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Orlando cut the voicemail off.
He didn’t trust at all that his father wasn’t calling about money. Even if Cameron didn’t need money, what did it matter?
After years of not wanting Orlando around followed by years of only ever contacting Orlando when he needed money, now Orlando was supposed to forget all that because Cameron finally wanted to play happy family? Even if he could trust that’s what was really going on, why would hewantit?
He’d read some article recently about how a certain generation of men who neglected or even abandoned their families suddenly hit an age where they realized that they actually wanted the benefit of those families, even though they hadn’t been working to be a part of that family until that point. Maybe that’s what was going on with Cameron. All of the sudden his own mortality was looming and he wanted the benefit of having a son, even though he hadn’t acted as a father to said son for decades.
No, thank you.
Yeah, he felt a twinge of guilt at the idea, but he knew that blood didn’t make a family. Sperm didn’t make a man into a dad. No matter what society said, ‘family’ didn’t mean anything unless the people in that family made it mean something. He’d heard the whole ‘blood is thicker’ argument before, his dad had brought it up multiple times in fact.
So, Orlando had gone and looked it up. He’d been unsurprised to find how many people mangled the quote to mean something completely different than the full saying —The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.
In other words, it wasn’t the blood between family members that was thicker, it was the blood between those who made a covenant between them. A relationship. Trying to claim that a relationship existed by blood alone was utter bullshit and not at all what the full quote meant.
A fact he’d taken great relish in relaying to Cameron the next time the man had tried to use it.
But there was a family member that Orlando did have a covenant with. He called his mom as soon as he hung up on the voicemail. He didn’t have anything better to do while he was hanging around the airport, waiting for his flight to D.C.
“Hey honey!”
As always, there was a stark contrast in how his parents’ voices affected him. If Cameron’s voice had grated over every nerve, raising his hackles, and tensing all his muscles, his mom’s voice immediately soothed them all back down. He felt his shoulders drop, his jaw unclenched, and suddenly felt like he could breathe a little easier.
Call him a momma’s boy, but it was the truth.
“Hi mom.”
“Where are you?” It wasn’t a surprising question, she’d known he was leaving today though he hadn’t given her details the way he had Juliet, who had all his flight information.
“At the airport.” He glanced at his gate. “I should be boarding fairly soon.”
“Oh good, well I hope you have a good flight. You said you’ll be back for Christmas though?” Happiness filled her voice, though also a touch of caution, like she thought he might be calling to tell her that plans had changed. Which was a fair guess, it had happened in the past. Especially at times when he’d found out Juliet was going to be with her and Lawrence.
“Yeah, definitely,” he said firmly. He didn’t want to disappoint his mom, and even though Christmas was going to be a little weird with him and Juliet sneaking around, he wasn’t going to miss it.
Hell, the perverted part of him was even excited about it.
Which was fucked up, but he couldn’t deny the truth.
He was excited about beingwithhis family while he and Juliet pretended they weren’t together, all while knowing he was going to be fucking her later. It was like an extension of his fantasies about having sex with his girlfriend during a party. The anticipation, the risk of being caught, but with the stakes so much higher.
Granted, getting caught would be a fucking nightmare, but that’s what made it so exciting.
And they would just have to make sure they didn’t get caught.
“That’s wonderful!” His mother’s happiness was clear through the phone. “Lawrence and I are so excited to have both you and Juliet home for two holidays in a row. The last time that happened was years ago.”
Orlando coughed, to give himself a moment to regroup. Yeah, the last time had been years ago when he’d snuck into a closet to kiss Juliet without the rest of the family knowing. Even she hadn’t realized — not at first. And then he’d avoided her after that for years until Roulette night.
Because he’d realized what a bad fucking idea it was.
And now he’d finally given in.
“Right, well, it should be fun.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I was actually calling to see if Cameron had gotten in touch with you again.” Rather than answering right away, his mom went silent. “Mom?”
She sighed.
“Don’t be mad, honey, he did.”
