Page 49 of After Hours Lectures
Despite my own discomfort about being there, I wanted to put my brother at ease. I squeezed his shoulder and said, “We can leave anytime, okay?”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “I’m really glad you came with me.”
“You know I’d do anything for you.”
He nodded. “I know. Thank you.”
After a few more seconds, we both climbed out of the car and headed inside. My heart was pounding, so I took a couple of deep breaths in an effort to calm down. The place was busy since it was a Saturday morning, but it didn’t take long to spot Lisa sitting at a booth in the corner. Her eyes widened the moment she spotted us, and I wondered if it was because she hadn’t expected me to be there.
As we got closer to her table, it felt as though the walls were closing in on me as I imagined every way this meeting could go wrong.
“Hey,” Dylan mumbled as he slid into the seat opposite Lisa and made room for me to sit beside him.
Even though she hadn’t seen either of us in years, she made no effort to stand and hug us. Not that I would have reciprocated, but what kind of woman pushes to see her kids, and then doesn’t show any sort of excitement when they walk in?
“This is a surprise,” she said, glancing at me dismissively before returning her attention to my brother. “I didn’t know I was going to see both of my boys today.”
My boys …We weren’t her anything.
“Well, Tyler and I have some errands to run for our sister’s birthday after we’re done here, so I invited him along.”
“Your sister?” She looked confused. “Wait, do you mean Chase’s kid?”
Our dad and Chase’s wedding had gotten some news coverage since Chase was a former MLB player and current sports analyst. Since he’d played with her most recent ex-husband, Miguel, I assumed she had been aware of their marriage.
“Yes, our sister,” I reiterated.
Lisa rolled her eyes, but before I could call her out, our server came over and placed some silverware on the table. “Hi there. My name is Rochelle and I’ll be taking care of you this morning. What can I get you all to drink?”
We each ordered coffee and then scanned our menus. The silence was becoming uncomfortable, and Dylan must have thought so too, because he finally asked, “So why’d you want to get together?”
“Can’t a mother just want to see her son?” I huffed out a laugh at her use ofsoninstead ofsons, and she glared at me. “Why is that so hard to believe?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “What’s changed? You never made much of an effort to see us when we were kids.”
“Your father kept you from me,” she whisper-yelled.
With the worst possible timing, our server returned with our coffee. “Are you ready to order, or do you need a few more minutes?”
“Yeah, we need more time,” I replied and couldn’t help but think if the conversation continued down the path it was on, then Dylan and I probably wouldn’t stay long enough to eat.
When the waitress walked away, Dylan looked at Lisa and said, “You know that’s not true. We made the choice not to visit you.”
“Which I still don’t understand,” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Maybe because you and your new husband didn’t want to give us back after that one visit in Texas. You talked shit about Dad and Chase the entire time we were with you,” my brother retorted.
She waved him off. “Your dad made a bigger deal out of that whole incident.”
“Bullshit.” I was seething. “Miguel was a homophobic asshole and you went along with everything he said.”
“He just didn’t think Gage and Chase being together was the best environment for you boys. But after I came to visit you by myself, you guys still didn’t want to see me.”
My brother sat up straight. “Because you tried to make excuses for your husband and continued spouting the same shit as Miguel had. Did you really think we wanted to spend time listening to you insult the people we love?”
“Look, I’m not here to talk about your father. And I’m not going to apologize for thinking his lifestyle wasn’t a good influence on impressionable young boys.”
“His lifestyle? You really are clueless, aren’t you?” Dylan growled. “Gage Statler was and is a better parent than you could ever dream of being. It’s because of hisinfluencethat we didn’t end up fucked up from your toxic behavior.”
