by John Hall
Anthony ignored the dig and kept smiling. No way was he going to lose it in front of Felix.
“It’s because he doesn’t like me,” Felix whispered into Max’s ear. “Never has. Never will.”
Anthony laughed. “You’re such a kidder, Felix.” Anthony turned to Max with a smile. “Felix and I have been friends since first grade. We’re like brothers.”
Felix gave Anthony a smirk. “Don’t you mean sisters?”
Anthony ignored the comment and held his hand out to Max. “Hi, I’m Anthony DeMarco. I live here.”
Max reached for Anthony’s hand and gave him a huge smile that lit up his entire face. “Max Coulter. Nice to meet you.”
Anthony’s heart began racing madly. He did not want to let go of Max’s hand. At that moment Anthony felt like he was going to melt into a puddle. Was this what they called love at first sight?
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where had that thought come from? He had just met Max and he didn’t know a thing about him. Time to hit the brakes.
Anthony let go of Max’s hand and smiled back at him. “I hope you’re having a good time.”
“A blast.”
“I’ll bet there are lots of people you still haven’t met. I’d be happy to introduce you.”
Felix wrapped an arm around Max’s waist and drew him closer. “That’s nice of you, Tony, but I’m sure you’re busy hosting. I’m taking care of Max tonight.”
There was no mistaking Felix’s message. Back off! Max was his. Fine. This round went to Felix. But Max was a big boy, and eventually he was going to want to play with others.
“Hey, Felix!” A blond girl wearing a coconut shell bra and grass skirt ran over, grabbing Felix by the hand. Anthony didn’t recognize her; she must have come with someone he invited. “You have to come with me. Sherry’s confessing all about her summer vacation in Maui. There’s at least three columns’ worth of stuff. Come on!”
It was clear to Anthony that Felix was torn. He could see he wanted to leave for some juicy dirt. But at the same time, he didn’t want to leave Anthony and Max alone. Jealousy, perhaps? Was Max gay and Felix was hoping to make him his latest boyfriend? Gay or straight. That was the question. Anthony’s gaydar, which was usually quite reliable, wasn’t working. With just a look, he could usually tell if a guy was gay or straight. If someone asked him to explain what gaydar was, he wouldn’t know how. When you’re gay, you just know when someone else is. You could recognize it by their style. Or flair. Or a unique sense of individuality. It might be the fact that their hair is dyed or the clothes that they wear are over the top or it’s the amount of jewelry they have on. Or it could be the way they walk and talk. Gaydar was an instinct that was inside you and allowed you to identify with others who were just like you.
But Anthony couldn’t figure out if Max was gay or straight. Despite the casual outfit Max was wearing, it was in perfect condition. It wasn’t grungy and wrinkly the way it would be if a straight guy was wearing it. And he was groomed to perfection.
But that didn’t mean anything. Ever since the arrival of the metrosexual—straight guys who care about their appearance—Anthony had been having problems with his gaydar. On more than one occasion he’d pegged a guy as gay and been proven wrong when the guy’s girlfriend came along. He knew there were some gay guys who couldn’t dress to save their lives, but the ones with money usually could, and since Steve Coulter was Max’s father, he probably had a wallet full of credit cards and a closet full of designer clothes.
And he did come to the party with Felix. And Felix had been awfully touchy-feely with Max. Maybe tonight was their first date. For a second, Anthony had a flashback to his first official date with Ian. He felt a huge wave of sadness approaching, but immediately blocked it off, looking over his shoulder for Paige.
Anthony saw Paige staring at him and Max from across the deck with wide, excited eyes. She pointed to Max, who had his back to her, and opened her mouth. It wasn’t hard to figure out the word she was saying.
“Yum!”
“Felix? Are you coming?” Coconut Girl asked, tugging on his arm.
Reluctantly, Felix allowed himself to be dragged off, leaving Anthony and Max alone.
