“So what happened next?” I asked.
“Well,” Bruce continued, “I just watched him. I went to all the gay clubs he was preforming at and would sit there and have a few drinks trying to pluck up the courage to speak to him.”
“For a whole year!” JJ added loudly while patting Bruce on the arm. “It took him a whole year to finally speak to me.”
“And what did you say?” I asked.
Bruce laughed. “I overheard him complaining to someone that he had no idea how to do his taxes, so I offered to help.”
I burst out laughing, “After a year, your big pick-up was ‘can I help you do your taxes?’”
“It worked, though.” JJ leaned over and gave Bruce a kiss on the cheek.
“But you guys were meant to be together,” I said.
“And how do you know you and Ben aren’t meant to be together?” JJ looked across the table at me.
“What?”
“He seems to think so at least,” JJ said topping up our wine.
“He said that?”
JJ nodded. “That guy has itsooobad. And I don’t know . . . but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so messed up over a guy before either.”
He was right. I’d never been this messed up over anyone before. What was it about him? From our very first moment together in the car, it was as if something had happened between us that night that made it impossible to be apart. Maybe it had been the way he’d looked at me, as if he knew me? I’d felt so close to him in that moment, for some strange, inexplicable reason.
Love at first sight?I almost missed the whispered phrase as it raced through my head and then disappeared again.
“Aren’t you at least relieved that he wasn’t screwing someone in his apartment the other night, when he’d asked you to come over?” JJ asked. “At least he wasn’t that much of a bastard.”
“But he made me lie today.” My voice quivered. “I hate lying.”It reminded me of my father.
“You caught him off guard,” JJ offered. “What would you have done in that situation? What if it was him walking in on you, on some crazy run-of-the-mill Saturday night with your dad being dragged off by the police? You would be the first to pretend you didn’t know the guy and lie about who he was.”
“I . . . uh . . .” I couldn’t defend that. It was totally true.
“Let’s be honest here, Sera. How many people have you lied to about who your family are, all becauseyoudon’t want to be judged?” JJ wasn’t mincing his words, and if anyone else in the world had said something like that to me, I would have been offended. But how could I be offended if he was right. I’d told so many lies about who my parents were and where I was from. I’d even gone as far as telling the girls at my new school, the one I’d tried to make a fresh start at, that my dad was dead when he was actually spending time in jail.
“I’m kind of on JJ’s side here, I mean, how long did it take for you to tell Schnitzel about your family and why you were always having to rush off in the middle of the night?”
“His name was Manfred, not Schnitzel!” I looked over at the guys and rolled my eyes. My ex-boyfriend had been German which had automatically landed him with the name “Schnitzel.” “At least it’s not Weiner,” JJ had said when I’d complained about it.
“So what are you guys trying to say here? That I’m also a bad person because I lied about my family?”
“Hey!” Bruce held his hand up. “No one is a bad person here, least of all our Sera. Personally, I think Ben’s a nice guy who’s made some terrible mistakes that he’s genuinely sorry for. We’ve all made mistakes. I’m not saying you should forgive him and just go out with him but . . .” He shrugged. “Well, I can’t tell you what to do. We’ll support you in whatever you decide.”
I nodded slowly. “And everything at work? How can I go back there when everyone knows and hates me and thinks I’m slutting my way to the top?”
“They don’t hate you, they are all just jealous bitches.” JJ clicked his fingers.
“But they know. And they think I fucked that photographer too.”
“Dolce Delish.” JJ suddenly burst out laughing and Bruce quickly followed.
“Schnitzel and Dolce Delish . . . what’s with you and these European men?” Bruce and JJ were still laughing.
“I think the real question is what’s with you two naming the men in my life after foodstuffs?”
