Sunday morning, Alex sat on the bed, watching me get dressed for the day. I winked, standing in my boxers. "Checking me out?"

He smiled, amused. "Maybe? Mainly checking out your boxers."

I looked down at the simple, striped underwear. Alex wore tight trunks that showed off his legs and butt. He put his fingers against his lips, still looking amused and increasingly... sympathetic? "Your taste hasn't changed since we were twelve. Striped boxers. You wore that when you came to visit me at uni too."

Touching the hem, I thought back to ten years ago.

"Come payday, we're going shopping."

"You don't remember, eh?"

"Remember what?"

I turned my back to him and put on my shirt as I revealed something embarrassing. "We went to the mall for back-to-school shopping and my mom tried to let me pick out my clothes for the first time. I still couldn't be bothered to choose, but she was really pressuring me to be independent, so I asked you. 'Which do you like best?' You said the stripes."

The silence was getting to me, so I turned my head to peek back. Alex's lips were parted, smile was gone, and brows ever so slightly pinched. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he said, "I remember sleeping over one night and after your shower, you randomly coming to me and asking what I thought of your boxers."

"Probably after we went shopping." I turned back around to step into my jean shorts.

Warm arms wrapped around me from behind, pinning mine to my sides. His cheek moved against my back as he said, "I'm sorry."

"What are you apologizing for?" Pulling out of his arms, I turned around to wrap mine around him instead. I was the one who should apologize. And it wasn't like I thought of Alex every time I bought underwear. Stripes just became a habit after that; I hated shopping and picking out clothes, so little thought went into anything.

His eyes said he didn't know, but he was sorry, so I kissed him. "I love you," I found myself saying. I kissed him again, this time deeper. I really loved him and really wanted to show him. "What time are your friends coming over for the housewarming again?"

He blinked slowly. "Two."

Last I checked, which was maybe five minutes ago, it was 12. "Then we have time," I said, glancing at the bed. "Can we?"

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Again?" His full lips smirked seductively. "Sure."

***

When Alex and I had sex was the only time when I felt 100% like everything would be okay. There was so much love in each touch we shared, and the rest of the world disappeared. It was just me, Alex, and our clear feelings, and I loved that. I loved loving him.

But it really wasn't an appropriate time to be thinking about sex when one of Alex's closest friends and another were entering the apartment.

"You know Jay," Alex said to me, gesturing. "This is his best friend, Riley. Riley's husband and Jay's boyfriend are best friends."

I think I understood that. "Hi again," I said to Jay. "And nice to meet you," I said to Riley.

"You too." Riley was over six feet and looked to be at least part Indian with light brown skin and thick eyebrows and eyelashes. His shiny dark brown hair was chin length and shiny. Why were all of Alex's friends good looking? Oh, but he was married, so I guessed he was okay.

Jay greeted me by jerking his head up, then glanced around the apartment. "This place is small as shit."

Alex cocked his head, switching straight to Sass Mode™. "Not everyone has rich parents."

Riley also looked at Jay in disbelief and said slowly, "Uh, you still live with your parents."

Jay shrugged, uncaringly. "They said it was cost efficient. I brought booze." He lifted a huge bottle of wine.

"We don't have wine glasses."

Jay whipped out his phone. "...Yo, Lexi, bring some wine glasses."

I heard a snappy voice on the other end. Just like Lexi. Riley lifted an insulated shopping bag. "Brought food."

Alex lit up and clapped his hands together. "Thank you! You're so sweet for making all of this," he said, taking the bag and walking the two steps to the kitchen. It was small as shit, but it was functional.

"I like cooking, so it's my pleasure."

Looking at Riley, I gestured to our IKEA couch. "Have a seat."

Riley did and noticed my Canon on the table. "Wow, nice camera."

"Thanks," I said, sitting beside him. "It was my graduation present. Are you the same age as Jay?"

"Yep. We went to high school together."

Riley gave off a friendly aura and I couldn't help but feel relaxed around him. While Jay wasn't effeminate like Malcolm, I'd seen enough of his Facebook and heard enough from Alex to know how eccentric he was. Not to mention, his several piercings, trendy-boy haircut, and eyes that said he was a second away from being up to no good. How he and my no-nonsense, preppy Alex ended up best friends was beyond me.

Anyway, Riley kind of reminded me of Rashaad in their mildness.