After Felix left, there was an awkward moment of silence. Anthony didn’t know what to say. He knew what he wanted to say, but couldn’t. Can I hug you? Can I kiss you? Will you please be my boyfriend?!
“How are you liking New York City?” Anthony finally asked.
Max shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s strange not having a car, though. Back home in L.A., I used to drive around everywhere. Here, I just hop on a subway or bus. Or I walk.”
“You must miss your friends.”
Max nodded. “Yeah, I do. But I’ll make new ones.” Max gave Anthony a smile. “Can I ask you something personal?”
“Sure. Anything.” He’s going to ask me if I’m gay. Or he’s going to ask me if I have a boyfriend and if I don’t would I want to go out on a date. Maybe catch a movie some night. Or maybe…
“Does everyone call you Tony?”
Anthony’s bubble popped. So much for his overactive imagination. “Felix is the only one who calls me that. And he knows I can’t stand it. Everyone else calls me Anthony.”
“Mind if I call you Ants? I have a friend out in California called Anthony and you remind me of him. I used to call him Ants.”
You can call me anything you want, Anthony wanted to say. Is California Anthony gay? Is that why I remind you of him? “Ants is fine. Some of my cousins call me that. And my brother.”
“What’s it like having parents who are famous designers?”
“No different than having a father who’s a famous chef, I guess. Does he cook at home the way he does on TV?”
“Just about. He’s the only one in our family who can cook. My mom and I are hopeless in the kitchen.”
“I guess that means you’re not planning to follow in his footsteps?”
Max laughed. “Are you kidding? I can’t even boil water. Felix’s father had the idea of having me guest on the show with Dad. You can call it the lost episode of ‘Delicious.’ It never aired, it was such a disaster. I almost bled to death slicing a tomato.”
“You’re kidding!”
“I’m not. I nicked my wrist with a carving knife and it wouldn’t stop bleeding. And then I burned the turkey in the oven. No, I’ll be ordering take-out for the rest of my life. Unless I become a famous actor and then I can have a live-in chef.”
“You want to be an actor?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Peppington Prep has a great drama club.” Anthony waited to see what Max would say. Most straight guys avoided the drama club at all costs. Unless they were looking to score with the girls who joined.
Last year Anthony had toyed with the idea of joining the drama club, but in the end decided not to. He didn’t want to be an actor and he didn’t have much interest in plays or musical theater; he preferred film—less room for mistakes. Not a good place to find a boyfriend if you didn’t have the same interests.
“I’ll have to check it out,” Max said.
Ooookay, Anthony resolved, this situation would definitely involve further investigating. A straight guy willingly joining the drama club and not being blackmailed into it by a teacher? Then again, Max could be devoted to his craft. Hmmm. Maybe he’d have to rethink his own interest in the performing arts.
After all, if Max did “play for the same team,” he was going to need a boyfriend who could support him. Root for him. Encourage him as he pursued his acting. Right?
And he could do a lot better than having love ’em and leave ’em Felix Fennimore for a boyfriend.
In fact, a nice Italian boy like himself would be perfect!
chapter three
“What a mess!” Paige exclaimed.
It was after midnight and Anthony’s party was over. The penthouse deck was a disaster area. Everywhere she looked there were empty plates and glasses. Crumpled napkins were tossed
on the floor and the buffet table, which had been heaped with tons of food hours earlier, had nothing but picked-over remains. White sand was scattered everywhere, smoke was wafting from the turned-off barbecue and all the tropical flowers Anthony had decorated with were drooping.
“A big mess,” Anthony said. “And I’m the lucky one who gets to clean it all up.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll help.”
“I’ll tackle it tomorrow.” Anthony plopped down on a chaise lounge. “I’ll get my big brother to help me,” he said as Paolo came out onto the deck and began searching the buffet table for something to eat. “Right, bro?”
“Don’t look at me, Ants,” Paolo said. “Your party, your mess.” He poked around a few platters and came up empty-handed. “Did your friends eat everything? The refrigerator inside is empty. All that’s left is a jar of mayonnaise.”
