out Jeremy on the dating app. Well, technically a dating app, but obviously it was mostly for hookups. Which was the whole idea! Even if Honey was right and Jeremy might be into Max too, that wasn’t the plan. Max had promised to help him navigate the app and take him to the Village.
“I should be shirtless, right?” Jeremy asked.
“Yeah.” It was the truth, after all.
So Max watched Jeremy peel off the shirt, exposing his lean, tight little body. That Max wanted to run his hands over. Mmm, those dark pink nipples and scattering of ginger hair around them. Max wanted to bite and suck and see what kind of touch Jeremy liked.
Hair dusted Jeremy’s freckled arms. There was another hint of ginger just above the waistband of his dark skinny jeans. He was slim, and his belly was soft. Max wanted to navigate that pale skin with his tongue. He wanted to hear what kind of sounds Jeremy would make as he got hard.
“Max?”
Blinking back to focus, Max said, “You look great.” Also not a lie. When Jeremy rolled his eyes, Max said more forcefully, “Seriously. You’re hot. Here, give me your phone.”
Keeping a lid on his desire and reminding himself to be a friend and not a creeper, Max took some pics, keeping Jeremy’s face out of frame. “You wanna pose on the bed?”
Jeremy shook his head and put out his hand for the phone. “I’ll look at these later. I don’t even know if I’m going to…” He pulled on a green Henley, tugging at the sleeves. “Is this okay? Or should I dress up?”
“That’s perfect.” The forest green cotton hugged his slim body, and Max wanted to run his hand over Jeremy’s chest. He didn’t, obviously. Operation: Don’t be a Freaking Creeper was in full effect.
Max added, “We’ll go to Buddies. Buddies in Bad Times. It’s a queer theater company, but they do events and club stuff too. It should be a mixed crowd—not just shirtless dudes looking to score. Sunday night is pretty chill. Less pressure.”
Jeremy nodded tensely. “Okay.” His shoulders were practically up around his ears.
“Hey, you don’t have to do anything. We can just have fun. Hang out. You don’t have to hook up with anyone.”
“Right. I know.” Jeremy fiddled with his glasses.
“Can you see okay?”
“It’s fine. Just a little fuzzy compared to my newest prescription. But I’m not blind like I would be without them. Thanks again for helping me. You’ve been great. You don’t have to do all this.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, rocking on his socked feet.
“Well, ‘all this’ has been awesome. I like hanging with you. You’re cool.”
Jeremy rolled his eyes. “I am not cool.”
“Are too. I’m cool, so I should know.”
Jeremy laughed begrudgingly at that. “Okay.”
They headed out—Jeremy wearing his new in-between boots and peacoat—and Max in a similar outfit, except he wore a casual red button-up over his jeans. They hopped on the subway and walked down to the Village from Bloor, not bothering to change lines to go one stop to Wellesley. It was just under the freezing mark, so crisp and a bit icy, but not too cold.
Buddies was at the south end of the Village and back toward Yonge Street where they’d gotten off the subway, but Max wanted to take Jeremy down Church Street through the heart of the action. Even though Toronto was queer-friendly all over, Church and Wellesley was the classic gay area. It was, like, historic and shit.
Glad Day was on the other side of Church as they headed south, and Max pointed to it. “Oldest queer bookstore in the world. It started in the seventies and used to be on Yonge. Now it has a cafe and bar area at the front. They do trivia nights and events. It’s a cool spot.”
Jeremy nodded, gazing around like a total tourist, but in an adorable way. There were groups of people on the sidewalks, some smoking outside bars and restaurants. Max motioned to Woody’s across the street. “Woody’s is famous too. Been around a long time, and it was on that show Queer as Folk. You ever watch it? Super white and not great on trans rep, but it has some good stuff. Some hot sex scenes.”
“I’ve seen a lot of clips. I was afraid to stream it for real since my parents would check what I watched on Netflix and stuff. Somehow they never paid much attention to YouTube.” He glanced around. “This is right where they