Shiny! by Amy Lane Page A

relationship to do it—maybe it was time to stop being a big glittery meteor in the work world and maybe start being a human being. Because God knew, with Will as his conscience, he wasn’t going to go out and bag himself a pretty new boyfriend—not anytime soon, that was for damned sure.
    Will. Of course— duh .Kenny reached into his pocket for his phone and noticed that Cam’s soda—the same kind Will drank—was on its last inch in the bottle. Okay, first he’d text Will and make sure he was coming over for the evening, and then he’d get Cam a soda and maybe start being a real person at work.
    And then he’d plan dinner.
     
     
    “S O DO you want me to bring takeout?” Will asked over the phone, and Kenny smiled indulgently, stirring the sausage in one pot before moving to the tomato sauce in the other. It was very Will to offer to bring food when Kenny knew his finances had to be hurting. Will was considerate like that.
    “Nope,” Kenny said proudly. “I’m making dinner tonight. Cleaned off the table, set it, everything.” He’d even bought ice cream. “Bring yourself, your laptop, and your appetite, Daddy is cooking tonight!”
    Will’s laugh was that same warm, sunshiny sound Kenny had learned to appreciate during the past month. God ,he was good company. “What’s the occasion? I need to know what to wear.”
    Anything. Cargo shorts, T-shirt, jeans, T-shirt, corduroys, no shirt, polyester plaid—I could look at your big bear body in anything.
    Oh God. Kenny promptly told his baser self to stand down, Straight Boy was not for him. “Nothing fancy,” he said firmly into the phone. “And the occasion is, if you must know, I got my second HIV test back, and I am clean, clear, and damned near virginal. Huzzah and hip hooray, at least Gif could use a rubber.”
    There was a startled pause on the other end of the line, and then Will’s sincere voice. “That’s awesome ,” he said. “I’ll have to bring something!”
    “No, no, no, no, no—you’re missing the point. The point is I treat you ,because baby, I got it going on. Pasta, homemade sauce, ice cream, pie, beer, Dr Pepper”—because Will drank it by the case—“salad, uhm—”
    “Garlic bread?” Will prompted gently.
    “ Dammit !” Because sure enough, that waswhat Kenny had forgotten.
    “I’ll be over in half an hour. And seriously, Kenny. Congratulations. That must be sort of a load off your mind.”
    Yeah, a big viral load! But Kenny couldn’t joke about it—not with Will, who had been kind and decent and a really good friend. “Yeah. I… I mean, part of the fun of being in a committed relationship is you know where you stand there, you know? And it’s just nice to know I can move on.”
    “That’s awesome. I’m really happy for you,” he said, but the pronouncement was followed by the sort of loaded pause that sounded like it was full of words in Will’s head.
    “What?” Kenny asked. He didn’t always get an answer when he asked that.
    “Nothing,” Will said, all of the hesitation gone. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
    Will rang off and Kenny turned the heat off the sausage and onions, sneaking a bite before he added them into the sauce. He wanted it to be perfect; Will Lafferty of the shrinking white belly (he’d been working out and riding his bike since he got fired) had been a godsend in the past month.
    Kenny’s college dating had been… well, sort of exploitative. Or exploited. It just felt like every guy had six other guys he wanted to bang besides Kenny, and every time Kenny thought they were getting to the point where the rubbers could come off, he’d find out the other guy had just been in a three-way with all of Kenny’s exes, and bam! Kenny was club-fucking again. Gif had been Kenny’s first move at cohabitation and his first attempt at a real relationship. Besides just the fucking betrayal ,there was that horrible sense of failure, of impending doom, that “I’ll never have somebody to