Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez Page B

experienced before, not something he would’ve ever tried on his own.
    The food arrived on a huge plate—a tray, really—that fit into the round tabletop. A big pancake-type thing was piled with six different-colored baby food–like mounds. A side plate contained more pancake thingies folded like napkins. The waitress explained how to tear off a piece of the spongy injera flatbread, grab some food with it, and pop it into their mouths.
    “You can feed each other, too,” she told them. “It’s a tradition called gursha . We believe that those who eat from the same plate will never betray each other.”
    Sergio scooped up some food, leaned forward, and plopped it into Lance’s mouth. His fingertips brushed Lance’s lips. And as the waitress strode away, he licked his fingers one by one, grinning at Lance.
    Lance blushed and glanced around to make sure nobody was watching. Sergio laughed.
    Lance wasn’t sure what he was eating, but maybe that was a good thing. Some of the food tasted sweet, some salty, and some was really spicy, but it all tasted delicious.
    As they ate, Lance worked up his nerve for what he’d planned to talk to Sergio about. “So, um, I’ve been thinking . . .”
    “Uh-oh,” Sergio said, smiling out of one side of his mouth.
    “If we’re going to keep dating,” Lance continued, trying to maintain his momentum, “I think it would be a good idea for us to be exclusive. You know: so that we don’t have to worry about running into each other like at the movie theater and stuff. So, what do you think?”
    Sergio thought for a moment. Although he liked Lance a lot, after Zelda, he wasn’t ready to commit to anything serious so fast.
    “This is only our second date, man. I’m not ready to be a couple.”
    Lance stared across the table, recalling what Allie had said about the danger of an ultimatum. So . . . now what? He didn’t want to give up seeing Sergio. He enjoyed hanging out with him, he liked how Sergio got him to try new things, and it totally turned him on to watch him lick his fingers. He felt stupid for having brought this up. He wished he’d listened to Allie.
    “Well, um, when do you think you’ll be ready?” Lance asked.
    “I don’t know,” Sergio said. “Can’t we just chill and see how it goes?”
    Lance shifted uncomfortably on the cushion, frustrated with the conversation, with Sergio, and most of all, with himself . “Okay,” he said meekly.
    “Great,” Sergio said and hand-fed Lance another bite of some sweet orange goop.
    Even though it felt hugely sexy to be fed like that, it also made Lance feel even more like a kid.
    “Do you want to go somewhere?” Sergio asked when they went back outside to the car.
    “Sure,” Lance replied, still trying to sort out his jumbled feelings. “Like where?”
    “I know a place,” Sergio said. He drove them to a little poplar-lined lane he knew of alongside a nearby golf course. It was the make-out spot where Zelda had taken him to fool around. And as he now pulled beside the curb he wondered: How far would Lance be willing to go tonight?
    He’d found that one difference between dating girls and guys was that a girl usually adjusted the speed of the relationship—pumping the brakes, shifting into neutral, or moving faster. But without a girl on the scene, it seemed like guys could go from zero to warp speed in seconds—almost as if on a dare as to who could get into whose pants faster.
    Sergio shut the engine off and Lance glanced out the car windows.
    It was Lance’s first time to actually park in a lovers’ lane. The scene seemed perfect: a latticework of tree branches blocked out the street lamps; the fairway stretched beyond them, still and quiet; and in the distance the moon shone nearly full. Without being aware of it, he began to hum “The Man in the Moon” from Mame and then caught himself. “Whoops. Sorry.”
    “I like it,” Sergio said. Through the darkness, their gazes met and held. Sergio leaned