“Exactly.” I groaned up at the sky. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people tell me maybe I haven’t met the right person, or I wasn’t doing it right, or maybe I wasn’t even gay. Have I considered fucking a woman instead?” I rolled my eyes. “My great-uncle Brian thought it was hilarious to ask me that in front of my entire extended family until I asked him how he knew he was truly straight if he’d never fucked a man before. I mean, maybe he just wasn’t doing it right. Maybe he needed to try bottoming, just to be sure.”

Hennessy barked out a laugh. “Oh wow. I bet that was a conversation stopper.”

I sighed. “Made him realise how stupid he sounded. And I was uninvited to his Christmas dinner after that, which was a win-win for me. My mum was kinda pissed though.”

He frowned. “I’ve heard all that before too. Mostly from men. Dates, boyfriends…”

I nodded and gave him a smile that I just couldn’t quite get right. “Yeah. It sucks. Is it not enough to be gay? But oh no, let’s sprinkle on some asexuality just for good measure. I wish I liked sex. I wish I wanted it. But I just don’t. And I have stopped trying to pretend.”

“It’s not easy. I told you at the meeting the night we met that I first told my boyfriend slash best friend in high school that the idea of sex didn’t appeal to me.”

“And his response was really shitty. Sorry he did that to you.”

“Me too. I lost my best friend and the only other gay friend I had in school, so that sucked. And for a few years after that, I tried to like it. You know, sex and whatnot. And I tried to fit in, and I tried to pretend it didn’t bother me. But it did. And it’s not easy for a guy to fake, you know what I mean?” He waved his hand at his crotch. Then he whispered, “They could see I wasn’t sexually aroused.”

I made a sympathetic face. “Yeah, been there, done that.”