Not having a better idea, I follow them over to the table, Angela leaving a seat between her and her parents I’m more than certain is meant for me. Feeling horribly uncomfortable and more than positive this is meant as a setup, I plunk my ass in the seat.
My fingers itch to grab my phone and text Trevor, but I stave off the impulse, instead occupying myself with another sip of my champagne. The bubbles make me cough, and Angela offers me an understanding smile.
“Hate this stuff,” she says, her own champagne glass mostly full. “I wish they served beer at these things.”
That has a laugh tumbling from me. “I can’t stand beer either,” I admit.
“No? What’s your drink of choice?”
A hazelnut latte?“Um… I like cranberry as a mixer, I suppose.”
She nods. “That would certainly be better than this. Oh, I think that’s the salmon canapé your dad mentioned.”
Angela waves down the server, who brings a tray over for us to choose from. With small plates of food in front of us to pick at, Selena turns her regard my way.
“So, Isaac, do you have much free time as a student? Angela is participating in a showcase downtown the weekend after next. Perhaps you could attend her performance?”
Angela shoots me an apologetic smile.
I’m gearing up to politely decline what is very obviously an attempt put in motion by my father to match hisgayson with a respectable, well-off woman his age when my mother’s voice rings softly in my head.
Show up as the Isaac you are. Not the one he expects you to be.
My father refuses to see me. Maybe it’s time I change that.
My palms feel sweaty as I give Selena a smile I hope comes off as genuine. “That sounds really lovely, but I’d have to check with my boyfriend first to see if he’s available.”
Selena’s mouth pops into a small O. Reuben clears his throat, determinedly preoccupied with the canapé in his mouth. I don’t look back to see Angela’s reaction.
Selena recovers with an affability much too forced. “Your father didn’t mention you were seeing someone.”
“It’s new,” I offer, not for my dad’s benefit but for the Howards’.
Angela touches my arm lightly, no hint of disappointment on her face. “Is he here tonight?”
“Um, no,” I say, chuckling despite myself.If only.
“That’s too bad,” she says with a frown. “He had another engagement?”
For a second, I flounder. The truth is Trevor wouldn’t be welcome here. But I’m not about to disparage my father’s image in front of these people, no matter how much he’s hurt me with his casual dismissals and downright refusal to accept me as I am. My sexuality, my career choice, my lack of interest in the legacy he wishes to lay at my feet… He can’t accept any of it.
He won’t accept that I’m not the son he wants me to be.
And…fuck. I think I’m done accepting that treatment.
“He’s running late,” I find myself telling the Howards. “Excuse me. I should check on him.”
Angela gives my wrist a quick squeeze. “If you happen to come across a bar elsewhere in the hotel that serves beer, let me know?”
I let out a laugh. “Sure thing.”
My pulse is racing as I exit the room and take a turn at random down a hall. I turn another corner and then another until I’m standing in front of what looks like a custodial closet, no one else in sight.
Calling Trevor is the easy part. What I’m going to ask of him is much harder.
“Isaac?” he says in greeting, his voice deep and warm and so achingly perfect I sag with it. “Everything all right?”
“No,” I admit. “I’m, uh…at this big product launch for my dad’s company. And, uh…”