“Don’t you just love my brother, Paige? Always ready to help out his baby brother.”
“Hey, I wasn’t invited to your party, remember?”
“That’s because you locked yourself away in your bedroom, Bookworm. If you had asked if you could come, I would have said yes. There were lots of hot girls here tonight. You could have scored.”
“High school girls,” Paolo pointed out.
“Oooh. Big Man on Campus only goes out with College Girls now.”
“What’s wrong with high school girls?” Paige asked, sliding onto the chaise lounge next to Anthony.
“I didn’t say there was anything wrong with them.”
“But you implied that there was.”
“There’s a difference between high school and college, that’s all.”
“Are you saying high school girls are stupider than college girls?”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying. High school girls just take things way too seriously. Especially when it comes to guys. College girls are much more laid-back. They’ve got other stuff going on in their lives. Romance isn’t their top priority.”
“But it is a part of their lives,” Paige said. “Everyone wants to fall in love!”
“All I’m saying is that there’s no reason to get super serious about someone, especially at a young age.”
“Unless the person you meet is your soulmate,” Paige pointed out.
“The one,” Anthony chimed in.
“No one has any control over when they’re going to fall in love,” Paige said. “It just happens. And when it does, you have to go with the flow. You could be sixteen or sixty.”
“I can see I’m not going to win this argument, so I’m going to leave.” Paolo grabbed a can of soda from a cooler and headed back inside. Soon the sound of the TV wafted out onto the deck.
Anthony grinned at Paige. “I think you scared Paolo.”
“Good.” Guys, especially older guys like Paolo, thought they knew everything when it came to girls. But what was wrong with a little emotion? What was wrong with sharing feelings? Most guys only had one thing on their minds, and it wasn’t saying I love you. Although they would say it just to get what they wanted and think nothing of it. She’d seen it happen to too many girls at Peppington Prep and she had gone out with too many guys who’d pulled the “You would if you loved me” line. Did they think she was stupid? Please! The second they zipped up, they would lose her cell number and move on to the next conquest. She wasn’t saying all guys were like that, but most were and, unfortunately, they still went to high school. Not going all the way had cost her more than one boyfriend but, in the end, she realized the guy hadn’t been worth it. Otherwise he would have respected her decision. And in the end, it all came down to self-respect.
“Earth to Paige! Earth to Paige!” Anthony snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Come back, Paige!”
“Sorry.”
“You were a million miles away. Were you thinking about Max?”
“Max?”
“Max!!!!!” Anthony exclaimed. “The hottie that Felix brought along tonight.”
“Max!” Paige squealed, clapping her hands excitedly. “My new reason for living!”
Anthony pulled his legs up under him and leaned forward eagerly. “Mine too. Did you get to talk with him? Find anything out?”
“We only spoke for a few minutes. He told me about his dad and moving to New York.”
“That’s it?” Anthony asked, a disappointed look on his face.
“I don’t know if you noticed, but practically every girl at the party was surrounding him.”
“I know,” Anthony complained. “They were all like sharks circling prey. I hardly had a chance to talk with him after Felix let him out of his clutches. What did you think of him?”
Paige had liked Max. A lot. Often she was shy when she met someone new, but she hadn’t felt shy at all with Max. The conversation had flowed and they had even exchanged phone numbers. But she was getting the sense that Anthony liked Max, too. And that might cause a problem…
“I hate to burst your bubble, sweetie, but I saw Max talking to a lot of girls tonight.” She pointed to her chest. “And his eyes were focused straight ahead.”
“That doesn’t mean a thing. All the girls were spilling out of their tops tonight. How could he not notice? I even noticed! Besides, he came to the party with Felix, and Felix took every opportunity he could get to drape himself all over Max. No straight guy would stand for that.”
