“Sorry about that,” he said. “It’s been a while.”

“I’m not complaining. That was incredible.”

“Really?” he asked, sinking back into bed and pulling my arm around his shoulder.

“Really,” I replied. “For someone who says he’s not gay, you do a damn good impression of a gay guy.”

Even after we were naked, I hadn’t known what to expect. Maybe some more rolling around and then mutual masturbation but, gay or not, Adam had no inhibitions about sex with another guy. Even so, I was momentarily at a loss for words when he whispered, “Wanna fuck me, Henry?”

When I recovered, the first words out of my mouth were, “I don’t know if that’s safe for us to do.”

He rolled over, opened the drawer of the bed stand, reached in and then tossed me a condom and a bottle of lube.

“You sure about this?”

“You don’t want to fuck me?” he asked with a grin.

“I’ve never wanted anything more.”

“Then put that thing on.”

“Here’s a better idea,” I said, handing him the foil. “You put it on me.”

We lay face to face, knees touching, hands idly stroking each other’s chests and bellies. The dark flush of arousal had faded from beneath his skin.

“So, this is the part where you tell me your story,” I said. “How many other guys have you been with?”

“Three. A friend in high school, but all we did was look at porn and jerk each other off. I liked how it felt, you know, being with another guy, having his hand on my cock, but it was no big deal. I liked girls better. Then when I was a freshman, I messed around with another guy for a while. Learned to do some other things.”

“What happened then?”

“I met Candace.”

“Oh,” I said. “You said you told her about the guys.”

“Yeah.”

“And she was—okay with it?”

“She’s a scientist,” he replied, as if this explained everything.

“And the third guy?”

“That was after Candace and me broke up. A guy who cruised me on the street. I was lonely and horny, so I went home with him. That lasted a couple of months but he kept telling me I was a closet case and I had to come out. I got tired of arguing with him, so that was the end of that.”

“Why aren’t you dating women?”