1 Chapter 1

1

Luke stuffed his hands into his pockets and eased his way into the dimly lit bar. The usual litany of fears popped up in the back of his mind. What if the other guy never showed? What if “Evan” turned out to be some bunch of straight guys from one of the fraternities looking to get a good laugh—or worse? What if the guy wasn’t what he said he was?

He kicked himself mentally for the last fear. He was here for a hookup he found on an app, not looking for his One True Love. Getting all up in arms because a guy listed himself as six foot five when he was really five foot six would be kind of shallow. Sure, it was a lie. It wasn’t like Luke was going to see him again after tonight. As long as he smelled good and didn’t set off any red flags for the night, what did it matter if he wasn’t the model-gorgeous guy from his profile picture? It wasn’t like Luke relied on looks to tell him about people when he wasn’t on an app.

He scanned the crowd. Maybe the person he was here to meet had used his real pic in his profile. Luke hadn’t come across too many charlatans in all of his time using the apps, so he hated himself a little bit for the worry. At the same time, he’d heard stories. Everyone had heard the stories. The stories were almost more famous than the apps at this point.

“Hey, you must be Luke.” The melodic tenor came from behind him. Luke turned around to see exactly who he’d agreed to meet. “Evan” stood at six foot two, with a perfectly chiseled jawline and just enough stubble to make Luke’s mouth water. His dark eyes danced as he smiled. “You look just like your profile pic.”

Luke shook Evan’s hand. “So do you. Should we grab a seat or…”

“Yeah, let’s grab a drink.” Evan put a hand on Luke’s back and guided him through the small crowd over toward the bar. There weren’t too many people in the way, not yet, and the gesture made Luke warm with anticipation. “What’s your poison?”

“I’ll have a local IPA or whatever.” Luke had only turned twenty-one over the summer. Being able to order a beer in a bar was still a little bit of a novelty for him, but that wasn’t something Evan had to worry about.

“Awesome choice.” When the bartender directed his attention toward them, Evan ordered for both of them, choosing a porter for himself. They sat down on the nearest pair of vacant bar stools, and now Luke had all of Evan’s attention.

It was almost dizzying, the full attention of a man like Evan. His eyes, his smile, even his laugh had a weird way of drawing a guy in, making him feel almost pinned. Luke couldn’t have looked away if his life depended on it, and he wouldn’t have wanted to. “So tell me about yourself,” he said, trying to recover from the overwhelming force of Evan’s charisma. “Are you a student around here?”

Evan grinned, happy and relaxed. “You bet. I’m going for my PhD in American history. I’m going to be that guy, the one who pops into all the pundits’ timelines on social media and corrects their bad historical takes with facts.”

Luke chuckled as the bartender dropped their beers off. “That’s certainly a noble goal.” He raised his glass in a kind of salute. “Are you from around here? You don’t have the accent, but not everyone here does.”

“True, but no. I was born in Los Angeles. How about you? You don’t sound like you’re exactly local yourself.” Evan looked him up and down.

“Nah, I’m from Yachats, Oregon. Population six hundred ninety, in case you were wondering why you haven’t heard of it.” Luke snorted. “Virginia was on the opposite coast, as far from Oregon as I could get, so here I am.”

“I guess I can’t exactly fault you for that.” Evan’s beer had formed a little mustache on the top of his lip. Luke wondered if licking it off would be too forward of him. Maybe a public place would be a little much. “So. I guess you’re a student too?”

“Yeah. Environmental studies.” He toyed with his beer for a second. Neither of them cared what the other one was in school for. They were here to scratch an itch, nothing more. “So, your profile said you were in an open relationship.” He scratched at his throat, not even really aware he was doing it.

“Is that an issue for you?” Evan knit his eyebrows together, just a little bit. “I mean I was pretty up front about it in my profile but sometimes people get weirded out once they’ve had some time to think about it.”

Luke waved a hand. “It doesn’t bother me, exactly.” And it didn’t, not under the circumstances. “I just want to make sure everyone involved is on the same page.”

Evan smirked and pulled out his phone. “You mean you want to make sure my boyfriend knows we’re in an open relationship? I hear you.” He opened up the app and started scrolling. “Here you go, right here.”

He showed Luke a profile. “Nick’s” face was hidden in shadow, but his abs and pecs were on full display. The notation that he was in an open relationship with Evan was clearly noted as well.