Read Five Boroughs 01 - Sutphin Boulevard for Free Online

women liked using the you-look-upset line to spark up a conversation. The logic of harassing a pissed-off or sad person was lost on me. When someone looked like they were in a bad mood, I took that as a sign to leave them the hell alone.
    My phone chirped. A message from Nunzio said he was five minutes away.
    I made more of an effort to sit up straight and wipe the angst off my face, but the attempt was in vain. He knew something was off as soon as he strode into the bar and took a seat by my side.
    “Hey.”
    “What’s going on?”
    I resumed my slouch. “We’ll talk. Get a drink first.”
    “Christ. Is it so bad I need to be plied with alcohol first?” Nunzio nodded at Miranda. “Can I get a beer, sweetheart?”
    The use of the endearment earned him a lethal glare, but she snorted when he only smiled in response.
    “That guy down there is staring at you.” Nunzio spun on the barstool so he was facing me, his knees brushing my thigh. “He looks mad, though.”
    “He tried to buy me a drink. I got Miranda to tell him I’m straight.”
    “Maybe that’s why he’s grilling me now. He knows you’re full of shit.”
    Nunzio wiggled his fingers at my admirer in a sarcastic wave. I shoved his hand down to the counter.
    “Don’t be a dick.”
    “You’re the one who turned down a free drink. The poor guy just wanted an excuse to look into those pretty brown eyes of yours.”
    “I’m not in the mood. Especially not when his suave way of hooking me was to point out how sad I am.”
    “You do look like one miserable fuck.” Nunzio picked up my beer and gulped it. “So what’s going on, Mikey?”
    Miranda saved me from answering right away by returning with his beer. They bantered back and forth for a few minutes. To an onlooker, it would have seemed like they were flirting. Nunzio’s smile was infectious, and he couldn’t stop himself from casually touching people when he talked, not that anyone ever minded.
    Nunzio had always been the charming one of our duo. The one who could get an allegedly straight frat boy to drop his pants with no more than a suggestive comment and a raised brow. It was a talent that had kept him away from long-term relationships for most of our adult life. I envied him that, but I couldn’t aspire to it, even though all of my attempts at serious dating had failed.
    If it wasn’t the jealousy at my closeness with Nunzio causing a problem with men I had been with, it was the fact that I wasn’t out to my family. Apparently after thirty, people were a lot less compassionate about a grown-ass man being in the closet.
    I couldn’t deny that continuing to hide it was pathetic, but I didn’t see the point in coming out until I was in it for the long haul with someone. My gayness would only sprinkle hot oil on the fire that already blazed between me and the rest of my family. Especially my father.
    Nunzio snapped his fingers in front of my face. “What the hell is going on? Is it about last night?”
    My train of thought screeched to a halt. “What? No! Why would I be upset about that?”
    “Gee, I don’t know. Maybe the part where I ad-libbed the porn script and shoved my dick in your ass?”
    “Ay Dios….” I glanced around. “Keep your damned voice down.”
    “Fuck these people.”
    I elbowed him. “Calm yourself. It’s not about that. We were drunk. It happened. It wasn’t a big deal.”
    The corners of his mouth curved down. “That so?”
    “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
    I rubbed my thumb through the gathered condensation on the bar around my mug. Trying to describe the previous night brought up a slew of things that I wasn’t in the mindset to deal with. The sight of David shared between us, Nunzio’s eyes trained on me in the darkness, and the salty taste of his fingers between my lips right before his thick cock had rammed into me. Bareback.
    My mouth went dry, and I shifted on the barstool. That discussion would either have to wait, or never