Chapter 24 - Jealousy
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What just happened? I went after Nate, finding him in our room.
"Nate? You okay?"
"No. Give me, please, one minute." He didn't even look at me.
"What happened?"
I worried I knew the answer, but I kind of hoped it would be something else.
Nate took a deep breath and turned to me with his hands on his hips. "Look, Richard, I realize I am the last one to have the right to make jealous scenes. I know I am here, the one married, but if you call Jerry a boy in front of me one more time, I will throw something out of the window."
So it was that... Fuck... I bowed my head and looked at him remorsefully. "I am sorry, Nathaniel, I haven't realized that. We used to call each other like that for so long it just feels natural."
He scanned my face with care. "How long is it since the two of you broke up?"
Damn... I hate these talks about relationships...
"About a year."
Nate exhaled as if to calm himself down. "Right... and you slept together regularly the whole time in that period?"
I nodded slowly. "Yes."
"Tell me, please, honestly." He looked at me with pain, but his gaze was so gentle and caring. "When have you got over him?"
I couldn't stand his look. I turned away.
"Have you ever?"
"Yes!" I looked at him earnestly.
"Was it after we started sleeping together?"
"I didn't think about it that much, to be honest. I just viewed myself as single. I've been sleeping around with so many people I wouldn't do that if I considered Jerry and me a couple."
"Right. But you still had feelings for Jerry even then."
"Maybe. I didn't analyze it in depth!"
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Nate turned away, collecting himself. "I am just glad you didn't let me call you daddy. I would feel sick if I got used to it, and then I'd found out." Nate turned back to me with a sad smile, and then his eyes laser-focused on my face. I knew I looked guilty.
"You didn't let me call you that, cos you wanted that to be special just for him. Did you?"
"He calls all his lovers daddy anyway. It's not like it's any special with me." I mumbled.
"It was for you, wasn't it? Did you keep calling your lovers "boy" out of getting even with him?"
"Why do you do this?"
"I can't help it. I know how much you care about nicknames, so it seems crucial to me. Please tell me, am I right?"
"Look, I didn't plan on any of this. I don't want to go back with Jerry. I want to be with you, Nathaniel!"
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Nate took my hands into his. Still, I was expecting him to fume and be angry, but he was just like this solemn guy who wanted to know... I had never had a talk like this with anyone. I had no idea how to act...
"Do you remember when I told you I don't feel threatened by your past?"
I nodded.
"Should I feel threatened, Richard?"
"No, I don't think so, Nathaniel."
"You Do-Not-Think-So?" He repeated very slowly, emphasizing every word as he unhanded me and crossed his arms, holding his chest. "Richard. I think I will REALLY need that minute now." He looked so tired. "I am very emotional, and I need to be able to see more angles to all this. And right now, I see red, Richard. Please. Give me just a little space."
Nate exhaled with a growl and turned into the room.
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"What have I done?" I exclaimed desperately.
He turned, and there was this sad strain to him now. "Nothing. I still feel immensely for you. I suppose I am just insecure right now."
"Why should you be, of all people?"
"Damn. I will regret this!" Nate shook his head in resignation.
"What?"
"Okay, damn it." He turned his body to me. "You had a strange look when Jerry said I am not your type. You had a similar look when Peter said the same. What did they mean by that, and please do not say you don't know."
Fuck...
"It's not like that. Jerry likes labeling things."
"So do you. Tell me, Richard." He spoke calmly.
"Nate, please don't."
He furrowed, his eyes still so fucking caring. I felt like the worst, most shallow person possible. I would feel better if he screamed! "Tell me, Richard."
I lowered my head, knowing how this would seem... "I kinda never dated a white guy."
Nate looked stunned and confused. "A white guy?"
I looked at him desperately, frustrated, but most of all, I needed him to understand me. But I didn't know how to approach this at all. I never spoke like this with anyone! I was not ready, in the least, for something like this.
"I've slept with loads of them, though!" Yeah, much better, dumb-ass...
Nate's brow furrowed even deeper. "What do you mean by never dating a white guy? How does that matter?"
"It doesn't!"
