A/N: Hello everyone! I wasn't planning on having this up until around Tuesday or Wednesday, but here we are! :P

Before we get started, I would like to thank everyone that read last chapter! I would also like to give a huge thank you to winterschild11, Guest, Side1ways, XxxAnimaniacxxX, and RainbowDiamonds for reviewing!

I hope you all enjoy!

No matter how much I tried to avoid them, phone calls with my ex-wife were inevitable.

Once the divorce was final, we could both move on and never have to talk to each other again, but in the meantime, a certain amount of communication had to happen.

In theory, we could have had our lawyers play go-between for a lot of it, but that got really, really expensive, so when she called me at work one Thursday afternoon, I bit the bullet answered.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Hey." She paused as if she wanted me to say something, but then she took a deep breath. "I just wanted to let you know we're probably getting an offer on the house soon."

"Oh. Good." That was a hell of a relief. We wouldn't make much money off it, particularly after we'd split it, but even a little windfall would be seriously helpful. "Do I need to sign anything?"

"Not yet. The buyer was going back to talk to her agent, so we'll probably see an offer tomorrow. She sounds pretty eager to close it as quickly as possible, though, which is why I wanted to give you a heads up."

"Sounds great. I'll keep an eye on my inbox."

"Okay."

Silence set in again. My stomach was in knots-its default state whenever she called-and I suspected I'd be tense and distracted for the rest of the day. It always happened after we'd talked, even if it was a peaceful conversation about something benign.

It always happened...except one time.

Minutes after our last conversation, I'd been back in the club watching James sing, mesmerized by him the same way I'd been at prom. Then he'd regaled his friends with stories of my cooking, and we'd found ourselves casually cuddled up in the booth almost like we had on his couch that one night.

Any other night, I'd have been grinding my teeth and tearing my hair out over talking to her, but that night, her call had stopped mattering because...James had happened.

Jo exhaled on the other end.

"All right, I need to go. That's all I-"

"Wait." I said before glancing at my office door. It was shut, and half the staff in this part of the building were in a meeting. There probably wasn't anyone around to overhear, and these walls were pretty thick. "Before you go…"

On the other end, she sighed. "Yeah?"

"Can I ask you about something?"

"Um...okay? I guess?"

I swallowed, eyeing the closed door again. "Why were you so convinced I was going to leave you for James?"

There was a subtle catch of breath, so that probably wasn't the question she'd been anticipating.

"What?"

I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead.

"I mean, you thought I was screwing some of my coworkers, including some of the guys. You thought I was going to leave you for James. Was...was there something that made you think I was into men?"

She was quiet for a long moment. I was about to tell her she didn't have to answer when she finally spoke.

"Sometimes there was just this...vibe, I guess. When you were talking to a guy, or even looking at one." She paused. "You don't look at men the way other straight guys do. You never have. And I guess that made me wonder." Another pause. "Why?"

"I don't know. I'm...I was just curious."

"And as for James…" She didn't sound defensive and hostile like she usually did when we discussed James. She sounded resigned if anything. Maybe sad. "Whenever you've been around him, you're practically walking on air afterward. That was why I hated joining you two. I hated how happy you seemed around him."

I blinked, struggling to unpack everything in that comment. "You didn't like me being happy?"

"It's not that. It's...it's how happy he seemed to make you. It bothered me, you know? You were never that happy with me."

I pressed my lips together. That probably had more to do with us than him, Jo.

"Why is this all coming up now? Is something going on between-"

"No." I said quickly. "It came up when I was talking to my therapist the other day." Little white lie, but whatever. "So I was thinking about it."

"Oh. I see."

"Anyway, that's all I wanted to know." I drummed my fingers on my desk. "Just, um, keep me updated about the house?"

We hung up a couple minutes later, but I didn't get back to work, That short conversation had fried something in my brain, and I needed a minute to make sense of it.

Any other time, I would have written off her answers as more gaslighting and deflection. To a degree, I was still convinced that was what all her accusations had ever been-just a mind game to keep me from noticing she was the one who was cheating, and a way for her to blame me for driving her to it. But I couldn't help but feel like there was a nugget of truth there. Something legitimate tucked into all the bullshit.

Or maybe I was just reading too much into it because I wanted things to make sense, and if my ex-wife had seen something in me and James, then maybe that would make sense of me jerking off to the sounds of James getting laid the other night. Especially the part where I'd started imagining James going down on me, and had nearly lost my mind.

Had she seen something I hadn't?

If she had, what did I do with that? She'd seen something. My exes over the years had seen something. The other night had happened. And…

I exhaled hard into the silence of my office.

What the hell is happening?

XxX

"You look like you had a rough day." James said as he shrugged off his jacket in the kitchen. "Everything okay?"

"Eh. I think I could use a drink. Several, actually."

"Oh yeah?"

I nodded. "Phone call with the ex-wife."