Jay sat down next to me and stretched his arm behind me, across the back of the couch. "How's it going, Liam?" He smirked.

"...Good?"

"Yeah? That's great."

If Alex liked Jay, I could like Jay.

Jay crossed his arms. "Alex, our couches are so much better than this one."

"They're also expensive as hell." Sass Mode™ still on,Alex unpacked the bag of food to set it up, I guessed.

"I said, I'd get you a discount." That was right, Jay's parents had a furniture store or something.

"Unless that discount is free, we can't afford it."

"You're so dramatic." He rolled his eyes, hand still on the neck of the wine bottle. "How much did you pay for this?"

"$450."

"No wonder it's so ugly."

"I'm going to slap you."

"I'll get you a loveseat for that price!"

Jay and Alex continued bickering, so I turned to Riley who was pulling on his cheeks, showing the reds of his eye sockets, in agony. "Uh, so, you're still in uni too? You go to the same place?"

He let go and resumed a friendly smile. "Yeah. Same school as Jay and that Alex went to. I'm in chemistry. Graduate next year."

"Chemistry? Wow." Science was not my forte. Actually, nothing was my forte. "What are you going into?"

He smiled and shrugged. "I don't know."

I blinked. "You don't know?" Reminded me of myself, but he was so chill about it.

"Nope. I'm just going to apply anywhere that doesn't require moving." He turned his wedding band around his finger. "My husband's a professor/researcher at a small private university right outside the city and he loves it there, so I'm going to look for positions close."

"Professor?" Wow, again. Alex's friends were so high class. "So, why chemistry?" He didn't know what he wanted to do, so why did he pick it?

Riley made a weird face with funny lips and shifted his eyes. "It was my best bet to get into university? Why'd you pick photography?"

Oh shit. Because my ex-girlfriend did photography? There was no way in hell I was saying that.

He shifted his eyes again as I hesitated, and smiled. "I have a feeling we're in the same boat."

The doorbell rang, Alex hopping up to get it. Lexi and Rashaad.

"Sasha and Finn are stopping for the wine glasses!" Lexi said immediately, throwing up her hands in defense. "I was already past the store and they're running late, anyway."

"Hi to you too," Alex said with a coy smirk. They hugged.

"I haven't seen you in forever!"

"You're so busy with work!" Alex whined. "I'm so proud of you, by the way."

"Me? You're working for The Toronto Sky!"

"Oh, I'm just a little person." He waved his hand dismissively. "You're the one working your way to being editor-in-chief for Shine Magazine." Definitely high-class friends.

"Keyword: working."

"What are you doing, Rashaad?" I asked as they sat down where Jay had been sitting. He was now in the kitchen on the phone, saying something about wine glasses.

"I love everything about this place," Lexi said, scanning the room. "It's so cozy, yet cultured." It looked like an IKEA showroom, in my opinion.

I realized Rashaad had answered my question. "Sorry, it's tight in here and everyone's talking at once. What did you say?"

"No problem. I'm starting freelance web design. Still hunting for full-time someplace."

"Oh, cool."

I made small talk with Riley and Rashaad until Alex's final guests, Sasha and Finn showed up.

Finn looked like a skinnier, more hipster version of Jay---no piercings but he donned a Star Wars tattoo and black-rimmed glasses. His girlfriend, Sasha, was a plus-sized Afro-Latina (I only knew her heritage because of her Facebook replies to some of Alex's posts), done up from head to toe. Her long, bright pink nails popped against the brown paper bag she held.

"More wine?" Alex looked worried as he took the box of wine glasses out of Finn's arms.

Sasha held out the paper bag in Jay's direction. "Great to see you, Alex. And you too, Liam!"

I waved, but I don't think she noticed as Jay grabbed the bag and held his two bottles into the air. "Now let's get this housewarming party started!"

Alex stepped into the kitchen to grab an ice tray for those of us who weren't drinking the alcohol and drinking soda instead. As he refilled the tray at the sink, I took advantage of the sound from the running water to ask a question that'd been on my mind.

"Just curious," I began, keeping my voice low as I stood close to him, back to the others, "but do you have any friends who aren't LGBTQ?" Jay was bi, Lexi lesbian. Finn I wasn't sure about, Sasha was a trans woman. Riley was married to another man and Rashaad was non-binary.

Alex was narrowing his eyes. "...What does that mean?"

