Page 66 of Curious
But Shelby, sweetheart that he is, comes in from the kitchen with a smile and opens one for himself, too, sitting next to me on the couch.
“Hey,” Charlie says. “A bunch of us from the office are going to go skiing over Thanksgiving, since there’s early snow. Noah and August, Sam and Jules, Alden and Danny, Reyna, Demi. Want to go? Both of you, of course.”
I glance down at my ankle. “If I’m careful, I think I can handle a bunny slope. Do you ski, Shelby?”
Shelby shrugs. “Um, I have. I’m not that great at it. But I like the warm drinks afterward.”
“I’ll send you the info where we’re all staying,” Charlie says.
“Do you want to go?” Shelby and I ask each other at the same time.
We both laugh. “Sure,” we say at the same time and laugh again.
Charlie shakes his head. “You two are something else. The plan is to go to Sam and Jules’s beach house for Blackest Friday, then skiing for the weekend.”
“Blackest Friday?” I ask.
He shrugs. “It’s a thing that he came up with this year, apparently, and Sam said we could all come. Guess that’s the advantage of living in California—you can go from the snow to the beach in a day. Or vice versa.”
Shelby and I exchange looks. “Okay, we’re in. What do we have to do?” he says.
“Just bring something from the past that you want to burn.”
I frown. “What the hell?”
“Jules said that, instead of supporting the capitalistic economy for Black Friday, they’re going to have Blackest Friday. He’s going to play death metal music, have a bonfire, and burn all the things from our past that we want to let go of.”
Shelby looks impressed. “Okay. We can do that. What do you think, Cam? Want to get rid of something from your past?”
“Bring something symbolic that I want to burn?” I ask.
“Yeah, I dunno. Crap from Leah. Your medical bills. Shit like that.”
“I’m in. What are you going to burn?” I ask Charlie.
“A motion for summary judgment I lost.”
That makes me roll my eyes. “Of course. What about you, Shelby?”
“I’ll have to think about it,” he says, sipping his beer.
I can think of a few things that would be appropriate for him to let go of. But that’s for him to decide. Charlie still makes no move to leave, and I have a random thought about burninghimin effigy.
“What have you been working on lately?” Charlie says. “Any new projects we should film?”
“We’re finally getting to the kitchen,” I say, deciding I should join the crowd and opening a beer for myself.
Even though what I really want is to get my husband alone and … get him naked. I don’t feel like I can share that with Charlie, though.
Why am I so hesitant to come out to my brother? He came out to me.
He later told me he’d nearly hurled before he said the words, too. And now I understand how he felt, because even though I know he loves me and he’ll support me, it’ll still change our relationship. Change … is the unknown. Which is scary.
Well, that’s something. Here I am having a normal conversation with my brother and my husband, and inside, I’m having an existential crisis.
“That’s cool,” Charlie says. “Want to work up a schedule so we can film? I can make sure to come by.”
“I love watching you two work together,” Shelby says warmly.
