Page 12 of Love Lessons

But halfway across the room, he wheeled around, catching Dustin staring at his ass. Dustin felt his face go red.

Like what you see? He barely shifted his weight, but somehow he was posing now, one foot in front of the other and muscles popping in his arms.

Dustin wasn’t quite sure what to say. He did, of course, like what he was seeing. He’d always been attracted more to someone’s energy than to any particular gender, and just watching him walk was a turn on. But could he say that?

For some reason, the man seemed to find his lack of response attractive instead of pathetic. He walked back a few steps to where Dustin was standing. Then he touched his back in a way that was something between a nudge and a bro-y slap between his shoulder blades, but then it lingered as the stranger guided him forward.

Together, they walked through an open doorway to a separate room at the back of the restaurant. About a dozen people sat around a long table with another dozen or so empty chairs still waiting. One of them looked up, and then a wave of greetings echoed through the room.

He couldn’t, fortunately, hear much of the conversation, but apparently the stranger was named Landon and he was quite popular with everyone here.

While Landon greeted people, Dustin slunk around and snagged a chair that was a few seats over from where the next person was sitting.

Landon went in for a few hugs, and Dustin noticed that the people he was talking to had figured out how to wait until Landon could see them to speak. Someone waved up and down to get his attention, and then waited until he turned. It was nice that the group seemed to know how to accommodate Landon’s Deafness, or at least as much as they could without signing.

Dustin needed a moment to observe. He was normally a confident person, but mostly because he arranged things so that he was communicating on his terms. Usually that meant avoiding crowds of new people and either using email and chats, like he did at work, or occasionally finding Deaf friends.

He expected Landon to join the rest of the group, but instead he pulled out the chair next to Dustin and settled into it, his long legs stretching out, thighs spread, while he slouched against the back. He looked utterly relaxed and yet completely present.

Dustin, meanwhile, could feel how tense his muscles were. He was sitting straight up in his chair, hands clenched on his knees, and he willed himself to relax his arms.

Landon grabbed an onion ring from the basket that was just slightly too far away for Dustin to reach, and then swung toward him. I just realized that I don’t know your name.

I’m Dustin, he fingerspelled, and then tapped a D to the middle of his chest as his namesign.

Landon gave his name in return, fingerspelling and then pressing an L to his temple.

Nice to meet you, Dustin. Since you’re new here, I just wanted to say that everyone’s really friendly, and you don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to. If it gets too loud or busy or anything and you need to take a break, everyone will understand.

You don’t need to explain yourself to anyone, he continued, and you can ask questions, but people also have the right to not answer them. It’s better if you ask general questions, and people can choose if they want to share more personal information. Or, you can just hang out. So, any questions so far?

Dustin sucked in a breath, then forced himself to let it out slowly. He hadn’t thought far enough ahead to prepare questions. Now he was wondering if all of Landon’s flirtatiousness was just the performative cheer of a group organizer.

I don’t have any questions so far.

So how did you find out about the group?

Dustin rolled his eyes. So… are you sure you want to hear this?

Landon nodded eagerly, eyes shining. Dustin hadn’t told this story to anyone else, but he figured that Landon had probably seen a lot of newbies and maybe he could be at least a little bit funny and get him to laugh.

When my ex-boyfriend broke up with me, I might have gotten drunk and told my best friend… I swear I barely remember this… I apparently told him that I wanted to try things in bed that my ex wasn’t interested in. Which totally wasn’t why we broke up.

Though it had been part of why they broke up. But he wasn’t going to go down that path right now. He wanted to be funny.

Landon laughed with him, which made Dustin feel warm. It had been embarrassing at the time, but in retrospect the conversation was kind of humorous.

Since then, my friend’s been on this mission to get me to, I don’t know, do kinky things. Explore myself. He made a skeptical face as he said it. I think he wants to live vicariously through me. He’s actually the one who found out about this group.

Sounds like a good friend, Landon commented.

Dustin rolled his eyes again. I suppose that’s one way to think about it. I think he just wants to hear all the juicy details.

Oooh… juicy details! Good idea! Landon leaned closer, like he wanted to help create those details. That was flirting. Right?

I don’t know about that. I’m just--

But before he could get any farther, Landon was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder.