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“Well, if you’re me, you choose not to date until you get to college.”
“I don’t remember you dating a lot of people at school.”
“Is this why you asked to talk, to find out the dating rituals of small-town America?”
Merri looked embarrassed.
“No, that’s not what I wanted to talk about, either.”
“Then what?”
“Do you remember that girl I was dating freshman year?”
I groaned.
“I promise you, this is going somewhere.”
“Yes, I remember her. Sheryl or something. Wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, Sheryl. Did I ever tell you why we broke up?”
“Wasn’t it something about “not feeling it with her”?”
“Yeah. That’s what I said.”
“Was it not the truth?”
“No, it was true… Look, there’s a reason why I broke up with Sheryl and with Angie, and with Margo. There’s a reason why I broke up with all of the women I dated.”
“Why’s that?” I said unintentionally holding my breath.
“It was because I was interested in someone else at the time,” he said looking at me vulnerably. “And I don’t want to freak you out because time has passed. Things have changed.”
“Why did you break up with them, Merri?” I asked suddenly really needing to know.
He took a deep breath. “The reason I broke up with all of them was because I was having feelings for someone else. And I want you to know, it’s not the same now.”
“Who Merri?”
“You, Claude,” he said staring at me with his gentle grey eyes.
My heart pounded looking at him.
“Two burgers, medium,” Mike said drawing our attention.
“Thanks, Mike,” I told Titus’s soon to be stepfather.
“Yes, thank you,” Merri said looking away.
Neither of us looked at each other for a while. Readjusting our plates, Merri broke the silence.
“I’m gay. I wanted you to know that. I thought it was important that I put that out there.”
“How long have you known?” I asked unsure what else to say to my ex-best friend who just declared that he had had feelings for me.
“How long have I known that I’m attracted to guys? Or how long have I known that I wasn’t interested in women?”
I chuckled. “Both.”
