Imposter in Zebra-striped Briefs Read Online Free PDF Page B

wanted to date the football team, not be on it.
    He wanted what Brandon and Josh seemed to have. He could tell the two were very much in love.
    He was feeling good about his decision to move here. It felt scary but good to step out of his comfort zone for once. He had never lived in an area that was gay friendly like this, and he didn’t have any other gay friends, so he didn’t want to screw this up.
    He opened the rooftop door. Walking in, he saw they obviously had quite a few friends. He wandered around the outer edges of the party, taking it all in.
    White table-clothed round tables surrounded by white padded wooden chairs had been set up along one side of the roof, and a long banquet table filled to overflowing with food ran down the middle. The entire roof had antique-style white lights strung from one side to the other and wrapped around the arbor posts.
    Josh was right. This was totally worth the walk up. The far end of the garden area had been transformed into a dance floor, with a bar Brandon was currently manning along with a guy he assumed was the actual bartender, based on his black vest and service tie. Josh was standing on the other side of the bar, laughing with a couple guys. There were a lot of people here, he realized. Thinking maybe he couldn’t do this, he looked around for the exit to calm himself. He noticed there was a fire escape as well as the stairwell, and the building next to this was connected, which made him feel less trapped, easing the tightness in his chest.
    Josh waved him over, so he headed in his direction.
    “Everybody,” Josh hollered, raising his beer and throwing an arm around Nathan. Everyone quieted down and looked their way. “This is our new neighbor, Nathan. Nathan, this is everybody.”
    “Hi, Nathan,” the group hollered back.
    “What would you like to drink?” Brandon gestured to the impressively stocked bar.
    Nathan was stumped. He didn’t even know the name of a drink. There went any chance of being cool.
    Brandon must have picked up on Nathan’s hesitation because he started making suggestions. “How about a mojito or a White Russian?”
    “Uhhh, mojito sounds good,” Nathan decided.
    Nathan turned to Josh while Brandon mixed his drink. “It looks amazing up here. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
    “Yep, it’s all Brandon,” Josh said proudly, looking at his fiancé.
    “You two have a lot of friends.” Nathan looked around at the people dancing and drinking.
    “Ha, only a few of these are mine. Most of these folks are Brandon’s friends. Hey,” Josh said to Brandon, as if he had just had an epiphany. “I’m taking this one.” Josh put an arm over Nathan’s shoulders and pulled him in next to him possessively.
    “Huh?” Nathan said, not sure where this was going but feeling very uncomfortable.
    “You have too many friends already, so this one’s mine.”
    “Okay, honey,” Brandon said, giving Nathan a wink as he handed him his drink.
    Three drinks later Nathan was feeling fantastic. Everyone at the party was extremely nice. He felt like he was part of a group for the first time in his life. Not that liquor suddenly gave him excellent social skills, but his lack thereof didn’t bother him so much now. He managed to stay off the dance floor, even though a few tried to pull him out there. The joking about his possible lack of grace was friendly banter that made him laugh instead of the mockery he had experienced in the past.
    He was standing with a few of Brandon’s work friends, thinking maybe he should slow down a bit on the drinking, when a guy walked in the rooftop door. Nathan was dumbstruck. The man was every dirty fantasy Nathan had ever had.
    Nathan watched him slowly make his way around the outside edge of the party. He seemed uncomfortable, something Nathan was very familiar with, but it didn’t fit on him. He had short dirty-blonde hair, was at least six feet and muscular, like he played sports versus spending hours in a