For Your Time

The best time to find yourself is before you hit rock bottom. My mom died when I was ten, taking my happy family life with her. And since my dad’s only useful enough to drain a bottle, I’ve learned to live with nothing, except the love and generosity of my best friends. My relationship with twins Damon and Declan has always been close. Too close according to what society has deemed appropriate between guy friends. But that’s never stopped our hugging and cuddling—in public or private. My best friends know I didn’t receive affection from home, so they never let me go without it. But at twenty-two, the guilt of taking handouts from my friends catches up with me. Filled with self-loathing, I decide it’s time to make a change. Determined to pay my own way, I accept a strange proposition from my former professor. Suddenly, I find myself with a sugar daddy, and a whole lot of questions I’m not sure how to process. The twins have always known they were gay—just like I’ve known I was straight. But now, I wonder if the love and affection I’ve always craved was for something else entirely.