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“She’ll be moving in with us.”
Liv should have expected that, but the words sent a tingle of nerves though her. “Are you sure she’ll… be ok? With me, I mean?”
Liv liked Laura, but she had one fatal flaw – she was homophobic. She wasn’t passionately and outwardly bigoted like some people were, but she still held the private belief that being gay was wrong. In the early days of the relationship, Liv and Kane had fought about it a lot.
Liv hadn’t been able to believe that he’d date a homophobe, knowing that his daughter was gay. It had taken her some time to even agree to meet Laura, but when she had, she realized that Laura was far from the monster she had thought her to be.
“She’ll be fine, Liv. You know she’s trying. She can’t help it that she was brought up in a very conservative religious household. She likes you and she’s already made great progress toward correcting her beliefs. She’s just not quite there yet. We need to be patient with her.”
Liv knew that he was right about Laura changing; she had seen that change herself. However, Laura still held onto some unsavory beliefs, and that didn’t sit right with Liv. It had never come up between the two of them, but if they were living together…
“Stop worrying. I’ve made myself clear to Laura from the start. The moment she shows any form of bigoty toward you – even one negative comment – and we’re over. That still holds. I love her, but I won’t stand for my daughter being made uncomfortable about who she is, especially in her own home.”
That was reassuring to hear. Liv was still nervous, but in the end, she trusted her dad’s judgment. “Well, hopefully living with me will help convince her that I’m not really that different to anyone else other than in who I choose to love.”
“Exactly. She was brought up to believe that gay people are immoral, but living right alongside you will show her that your ethics aren’t far away from hers.”
“I’m sure we can make it work.” She had to, for her dad’s sake. He was deeply in love with Laura, and Liv wanted him to be happy. It had been so many long years since Liv’s beloved mom had died and they had both been through so much grief. He deserved some happiness finally and Laura did make him happy.
“There’s one other thing. Her daughter, Juliette, will be moving in with her.”
Oh.
Liv knew that Laura had a daughter, but she hadn’t met her before. This was something she couldn’t have expected. They had plenty of room in the house. Kane and Aimee had been planning on having more children when Aimee died, and they had never moved out of their luxurious and spacious four-bedroom home.
Space wasn’t the issue, though.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Bringing two people into the house… I don’t want what we have to change.”
Liv valued her dynamic with her father highly, and she would hate for someone else to come in and mess it up.
“Nothing is going to change. Juliette is great, you’ll see. I’m sure you’ll all get along just fine, and it’s not like we won’t get our one-on-one time anymore. We still work together, and we’ll still go out for lunch or dinner just the two of us sometimes.”
“Yes, but a lot more of our activities will be group ones with Juliette and Laura. I like Laura, but I’ve never even met Juliette.”
“True, but they don’t have to be. If you don’t like Juliette, you don’t have to spend time with her. You’re both adults. You can figure out how to live together without being friends. That being said, I think you’ll like her a lot.”
Her father did have good judgment – Liv had seen that many times first hand. For now, she would trust him in this. There was no point in going into this with a closed mind.
“Then I guess I’d better meet this Juliette.”
“You’ll meet her soon. If you’re on board, they’ll start moving in next week.”
“I’m on board. I’m happy to give this a chance… but Dad, if things don’t work out, I may want to get my own place.”
“I wouldn’t want to chase you out of your own home.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to live separately from your wife. I know you’re wanted to live together for a while, but have been holding off for my sake. I’m a big girl – I can handle it. I’ll try my hardest to make it work, but if it comes down to it, I’ll be the one who leaves. I’m not letting you sacrifice your happiness for my sake.”
“I don’t want you to have to sacrifice your happiness for me, either.”
“I won’t be. I love living with you, but it’s not like we wouldn’t see each other if I moved out. It would be a change, but I’m sure we could manage it.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Liv suspected that the success or failure of this venture would depend on how well she and Juliette got along. Laura knew better than to be bigoted toward Liv. Kane wasn’t bluffing when he said he’d leave her the moment she was.
Did Juliette hold her mother’s beliefs? Even if she didn’t, that didn’t mean she and Liv would get along. Juliette could be a perfectly lovely person, but that didn’t mean they were compatible to live together. Living with someone was intense, and it took some type of natural connection as well as determination to make it work in order to sustain long term.
