Chapter -22-
Surprisingly, Denz doesn’t spend two weeks waffling over what his next move is.
It only takes one Will Thacker Night with Jamie.
They demolish two large pizzas while watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall .
When Jason Segel’s character starts working on his Dracula puppet opera, Denz has an epiphany.
After, in a fit of adrenaline and insomnia, finally cleaning his room and discovering a cranberry-stained T-shirt under his bed, Denz knows for sure.
It’s Braylon’s T-shirt. The one he wore while cooking French toast grilled cheeses with Denz and Mikah.
A soft, gray reminder of a man who left behind the job he was expected to work for a place he loves.
Somewhere he makes a difference. A position he would’ve never gone after had it not been for Denz.
Well, the Denz that Braylon saw, anyway. Someone who was unabashedly himself. Who made Braylon believe he could be that way too.
He sits with the T-shirt in his lap. With the edges of a white business card digging into his fingers. With his dad’s words in his head. With hundreds of social media messages he’s collected over the years from young queer followers thanking or praising him in his phone.
He sits with a sudden lightness in his chest, like he knows what he’s meant to do.
Like he’s always known where he belonged, but never thought it was good enough for a Carter.
But it doesn’t have to be. He’s never had to meet anyone’s expectations. Just his own.
After hours of research, Denz composes an email.
He does something he’s never done before: he takes a leap, knowing there might not be anyone there to catch him.
the Carter Family Group Chat
Today 9:09 A.M.
Aunt Cheryl Carter
EMERGENCY! Whos this man holding hands with Kamila THE NEW CEO and Mikah at the park?? ITS ALL OVER TFW!
Nic Carter I FACKING KNEW IT! *FUCKING! damn autocorrect
Uncle Orlando Rivera That is so fetch.
Nic Carter Uncle O stop with the white girl teen comedy references!
Aunt Cheryl Carter Leena did you know about this?
Leena Carter That’s my daughter’s boyfriend. He’s wonderful. She loves him just like I love all my children, including the ones with potty mouths.
Nic Carter lol srry mom
Nothing’s different about 24 Carter Gold’s offices.
There’s constant chatter about upcoming events.
Interns running around with frantic energy.
Connor, on his third cup of coffee, walking into a wall while texting.
The only change is Denz, stepping off the elevator in a check-sleeve Burberry T-shirt, dark denim jeans, and running shoes.
For once, he’s not here to work.
But he has a checklist and plans.
His first stop: Eric’s office with a lunch invite.
“ Lunch? With the new boss’s foot so far up my ass about the mayor’s birthday party, I can taste her Jimmy Choos every time I swallow?” Eric asks flatly. He cleans his glasses before adding, “Does noon work for you?”
Denz laughs, accepting Eric’s calendar invite when it pops up.
His next stop: an office he’s seen too many times since the age of six. Before he can knock, the door swings open, and someone almost crashes into him.
“Whoa, cuz!”
Jordan blinks owlishly.
Denz flexes an eyebrow. They haven’t talked since the retirement party, a recurring trend with everyone important in his life. “So… what’s new?”
And this one question is what undoes Jordan.
“Nothing! Nope. There’s no me and Jamie.” Jordan cringes, then lowers his voice. “I mean, we’re friends . We hang out. We do stuff—but not, like, that stuff . Because… I’m still figuring things out?”
“Okay. Stop.”
Denz isn’t here to press Jordan on the topic. Not like Auntie Cheryl would.
He sees a tiny bit of himself in Jordan. Being the only queer person in their family has always been… hard . Constantly feeling like the odd one out. A feeling he knows no other Carter will ever understand or experience. But that doesn’t give him any right to ask Jordan to come out.
He thinks about College Braylon, who wasn’t out when they met. The thousands of teens and adults still learning themselves, at their own pace. The ones who don’t have a label yet. The ones who don’t want a label. All the ones who need time and space and safety first.
Jordan deserves that same respect.
“If you ever want to talk, I’m here, okay?” Denz offers. When Jordan nods, he adds, “And if you don’t want to talk, that’s cool too.”
Jordan releases a slow, relieved breath.
“Thanks, cuz.”
Denz pats him on the shoulder, then slips into the office.
It’s weird, seeing Kami behind the large desk opposite the lavender love seat where Audrey Hudson cried.
Where Denz laid the foundation for his dreams at 24 Carter Gold.
The ghosts of Kenneth Carter still linger here.
From the bookcase stuffed with awards to the ebony leather chair Kami’s sitting on.
But there are pieces of her filling up the spaces too: a giant whiteboard with Pinterest ideas.
Mikah’s Spider-Man LEGOs on the coffee table.
A glass bowl loaded with green M&M’s on the desk’s corner.
It’s not weird, he thinks. It’s right .
