“So, what do you think they will write about Erica?” Teresa asked. Ahh, my little sister, she always enjoys any chance to stir up a little drama. I’m almost amazed she’s not the one who went into acting.
“Well, I’ll keep my opinions to myself, but I’ve seen the show, and it’s in good shape. Some of it depends on which critic writes the article. I know both critics fromThe Timeshave seen it, and those two have radically different tastes.”
“Okay, so let’s officially change topics,” I said. “It’s bad luck to talk about reviews before publication.” It wasn’t a true theater superstition, but it was one I made up on the spot.
“Oh, I know,” Teresa said with a mischievous glint in her eye. She got this look on her face that said, “I’m about to stir the pot.” She turned to look at me and asked, “Seeing anyone?”
“Teresa! You know better,” my mother chastised.
I blanched and stammered for a second. Without thinking, I said, “You’ll see my boyfriend tonight at the theater. He’s a schoolteacher and looks amazing in his tux.” As soon as the words had flown out of my mouth, I wished I could physically grab them and shove them back in. That little piece of news had gone over great with the family. Brice shot me a look that said, “What are you talking about?” And I sat there and smiled, thinking to myself,What the elf was I thinking?
As soon as lunch was over, I said I had errands to run and would see my family at the theater that night. I walked a couple of blocks with Brice. He never asked about the boyfriend issue, but I knew he wanted to. I didn’t have any errands to run. I wanted to go home, hide in my apartment and rest before that evening’s performance. And, of course, prepare myself mentally for the conversation I planned to have with Kirk.
I was running lines one last time when there was a knock at my door. I glanced at my watch and was surprised to see that it was already 3:00 p.m. I looked at Bootsy, who hadn’t stirred with the knock. I took my notebook and sat it on the coffee table next to the tea I was drinking. I reminded myself to breathe, stood, and walked to the door. I checked through the peephole to make sure it was Kirk.
I opened the door with a friendly, “Hey there.”
He tilted his head and furrowed his forehead before saying, “Hello.” His affect was flat.
I gestured for him to come inside. “Can I get you something? I made tea a bit ago, but I can make coffee, tea, hot cocoa…”
“I’m fine,” he said, lifting a water bottle he had in his right hand. I shut the door and followed him into the apartment. Instead of sitting on the couch, he sat down at the kitchen table in the same chair Johnny had been in last night.
Before joining him, I walked over to the coffee table, picked up my tea, brought it back into the kitchen area and sat down.
“What are we doing, Erika?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, a little taken aback by Kirk’s briskness.
“Sometimes, I think you like me. Then there are times when I feel that you’re completely unavailable. I want to know which one is right.”
“Okay, then,” I started. “First, for the record, Asher was drunk the other night, and I didn’t trust he’d get home on his own. We are not in any kind of relationship beyond a friendship. Sure, he’s my past, which is where I plan on keeping him. If you had asked me two months ago if I would ever be friends with Asher Alexander, I wouldn’t have said yes in a million years.”
“What changed?”
“He’s changed. He’s not the same man I dated three years ago.”
“So, you’re friends now?”
“I wouldn’t exactly say that we’re friends. In all honesty, I don’t know what we are. I know what we aren’t. Before he was my boyfriend, he was my best friend. And I won’t lie, I’ve missed my best friend. I found Jonny after Asher. Unlike Asher, Johnny knew who he was from the moment I met him, which was refreshing. Asher was a scared little gay boy who didn’t know how to come out. Johnny was out and proud.”
“Wait, so Asher’s full-on gay now?” Kirk asked.
“Yep. Took him a while to realize it, but he’s unambiguously gay now.”
“Oh…” Kirk said. By the look on his face, I could tell that he was reprocessing the scene from the other night with this new information. “Wow, from what I saw the other night, I thought…” he let the words hang in the air.
“It’s okay,” I said, reaching out one of my hands hesitantly to grasp one of Kirk’s. “You knew about my history with Asher, so seeing us like that…” I didn’t feel the need to finish the sentence. “If I hadn’t been so concerned with getting Asher to bed safely… I should have realized what it looked like.”
“I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. It’s like my father always used to say, ‘when you assume things, you make an ass out of you and me,’” Kirk said in a gruff voice.
“As for us,” I started. “I like you. It took me a while to realize that. And I won’t lie, I’m scared to death of dating a neighbor because good neighbors are so hard to find. I don’t want to ruin that.”
Kirk laughed. “I get it. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
“You are full of wisdom today,” I said with a smile.
“Yet another of my father’s axioms of life…he had many.”