His eyebrows shot up. "Oh. Okay, yeah, I think that's grounds for a drink or several. Why don't you go see if there's a movie on, and I'll open a bottle?"

I smiled. Trust him to know exactly what I needed tonight.

And my heart skipped.

"It's how happy he seemed to make you. It bothered me, you know?"

I gulped, watching James peruse the well-stocked wine rack.

"You were never that happy with me."

James glanced over at me. "What?"

"Um..." I cleared my throat. "Uh...any particular movie?"

He pursed his lips, then shrugged. "You're the one who had a shitty afternoon. You pick."

"Oh. Okay." I forced myself to break eye contact and walk into the living room instead of just staring at him while ex-wife's words echoed in my head. What did all of this mean? Or did it mean anything at all? It was entirely possible I was fixating on-

James came in cradling two wine glasses between his fingers and carrying the bottle in his other hand, and my thoughts scattered. He smiled at me.

"Is white okay? I felt like something sweet tonight."

"Yeah. Yeah, white sounds good." I gestured at the TV. "Want to watch the South Park movie?"

"Oh hell yeah, I do." He dropped onto the couch beside me. "Give me crude and immature any day."

"Some things never change, right?"

"Exactly." He paused. "Food. We need some food. Should we order a pizza?"

"Pizza, cartoons, and wine?" I laughed as I picked up one of the glasses. "Sounds like the perfect evening."

Especially spending it with you.

XxX

Two movies later, James opened up another bottle of wine.

Shit, how many had we blown through already? Eh, in the mood I was in, I was pretty sure I could kill two or three more tonight, so bring it on.

You have to work tomorrow, remember? And the class reunion is tomorrow night. Maybe don't overdo it?

All right. One more bottle between us, and then we'd be done.

He poured us each some more, took a sip, and turned to me. "Okay, so now that you're good and lubed up-"

I choked on my wine and almost spat it on him.

He laughed. "Just fucking with you. Relax." He winked. "Seriously, though...now that you've had a few gallons of wine, what's going on? What did the Wicked Witch of the East say?"

"Not much, honestly. Just an update on selling the house. We only talked for a few minutes. She thinks we have a buyer, so…" I held up my hand with my fingers crossed.

James didn't seem convinced. "That's it?"

"Does it need to be more than that?" I exhaled. "Just talking to her about the damn weather stresses me out."

"Hmm. Fair." He was eyeing me, though, as if he could see a card I was trying to hide.

I shifted uncomfortably. There had been more to our conversation, but was that something I wanted to talk about with James? Was there enough wine in this house for that?

I stared into my wineglass, wondering if I should refill it again.

"Kendall?" James touched my arm, and his voice was soft. "What's going on?"

"I…" I glanced at him, then drained my glass and reached for the bottle. I topped us both off, put the bottle back down, and turned to him. "We talked about whether or not she thinks I'm gay."

That seemed to sober him up in an instant. The playful smile vanished, and he looked in my eyes as he absently swirled his wine.

"And what conclusion did you come to?"

"Well, she doesn't think I'm gay." I stared into my glass. "But she doesn't particularly think I'm straight either."

"So...bi?"

"Maybe?" I lifted my gaze. "She just thinks there's this vibe when I'm around men. Something that isn't there between straight guys."

James swallowed. "Oh really?"

"Yeah. I…" I forced a laugh. "It doesn't make sense, right? I mean, I'm a grown man. I think I'd know by now if dudes turned my crank."

James laughed too, but then he shrugged. "You never know, man. I mean, have you ever tried anything with a guy?"

I almost choked again. "What?"

"What? It's a fair question."

Does masturbating while two men are having sex in the next room count?

I took a sip just to wet my mouth again. "Did you ever try anything with a girl?"

James snorted, waving his drink and almost dropping it. "Fuck yeah, I did."

"What? When?"

"In junior high." He rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. "Come on, dude. What do you think us theatre techs were doing backstage?"

"Uh, theatre tech stuff?"

"Well yeah, that, but we were also doing the other theatre techs."

I sat up. "In junior high?"

He waved his hand again, this time keeping a better grip on the glass. "Okay, we weren't fucking or anything, but I'd done enough that by ninth grade, I definitely knew I was gay."

"Oh." I fought the urge to fidget nervously. "So, what? I can't say I'm definitely straight until I've sucked a few dicks?"

"I did not say that." He wagged a finger at me. "Don't put words in my mouth."

"Just put a dick in your mouth?" Whoa, I was getting drunk. My filter was gone.

James laughed again, but he seemed almost flustered, his cheeks coloring as he dropped his gaze.

"I'm always down for a dick in my mouth." He said before he took a long drink, and why the hell was it so fascinating to watch his throat work as he swallowed? Probably because I'd had a little too much wine. Or a lot too much wine.

I set the glass on the table and nudged it away.