She belongs on that side of the desk, living her dream. And he belongs here, on the opposite side, figuring out what his is.
“Out of curiosity,” he says, flopping onto the love seat, “where’d this energy come from?”
He shows off his phone screen. The group chat. Her last message reads: His name’s Suraj. I love him. That’s all you need to know.
Kami rests both elbows on the desk, fingers forming a bridge for her chin to sit on. “Someone said I was too scared to share my personal life with my family,” she says, “so I did something about it.”
“I didn’t mean let the whole world in.”
She shrugs. “Go big or go home, right?”
Denz’s hands fidget in his lap. “Sorry. I was an ass.”
Kami considers her aquamarine nails. They match her silk bow blouse. “Is that it?”
“Do you want the ten-minute Taylor version?” Denz grins. “Monologues are Dad’s thing.”
A beat.
“God, Denz.” Her eyes are shiny when she glares at him. “For months, I thought the aunties were right. That I couldn’t handle this. Balancing work and Mikah. And then you— my rock, who always drags me kicking and screaming to be great—confirmed their words.”
Denz’s stomach knots. “I’m really sor—”
“Don’t be.” She exhales. “What you said was bullshit, don’t get me wrong, but it made me think. So, I called Mom.”
“You narced on me?”
“We talked about family stuff . Love stuff too.”
“Did she talk about her and Dad?”
Kami nods, frowning. “I know everyone thinks I’m just like him—”
“Well, you are both Leos.”
She chucks an M&M at him. “As much as we’re alike, I don’t brush things off like he does. And I’m definitely not tough like Mom.”
Denz holds up a small space between his thumb and index finger. “A tiny bit.”
“I talked to her about all the pressure,” Kami explains. “Trying to manage my career while being a mom and girlfriend.”
“So,” Denz says, “pretty much everything?”
“And you know what? She said I’m right.” Kami laughs, a breathy noise like she’s still surprised. “That I’m allowed to make mistakes. That her and Dad made a ton over the years. But I’m not him. I’ll never let a company mean more to me than Mikah or anyone else in my life.”
A soft grin teases Denz’s lips.
“We’re not failures if we do things differently than they did,” she tells him. “We can choose different paths. A different way of getting there.”
Denz grabs a handful of M&M’s. He lets the quiet linger for a second. “Mikah likes Suraj,” he says, chewing. “How’d that happen?”
“I needed a babysitter the day of the flood. No Mom, no Nic, no you.”
“And you asked him?”
“I was so nervous. I wanted them to eventually meet. Just—”
“Not like that?”
Kami nods. “Suraj wouldn’t shut up about how long he’d been looking forward to it.”
Denz can almost picture that weird introduction.
“When I got back, I found them sleeping on the couch,” Kami says fondly. “Mikah was drooling on Suraj’s chest.”
An unexpected laugh leaps out of Denz. For some reason, he thought he’d be jealous. Other than Kenneth, Denz was always the male figure Mikah’s been comfortable with.
(And Braylon, but he’s not going there.)
But now there’s Suraj. Denz is okay with that. He can tell Suraj cares about Mikah.
He says, “I’m putting in my notice, Kam.”
“I figured.” She leans back. “There’s no way you were showing up in my new office, in clothes Auntie Eva wouldn’t approve of, just to chat.”
“I came to apologize,” Denz whines.
“Congratulations, you could’ve done that over text,” she says, smirking. “Does this mean you’ve figured your shit out?”
“Maybe?”
Nora responded empathically to his email with a date and time. It’s just a meeting for now. But he hopes it develops into something more.
“How long do I have?” Kami asks, plucking M&M’s from the bowl.
“A month? Whatever it takes to train Jordan.”
Kami levels him with a skeptical look. “Train him to do what?”
“Be the next me, asshole!” He dodges the candy thrown at him. “Come on. You can’t have a Kami Carter without her wingman. Her right-hand guy. Her rock.”
“Denz…” She offers him sincere eyes. “You’ll always be my rock. Whether you’re here or somewhere else. It’s mandatory, got it?”
He nods, overwhelmed by the warmth in his chest.
“And what about Braylon?”
“What about him?”
“I saw him leaving the party. It’s pretty obvious things aren’t great between you two.”
“Yeah,” Denz draws out, lowering his chin, “about that—”
“It was fake.”
“It was fake,” he agrees. His head snaps up, mouth agape. “Wait, you knew ?”
“I knew from day one. You’re an awful liar.” She cackles. “You have a serious tendency to run from things that, if you just saw them through, might change your world.”
Denz blinks. “I don’t see how a fake relationship is gonna change my world.”
“Maybe it’s not as fake as you think.”
“It’s over,” he says, aggressively crunching on M&M’s. “He’s leaving. It’s London all over again.”