I frown because I thought I was going to have one more day with him. “Okay.”
“I guess you can’t come with me?” he asks, and I hear the hope in his voice.
“I have class on Tuesday, remember?”
“I know,” he murmurs. “Can you come next weekend?” he asks, and I hear the desperation in his voice. “We are not taking a step back, Halle. We are together, and I’ll do anything to keep it that way.”
“I can probably come next weekend, but is that wise? For me to be out there?”
“I am not going longer than a week without you. So you can fly to Seattle, or I can come to you. I just know next week is going to be a shit show.”
“If you… did… agree to date someone publicly”—I swallow, already hating what I’m about to say—“what would that even entail? I mean… a couple of dates? Or do you have to be like…serious?” The thought of Wild doing any of this makes me sick, but I don’t want to be the cause of his company’s downfall. I know some people will have firm opinions regarding us, and those people could cost him millions of dollars, I would imagine.
“I’m not doing it, Halle. The answer is no.”
The sound of his phone buzzing interrupts our conversation, and when it illuminates the closet, I get a better look at his face. He looks irritated and anxious, and I know this means he’s going to need to fuck me really hard later. “Hey, Mom,” he answers, and I can hear her clearly on the other side.
“Where are you?”
“I had to take a call for work.” I can tell he’s still annoyed but trying not to take it out on Sara.
“Ah, okay, I noticed Halle is missing as well, so… I wasn’t sure…” She trails off, and again, I’m left feeling like I used to all those years ago whenever I came up.
“You weren’t sure of what, exactly? That she was probably with me after Aunt Emily drunkenly accosted her?” I wince, because this is absolutely what I didn’t want. “And Mike’s little dig about us making more pragmatic choices? What was that about?”
“Sebastian, honey, I think you’re overreacting. And whatever Emily said to her was probably just her being a little defensive of me.”
“Defensive for what? What did Halle do to you that was terrible? What did she do to you today? She came here to be here for you. Not to mention, did you ever think that maybe this situation might be difficult for her as well?”
I shake my head vehemently at that, and mouthno, I’m fine!Because I didn’t want Sara’s night to be made about me. I certainly didn’t want to give Sara, Emily, or anyone else anymore ammunition that “everything was about me.”
“Well, I apologize if that’s been the case. Maybe if she ever talked to me, she could have communicated this to me herself.”
“Because you always made it easy for her to talk to you, right?” he says with a little bit of bite to his voice, and I sigh in response. I think this is probably the angriest I’ve ever seen him with Sara over this.
“Wild,” I whisper. “Can we not do this?”
“Are you really making this about what went on when you two were kids?” she asks. I really hope she’s alone for this conversation and not arguing with her son about me in the middle of her engagement party.
“It’s about all of it, Mom. You never made it easy for either of us to be honest with you—”
“Because I was just trying to get you guys to see what you were doing was wrong?” She interrupts.
“Well, I guess we are still wrong then because it’s been nine years, and we’re still in the same place we’ve always been.”
My stomach drops because of all the ways Wild and I discussed telling Sara, out of anger, while we were hiding in a closet during her engagement party, was definitely not on that list. Silence on the other end makes me think she hung up, but after a few moments, she speaks up. “I’m not going back and forth with you about this right now. This is not the time or place.” Her voice is calm and even, and I wonder if she had an inkling about this all along.
“Did you hear what I—”
“I heard you, Sebastian. And as I said, we are not doing this now.”
“Fine,” he answers plainly. “It was not the plan to tell you tonight.”
“I see. Well, we are sitting down to dinner shortly, so you two should probably stop whatever you’re doing and come sit with everyone.”
“I had a work call,” he repeats.
“Right, of course,” she responds, but the sarcasm is loud, and then the beeps indicating that she actually ended the call come through the other line.
