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“Gay?”
I snorted. “Flamboyant. I’d say we’re equally gay, what with both of us wanting to have sex with men.”
She ignored my crass poking at her. “You thought I’d judge him, or that I wouldn’t like him because he’s like that? My hairdresser is fey, and I like him just fine.”
“It’s not that I didn’t think you’d like him, but I know you struggled in the past withmebeing gay. And I’m not… like that.”
“I know it’s asking a lot, but I’d like you to forgive me for the past.”
“I have. But he’s way more obvious about it all than I am, and I don’t want to ask him to change. I like him the way he is. If he came over here dressed in boy-drag—”
“Boy-drag?”
“What he calls it when he has to dress to meet society’s expectations. It’s not that he only dresses in femme clothes. He just usually adds at least a touch of something pretty.”
“Is he transsexual?”
“No. I think he’s somewhere in the middle most of the time. He likes to be a pretty boy. But if he came over here dressed in jeans and a button-up shirt…” I shook my head. “That’d be wrong for him.”
“I understand.” She squeezed my fingers again. “It’d be like asking him to lie about himself. I wouldn’t even be meeting Minty then, would I? I’d be meeting a figment.”
I let out a slow breath. “Yeah.”
She got it. I had underestimated her. Why? Sure, she’d reacted badly to me coming out at first, but to be fair she’d never even known gay people existed until she was in her twenties. She’d grown up so sheltered in her tiny town in Arkansas. And when she did find out about gay people, no one had told her that it wasn’t a terrible thing to be.
Or at least it hadn’t been. Until AIDS.
I shut that thought down. I wasn’t telling her about my diagnosis. Not now, hopefully not ever.
“I really want to meet this young man. I don’t care how he’s dressed or how he acts.”
I ducked my head. “All right.”
“Tell me something about him.”
“He’s amazing.”
She smiled. “He must be to have captured your heart. I know you dated that other man for a long time—Benji, right? You mentioned him a time or two, but it never seemed serious.”
“It wasn’t. Not like this anyway.” I cleared my throat. “I’m in love.”
Mom’s lips trembled, but she said nothing, just nodded her head.
“So, you’d really like to meet him?”
“Yes. Very much.”
“I don’t think Dad will be able to handle it. He’ll be an asshole, and Minty doesn’t deserve to be treated that way. I won’t stand for it either, not when he’s with me.”
I only ever wanted Minty to feel safe in my presence. Unless he was feeling debased and abused in a completely consensual context like we shared in my dungeon.
“I understand, of course you’d want to protect him.”
I nodded.
“But you don’t have to protect him fromme. I’ll love him. I promise you that.”
“You’ve never even met him. How can you promise love?”
