Extra Credit: A Gay Love Story: Elliot Extra, #1

By Erin Bilton-Hayes

At 31, William is happy, kind of. He has an apartment, and a job teaching at the local college. He also has a bad habit of cruising on dating apps when he's drunk, and a dead-end crush on Tyler, who has been out of sight and out of mind, off with his girlfriend in Australia.

But Tyler's about to move back into his life, in a big way. In a moment of generosity, William offers Tyler a place to crash after a break-up. Tyler's back in town, licking his wounds, just as kind and clever as William remembered, although now he also hangs out shirtless in William's living room.

How will he handle the tension and frustration of living a few feet from his crush, trying to juggle keeping on top of his grading and keeping his sanity? How much longer can he keep insisting that he's happy to live a life of the mind and ignore the incredible body doing yoga in his lounge? Tyler cooking him dinner every night is just being a good houseguest, or is he trying to be teacher's pet?


William hadn't been to this bar before, nestled down an alley a few blocks from his apartment. Tyler led him to a courtyard out the back, which he hadn't noticed at first. "How'd you find this place?"
Tyler didn't meet William's eyes. "It used to be my go-to for dates. It's quiet, usually, and generally the floor isn't sticky."
"Are you romancing me?" William sounded amused, but he could feel the back of his throat catch as he spoke.
"They also let you smoke outside, c'mon." Tyler hip-checked the door open, and picked a table in the corner. They were the only ones there. William noted that Tyler hadn't actually answered his question.
"Did you go on many dates before Jules?" William realized he didn't really know anything about Tyler's dating life. That wasn't surprising exactly, but he couldn't deny he was curious.
"No", Tyler deadpanned, "I was sweet 29 and never been kissed".
William pulled a cigarette out of the pack in his jacket pocket and tapped it against the table, waiting.


What happens if your first coming-of-age stalled? How young is too young for a mid-life crisis? Can you do both at once? William is about to find out.

Extra Credit is a fresh, funny and intelligent romance novella, about longing, second chances and the feeling of finally coming home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erin Bilton-Hayes
• Release date: Jul 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201331313

Book preview

Chapter 1.

William unlocked the door, toed off his shoes, or rather, toed off one and trapped himself in the other, falling sideways into the wall and cursing. He knew better than to go drinking with Stacey. The last time they’d had an after-work drink he’d wound up... well. Getting trapped in his shoes was the least of his worries after how that night ended up. It was a small mercy that Stacey’s phone had died early on that evening so there was no incriminating evidence, although William still couldn’t look at a bottle of Midori without feeling deeply unwell. Stacey could put down a deceptive amount of liquor and took karaoke incredibly seriously, both things William tended to forget until he was faced with the evidence. He landed heavily on the couch, picking at the knot in his laces and frowning as it swam in and out of focus, then frowning more when he noticed the stack of exams sitting ominously in the middle of his coffee table. He needed a glass of water, he needed his bed, and most unhappily, he needed to set an alarm for a Saturday morning.

A few hours later William was woken by the trilling of his alarm and reached groggily from under the covers to snooze it. A few minutes later it chimed again, and he pulled his phone towards the pillow, switching off the alarm and scrolling through his notifications with one eye still closed. Over half of them were notifications from hook-up apps, so evidently drunk William had been pondering his romantic prospects and firing off what were presumably mortifying opening lines left, right, and center. He dismissed those notifications and toyed with, then decided against, the idea of deleting the app altogether. He lay in bed for a few more minutes, aimlessly scrolling through his phone and delaying having to look at the pile of grading that he knew would take up his entire afternoon. Love to live a life of the mind he muttered grimly to himself, pulling his dressing gown around himself and sloping off to the kitchen to make a coffee.

William had a very particular morning routine, and he was loathe to deviate from it. He picked up the pot of coffee, his phone and cigarettes in the other hand, a cup dangling precariously from one finger, opened his balcony door with his elbow and carefully placed everything down on a table he’d rescued from the curb a few months back. He scrolled back and forth between his social media, chain smoking and downing the coffee, blinking in the morning light. It wasn’t early, not really, but William wasn’t what you might call a morning person. It was mid-term break right now, and if he had his way he’d be sleeping until noon every day.

Unfortunately, it looked like he wouldn’t be getting his way, because there was a giant stack of exams calling his name with increasing urgency. He had courses he should be prepping for as well, which he had made a half-hearted gesture towards on Tuesday afternoon, but had since been guiltily procrastinating on as well. Now it was a Saturday, with a week to go until classes started back and he was staring down the barrel of an entire weekend of grading with no one to blame but himself. Last night had also been the first time he’d left the house in a few days, which he suspected he should probably find worrying. William was still getting used to living alone, after Gen moved out two months ago. The apartment had been left to him as the only grandchild, and he felt faintly guilty that he’d managed to skip the rental hell his friends seemed to be trapped in. Then again, friends who had more sense than to go to grad school were mostly working jobs which offered contracts of more than three months, so he figured it evened out.

William carried the now empty coffee pot back inside and steeled himself to face whatever was waiting in the pile of exams. His phone gave one final ominous ding and yet another dating app notification consisting only of winky emojis danced across his screen. He turned his phone facedown, threw his boxers into the laundry basket, and went to go and contemplate his life choices until the shower ran cold.

William groaned, leaning back in his chair. He’d been here for four hours but the pile of exams didn’t look any smaller. The paper he was marking now looked like it’d been written through a spirograph, the one before that had made some alarmingly inaccurate claims about the male gaze and the Handmaid’s Tale. Somewhere in the distressingly small ‘marked’ pile was one which tried to sound philosophical by questioning the nature of every word in the question (what is an author, really?). William was not fooled. He’d written enough padded out essays in his time to know a stalling tactic when he saw it. He was starting to second-guess his teaching skills, when he finally happened across an essay which was both legible and good. He’d mark this one then break for lunch, well, for coffee at any rate, he decided. If he didn’t get another few cups into himself soon the quality of the comments he was leaving was going to slide even further downhill. William stretched, feeling his shoulders click. Waiting for the jug to boil he flicked through his phone (no more emoji laden messages, thank god) and saw a post from Tyler and felt his stomach pull uncomfortably. Aside from the relentless phone checking, and his procrastination, an abiding, and unrequited, crush on Tyler was easily William’s worst and most self-destructive habit.

Long story, but Sydney didn’t work out, read the post I’m heading back home ASAP. Any leads on a flat gratefully accepted, I’m tidy and house trained.

Tyler had moved to Sydney to be with his girlfriend about eight months ago. They’d met while she was visiting, fallen hard and fast for each other, tried the long-distance thing and after less than a year of dating Tyler decided to follow her to Australia. Privately, William thought this was very stupid, but he would concede that his all-consuming crush on Tyler might have something to do with that. Other, less bitter, people described it as romantic or congratulated Tyler on finally getting out to see the world. William had seen a bit of it before he’d settled here and given the choice, he probably wouldn’t have selected Australia. Tyler’s posts over the last couple of months suggested he shared William’s aversion to the heat, and the spiders.

Driven by some unknown urge, William tabbed open a conversation with Tyler and thumbed out a message.

Hey Ty, I saw your post – I guess things with Jules didn’t work out? I’ve got a spare room these days if you get caught out and need somewhere to stay for a few weeks. Hope you’re holding up ok

He stared at the chat box, closed the tab and gently leaned forward until his head rested on the