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Brennon paced for a second. “Dad, I don’t get what you want me to say.”
James stood up. “Brennon, you’ve been around enough to know what I’m talking about. You used to give them rides growing up and stuff. Do you realize how this looks? Seriously? Do you realize how this looks? And the age difference...like fifteen, sixteen years?”
“Yes, and?” Brennon asked. He too was now getting a little frustrated. He hated feeling attacked, especially on something he felt strongly about. “Dad, I’m not going to stop seeing her. We’re two adults. In fact, sometimes I feel like she’s older than me.”
“Brennon, Brennon, Brennon,” James said, shaking his head. When he looked up, his eyes were a bit more protruding, letting his son know he was getting truly angry. “Our families are well known in this city for being a certain kind of people. Respected. Accomplished. Dignified. Are you having some sort of mid-life crisis or something, son? I mean, really? It’s Katy, son! Katy! Richard’s daughter! Melanie’s cousin. Remember when you took them to school? Huh? When you drove them to the fair? When Katy would spend the night over here and your mother would have little tea parties with them? Brennon?”
“Dad, look,” Brennon said, thinking he saw his father’s point. “It’s not like there was something going on between us back then. Really, I didn’t even look at Katy like a woman until a couple of years ago, maybe, if that.”
“How did it happen, Brennon?” Richard asked. “How long? Huh?”
Brennon thought about it for a moment then explained how he and Katy got on so well when everyone was last over to their house. He admitted to having been romantically involved with her for months.
“Well, where is she staying, Brennon?” James asked, feeling like he couldn’t get through to his son. “Will you tell me that? Apparently, she hasn’t been talking to her parents for the last couple of weeks.” The man cleared his throat, clearly about to bring up something sensitive. “Brennon, answer me honestly. Is Katy staying with you at your place?”
Brennon paused, hesitant to answer. Based on what he heard and now had seen of his and Katy’s families reacting to their love affair going public, her living with him probably wouldn’t make things any better. “Yes.”
James slammed his fist into the desk. “Brennon, this is foolish! Damn foolish, son!”
Brennon raised his voice, arguing with his father as he headed down the hallway. He made his way toward the front of the house. It’d been a long time since a woman captured this man’s heart the way Katy did. Politics, as they called it when Brennon comforted her that night she came to stay with him, weren’t enough to get in the way of that.
Brennon decided to take the longer, street route home when he left his father’s house. The man had been standing on the porch when he pulled off. Brennon looked up, into his eyes, then ahead. Since then, he’d been riding down tree-lined streets with the radio down at a low volume. He took in his surroundings; the neighborhood’s busyness. He vividly remembered he and Katy talking about keeping their romance a secret. While the secrecy surely, and obviously, helped things move along smoothly; however, naysayers wouldn’t be enough to ruin it. One thing was for sure: there was a certain new kind of sunshine in Brennon’s life. Even after a few tense minutes with his father, he looked forward to Katy hopefully being home when he pulled up at his apartment building.
Downtown faded in the background as Brennon crossed over the interstate. His phone vibrated in his pocket, prompting him to dig it out. It was Melanie calling. Anytime was as good as now to talk to her. “Hello?”
“Hey, Brennon, it’s me, Melanie. How are you?”
“I’m okay, Melanie,” Brennon said, anxious about what his little sister was about to say. “And yourself?”
“Doing well, Brennon,” Melanie said. “Doing well. Okay, so you probably know why I’m calling. I wanted to call you last week, but I had to get my thoughts together. As you probably know, I’ve been hearing things and I guess I need to hear them from you, maybe, or maybe you need to clear stuff up.”
Brennon swallowed. “Okay, so what is it that you want me to clear up for you?” Even for a man, he felt vulnerable.
“Brennon, is there really something going on between you and my cousin Katy?” Melanie asked.
“Yeah, we’re seeing one another, Melanie,” Brennon answered. “We’ve been seeing each other for a little while now. She’s actually staying with me, just so you know and you heard it from me.”
“Oh,” Melanie said, clearly a bit surprised. “I see.”
“Yeah,” Brennon said. “She’s not really feeling like staying at her parents’ right now so I offered her to come and stay with me. You haven’t talked to her?”
“No,” Melanie said then sighed. “I sent her a text message like last week, but I never got a response.”
Brennon nodded as he turned a corner. He now rolled a winding road crossing through a park. “Oh, okay. I’m surprised. So, Melanie, I just came from Dad. I’m sure you talked to him and already knew that. You’re calling me right after I left. So, guess I might as well hear it from you too, right? Katy’s parents hate it, as you probably could figure. Richard probably wants to kick my ass now, but oh well. And Dad is, as you already know, pretty pissed off about it.”
“Yeah, I can imagine,” Melanie said. “Well, what I actually wanted to say Brennon was that I support you all’s love.”
“Really?” Brennon asked. “You and Melanie grew up pretty close, Melanie. You don’t have to pretend to be okay with it if you’re not.”
“It’s not about if I’m okay with it or not, Brennon,” Melanie said. “It’s just not about that. I’m not going to shun you two. And, honestly, knowing Katy, you two could actually be good for each other honestly.”
Brennon chuckled. “Yeah, it seems that way. I will say that.”
Brennon talked to Melanie until he pulled up in the parking lot and into his spot. He smiled when saw Katy’s car. “Okay, well, I’ll tell her to text you back. She’s probably scared that you are upset or mad or something about it. I don’t know...she didn’t bring up that she got a text from you. But, thank you sister for supporting us.”
Melanie said her last few things, one of them being how she would have a talk with her, then hung up. Brennon grabbed his bag then headed upstairs. He listened intently when he stepped into the apartment. He noticed the silence, figuring that Katy was probably lying down. “Hey, it’s me!” Brennon announced. “You sleeping?”
“Hey!” Katy shouted, her voice a bit somber. “I just got here. In the bedroom.”
