief to see someone with actual skills, and as a bonus, most of the bad dancers stopped
whatever they were doing to watch. Including Eli, who molded himself up against Nick’s side so
he could say in his ear, “Can you believe this is happening in the Neeps!?”
Nick smiled. “They’re good.”
Then “Party Rock” slowly faded out and was replaced with… Nick couldn’t fucking believe it.
“Waterfalls.”
Eli laughed, his head tilted back so the colored dance floor lights illuminated his throat. “I was
just thinking about this song.”