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“What?” I ask, realizing a split second later that it would’ve been much better if I’d had the sense to keep my mouth shut.
“In love,” Kathleen spits out, her voice poisoned with bitter mockery. “Three partners. You havethree partners,Elliot, and not a single one of them could remember your birthday?”
His birthday.Elliot’s birthday?Oh, shit. Oh shit oh shit ohshit.
“We’ve been busy,” Elliot says tiredly.
“Oh, that means nothing!” Kathleen whirls around to face Oliver and Rhett. “You two have known him for fourteen years.Fourteen years!And you—”
“Mom, even I forgot.”
“—can’t even do the bare minimum? I knew you were both a mistake from the second I saw you. You were always distracting Elliot from his studies and getting him in trouble.”
“I graduated top of my class!With honors.”
“He had plans, you know. He was going to go to Princeton. Would’ve been valedictorian, too. But no, he stayed here so he could be with the two of you.”
“You think we don’t know that?” Rhett asks dryly.
“Are you telling me you knew, and you still let it happen?” Kathleen cries. “You ruined his future, and you have the audacity to call thatlove?”
“Kathleen,” Joe hisses. “Don’t do this. Not today.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” she snaps. Then she directs her fury toward me. “Andyou.Talk about audacity. You claim that you’re in love with my son, but you don’t even know when his birthday is. Who do you think you are?”
“I never—”
“Mom.” Elliot’s voice is low with a danger that would have the hair on the back of my neck standing up if it was directed toward me.
Kathleen, however, doesn’t heed his warning. “He deserves better. He settled with Rhett and Oliver, whether any of you believe that or not. And he’s obviously settling with you if you haven’t even cared enough to ask when his birthday is.”
“Mom.”
“Oh, I’m not done, Elliot. This conversation has been a long time coming. I’ve avoided it for over a decade, and I’m done.Done.”She turns her glare to Rhett. “Senior year, I let you into my home. I gave you a place to stay when your own father rejected you. But over the past decade, I’ve begun to understand his position. You don’t have an ounce of gratitude in you. Maybe he was right to kick—”
“Enough,” Elliot shouts, making me jump. Every muscle in his body is tight, and his tone holds a level of fury I’ve only heard from him once before. “Don’t you ever talk to Rhett like that. Don’t you ever talk toanyof them like that.”
“Darling—”
“No! You’re a fool if you think I settled for them, and you’re delusional if you think they stole me from you. They’re my world. Myeverything. We can talk about the reasons why I distanced myself from you another day, but it wasn’t them. It never could be. I couldn’t live without them. If something were to happen to any of them, I’d—” His voice falters. “I wouldn’t . . .”
“Ell,” Oliver says softly. He starts to move forward, but Kathleen cuts him off.
“Oh, Elliot.” She throws her arms around him, ignoring the way he flinches. “To be young and infatuated. I remember how it feels. Your emotions take over, and it clouds your judgment.”
“No.” He moves back, placing his hands on Kathleen’s shoulders to put some distance between them. “My judgment isn’t clouded. I don’t know what else I have to say or do to get you to understand that I’m happy with them. They’re the loves of my life.”
“Darling, I know that’s how you mayfeel,but—”
Elliot shakes his head. “Dad, c’mon, help me out here.”
Joe sighs. “Don’t you think maybe there’s a little truth to what your mother is saying?”
“Don’t you think you’re overstepping?” Rhett counters with a chilling glare. “Elliot is a grown-ass adult. You said so yourself mere minutes ago. He’s fully capable of thinking logically—the most capable out of any of us.”
“That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t listen to what his parents have to say,” Kathleen replies. “We know him best, after all.”
“Oh, I doubt that,” Rhett says with a smug expression that I’m pretty sure he’s only using to piss Kathleen off.
