...Drake nearly choked on a sip of wine. He blinked a few times. “You didn’t seriously consider porn, did you?”

Jay shrugged, reddening a little. “For a little bit. There’s a site in Europe that has lots of hot young guys doing pretty much everything. And the idea of being paid for sex was sort of interesting.”

Clenching his teeth, Drake took a moment to think why the idea of Jay involved in porn bothered him so much. He knew of the site Jay referenced. Jay was the perfect type for that site, as a matter of fact. But Jay engaging in mass orgies for the camera made him uneasy.

“Well, glad you didn’t get involved in that,” Drake said, neutrally. “What about the commercials? What happened with your boyfriend?”

Jay downed the rest of his glass of wine and gestured to Drake’s with a flick of his head. “Want some more?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Jay stood and grabbed Drake’s glass on his way by to the kitchen. Drake followed him inside to check on the appetizers in the oven.

“What happened was,” Jay said, pouring wine into each of their glasses, “he abused me. Used to beat the crap out of me. My family finally got me away from him.”

“Fuck. I hope you reported the bastard to the police.”

“I did, but they didn’t do much. They acted like I was crazy complaining my boyfriend beat me. He never touched my face, saying that’s why he was with me, but he’d beat me other places where it was easier to hide.”

The idea of someone doing that to Jay enraged Drake. Made him want to punch something. But he didn’t want to show anger to Jay, because he wasn’t mad at him, so Drake blew out a breath. “I’m sorry. But I’m glad you got away from him. I think the food is done.”

Jay smiled. “Good, I’m hungry. Maybe I should have bought more. Do you think it’s enough?”

“If not, we’ll order a pizza later. What movies are we watching?”

“Whatever you want. I have a lot to choose from.” Jay took a big gulp of wine, then hiccupped. He covered his mouth. “Oops.”

Drake laughed. “Maybe you should slow down on the wine, Jay.”

“I wasn’t going to have any,” Jay admitted. “I was going to have tea.”

“Why?”

He bit his lip and shrugged, handing a pot holder to Drake. “I’m, you know, not very good with alcohol. The first time I got really drunk? I did something very stupid.”

Drake frowned as he took the little mushroom puffs out of the oven. “You didn’t drink and drive, did you?”

Jay rolled his eyes. “No, officer.”

“Then what?”

“Well, I was at a party and I offered blow jobs to all the guys who were there.” Jay turned dark crimson. He bowed his head and turned away.

Drake swallowed, pushing away the image of Jay on his knees offering Drake a blow job because he’d had too many glasses of wine. Jay was a friend and Drake loved Ross, he reminded himself. “I see.”

“I know.” Jay sighed.

“Did…they didn’t take you up on it, did they?”

Jay bit his lip and nodded. “Some did, yeah,” he whispered.