“Who, Key?” Ira laughed outright at that. “He’s married. He has a wife.” And was straight in general, as far as Ira knew. “Sorry to burst your bubble.”
Bu then he raised his eyebrows, a little surprised. “Is it really?” It hadn’t felt like it. His preceding relationship with Luciana had lasted five years, almost, and they’d known each other forever even before that. And apart from Lu and Damian he’d only randomly fooled around, so Ira wasn’t sure what most people considered a long time for a relationship. Oh, but wait. “…Actually, we were only an official couple for, I don’t know, half a year or so. Maybe more. The first year was just casual sex and friendship, until he convinced me to go steady with him. And then that last half year was kind of off and on, but mostly on…”
He trailed off, but it was at this point that Ira was starting to feel bad that he was speaking so ambiguously about his past relationships to Staas, who had just spilled his guts about the incredibly heavy things that had happened in his life. He didn’t mean to be so impersonal, but he also didn’t want to bore the crap out of the man. Not to say that his partners were boring people, not at all. Quite the contrary, and how. Ira had loved them because they were beautiful and fascinating and special (he could admit that he was slightly biased there), and that encouraged him to continue talking when he hadn’t originally intended on elaborating about Damian. He wasn’t something sordid that he had to hide, and neither was Lu. And certainly not from Staas of all people.
And now that Ira was thinking about it, vivid memories and all manner of warm, if somewhat conflicting feelings came rushing back to him. He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled through his teeth, an absent smile forming on his face. “Yeah. Wow. Damian. Finding out that I wasn’t totally straight, that was completely his fault. We were studying for a physical anthropology test and he suddenly started making out with me.” He grinned, a little crookedly. “It was nice. And a total surprise for both me and him, because neither of us thought we were gay.”
That wasn’t the only reason it had caught Ira off guard at the time, though. Damian was a year older, a contemporary dancer, gorgeous in that tall-dark-and-handsome way that had girls everywhere swooning after him, and rather unfairly brilliant to boot. To this day Ira wasn’t sure what had drawn the guy to him in particular, the gawky, geeky underclassman who was no smarter or more charming than Damian was himself. He could’ve had anyone else he’d wanted, easily.
“He was into it, he wanted to date. But I’d recently broken up with a long-time girlfriend and still wasn’t ready for another serious relationship. But Damian didn’t mind and I was still interested in having some fun from time to time, so we…studied a lot, ha. And after a year he finally made me change my mind.” A lost, fond smile. “And rightly so, I was really in love by then. And it was amazing.” But then he shrugged, had a sip of tea. “For a while anyways. It didn’t last...”
Ira paused, trying to figure out how to phrase things, or even if to say anything at all. “I was way too stubborn with him about certain things. And I suppose he had some problems with his temper.” Jostling his glasses carelessly, he tugged at an eyelash; it came away between his fingers with a faint pinch and he stared at the tiny strand for a second before flicking it away.
“Anyways, we started to fight a lot, and it ended for good when he graduated. He moved to San Francisco, and after Ori got into college I came here, so we haven’t talked had much opportunity to talk since.”