Unexpected Liaisons - 1. Phonecalls

The angry synthetic guitars of Bay’s ringtone dragged him groaning from blissful unconsciousness and into the harsh gloom of morning. One hand grabbed for the phone was the messy black hair appeared from under the duvet.

“Gah…”

“Morning Bay.”

“Zu,” Bay half growled, it was unspeakably early to be calling after a busy night, “Issac’s not here. He went on that away-day Mack organised with the other staff.” And no wives, girlfriends or boyfriends had been allowed. Bay rolled over and luxuriated in having the whole of the double bed to himself. It was weird, but for one night, deeply enjoyable.

“I know he’s away. I called to speak to you.” Zupan sounded uncharacteristically sombre and worried. And it was early in the morning.

“Shit! What happened? Who’s hurt?”

“Calm down bud. Nothing’s wrong.” Bay collapsed back into the mess of pillows and blankets.

“Fuck you scared me. Why are you calling this early?” Now that there wasn’t a crisis on the horizon, Bay was all too happy to be grumpy about being woken.

“You know that kid who you were talking to at the bar last night?” Bay reeled through the people he’s served and chatted with came up blank, “The one you left with?”

“Zander?” Bay grinned. Zander had begged him to go out clubbing. Billy was away with his boyfriend and since Issac was out of town they could both just go out for student-night on the Tuesday and dance together and not care about it. After his last flop of a relationship, Zander had ‘sworn off men’, a promise which Bay doubted was going to last more than a week, “Zander’s not a kid. He’s twenty three.”

“And I’m nearly thirty, shut up Bay.”

“So what about Zander?” Bay decided to ignore the comment to shut up. He knew if he hung up Zupan would just keep on at him until he answered the phone again, and Bay was looking forwards to a nice long lie in possibly followed up with a selection of awful movies and toast.

“Do you have his number?”

“What?” Bay was fully awake now, all hope of peaceful lie ins gone, “What?”

“Zander. Do you have his number?”

“Zu… You do know he’s gay right?”

“No Bay, the huge floppy fringe and the shirt saying ‘likes guys’ weren’t big enough hints.” Zupan sounded like his usual snarky self again, “Yes I realise he’s gay. What, can I not have other gay friends now?”

“Zu…” Bay shifted in bed to lie on his front, “Is this a good idea?”

“He seemed like a nice guy, I just wanted to chat to him. That’s all.”

“You’d better not lead him on Zu.”

“I won’t. No gimmie the damn number before I-” Zupan was cut off by Bay’s smirked response.

“You do realise you’ll have to catch me before you can run over me with that thing right?” Bay groaned and stretched, “Fine, I’ll send you his number. Don’t be a total dick alright?”

“Only to you Bay.”

“Bye.” Bay stared at his phone after he’d hung up, then texted the message over to Zupan with Zander’s number in it. He was sure that this wasn’t a smart idea.

***

Issac groaned when the doorbell rang and dropped Bay’s hand from his lips.

“Who in hell is that?”

“I’ll go,” Bay kissed his boyfriend and swung his legs from Issac’s lap where they’d been snuggling on the sofa, “Be right back.”

Issac slapped his butt through the thin material of his sweats as he stood,

“Yeah, you’d better.”

When Bay opened the door he almost didn’t recognise the figure who sat in front of him. Never in the ten months that Bay had known him had he ever seen the big man as anything other than confident. Whether he was being cocky or romantic, joking and friendly or harsh and argumentative, Zupan had always been confident well past the point of arrogance. The man who sat before him actually seemed to be relying on the support that the wheelchair gave him.

“Jesus, Zu? What the hell is wrong?”

“He kissed me.”

“Huh?” Bay stared at his friend for several long heartbeats, replaying what Zupan had just said. Then he remembered the phone call. “Ah fuck… You’d better come in then”

After they’d gotten Zupan settled, for a certain value of the word, Bay sat on the edge of a dining chair, leaving Issac on the sofa and sighed.

“What did you do?” Bay knew better than to use the tone of voice that he felt. He’d known giving Zupan his best friend’s number had been a bad idea.

“He kissed me.”

“Did you like it?” Issac asked.

Bay blanched. His boyfriend seemed completely unfazed, and apparently the comment shocked Zupan too, because silence descended over the trio. Issac cleared his throat.

“Well?” He rapped his friend’s knee with his knuckles, “Did you like it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“’Fess up Zu,” Bay stood and went to the open kitchen, opened the fridge and returned with three glasses and a bottle of Uncle Jack, “You’re gonna have to tell us what happened.

“Oh god…”

“You wouldn’a come if you hadn’t wanted to share Zu.” Issac chided gently. Zupan drained the whole of his first four fingers as fast as Bay could pour them.

“Right… so I called him…”