“Only you would land yourself the man of your dreams at the same time as you get the stalker of your nightmares,” Tristan said.

“Well,” Eric said, “there was that one guy you dated, Tristan. Who you thought was stealing your used underwear while also being a reincarnation of a Greek god.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. I still don’t know what happened to my underwear… or how he got that eight-pack.”

Eric and I chuckled. We took a turn down the road, sticking to the main path and avoiding any of the hiking trails that branched off into the woods. The mountain sloped downward at a steep incline, making us have to do a slight shuffle to keep balanced. There were a couple of cabins appearing through the thin trees, none of them as large or as modern as the one we were staying in.

“Seriously, though, you and Jake are a really solid pair. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy with someone,” Tristan said.

I shook my head. He was right—I’d never been this happy with any of the guys I’d been with. “Jake is special. I can’t even explain it. We just get along so well; it’s easy with him. I never have to second-guess anything or worry about what I’m saying or how I look. It’s not like with Franky, when he was scared to even be spotted in the same car as me in case people recognized us and started talking. That shit hurt. But I can’t imagine anything ever hurting with Jake.”

“You give me hope, man.” Eric put his hands into his shorts, the water bottle strap tight around his big wrist.

“What about me? I don’t give you hope?” Tristan asked with an offended glare.

“No, you give me fear. Fear for all the hearts you’re breaking.”

“I’m not breaking hearts. I’m healing them. With my dick. I’m basically providing a service and for free. I’m a saint.”

“Ah, yes, the patron saint of penis,” I said with a roll of my eyes. The guys started to laugh, and the question got tossed out: was there some kind of saint that overlooked sex? We joked around some more, the mood feeling infinitely lighter than earlier. This was why I loved these guys. We were able to turn any situation around into something positive, so long as the three of us were together.

Friends for life, brothers forever. I loved these two.

“Should we start heading back?” Eric asked as we reached the bottom of the gravel road before it turned into pavement, a large lake opening up in front of us. There was still a delicate cloud of morning mist hanging above it.