Page 49 of Playing By Ear

He had to tell Jamie about the camming, sooner rather than later. How to bring it up, though?

“Call Brian,” he told the phone.

Brian picked up right away. “Tell me some good news, Per.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“This project due for work tomorrow. I thought it was just a live presentation, and I can do that in my sleep, but yesterday my boss says she wants a written report to go with it. I can talk all day long, but words on a page? Torture.”

“Send it to me and I’ll sort it.”

“Seriously?” Brian asked.

“It’s the least I can do in exchange for the sage advice you’re about to give me.” He laid out his dilemma on telling Jamie about his cam-model gig. “The longer I put it off, the odder it’ll be, right? And it feels wrong to not tell him.”

“If I was him, I’d want to know upfront.”

“But how, exactly? Sitting him down for a serious talk might spook him, but it’s not as though the topic would come up naturally in conversation. ‘Yes, Thistle had a brilliant comeback against Accies at the weekend, and by the way I’m a sex worker.’”

“It can’t help being awkward,” Brian said. “Remember when you told me about it? You were so nervous, talking in circles, I thought you were confessing a crime. And I’m just a mate.”

“But like you, I don’t think Jamie would judge me.”

“He’d better not. Anyway, you don’t show your face onscreen, so it’s not as if you’ll be recognized when the two of you are out in a café or strolling down Sauchiehall Street.”

“True.” A sudden idea hit Perry. “What if I don’t tell him at all? What if I simply…show him?”

“You seen what Balornock been saying about us in the forums?” Colin asked Jamie, shouting over the noise of the pub where some of the Warriors were enjoying a post-training pint.

Jamie shook his head. “Been avoiding it, even swiping away notifications about myself. Are they as bad as two years ago?”

“Naw, that’s the bizarre thing.” Colin leaned over the corner of their table and showed him the discussion on the amateur-football forum. “Not a single homophobic, transphobic, or sexist remark.” He scrolled through a thread about Saturday’s quarterfinal match. “Just routine speculation about our starting eleven.”

“Maybe Katie had the mods take down any nasty comments.” Their American teammate was a one-woman anti-abuse crusader on Warriors social-media accounts.

“She telt me there’s nothing to report.” Colin frowned. “I don’t want to get used to it.” He bit his lip and looked toward the front of the pub, as though expecting a band of gay-bashing marauders to stream in.

Whenever Jamie started to pity himself for having a gangster father, he thought of his mates like Colin, who’d grown up with few people to protect him.

“Right. Enough football chat.” Colin closed the forum app and brought up a photo. “Our new foster pup.”

In the picture, a furry brown-and-white dog lay on its back with a duck-shaped toy in its forepaws. It gave a goofy, loose-jowled grin at the camera. “Adorable,” Jamie said. “Is it hard, letting them go when they’re adopted?”

“Naw, cos they all go to good homes, and that’s the whole point of fostering, int’it? Plus, when they leave, we get our freedom back. We can have a late lie-in, put food on the coffee table without it getting nicked, make as much sex noise as we want without putting the frighteners on a feart wee creature.” He sighed. “Still, Andrew always gets a bit weepy when a dog leaves.” Colin’s own pale-green eyes softened as he spoke of his boyfriend.

Jamie wondered whether he’d ever feel that way about anyone, even Perry. “How long have you been together? Two years?”

“Nearly. Feels longer, as we’ve had enough excitement for ten lifetimes.” He rubbed his abdomen, over the old surgical scars.

“You think you’ll ever⁠—”

“No,” Colin said, shaking his head hard enough to pull a neck muscle. “We might last forever, but I am never marrying that man.”

“Why not?” Lord Andrew had it all: money, looks, connections. For Jamie, it wasn’t enough to make the insufferable toff tolerable for more than an hour, but Colin obviously adored him.

“Cos if we married,” Colin said, “you know what people would call me?”

“A gold digger?”