“I’m going with Alex. I’ll see you in a few days, okay?”
He kissed me on the cheek and said his goodbyes to Joel and David before leaving us.
I was unable to move as Isaac left with his brother. That didn’t feel like a forever goodbye, did it? He said he’d see me in a few days. What did that mean? We were due to fly back in three days. Did he mean that he’d see me back here at the airport?
“Max.” I heard the worry in Joel’s voice. “What’s going on?”
“Can you take me to your apartment? I’ll explain everything when we get there.”
* * *
I didn’t say much in the car on the way to the apartment. I was hurt from seeing Isaac leave with Alex. As much as I’d insisted this was something I had to do on my own, now I didn’t know how I was going to do this without him.
“I’ll leave you to catch up while I go to the café,” David said. “I promised Filipe I’d let him decorate some cupcakes with me today.” David kissed Joel and then left us alone.
I hadn’t thought I was going to have to do this right after landing. Not that I was tired because the adrenaline alone was making me pace up and down Joel’s living room.
“Max, you’re worrying me. Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“I have something to tell you.” I sat down next to him and held his hand. “It may change our relationship forever and that scares the hell out of me. You’ve been my family for such a long time.”
I wiped the tears that ran down my face. Joel squeezed my hands but didn’t move. I was glad for that because if he hugged me, even for comfort, I was pretty sure I was going to break down and never tell him anything.
“Max, you’re not like a brother to me, you are a brother to me. You’ve been there for everything that was important in my life, the good and the bad. Whatever is it, I can assure you it will not change our relationship.”
I thought back to some of the moments we’d had together, the ones that weren’t tainted by lies. The time he’d told me that the guy he was crushing on had asked him out in high school. The time at university when I’d had a horrible flu and he’d made me stay in the dorm room for a week while he’d looked after me and had made sure I got all the lecture notes from my classmates.
“Joel, do you remember when you came out to your parents?”
“Of course.”
“They were so amazing, and they told me after that I never needed to come out to them. If I ever wanted to bring a girlfriend or boyfriend to join us for dinner, all I needed to do was ask. They had been so amazing that I decided to come out to my parents, too.”
“You never talked much about your parents.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised that he’d noticed.
“That’s because they kicked me out when I came out, and I haven’t seen them until recently.”
“What?” Joel sat back in shock, his eyes wide as he considered the ramifications of my statement.
“I was on the street that first night. It was the scariest night of my life, Joel, but then this guy took me to an abandoned building and gave me a safe place to stay.”
“Why—”
I put my hands up to interrupt the questions I knew he wanted to ask.
“This next bit is really tough for me, so I’m going to need you to just listen, okay?”
“Okay.” He breathed in. “Max, it won’t change anything.”
I nodded but couldn’t meet his eyes. There was no way to shorten the story so I told him everything, from living with Ryan, to the ways in which I used his house for comforts, and my time with James and Iris.
Joel sat back and looked out toward the balcony doors.
“And your parents?”
“I never saw them again. When Lucy turned up on my doorstep, it was like the past had caught up with me and I had to face everything. I saw them at the custody hearing. I realized then what I already knew but had forgotten. James was my dad; your parents were my parents. I was so lucky to have more role models in the last fifteen years than most people have in their lifetime, and now I have Lucy, too.
