Rob is the one serving the lobster, and that’s his sister Janet carrying in the desert. They dipped into their trust fund in order to rent out the lodge and throw Brad a special birthday party. Brad, the one in the sweater with the Indian designs, and Rob have been best friends since grade school, and Janet has had a crush on Brad since eighth grade.
Brad has always complained that no one ever thought to throw him a birthday party because his birthday falls between Christmas and New Year’s, so Rob thought it would be nice to surprise him.
The young man in the grey sweater is Adam. He’s relatively new to the group. He was Brad’s roommate in college. At first Rob was jealous of Adam because he quickly became Brad’s other best friend. But the three young men went on a fishing trip up in Alaska about three years ago, and one night after Brad fell asleep, Rob got to know Adam, and he secretly fell in love.
Rob has been fooling around with men and going to gay bars for a while now, but he isn’t out. In fact he’s been dating Janet’s best friend Emma.
They were never serious, and Emma has always felt free to date other men, so on Christmas day, Rob felt it would be okay to finally admit to Emma that he’s gay. He even went so far as to let it slip that he has a thing for Adam.
Emma seemed to take the news well enough, which was a great relief. But when Emma started flirting with Adam at the party right in front of him, he knew the evening wasn’t going to end well.
Later that evening, Rob stepped outside to get a breath of fresh air, and he found Emma and Adam out on the porch. He stopped in his tracks and considered going back inside before he was noticed, but Emma looked directly at him and smiled. The smile was two parts mischief and one part pure evil. Then Emma raised a sprig of mistletoe over Adam’s head and kissed him hard on the mouth.
When she was finished, she said to Adam, “Hope you liked that. I’m going back inside. It’s cold out here.”
As Emma passed Rob, she threw the mistletoe at him and said, “You know, you really shouldn’t spy on your friends when they’re getting kissed by a girl. It’s a little creepy.”
Rob caught the sprig and sheepishly walked over to Adam. “Sorry about that. I just wanted to feel the cold on my cheeks a minute. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Adam said, “I’m the one who should apologize. I shouldn’t have done that. I know you and Emma have something going on.”
“I assure you that we don’t. Not any more. We never did actually. It was all a game.”
Adam didn’t quite know how to respond, so after a pause, he said, “She’s been coming on a bit strong the last couple of days.”
“I’m not surprised. …don’t take this personally, Adam, but I think she’s trying to get back at me. And I don’t blame her. I don’t blame her at all. But she shouldn’t use you to do it. You see, I told her on Christmas that I’m gay.”
“You are?”
Rob held the sprig over his head and said, “Kiss me, I’m gay.” It was meant to be campy fun, but it was a little pathetic and sad. “I’ve been such a shit and a coward.”
Much to his surprise, Adam leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
Rob took one step back and said, “That’s nice of you, Adam, but just because you know doesn’t mean you have to start treating me like a delicate princess or anything.”
Adam drew closer, put his arms around him and kissed him softly on the lips.
Rob pushed him away. “What are you doing?”
“I thought you’d like that.”
Rob tried to sound stern and direct, but his voice cracked with emotion when he said, “I don’t know if you’re trying to be funny or prove you’re not a homophobe, but please don’t do things like that. You have no idea how much you could hurt me.”
Once again Adam put his arms around him. “I’m not trying to be funny or prove anything. I’ve just wanted to do that for the past three years.”
This time when Adam kissed him, Rob didn’t resist. He kissed back.
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