"Look." He balanced his own glass on his knee. "I'm not saying you have to try anything. I'm just asking if you've ever asked yourself if you want to?"

I studied him, wondering if I was a tad too drunk to analyze all of that.

He put his free hand on my leg, his palm hot through my jeans.

"Everyone just assumes they're straight. And a lot of people are. And that's okay, you know? But how many people actually think about it? Stop and ask, am I into dudes? Would I like sucking dick? It's totally okay if the answer is no. I just don't think a lot of"-he lifted his hand to make air quotes-"straight people have really considered it." I almost didn't catch that last part because his hand landed on my leg again.

"Huh." I swallowed, wondered if I needed some more wine after all. "I never thought of it like that."

"So, you never thought about being gay? Or at least bi?"

"I guess not. Aside from repeatedly telling people I'm straight."

James shook his head. "That's not thinking about being 's being defensive when someone suggests you are. And in my experience, people who've spent as much time as you have shooting down the suggestion are the people who've given it the least amount of consideration."

I furrowed my brow.

James sipped his wine. "If everyone would just back off and not browbeat people, or accuse them of being gay like it's some horrible thing, then no one would need to feel defensive. But they do, and then it's really easy for someone to get so defensive to everyone else that they shut themselves off to the possibility, too." He sighed. "There's only so many times you say 'I'm not gay' to the rest of the world before you convince yourself, too."

"Unless I'm really not gay."

"You probably aren't." He shrugged. "You obviously like women. Maybe you're straight. Maybe you're bi. Who knows? But you won't know unless you actually think about it."

I thought about it for a moment. It was an interesting question. Did I find men attractive? I genuinely had never considered it. I'd asked Jo what made her think I was into men, and I'd questioned what it meant that I'd jerked off over James and his one night stand, but was I attracted to men? Was there really something that my ex-wife and ex-girlfriends had seen that I'd been oblivious to?

"Huh. Maybe I should try it."

James' eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean…" Heat rushed into my face, and it wasn't from the wine. Was it? "You're right. I've never thought about it before. So maybe I should."

James set his drink on the coffee table next to mine, then sat back beside me. He seemed closer now, but I couldn't decide if that was real, the alcohol, or my imagination.

"You're serious?"

I gulped. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"So, if I offered…" He raised his eyebrows.

My pulse did things it had never done before, and I wondered if James' mouth had always been that interesting. "Are you offering?"

"Maybe." He half-shrugged. "I mean, I don't want things to be weird between us, but if we can agree it's a one-time thing to see if you like it…"

I sat up a little. "Uh, how much are you offering, exactly?"

James laughed and patted my leg. "Relax. I wasn't going to drop my pants and offer you my ass." He winked. "Just a kiss."

"A…" I swallowed again. "Oh."

Kissing a man. Kissing James. The thought was oddly intriguing. Kind of thrilling. Arousing? I wasn't sure. But it was definitely doing something, and it wasn't repulsing me.

"You don't have to." He said. "But if you're curious, just say the word."

I gulped, my eyes flicking to his lips. How had I never noticed how full they were?

"I'm definitely curious."

James studied me for several long seconds before he scooted closer to me, and now his leg was against mine, touching from our hips to our knees. He was right-I'd never given a second's thought to being with a guy. Now that we were sitting this close, now that I couldn't help glancing from his eyes to his lips and back...holy shit.

"So, you want to?" He lifted his eyebrows. "Just to see what it feels like?"

I couldn't speak, so I nodded.

A little grin flickered across his gorgeous mouth. Then he put a hand on my knee, maybe to steady himself, and leaned in closer. My heart pounded as I mirrored him.

Before this moment, I'd never thought about kissing a man, but suddenly I wanted-no, needed-to know if his lips were as soft as they looked, and if his fingers would be warm or cool against my face, or how his stubbled chin would feel against mine, or how this was making me hard, or-

He stiffened.

I stopped.

His hand lifted off my leg, and he drew back, eyes widening with something like horror. "Oh fuck."

"What?" My pulse surged. "What's-"

"I can't. I'm sorry." He got up and grabbed his glass off the coffee table, nearly sloshing the contents onto both of us.

"Wait, what?" I rose, too. "James, what's-"

"This was a bad idea. I'm sorry I-" He shook his head. "I'm so sorry."

Then he disappeared down the hall. His bedroom door closed with a quiet click, and I stood there in the living room, jaw slack and heart thumping.

Into the silence, I whispered, "James?" I didn't even know why. I was just so stunned and confused. And hard.

What the hell just happened?

Done! So...that just happened. :P

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter, as well as if you happened to have a favorite part/moment!

Again, I hope you all enjoyed! The next chapter will pretty much pick up where this one left off. I'm not sure when that'll be up just yet, but I'll try not to keep you all waiting too long for that.

Until then! :)

-Epically Obsessed