Chapter 62
We’re back at Beluga Point the day after prom when he tells me he loves me, or at least apologizes for not saying it back to me after I said it, which feels like a step in the right direction.
“Hey,” Mr. Korgy says, turning my face toward him. “I just felt too guilty to say it. Afraid that saying it made me a bad guy.”
“You’re not a bad guy…” I say.
“On paper, yes, I am. On paper, I’m the worst kind of guy. And I didn’t want to face that. To accept it. But I’ve realized I’d rather be honest about being a bad guy than dishonest about being a good one.”
“What’s ‘on paper’ is just cold, hard facts with no context. No nuance. No subtlety,” I say. “I don’t know if what’s ‘on paper’ matters.”
He picks up a twig and tosses it toward the water. “Look, I’m not saying all this for you to defend me or reassure me. I’m saying it to own my actions. I’ve been lying long enough, it’s time I at least stop lying to myself. And you. And that starts with me telling you that I love you.”
He pulls me in for a hug, and I shut my eyes. There they are. The golden words. I let them pour over me, let them mean everything I’ve wanted them to mean. I breathe him in. Pine and musk and the faintest whiff of BO.
“I love you, too, Mr. Korgy.”