Just Bromantically Invested

\nMadden<\/strong>\n<\/div>My best friend is uptight, gorgeous, the greatest person I know … and I might be a smidge in love with him. Just a small amount. Barely worth the mention.

\n<\/div>Which is a stupid choice on my part when the guy is straight. \n<\/div>Starting a landscaping company with him was the perfect mix of doing what I love and an excuse to spend time with him, only it hasn’t completely taken off yet and now he’s telling me he’s lonely. \n<\/div>\nLonely<\/em>.

\n<\/div>Apparently having one friend in your life isn’t enough.\n<\/div>So I’m determined to help him find love. With someone other than me.

Maybe if I can pull that off, it’ll mean my heart will finally get the message and move on. \n<\/div>Or finish breaking into a hundred pieces. \n<\/div>Same thing, right?

\n<\/div>\nPenn<\/strong>\n<\/div>Being besties with an overenthusiastic, gold-hearted, nudist of a man is a challenge sometimes. Madden makes everything sunshine when he’s around. \n<\/div>The problem is that he hasn’t been around as much lately.

We work together, sure, but he’s got his roommates and I have … no one. Just him. So I feel the distance acutely.

\n<\/div>My one reassurance is that we have work tying us together, but when an old client calls with a proposition for us, it feels like our once solid friendship is unraveling fast. \n<\/div>He wants Madden to help him open a nudist resort, and if Madden’s doing that, he won’t be working with me. \n<\/div>I’m trying not to panic over the thought of losing him, which is a typical, common best friend reaction.

Nothing out of the ordinary. \n<\/div>And neither is the way my body has been reacting to him lately. \n<\/div>Everything is totally, completely normal between us.

\n<\/div>While there’s still an us at all.