Page 51 of Mine

“You’re so full of—”

“I hope you’re not still pining for Lan,” she cackled. “I mean, I really hope not, ’cause it looks like someone got past white bread, huh? Someone goes for the dark meat now.”

I jerked my jacket from Will’s hands, leaving them to have their bitchfest alone as I pulled it on, wadded up my dress shirt, and fisted it in one hand as I headed for the elevator. Once I was in the lobby, I went directly to the John Varvatos store I had seen earlier, walked in, and told the sales clerk I needed a shirt.

He eyed me coolly, and I groaned. I got a smile after a second and a sarcastic, “Oh yeah?”

I appreciated sarcasm in all its many forms, and when I threw up my hands in defeat, he put out his hand for my soggy, beer-soaked shirt.

“It’s marinated in Heineken,” he observed. “I think it’s done.”

“I agree.”

“Let’s do a lightweight crew sweater at this point, huh?”

I nodded, let him pick what I needed, paid him, put it on, and then headed back to the elevator to return to the nightclub and the party. Maybe if I stretched it, my elapsed turnaround time was twenty minutes. When I got back up to the nightclub, though, as soon as I walked back in, I had a hand grabbing hold of my bicep.

“Where were you?” Chris gasped, looking terrified.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking around instantly for Landry.

“He’s looking for you,” Chris told me. “He’s upset and he’s getting loud and scaring my folks.”

“Where is he?”

“Someone thought they saw you toward the back, I think that’s where he went.”

I made my way across the enormous rooftop, and as soon as the crowd shifted and parted, I saw William. He moved fast to reach me.

“Where were you? Landry’s freaking out!”

But I doubted that. I was already getting the impression from his friends and family that what was huge to them was sort of a minor irritation for me and mine. What they considered a freak-out in their polite, everyone-is-civil world might simply be Landry being annoyed. My family, our friends, when Landry had a snit, we all just dealt with it. But if when Landry was growing up, they had responded to him with panic instead of calm…. I was starting to get the idea of what had gone on. “Where is he?”

“Daria told him you were over by the cabanas, so he’s looking there.”

“Thanks,” I said, turning to leave.

“So,” he said, keeping pace with me. “I’m the one Landry was caught with all those years ago in the stable.”

“I know,” I grunted, looking for my boyfriend.

“Did he tell you?”

“Chris did, he did, so yeah, I’ve been informed.”

“I went to a reparative therapy camp and he left home.”

“Maybe he got the better end of the deal, huh?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing.”

He stopped me with a hand on my bicep, and I turned to face him.

“I love my wife and I love my children.”

“And I don’t doubt that, but you also cheat on your wife and your children,” I told him. “Right?”