Page 35 of Love
There just wasn’t a better way to say anyof it when we’d never talked about that kind of stuff. My parents wereopen-minded, and I knew from the very beginning when I’d first started comingout that there wouldn’t be a big explosion from them, but…but the silence wassometimes just as unnerving because it left too many unanswered questions.
Was I supposed to come to them withquestions?
Could I tell them about who I was dating?
Would they be horrified to learn about myrelationship with Dare?
Would they be shocked that I was dating twomen?
We’d never even joked about that kind ofstuff. When I was younger and had questions about what song lyrics meant orwhat the dirty joke some kid had told at school meant, I’d gone to theinternet—not them. Maybe if we’d built up to these things slowly, but now thatI was an adult it felt even weirder to bring it up.
Just surprising them when I was on my fifthanniversary with Dare and Scott didn’t seem like a good idea, though. Thatpushed my thoughts in an entirely different direction. Would three people havean anniversary date? When would we celebrate it? The first night we met? Someother date like the first time we made love together?
I pictured explaining to my mother thatwe’d picked our anniversary date to be a reminder of the first time I’d madelove to Scott. Yeah, that would go over well. Also, picking out presents forthat would be hard. Would we go sexy and fun or serious?
Could I get them both nice watches tocelebrate the anniversary of the first time I made love to Dare or Scott?
Probably not.
Yeah, we’d have to pick a different date.
“Ah!” I’d gotten so lost in thought Ialmost jumped out of my skin when my dad came up behind me and put his hand onmy shoulder.
He chuckled as he came around the chair andsat down on the couch, but I could see the concern on his face. “You okay?”
That was a loaded question.
“Yeah.” Honest answer…just not the wholetruth.
I was very much okay. I had two greatboyfriends, and I was finally exploring who I really was. I couldn’t have beenbetter. There was just no way to explain all that to them.
“You’ve been…” He glanced awkwardly aroundthe room. “A bit jumpy tonight.”
Shit.
“I’m good, just distracted.” Another honestanswer.
Dad finally focused on the collage ofpictures on the wall above the fireplace. Evidently, my senior picture wasabsolutely fascinating. He took a breath then started again, still just asawkward as he’d been when he sat down. “You were this…stressed back in school whenyou told us about…you know…liking guys.”
Dear god, was this the updated version ofthe sex talk?
I still had the scars from thatconversation the first time.
“No stress.” Not that kind, at least.
I’d nearly made myself sick working up thenerve to come out. Nothing could be as bad as that. Just the memory of howstressed I’d been put everything else into perspective. “Just a lot of stuffgoing on. I’m a little distracted.”
Dad nodded and finally glanced over at me.“Work still giving you problems? That coworker still drunk?”
He looked almost hopeful, so I hated toburst his bubble. “He’s still drunk, but I’m trying to decide what I’m going todo from here. Scott keeps saying I need to become a broker, but I can’t seemyself doing that.”
Dad couldn’t seem to decide if he wanted tokeep pressing the discussion or not. He’d looked so relieved that my issuescould be about work that I didn’t really want to upset him. I also wasn’t sureif I wanted to talk about it anyway.
It wasn’t like we’d come to a decisionabout what to tell people yet.
But my parents weren’t exactly just people,were they?
I was starting to think I should have putoff dinner another week. When Mom had called the other day, she’d beenconvinced something had to be wrong since it’d been so long since I’d comeover. She’d asked me about my health and all kinds of other weird things butnot about dating.
