Matthew smiled, and Laurence saw more than a little relief in his expression. He knew that expression—Matthew had inherited it from him. Laurence was a poor liar. Whatever Matthew was hiding was just beneath the surface, waiting to be discovered, and he was glad that Laurence hadn’t forced it to come tolight.
Theshuffle-thudof Matthew’s footsteps made it to the stairs, and a few moments later, Laurence heard the front door open, then close. For the first time in years, he couldn’t wait to leave his emptyhouse.
He turned back to the Single Dad conversation to find the chat inchaos.
xVerity: who’s arranging for theflowers?
TeenDad2: Not me. I’m covering the overly sentimental memorial speech and mourning over thegrave.
KnotMyProblem: I’ve got dibs on the catering. Fuck egg salad sandwiches and celery. We’re sending our boy off instyle.
xVerity: who’s paying for the casket? And the funeralexpenses?
KnotMyProblem: We can donate his body to science and then we don’t have to worry about any of that. Soundgood?
xVerity:done
TeenDad2: You guys are terrible. @Gwynning, I’ll have you know that if it were up to me, I’d make sure you had a nicefuneral.
Gwynning: What the hell is goingon?
KnotMyProblem: heLIVES!
TeenDad2: You stopped replying so we figured that the stress of tonight’s date had gotten to you and you’d gone to an earlygrave.
TeenDad2: Not that we want youdead
TeenDad2: But just fyi you might want to arrange for someone to follow through with flowers, because all of us have already called dibs on what we want to do for the funeral, and we have no floral arrangements at all. Maybe @LoveHarley would do it, but he hasn’t been online for a few days, so we might have a second funeral toplan.
KnotMyProblem: Only it’s normal for Harley not to appear for long stretches of time, then come crawling back to us when his latest exotic hookup doesn’t pan out. (No offense, Harley. Loveyou.)
TeenDad2: That’s notnice
KnotMyProblem: I said nooffense!
xVerity:Children.
Laurence pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose andlaughed.
Gwynning: I don’t know where Harley is these days, but Matthew came to see me, so I was afk talking tohim.
KnotMyProblem: Matthew wastalkingto you? Did someone actuallydie?
Gwynning: He’s going to a friend’s tonight and he wanted to let me know what was goingon.
TeenDad2: You’ve got a really good kiddo,Gwynn
KnotMyProblem: Did you let him take thecar?
Gwynning: No. I offered him a lift but he said he was going to take thebus.
Laurence considered sharing his apprehension about the strange things Matthew had said, but decided against it. When he was ready, he’d approach Laurence to talk about it. There was no point in sharing dead-end news with the guys. Some problems were better minimized—a failed test was bad, but it wasn’t exactly the end of the world. Matthew would pull out of it, and he’d make a recovery before the end of the schoolyear.
Gwynning: Anyway, I really should get going. I don’t want to belate.
xVerity: You’ll be fine. Remember to have fun. You’re a dad, but you’re also a person, and you deserve to treat yourself from time to time. You’re allowed to have sexualrelationships.
KnotMyProblem: Just don’t get too serious about it and settle down, or you won’t be a single dad anymore and we’ll have to kick you out of the group. We’d fall apart if you left. Don’t leave us, Gwynn! Can you imagine what it would be like if it was just me getting on TD’s nerves all daylong?
