I give her a half-hug, and she stiffens as she lays her hand flat on my back.
“I heard you wanted to see me?” I say.
She frowns. Her dress has a prim black color and cuffs at her wrists, and her dark eyeliner is stark against her pale skin.
“For the sake of the family, it’s best we all gather.”
“Elliot,” my father says, standing near the table. “Join us.”
At that, the rest of my family finally turns to take me in.
I look at them all. Refined taste, happy families, tired smiles. My grandfather’s face is pinched even more severely than my father’s, and my grandmother is weighed down with necklaces.
Anxiety churns in my stomachs when I take in my siblings. They all hated having a weird gay brother when we grew up, and not a one of them stood up for me to my parents as adults. But I still don’t want to lose them.
“Elliot,” my sister Lucinda says. “You did make it. And not even late.”
“Just exactly on time to eat,” my brother Jasper adds, completing the thinly veiled dig.
In an awkward pause, I almost flee.
My grandfather clears his throat. “Elliot Thaddeus,” he says. “It’s good to see you doing well.”
All eyes are on me, and I resist the urge to tug on my earring. “Doing splendidly, Grandfather Peterson,” I say loudly. “And delightful to see you, Grandmother Peterson.”
My grandmother nods once.
Holden chuckles under his breath next to me. “Splendidly?”
I turn my fake smile to my brother, but I can’t resist a little dig. “How’s life as a management consultant?” I ask.
“I’m a management consultant, Elliot,” Jasper corrects from the other side of me. Both of my older brothers are in blue suits, and they both have neatly trimmed brown beards.
I look between them. “Right sorry. Holden, you’re doing something with computers now, right?”
He gives Jasper a look like I’m unbelievable. Of course I know what he does for a living. He’s an entrepreneur in digital trade. He throws around money and claims credit for other people’s ideas.
But as long as they refuse to acknowledge my career, I’ll keep this act up, my own secret defiance.
“Quite a beard you’ve grown there, Elliot,” Jasper says. “Haven’t had time to trim it?”
I stroke my beard. “I like it this way. Handsome, don’t you think?”
“As long as you’re staying out of trouble,” Lucinda says, leaning across the table as the first courses are delivered and drinks filled. “Dad’s giving himself heart problems, he’s so stressed by this mess at the firm and the negative publicity.”
I accept a big glass of red wine, fortifying myself.
Jasper turns to scold my nephew, and Holden leans in closer.
“Tell me, though. What was the scariest part of the island? You must have been shitless, man.”
“Totally shitless,” I say and gulp from the wine.
“You have to fight any animals?”
“Only a few times,” I say, lying for my own entertainment. “For food.”
“That’s hardcore, Elliot. I didn’t know you had it in you. Like a snake?”
