“Say it. Whatever it is, just say it.” I grab his hand and squeeze it tight. “Dad won’t ever stop loving you, buddy. I promise.”
He pauses, building up his courage before telling me, “It’s why I went quiet on you while I was at school. Being bi is something you and I bonded over, and I was scared I’d end up losing you if you knew I was lying. I’m gay, Dad. I’m not bi, I’m just gay.”
“Why the hell would I care if you’re gay?”
“Because you’re not,” he spits out. “Being bisexual was something we finally had in common, even if it was a lie on my part. You were so proud of me after I came out, and I didn’t want you to stop being—”
I silence my boy with a crushing hug, pulling him right against me. “Never. You fuckin’ hear me, Jay?” I pull away and cup both his cheeks. “You’re mine. You’re part of me. Even if you don’t like pussy, that don’t change the fact that we’ve still got our shared love of cock in common.”
I think I may have spent too much time around the unhinged twinks living here, because I never would’ve talked to my son this way in Texas. It ain’t that we never talked, because we did. We talked about what makes a man a man. We talked about our favorite football teams, even if his favorite changed depending on who was playing that day, noncommittally. We talked about everything, but never like this, about pussy or cock. I don’t know this new version of Jaden sitting in front of me, but I love him just as much as I ever did.
“You really aren’t disappointed?”
I shake my head. “Never. About anything. Ever. You could blow the goddamn world up with a nuke, and I’d still love you.” He’s got his cheek between his teeth, chewing. He used to do it as a kid anytime he did something stupid. I can’t have that, because I can’t stand to see him twisting himself into knots. “I was damn proud of my damn queer son when I thought you were bi. Now I’m damn proud of my damn gay son.”
He holds me a little bit longer before breaking the hug. “Thanks, Dad”
“You're welcome, buddy.” Kicking back on the sofa, I look at my wife, then back at my son. “So, how do we fix this? Do you need money, Faith? If you need a loan, I can get you some cash. I could help you pay off the house.”
“You can’t, actually.” Faith interrupts, swallowing nervously. “Tell him the rest, Jaden.”
Jaden’s cheeks darken as he stares at me. “Okay, well you can't be mad.”
“We'll see.”
He groans. “Ugh, fine. But if you start screaming at me, I'll cry. I'll cry and heave and holler until you feel like a monster. I’ll sob so loud you’ll forget why you were even mad.”
“Noted.”
He breathes shakily. “The thing is, I kind of accidentally burned our house to the ground.”
My eyes bulge.
“Accidentally,” Faith says, voice dripping with disdain. “Idiotically, more like.”
“How is that helpful, Mother?”
“About as helpful as putting a can of oven cleaner in the microwave.”
“Oh, Goddess on high, I am not having this argument again. I've explained myself seventy-two times. You asked me to clean the microwave. I did! I put the stuff on the tray, and I started it. You explained nothing before you left, so I had to figure out how to do it on my own.”
Faith’s eyes narrow. “Have you ever heard of water and a washcloth?”
He shrugs like it’s no big deal. “Well, the microwave isn’t dirty anymore, so you can cry all you want, but I did what you asked.”
“The microwave doesn’t even exist anymore,” she spits out quickly, the words coming like punctuated bullets. “It’s in a landfill, along with the remnants of our house.”
Through it all, my mouth is hanging halfway open, and I’m struggling to make sense of the madness. Jaden points a finger at me.
“See? He agrees with me. He's practically in awe of my resourcefulness.” He pats my knee. “While you're mesmerized, I guess I could go ahead and rip the rest of the bandaid off.” He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “The house burned down, the insurance refused to cover us, because Mom let it lapse, I dropped out of college because I hate it more than I hate anything, Mom’s going to live with a Nigerian prince she’s been emailing for months, and I need somewhere to live.” My eyebrows shoot up in surprise, and Jaden pokes his bottom lip out in a pout. “Pretty, pretty please with sugar on top?”
I look over at Faith. “Nigerian prince?”
She rolls her eyes. “His name is Nigel Prince. We’ve been internet dating for months. I’m going to throw caution to the wind and live a little before I die.”
“Yeah, well, you’ll probably die a whole lot sooner if you move in with a complete stranger,” Jaden says.
“We’ve spent every weekend together for four months. It’s not as if he’s some internet pervert I’ve never met in my life.” She turns back to me. “He’s a good guy. You’ll like him.”
