On a scale of one to ten, DJ Joe Salinas considers himself a four, five on a good day. Actor/part-time stripper Fess Kedley is definitely a nine, however, and Joe's pretty sure that slides into a ten as soon as the clothes come off. So when the outgoing Fess recognizes a shy Joe from his midnight radio show at a bachelorette party and proceeds to ask him out, Joe turns Fess down, convinced the man's either crazy or stupid.<br><br>The only problem is, Fess takes rejection as reason to keep on trying.<br><br>The two become unexpected friends, so when the thought of trying a date comes up again, Joe decides to take a chance. Though he doesn't understand what someone like Fess can see in someone like him, it's hard to say no when everything else feels so right.

What the Heart Thinks

The weirdest part about it was, Fess looked like he was telling the truth, too.


He’s an actor, a voice whispered in the back of Joe’s brain. It’s his job to convince people of lies.


But if all this was an act, Joe couldn’t figure out the purpose of it. What could Fess possibly get out of snowing Joe? Could somebody have hired him? Stacy, maybe, though she had to know if Joe ever found out, he’d kill her. Nobody else Joe knew could possibly care enough to go to such extremes. His family was all in Michigan, and they believed the lies he fed them about his social life. They knew he was gay and had been accepting ever since he came out in high school, but his parents were workaholic attorneys who saw achievements and facts rather than people, and his little brother was too busy sleeping his way through Michigan State to even think about his gay older brother


So where did that leave Fess in all this?


Chapter 7