Page 4 of A LIttle Christmas: Samm
Bryan forces himself to eat another mouthful of food even though he isn’t hungry and then goes to get a beer from the fridge. He shouldn’t have one because it’s the middle of the week, but this has been a horrible day. He also gets Scooter a treat, tossing the beef-flavored biscuit into the living room.
There, at least someone is happy.
And yes, Scooter is a someone.
He cannot imagine calling Samuel into his office and telling him he’s fired.
“How would I find out if I can keep him or not? I don’t want to ask HR,” Bryan says.
“I can ask my HR?” Ryan offers. They’re in different states, but maybe it overlaps?
“Just pretend you don’t know,” Wendy shouts from the background. “He’s going to be our fourth for pickleball when we come see you for Christmas.”
“Hell,” Bryan says, because this is a disaster.
“We like him more than we ever liked Kathy,” she says. Kathy is his ex-wife. He likes Samuel more than he likes Kathy, so it isn’t a particularly surprising thing to say. “Maybe you should be his Daddy. That would be cute. A lot of people come out later in life,” she says.
Thatisa surprising thing to say. “I’m not even 40!” He won’t deign to respond to the rest of her statement.
“You could be a power top and a Daddy,” she says, with so much enthusiasm it’s disturbing. “You’d have to call him Sammy or something cute like that. Get him a stuffed animal.”
Wendy is a housewife who lives in Ohio. What does she know about gay male sexual practices? “I feel like I’ve just stepped into the Twilight Zone,” Bryan says.
“You mean Black Mirror. Your young boytoy won’t know about the Twilight Zone,” Ryan says. He hears Wendy laugh. Both of them are acting like this is totally normal.
“You’re probably a lot hotter than Ballbuster69. And richer. Besides, you have the space in that giant house to give him a room. You could have a playroom!” Wendy says.
The fork hovers halfway to Bryan’s open mouth.
What.
His mind is momentarily blank.
“I’m gonna hand you over to Wendy because this isn’t really my wheelhouse,” Ryan says.
“Hello? Is he a little or does he just want to call a man Daddy?” Wendy asks.
“What in God’s name are you talking about?” Bryan demands.
“Bryan, don’t be a prude.”
“I have no idea,” Bryan says, hoping his tone is repressive enough to end this conversation.
It isn’t.
“What did the email sayexactly?” Wendy asks.
“We shouldn’t be having this conversation.” And there is no way he is going to repeat it. Not just because it was outrageous, but because it would feel like a betrayal to Samuel.
More of a betrayal than this conversation already is
“Why not? I just ordered your brother two Tommy Bahama pineapple shirts.”
“What does that have to do with anything? They sound hideous. Are you going on vacation?”
She laughs. “You don’t know about pineapples?”
“Oh god. If it isn’t just a fruit, don’t tell me. I might have a heart attack.”
