“Not really,” he said. “But at least you had your grandpa. Are you still into fishing? You don’t talk about it.”
I laughed. “I hate fishing. Even as a kid. It was more about hanging out with him and listening to his stories.”
“What were his stories like?”
“Wow…” My eyes went wide, and a smile crept across my face. “Anything and everything. He was a logistics officer in the army and traveled to almost every U.S. base around the world. His job came with a lot of free time, and he spent it with the locals getting into trouble, and stupid ass adventures.”
Alec chuckled. “You make a lot more sense now. I bet he was even more awesome than you.”
I smiled, not at his compliment, but my memories. “He really was. He gave me the need to find myself, and others, through new experiences.” My eyes fluttered with a chuckle. “‘Stay the same to be the same,’ he used to say.”
“That doesn’t sound like the kind of guy to settle back where he was born?”
“He wasn’t. His mom got sick, and he left the military to care for her. Met my grandma, had my dad and uncles and aunts, and never left.” I stared at my plate, picturing his face, and the gentle rocking of the shitty little pontoon we used to fishon. “Told me once he never regretted it. He was glad he got to see the world, but wished he got to see it all.”
Alec grabbed my hand. My voice shook. I couldn’t remember holding his hand in a non-sexual context, and we’d done it twice that night.
“He was cool. It was fucking hard as shit when he passed. Right before I graduated high school, too. He helped me plan my backpacking trip through Europe. Getting on that flight after he was gone… fuck, man.”
He squeezed tighter. “I didn’t know that, but from the way you talk about it, you enjoyed the trip, right? I hope so. Sounds like he’d want you to.”
“Not at first. It was hard asfuckand I cried more than once. But then it like…” He squeezed my hand. “I don’t wanna say it opened my mind, but it did.”
“I bet, man. Yeah.”
I chuckled away the clog in my throat. “I changed so much on that trip, man. Got drunk at a bar for the first time ever. Had one-night stands with girls for the first time ever. Ate weird ass foods I’d never heard of that blew me the fuck away. It was great. At a certain point, I wasn’t grieving him anymore. I was living for him, you know?”
“Yeah, I do. I’m sure he would’ve loved that.”
I laughed. “More than loved. If your sales persona is from your parents, so much of my whole self is from my grandpa. It all kinda gelled after I got back from that trip. Add college and a few semesters abroad, and you have modern day Mason.”
“What do you mean it gelled when you got back?”
“Transferring schools changed my life more than anything.”
“How so?”
“So many reasons. Like how my school had a great exchange program, and I spent three semesters abroad. Eachtime I came back, I felt less tethered. The more I went, the more I wanted to go.”
“Where’d you go again?”
“Spain first, then Portugal, and a summer course in Taipei. That’s why I speak Spanish and broken Portuguese, and I can understand some spoken Mandarin.”
“I ever tell you it’s hot that you’re a polyglot.”
“No. Yes. Maybe.” I chuckled. “Speaking different languages made coming home worse.”
“Why? That’s so cool.”
“I don’t know. I barely came home as it was, and when I did, it was for a week, if that, at a time. Each time I did, I felt like I fit in less and less.”
Alec looked me up and down and squeezed my hand. “Well, I hope you know you fit in at FinCrest. And here… in your own apartment.” He laughed.
I laughed, too. “Thanks. I think you fit in here pretty well, too.”
Alec’s smile crinkled his eyes. “I have to thank your grandfather, your alma mater, and the good folks who hosted you on those trips. I happen to think modern day Mason is pretty freaking awesome.” He brought my hand to his lips to kiss my knuckles.
“Even if your parents were shitty, I’ll have to thank them, too, 'cause modern day Alec is also pretty freaking awesome,” I said, returning the gesture by kissing his hand.
