Page 43 of Below The Surface
My phone buzzes when I climb into the passenger seat of Hayden’s truck. Thank goodness for more headspace. But I have to chuckle because I definitely enjoy being the passenger princess.
I pull out my phone and laugh at the text Kay sent. It’s just a picture of a pink heart background with a cat wearing a tiara. The word Princess is in bold, glittery font.
Kay: My pretty passenger princess. Kisses. Don’t miss me too much.
“What’s so funny?” Hayden asks.
I show him the text and he snorts. “Man, he’s something else and perfect for you.” There’s a tiny smile on his lips. “Did you ask him out?”
“I did, right in your stairwell before we came in.”
He snorts. “That’s weird timing.”
“That’s pretty much what he said. But it felt perfect.” I lean my head back. “He did ask if I’m prepared for the backlash of openly dating a guy. I hadn’t thought about it. Hadn’t thought about how it would affect you, too.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m mostly behind the scenes. If you’re happy, that’s all I want. It’s not likewe’reever going to hook up. Just not my type.” He shakes his head and refuses to look at me.
“You know it’s fine if you’re not straight.”
“I know. But also, he’s probably right about backlash. We should figure out a way to mitigate it. We’ve never promoted you as anything other than a guy with the passion for fitness at all levels. But you know people project their ideas on you. I’m sure they think you’re a nice little Christian boy when you’re an atheist. We did make clear you’re a democrat though, so we lost a lot of MAGA losers. But dating a guy might put a few people off. Do you care?”
“No.” I slide into the seat a bit, relaxing. “I envy Kay. He’s just who he is. I want to be like that too. I want my platform to scream, this is Dallas, take it or leave it.”
“I love that. It’s beautiful.” He squeezes the wheel again. “But it might be hard. We’ve hidden the real you for so long. Do you even know how to live your truth out loud?”
“Dunno, but I sure as fuck want to try. I’m tired of living in the shadows, afraid of letting people see me.”
“We’ll set you free, man.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” I sit up taller. “This is exciting. The possibilities are endless. The collabs are endless. Shit, Clayton isn’t homophobic, right? Or biphobic? Any of it?”
Hayden chuckles and pulls into a parking spot at the gym. “You really leave all the research to me, don’t you?”
“Yeah, sorry.” I rub a hand down my face. “I really suck at damn near everything other than being the face.”
“It’s fine. You know I love the research and don’t worry. We’ll never work with anyone that’s going to hurt our image in a bad way. Clayton’s always working with different organizations to help LGBTQ+ youth and elders.”
“We should probably look into working with organizations to bring awareness to the things that bring our hearts joy.” I need to do better.
Hayden pokes my shoulder. “Come on. Let’s write up an epic collab.”
Before long, we’re in the zone, writing up different proposals and having a blast.
“You know, I wonder if we could do a whole big collab like an ‘I’m coming out’ kinda thing with a bunch of LGBTQ+ creators? Would you be into that? We could get Kay involved. That would be a blast.”
I scratch the back of my head and stare at my reflection in the wall across from me. “You know what? That could be fun. Let’s see about doing it at Influencer Con?”
“Perfect.” Hayden types up a storm and prints off the Clayton Climbs collab proposal. “Look this over and see if there’s anything you wanna change.”
We go back and forth on a few things, then there’s a knock on the door. I push to my feet and greet the people.
“Blake and Yuri?” I look the two over.
“Yep. What’s the password?”
“Cupcake.”
They both nod.