I shook my head to let him know I didn't mean anything bad by it. "I'm just curious."

He let it go, hopefully because he trusted me. "I have diverse acquaintances, but my closest friends, none of them are cisgender heterosexuals." He turned off the water and glanced at me to point out, "Neither are you."

His last statement annoyed me. I flipped the faucet back on, full power, to muffle our voices. "I didn't mean that. I mean, obviously I feel sort of out of place, but that's just because I'm not used to the crowd. I know I'm not straight. We're a gay couple." The word 'gay' came out heavy. Was the G sound always that sharp?

I couldn't read Alex's expression. Finally, he said, "Everyone here is different. You should talk to them. Some of my friends here didn't discover they were LGBT until they were older. Jay came out to me his first year and I catch him checking out girls way more than men," he told me, rolling his eyes. "Get to know my friends. As people too, okay?"

I wanted Alex to know I was interested in his friends and life, so nodded enthusiastically.

As the wine was drunk and things livened up, I ended up talking to Riley.

"So, uh, how long have you been married?" I asked.

"A year!"

"You married while you were still in university?"

Riley nodded. "Yeah. Eran always said we'd do it after I graduated. But after a fire broke out in one of the school labs, I used the opportunity of his freaking out to uh..." Riley held out his fists, "grab our love by the horns."

I laughed. "Wow." The goofy smile Riley got when talking about his husband reminded me of my own. "How did you two meet?"

"At a park? He stole my cigarette and told me I should act like a kid. Then I stole his wallet."

I raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear a story wilder than my own.

Riley cupped his chin. "I think he tried to save me from delinquency but he was just so cute I couldn't help but fall for him. And he fell for my maturity. Or something. In the end, love saved us both."

Seemed like Riley was a cheesy dork too. "How much older is he?"

"Six years. I never thought I'd end up in a relationship with such a huge age gap. Let alone with a guy."

With his last sentence, my back went straight. "He was the first guy you liked?"

"Yeah." Riley smiled softly. "I mean, my attraction to him was pretty much right off the bat. I was kind of confused for a day? But then I figured, nah I definitely liked him." He shrugged. "Before me, Eran really didn't like anyone. We never really cared that we're both guys." He grinned again. "We're each other's first loves."

Here was this guy who was like me but actually seemed one with everyone else. So I asked, "What do you identify as?"

He twisted his mouth, thoughtfully. "Me, personally, I just say I'm married to a guy and leave it at that. Sometimes people call me gay or bi and I don't mind it. I really don't care what others label me, as long as they know I'm madly in love with Eran." He looked off dreamily.

I glanced at the others deep into their own conversations then leaned closer to Riley and asked in a small voice, "How do you feel about hanging out with this group?"

Riley frowned and shifted uncomfortably. It wasn't my intention to be rude, but I thought Riley would understand what I meant―was I wrong? His eyes scanned the room. "When I look around the room, I don't see a group of LGBTQ people. I just see people."

Guilt overwhelmed me with his words. Alex would be so ashamed of me. "Yeah." I needed to change the way I saw things.

With a pat on my shoulder, Riley smiled. "Want my number? We can chat whenever you feel like."

Well, at least he didn't hate me. "Yeah." We exchanged our phones.

"Hey!" Jay had stood up from his seat on the floor and pointed at us with the hand that wasn't holding a wine glass. "You two are buddying up over there. Exchanging numbers, eh?"

With wide eyes, Alex announced. "Liam needs all of your numbers. I learned from me and Jay's accident."

I sputtered, "Accident?"

Alex looked at me with eyes that didn't seem to hide anything as he explained, "We had a car accident once and I didn't have Jay's parents' number, so I had to call Riley." He moved beside me and passed my phone to Rashaad. "You're my emergency contact, babe. So if something ever happened to me―god forbid―and I was with my friends, they can just call you."

"Okay." I watched my phone being passed around the room as everyone added their numbers to my phone then called themselves, talking about how much the accident had shaken them up. Alex had all these people who cared about him. I didn't have anyone to give Alex's number to. I didn't need to have anyone but... it was yet another difference between us.

My phone was placed back in my hands. Alex touched my arm. "Good?"

"Yeah." I kissed his temple.

"Oh my god!" Alex gushed, turning to his friends. "That reminds me, you won't believe how Liam came out to our parents!"