Page 39 of Solivagant

I’d never been one for small talk, so I hadn’t waited for him to say anything before turning to retrieve the piece he was here for…

“Tash,” Dale grunted in acknowledgement as she swiveled in her chair.

“Dale,” she grunted back, imitating his tone.

“Why do you always wear that shit on your face?”

“It’s called makeup, Dale. And because I want to.”

“Isn’t makeup supposed to make you prettier? No man is gonna find that attractive.”

“Then it’s working perfectly.”

He huffed.

I inhaled slowly. Tash was perfectly capable of managing one dickhead like Dale, and she’d probably be pissed at me for trying to intervene anyway, so I said nothing.

“Why do you hate men anyway?” Dale continued.

“Hard to fathom when fine specimens such as yourself exist, I know,” she retorted sarcastically.

There was a pause, clearly as he tried to determine if he were being insulted or not before he continued on regardless. “You ever even tried being with a man? How would you know you don’t like dick if you haven’t tried it?”

Tash laughed. “Do you like dick, Dale?”

“Fuck off,” he snapped. “‘Course I don’t. I ain’t a queer.”

“Well, how do you know if you haven’t tried it?”

“Listen here, bitch. I’m not fucking gay.”

My fists clenched. Unlike Tash, I wasn’t open with anyone about my sexuality, and men like Dale were exactly the reason why. It just wasn’t worth dealing with their shit. And it wasn’t like I had a partner or anything anyway, just the occasional hookup when Tash and I went into the city. Even those didn’t happen often because I fucking hated bars and clubs and any other locations where the public were actually out in public.

“You don’t have to be gay to try it,” Tash retorted, sounding amused rather than offended.

“No, just a dirty fucking sinner.”

Sinner.

My eyes flicked to the hammer on my workbench.

“Yeah, because you’re so fucking holy.”

“It’s in the fucking bible, Tash. Perhaps you’d know that if you ever came to church.”

“Would you shut up!” I snapped as I turned on him.

“Fuck off, Jo. You seriously telling me you don’t see a problem with it?” Dale stood taller, because unlike Tash, I was larger than him, but he still didn’t back down.

“No. I don’t have a fucking problem with Tash being gay, Dale. Because I’m gay too.”

His expression morphed from annoyed to disgusted. “You know, that makes a lot of fucking sense. You always were fucking strange.”

Stop.

“Something about you always put me on edge. I should have fucking known it was cause you were one of them.”

Shut up.