Nate raised his hands, his palms to me. "No, Richard, how does it matter to you if a guy is black or white for YOU to date them?" He had this serious, intense look like he needed to comprehend what I was saying. He didn't seem to judge me, just as if he was trying to understand.
I exhaled. I felt cornered. "I like the contrast, but it's not like I don't like white guys. I do. I just... I usually only sleep with them."
Nate put his face in the palm of his hand as he sat down on the bed. He then shook his head. "So, I assume Steve is black as well?"
"Yes."
"And you like that because you are white."
"Yes. I said I liked the contrast. The way their skin feels and..."
He looked at me as if urging me to finish digging that hole I had dug under myself.
"Their cock feels better. I mean different. Fuck... Nate, I like you, don't... Damn it. I like all sorts of men. I think I slept with most ethnicities you can find..." I seriously should have given him that space! Now I am sounding like a slut trying to make this better. "I just never met a white guy I slept with regularly, and it developed into something more."
I was rambling more and more just for him to understand that skin color is not as crucial for me as it may seem. Fuck, how did we get here?
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He looked drawn deep within himself.
"Ross is white."
"Ross is a friend, and top only I could never date him."
"Because he is white?"
"No, no! I don't care about the color of a guy's skin. I just like black more. It's like some people prefer blonds or brunets, blue-eyed, dark-eyed, or hunks or petite. It's just preference. It doesn't matter that much. Ben, for example, likes big, muscled hunks, and look, he found Peter! And he is happiest with him than with anyone before!" Maybe partly because Ben and Peter still sleep with other people as they are sexually very open and don't restrain themselves, but I was not going to tell him that now.
"Right. And... What is your usual preference out of curiosity."
"I don't think that..."
"Jerry, is your usual preference? Ben?"
"Jerry," I said quietly, giving up.
"I don't want to ask this... Did you break up with Ben cos he is bigger than you?"
"Ben is a more complicated issue."
"Could you somehow simplify it?"
Damn... I sat down on the bed next to him. "If I should simplify... It was the reason why I didn't want to date him in the first place. But he grew on me. I broke up with him because it felt weird being the top with him, and I don't like being solely the bottom. Which I mostly was. Then there was something else, but I don't feel like it's my place to say it. Still, we were together for three years. I was in college; I was much younger."
"Yet he still cares for you after all that time, same as you do for Jerry."
"I don't know if I would say that," I said, knowing full well that he was right.
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"Right, so you prefer to date short, cute petit black guys. Is there something more that is the complete opposite of me? I suppose being single and not married to your sister is also one of those things." Nate never sounded angry. He was calm and understanding the whole time we talked, but this immense sadness and hurt grew on his face.
"Why do I suddenly feel like a bad guy here?"
"Damn, no, sorry, Richard, you are not." Nate looked at me seriously. "I understand how that may sound. Sorry. I just feel that I am not good enough for you."
"How you of all people..."
He stopped me with a hand on my chest.
"Richard, I haven't said that, so you should assure me how great I am. I see the way you look at me, and I genuinely believe you like me. I only wonder if this is real for you or if you have just been stuck in a single house for too long and grew desperate enough to hook up with me. And then you just assigned such a significant value to it so that you won't feel as shitty. And I worry you will wake up one day realizing that."
"Nate..."
"Richard, again, I am not blaming you. I am jealous for the first time in my life, and I don't know how to work with it. So I am trying to be as honest as I can."
"Are you breaking up with me?"
"No. I don't want to make such decisions in this state of mind. But, Richard, I have one question, and I swear I will not be mad or judge you. But please tell me the truth."
I nodded.
"If Jerry would want to get back together, would you?"
"No. I want to be with you!"
"If I had asked that question three weeks ago, what would you say?"
We both knew the answer. I would want Jerry by my side. It was he who decided to become just fuckbuddies and nothing else. I was going to propose that night he broke up with me... My silence proved that to us both.
"I don't want you to feel bad, Richard. It just created a bit of a mess in my head. I still want to be with you if you'll have me, but if you choose someone else eventually, please don't be with me out of pity or a sense of guilt or responsibility."
"I want to be with you, Nathaniel."
Nate looked sad at the floor and shrugged his shoulders softly. "And I want to be with you."