“Maybe he was being polite. Like you said, Felix brought him to the party. Maybe he didn’t want to offend him.”
“What other evidence do you have?”
“We exchanged phone numbers,” Paige reluctantly admitted, knowing that the info was going to bum out Anthony.
“So did we!” he exclaimed. “What else have you got?”
Paige shook her head. “I don’t have anything else.” She laid back on her chaise lounge and gazed over at Anthony. “You really think he could be gay? The thought never even crossed my mind.”
“Maybe. But maybe not. I’m not so sure myself.”
“What happened to your gaydar?” Paige teased.
“It wasn’t working tonight.”
“I suppose it could be a possibility, but I hope not.”
“Why?”
Paige shrugged. “No reason.”
“You’re holding back on me. I can tell. It’s like that time freshman year when you had a crush on Dylan Hollis and wouldn’t admit it until I found your notebook with little hearts drawn all over it with ‘DH’s scribbled everywhere. Spill!”
“I like him.”
“I like him, too.”
“I like him a lot. I don’t want him to be gay. I want him to be straight.”
“Well, I like him a lot, too. And I don’t want him to be straight. I want him to be gay!”
Paige sat up, wrapping her arms around her knees. “Where does that leave us?”
“It leaves us with a question.”
“What question?”
“Is he or isn’t he? And how are we going to find out?”
“Did you notice how kissable his lips were?” Paige asked. “All plump and soft. It was all I could do not to throw myself at him and start kissing.”
“His lips? What about the rest of him? Did you see how big his arms were? That boy spends serious time in the gym.”
“I’d love to have those arms wrapped around me in a hug,” Paige said. “Wouldn’t you?”
“Okay, time out! All this drooling over Max isn’t getting us anywhere. We still don’t know if he’s gay or straight. We’re going to have to come up with a plan.”
“What kind of plan?”
Anthony began pacing around the deck. “Obviously he likes both of us and wants to be friends, otherwise he never would have given us his phone number.”
“True.”
“That means we’ll be spending time with him. Hanging out together. Getting to know him. Makes sense, right?”
“Right.”
“Eventually, he’ll have to say or do something that will give us an a
nswer.”
“And then what?”
“If he turns out to be gay, you do all you can to help me land him. And if he turns out to be straight, I do everything I can to keep the rest of Peppington Prep’s divas away from him while you make your move. What do you think?”
“It sounds like a plan.”
Paolo’s voice called out from inside the penthouse. “Not that I was eavesdropping since the two of you are so loud, but there’s a simpler way to find out if he is or isn’t.”
“There is?” Paige asked. She walked inside, followed by Anthony.
Paolo nodded while channel-surfing in the dark. The light from the big-screen TV gave his face a bluish glow. “Uh-huh.”
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Anthony urged. “Tell us! Our love lives are at stake!”
“Why don’t you just ask him if he’s gay or straight?”
“That’s your answer? That’s your solution?” Anthony threw his hands up in disgust. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!”
“Why’s it stupid? What do you have to lose?”
“Our self-respect!” Anthony proclaimed, making a face at his brother. “We’ve got to let Max make the first move. That way, if he’s not interested in one of us, we haven’t exposed too much of ourselves to him. He doesn’t need to know that we’re both drooling over him. Plus, if he isn’t gay, it could make things uncomfortable between him and me.”
“It could?” Paolo asked. “How?”
“The answer is so obvious! What is it about him that made me think he might be gay? You straight boys always have that problem when gaydar gets scrambled. It’s like suddenly you start questioning your masculinity. It’ll drive him batty and I’ll always be a reminder of it. If that were to happen, why would he want to hang out with me? It would ruin the friendship.”
“Then you should ask yourself what’s more important…having him as a friend or a boyfriend.”
“You know, I don’t remember asking for your opinion,” Anthony snapped.
Paolo rolled his eyes and went back to channel-surfing. “You don’t have to bite my head off. I’m just giving you my advice. You don’t have to follow it.”