“That’s fine.”

“Or,” Vince says, “you can stay down here with me, and we can go find that corner of the bar to go make out. You know, for old time’s sake. Remember what happened later that night?”

Paul rolls his eyes but can’t hide the smile. “Maybe later. Scratch that. Definitely later.” He kisses Vince and disappears back into the bar.

“Butt sex happened later that night,” Vince says to me happily.

I laugh. “I figured as much. What happened to oversharing?”

He shrugs. “I figured you were wondering. Couldn’t leave you hanging.”

How kind. “You love him, huh?”

“Paul? Oh sure. With all that I’ve got. He’s the only thing I need. I tell him it’s real, and he believes me. What more could I ask for?”

“Tell him it’s real?”

“It’s a thing, I guess. Our thing. He didn’t believe me, for whatever reason, when I asked him out the first time. Thought I was playing a joke on him.”

“Well, I can see that,” I say. “I mean, you’re… you. And he’s….” I don’t know exactly what I’m trying to say. It sounds like it was going to a real shitty place. I’m not like that.

But neither is Vince. “He’s what?” he asks, sounding confused.

“He’s what you need, I guess.”

Vince nods. “That’s a good way to put it. I’m just glad he figured out I wasn’t joking.”

“Did it take long?”

“Nah. I wore him down. I can be persuasive when I need to be.”

“Hit you with his car, did he?”

“Flew right over it and everything. Also saved his life from choking on spinach, so his life pretty much belongs to me. It’s in good hands, I think.”

“That’s a Chinese proverb,” I tell him.

He rolls his eyes. “It’s all Asia. The point is that I gave him his life, and he gave me mine in return. And a family that loves me, just the way I am. I don’t need anything else.”

“I’m happy for you, Vince. It sounds great.”

“You going to tell Dom?”

“Tell him what?”

Vince grins. “That you love him. Duh.”

“Shocked” doesn’t even begin to describe me. “Excuse me?”

“Well, you love him, right? He sure loves you. You guys look at each other like Paul and I do. Sandy and Darren say it’s gross, but they do the same thing.” He frowns. “I’m still working on them. I’ll figure it out. Or they will. Or the world will end. I don’t know which will happen first.”

It’d be so easy to bullshit, but I think I might be done with that now. “I don’t know,” I say quietly. “I don’t know how to tell him. I did love him, at one point. I don’t know if it’s the same.”

“Sure seems like it.”

“Does it?”

“Why not just say it?”

“You can’t just say something like that.”

He looks surprised. “Why not? You know, if people actually said what was in their hearts instead of just overthinking everything in their heads, things would be so much easier.”