I swallow, scolding myself to play this right. I’m trying to open up a new chapter with my family, and I’ve avoided crawling back to them for financial help since my rescue. It’s pointless to struggle only to immediately ruin my relationship by shooting my mouth off, but I need to stand up for myself, too.
And I cannot mess up Hank’s career. I’ll never forgive myself.
It’s time to defuse.
“I’m home, away from the rally,” I tell him. “There won’t be any more news. I promise.”
After a long pause, he sighs. “We need to talk. Your mother wants you to come to dinner with the family. Are you available?”
My gut says to run away, but in the spirit of facing my problems head-on and proactively, I agree.
“Fine.”
“Fine,” he repeats. “I’m done dealing with this. Understood?”
“It’s over,” I tell him and hang up.
Totally demoralized, I cry into a heart-shaped throw pillow. After drinking a lot of water and eating some of the rice and veggies from the fridge, I go back to the couch and fall asleep.
My phone rings, waking me hours later. It’s Hank, and I answer as I sit up.
“Hank.”
“I’m just home from work. How are you, Elliot?”
“Awful,” I confess, my thoughts waking through a haze. “I fucked up, Hank. I’ve tried to smooth things over with my dad the best I can, but I’m so sorry.”
“I’m just relieved you’re safe. I can’t believe that person chased you.”
“The mask got caught on my face, and I couldn’t breathe. I was starting to panic, but I didn’t mean to rip it off.” I chew onmy bottom lip. “I haven’t been sleeping enough or resting like I should,” I confess. “I’ve been super stressed because I can’t pay my bills, and I took too much on. Now I’ve ruined it all.”
“Elliot,” Hank says, “slow down. You didn’t ruin anything. You pushed yourself too hard and made a mistake. That’s all.”
“Are you mad at me?” I ask.
It takes Hank no time to answer. “Absolutely not. You were trying to follow through on your commitment and support your friends. I understand that. But I hate that you were under more stress than you indicated to me. I could have helped, Elliot. I want to be there for you.”
“It’s embarrassing. I’m working to be more responsible. But I’m a mess. You might as well know it now—I’m a total fucking mess.”
“You don’t have to impress me. And if we’re going to be together, I don’t want you hiding your problems like I’m going to leave you for making a mistake. I want the kind of relationship where we tell each other about our problems.” He clears his throat. “And you’re not a mess. You’re the guy who made the raft that saved us, even if it didn’t go quite according to plan. Got it?”
Gratitude flows through me. “Thank you for understanding, Hank. That’s the kind of relationship I want, too.”
“Your dad has plenty of other problems to occupy his attention. But he was clear with me today, Elliot, that he doesn’t want to hear another word about us or the island. We have to be careful.”
“After the rally, I’m ready to hide away from civilization again. Now I just hope my appearance hasn’t caused a distraction for the event.”
“The oil executive who was foolish enough to get in an argument with a drag queen has won the day’s viral moment, I believe. It seems the rally was a huge success.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “You’ll still come over for game night tomorrow?” I ask. “With appropriate subterfuge, of course.”
“I’m looking forward to it. Will you be able to take tonight off?”
“I think my body has already made that decision for me.”
I hold the phone, comforted just to know he’s on the other end.
“Thank you, Hank,” I tell him, but it’s three other words that whisper in the back of my mind.
