AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sure enough, I’m on the phone with Riley the following weekend and I don’t know if I’m more horrified or amused about how the evening at my parents’ house went.
“Okay, tell me everything,” she says.
“Well, first of all he brought his son.”
“Oh, that doesn’t sound so bad.”
“His son was my age,” I say, and she immediately bursts into laughter.
“I’m serious, Riley. I didn’t know if I was dating the father or the son, or if something really creepy was going on and I was supposed to be dating both.” I sigh as I plop down onto my white sectional and pinch the bridge of my nose. “On the plus side they were both pretty nice. But it was just too weird. In my mom’sdefense I don’t think she was expecting it either. She didn’t seem to know which one was for me any more than I did. And my dad was just smiling at me the entire time like he was trying not to laugh.”
“Oh, Wes, you have to do something about this. Talk to your mom.”
“I can’t,” I say, resigned. “I’m weak.” I pick at my fluffy pink throw pillow as I pout. “I don’t want to hurt her feelings.”
“Well, by not risking hurting her feelings you are only hurting yourself. You’re not a bad son, you know. And you’re only a dick if you don’t care, which you do.”
“I know,” I grumble. “Stop speaking wisdom to me and let me be miserable and ignorant.”
“Wes, you know I just want what’s best for you.”
“I do know that,” I say. “Listen, I’ll see you at work in the morning. I gotta go and get some sleep.”
“Okay. Bye, sweetie.”
“Bye.”
Mom calls while I’m at work a week later and I let it go to voicemail. I work at a coffee shop, despite the fact that I could never work a day in my life and still be set, thanks to being a trust fund baby. My parents set them up for my siblings and me and we all got access to ours when we turned eighteen.
I’m not the type to sit around doing nothing all day, however, and I love coffee, and people, and working with my best friend, so this job is perfect for me. Besides, the income I get from the trust fund each month is sizable, and I enjoy using the salary from the coffee shop to make donations to my favorite LGBTQ+ charities. I am blessed with a very accepting and supportivefamily, but I know that’s not the case for a lot of queer people, and there’s a few organizations that mean a lot to me, some right here in Florida.
I listen to Mom’s voicemail when I’m on my lunch break and she sounds way too excited about yet another date she wants to set me up on. Oh. My. God. Kill. Me. Now. I’m banging my head on the table in the break room when Riley walks in and starts laughing.
“Your mom called, didn’t she?” she says, sitting down next to me.
I groan. “Yes. Fucking hell, Riley, this is nuts. She’s already got someone new she wants to set me up with. I can’t take it anymore.” I sound so fucking despondent. Riley reaches over and pats my hand.
“You know what you need to do,” she singsongs, pulling a sandwich out of her lunch bag. She takes a huge bite and jelly slides down her chin. She licks it off.
I bite my lip. I know she’s right. It’s the easiest solution to this whole mess, but I just can’t tell my mom that I hate her meddling and that her dates are awful. It would break her heart.
So instead, I call her back after work that day and tell her that I can’t come meet whoever she has lined up for me because I’m already seeing someone. It sounds like a great idea at the time. But the more questions she asks me the more shit I have to make up on the fly and now I’m panicking because I’ve really backed myself into a corner this time. Shit. How the hell am I going to get out of this one? I just told my mom that I’m dating someone that I haven’t even seen in nine years, and not only that but he’s an ex-boyfriend.Theex-boyfriend, the one who freaking stomped on my heart and threw it to the fucking wolves for a goddamn chew toy. And to top it all off, he used to be my best friend, before we started dating. And now she’s so excited about the fact that we’ve “gotten back together” that she wants me tobring him around for dinner anyway. So what the fuck do I do now? Admit that I’m a goddamn liar? Fucking fuck fuck fuck.
Way to go, Wesley. Way to go.
CHAPTER 2
WESLEY
Okay, I am seriously worried about my best friend. I’ve just told her what happened on the phone with my mom, and how I am totally screwed, and she’s smiling. Smiling. Like what the actual fuck?
“What is wrong with your face?” I frown at her as she sits, curled up on my couch with a mug of coffee in her hands. She’s wearing an oversized sweatshirt and leggings and has her hair up in a messy bun. Apparently, when I told her to haul ass over to my place so we could talk, this was the best she could do. And I was told it was my job to have coffee ready and waiting. That’s pretty much my way of putting out for Riley.
“So, you told her you had a boyfriend?” she reiterates, biting her lip.
“Yes,” I say, scowling at her.
“And she asked you to bring said boyfriend over for dinner so she could meet him?”
