Page 73 of Romeo

My hands curled beneath the table.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Josie said.

“Don’t I?” Georgie asked. “How many women has he been with in the last year, Josie? How many has he brought to the clubhouse? How many⁠—”

“That’s enough.” Something inside me snapped.

“Excuse me?”

I shoved back from the table so fast my chair scraped across the floor. “You think I’m too stupid to know my own mind?”

Georgie blinked. “That’s not what I said⁠—”

“That’s exactly what you said. You think I’m a child who can’t make her own decisions.”

“Fiona, I’m just trying to protect you⁠—”

“I don’t need you to protect me from Romeo!”

The room went completely silent. Even Charlie stopped banging his spoon against the tray. For one ridiculous second, I almost laughed.

Then Claudia cleared her throat. “Georgie, maybe you should⁠—”

“Stay out of this, Claudia,” Georgie said, though some of the anger had gone out of his voice.

“No.” Claudia’s voice stayed firm. “Fiona’s an adult. She gets to make her own choices.”

“Thank you,” I said, looking at her. “But I’ve got this.”

And I did.

My hands were shaking. My heart was trying to beat its way out of my chest. But for once, I didn’t want someone else stepping between me and the problem.

I looked at Georgie.

“Let me ask you something, Georgie. If I came to you and said I thought I was born in the wrong body and I wanted to change my name to David, would you support me?”

He blinked. “What? Of course I would. I love you. Changing your gender wouldn’t change that.”

“Really?” I pressed. “You wouldn’t tell me I’m too young to know what I want? That I don’t understand my own body? That I need to wait until I’m older to make decisions about who I am?”

His jaw worked. “That’s different.”

“So my brain is developed enough to change my gender, my body if I choose to, but I’m too damn stupid to know what my heart feels?” My eyes burned, but I refused to look away. “I’m not a child, Georgie. I gave birth to a child.”

I looked toward Charlie. He stared back at me, wide-eyed, his spoon forgotten on the tray. My throat closed for a second.

“Yes, I was young and stupid and lacked the guidance that might have stopped that from happening.” My voice cracked anyway. “But I don’t regret my decision for a second. And if it meant the choice between a world with Charlie, or without him, I would do it all over again. Because that choice brought me here today, sitting at this table with my family. Family I thought had my back.”

The anger disappeared from Georgie’s face.

“Fiona, I didn’t mean⁠—”

“I told you,” I interrupted. “Romeo and I are friends. But if we decide to be more than friends, that is my choice. And I would hope you would support me the same way you would support any major decision I made about my life.”

I couldn’t stay there. Not with everyone watching me. Not with Charlie sitting three feet away. I turned and walked out of the kitchen before the tears could fall. They blurred my vision halfway up the stairs, but I made it to my bedroom and shut the door behind me before the first one slipped free.

My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.