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“You look great,” Paul said

“I’ the tank off

“Why do you need to try it on? They’re all the same They’re just different colors”

“I want to see what the color looks like on me”

“It’ll look great”

“How do you know?”

“You always look great”

“You’re biased”

“Maybe, but I’”

As Ian tried on the brown and then the green tank, Paul drifted to his own thoughts If Paul had a “boyfriend,” as he? Was he gay, straight, bisexual? None of the check boxes seeht He understood the coay, but s He certainly couldn’t insist he was “straight” anyiven the circumstances “Bisexual” was the obvious (and least absurd) choice, but it didn’t feel right to him either Paul had always associated that ith people anted to play around and experiment with sex To his mind, it lacked commitment and serious intent

His sexuality wasn’t confusing or complicated at all, really He had fallen in love with Sara, and he fell in love with Ian Simple It only became complicated when he tried to fit that reality into the shorthand of official categories That these labels failed to describe how he felt about himself should not have troubled hiories that he was incli

ned to believe the problem ith himself, and not the check boxes That here he became confused

Ian did end up taking all three shirts He found the brown tank topand decided to wear out of the store He ripped off the tag and took it up to Andy to ring up

“You got another tattoo,” Andy said “Nice work”

“Thanks,” Ian said He turned his shoulder toward Andy and gazed over it like an actress posing on the red carpet He couldn’t esture seriously, so he raised his eyebrows and stuck out his tongue Andy laughed and blushed