“I know. That’s why we’re—why weweresuch good friends.”
“Yeah…we were.” She averted her eyes while playing with the necklace she wore. “Do you remember why we stopped being friends?”
“Honestly, I didn’t think you wanted anything to do with me after our fallout.”
“Well yeah, you were a major jerk,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes. “But if you had apologized, I would have accepted it. I mean, you were my best friend, Eli.” The old nickname slipped off her tongue like she never stopped calling him that.
“I’m sorry, really, I am. There was a lot going on back then that I should have been more open about and it caused me to be an asshole—not that that’s an excuse. But”—he reached across the table— “there isn’t a day where I didn’t beat myself up over losing you.”
She looked at him with gentle, cautious eyes and a faint smile that barely crinkled the corners of her green eyes. “You didn’t lose me.” She took his hand. “Just misplaced me.”
After dinner, Illias went back to his mom and Henry’s. He would have made an excuse not to, but he made the mistake of telling his mom that he switched shifts to have today off, instead of his usual off day, when he agreed to dinner. Unable to use work as a scapegoat, Illias sat in the living room, cursing the one time he was honest. He looked around the room, taking in everything that’d changed since he left. The walls were painted a soft gray instead of the burnt orange he grew up with, abstract art replaced family photos along the wall, a new coffee table sat on a plush rug in the center of the floor. He knew he couldn’t expect them to keep everything the same, but it didn’t change how odd it felt.
Henry sighed loudly, flipping the page in his newspaper. “Seems like you and Charity picked up right where you left off.”
Illias approached the sentence with the same hesitancy he’d approach a bear with a stick. “Yeah, it was, uh, it was good to see her again. I missed talking to her.”
“She missed you too,” his mom jumped in. “She’s not seeing anyone right now.”
“Good for her.” Illias prayed they could feel the bud of discomfort sprouting.
“I can make you two another reservation at the Opal,” Henry stated, boredom interlaced with his words as if he rather talk about anything else.
“I appreciate the offer, but we haven’t talked to each other in years. So I'd prefer if y’all didn’t try to set us up,” Illias said, setting his first ever boundary with them.
“We’re only trying to help. Taking her out again is the right thing to do, son.” Henry sat the newspaper to the side. “She’s a great girl. You’d be a fool to mess this up again.”
Illias reined back the gut instinct to snap that he wasn’thisson.
“What he means”—his mom cut her eyes at Henry—“is that we know that you two were really good friends at some point and you used to—”
“Date. Yeah, I know, but we haven’t talked in eight years. What makes you think we’d possibly want to jump straight into dating?”
“Oh, honey, we didn’t mean… We just want—”
“Look, I appreciated dinner, but I would like to build back my friendship with Charity on my own terms.”
His mom deflated a little but kept a docile smile. “I understand honey. But there’s no harm in putting the idea out there, right?”
“Can we please just drop it? I’m not interested in dating her, okay?” he bit out. Guilt bloomed in his chest the second his mom’s expression dropped and her eyes grew glossy.
“Are you interested in women at all?” Henry asked, voice sharp and accusing.
“Henry!” Illias’ mom scolded, voice small.
“It’s an honest question. He’s only ever brought one girl home, Lauren. That doesn’t seem odd to you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she dismissed. “That doesn’t mean anything. Right, hon?” Her tone was light, almost playful, despite the waver in it.
Illias’ chest hurt. “Mom, I—” He looked down at his hands, unable to say what sat at the tip of his tongue.
“See, I always knew something wasn’t right with him,” Henry said as if Illias inadvertently confirmed every negative thought Henry held.
“Excuse me?” Illias turned towards Henry.
He stood, straightening his spine like he did when Illias was a child and wanted tostrike the fear of God in him. “I can’t say I’m surprised you turned out this way. I always told Lauren she babied you too much.”
“What do you mean bythis way?” Illias stood. His ears and the back of his neck burned.
