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I could have been less of an asshole and caused a lot less upheaval for everyone involved if I’d had this conversation back in March when I knew I wanted to be with Drew, but I’d gotten hurt and angry and exacted a healthy portion of revenge. Time will tell whether I’ll regret what I’ve done, or if karma will have anything to say about it, but what’s done is done.
I did what I felt like I had to do for myself, for my friend, and for my unexpected soulmate—the love of my life. If I had it all to do over, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Petra looks like she knows something’s up, and she gives us all a brief hello before promptly disappearing into the kitchen. In the dining room, my father and mother sit in their usual seats.
Two places are set for me and Elodie. I pull out a chair first for my lovely wife, and then one for Drew before seating myself at the head, opposite my father.
My mother speaks first to Drew, breaking the heavy silence. “I feel like I recognize you from somewhere.”
Drew nods. “Yes, we’ve met.”
“I’m afraid I can’t recall… Tricia’s oldest?”
I roll my eyes hard. “Mom. Dad. This is Drew Riley. He’s my partner.”
Fuck that sounded awkward, and it only gets worse when my father asks, “Partner? Are you going into business?”
Lover? Boyfriend? Mate? Twin flame? “We’re actually living together. We sleep together. Sharing a bed. That kind of thing, you know. Partner, in the gayest sense of the word.”
My mother’s glass of orange juice freezes halfway to her mouth.
Drew now has their full attention. Elodie hides a laugh with a cough behind her napkin.
Drew rests a hand on the back of my neck, and I swear, he’s never looked better. He’s rested, calm—glowing, really. He told me this morning he was happy, and that it had nothing to do with the fact that I’d just sucked him off. I’d made him specify.
“You’re…gay?” This is from my mother, but it looks like she’s asking Drew.
“I’m bisexual,” he clarifies. “But I’m definitely in a relationship with your son. Have been for a while now.”
“Olivier!”
This is my show and tell, and I need to take over. I came here to tell them who I am, what they’ve meant to me, and what I’ve done. They can do with that what they will.
“With that out of the way, I have something I need to say to you both,” I begin. “You’ll read a lot about this in the book, but I used to think I had a great childhood. And maybe it was naïve of me, but I never thought I’d be able to do anything you wouldn’t forgive me for. But after the accident, when you gave me this ultimatum,” I gesture toward Elodie, “I started questioning things. Because it was just so clinical, wasn’t it? I’d made a mess, and you had to clean it up—by arranging away the rest of my life to suit your needs.”
“It was more than a mess, Olivier,” my father says sharply. “It was a scandal.”
“Whatever. I went viral, so what? What the fuck did you expect? I was basically drunk or high for eight straight years—Mom knows—and you’d been covering for me, welcoming me into your home like I was a part of your family.”
“I did give birth to you.”
“I can’t imagine you let yourself suffer through that for long,” I say. I’ve heard my birth story. My mother’s water broke, and she practically had an epidural in the parking lot. She often boasts to her friends she never felt a single contraction. “Dad, what did you do when I almost died?”
“When you—?” he glances at my mother. “You told him that?”
“It came up.”
“I—well, we hired another nurse, someone who could keep an eye on you throughout the night—we had your lungs evaluated for deficiencies—does that answer your question?”
“It does. Thank you. So, Drew just got out of the hospital a few days ago. He was depressed and was starting to have thoughts about harming himself. So we got him some help—like, I got him evaluated, too. But here’s what I didn’t do—what I can’t even imagine doing—” For this I look at my mother. “Detach myself and write him off as someone who might not make it. Do you know why?”
My mother stares back at me, stone-faced and vaguely hostile.
“I love him. When it’s hard, when it hurts, when it scares the shit out of me, I love him so much. I would do literally anything including steal your fucking money, write a book telling the world every shitty parenting decision you’ve ever made, and give up my inheritance to just have him.”
Drew is trying to keep it together, but his hand trembles on my back, and I’m not gonna lie, my voice broke one or two times during my little proclamation, too.
“For what it’s worth,” Elodie says, “I support Ollie and Drew. They’re good for each other. In a way, I’m grateful you and my dad shoved us together because I don’t think I would have thought much of Olivier if I’d never been forced to get to know him—well, the new version of him once he started falling for Drew. Offense absolutely intended, but he was a real prick before Drew came along, and I assume you’re both a little to blame for that, although this town probably had something to do with it, too.”
