32. Thirty-Two
Thirty-Two
Tyler
As I expected, Father waits until service is over to make a scene. Despite his dirty looks at Seth while we were at church, he didn’t say anything unkind yet. “I expect you’re coming to your grandfather’s house for brunch?” he asks when we’re walking out of the building.
I slide my hand into Seth’s, lacing our fingers. “We’ll be there.” Am I being over the top? Maybe, but I want to show him I’m not backing down on this. Taylor seems lost as she glances from my grip on Seth to Father’s tight jaw. There’s an uneasy silence as we split up and head to our cars.
“You okay?” Seth asks when we’re alone again.
“Not really,” I answer honestly. I’m not much of one for confrontation.
“Any time you want to leave, we can go. You don’t have to prove anything for my sake,” he tells me.
“I know. Let’s just see what happens.” I start the engine and take a deep breath before I put it in reverse and back out of my spot. Father’s car is already parked when we arrive, but another car pulls into the driveway after us. A girl exits the car, and my sister opens the front door to meet her. “That must be Katy,” I mutter partly to myself when they embrace with a quick hug. Then they turn to look at us and I freeze. I didn’t think anything when Maddy said her girlfriend’s name. After all, Katy is a pretty common name. I didn’t think the chances of her being the Katy that Seth and I hooked up with were high enough. Just our fucking luck.
“Katy, this is my brother Tyler and his boyfriend Seth.” Maddy introduces us, not seeming to notice the elephant in the room.
Seth chuckles under his breath and wraps his arm around my shoulders. “Hey Katy, nice to see you again,” he says with a wave.
“You know each other?” Maddy asks, looking at each of us in turn.
“You could say that,” Katy answers. “Didn’t know you two were a couple, though.”
“We weren’t then,” I answer. This doesn’t seem like the time or place to explain to Katy how that threesome was the beginning of my realization I was attracted to guys. I’m also not eager to admit I’ve slept with my sister’s girlfriend.
Maddy eyes me suspiciously, then shakes her head like she changed her mind. “Whatever, we should get inside. Dad and Taylor are expecting us.” She grabs Katy’s hand and leads her to the door. As they get further away, Seth laughs, covering his mouth in an attempt to muffle his chuckles.
“Stop it,” I say, shoving his shoulder.
“Glad we came now,” he says. “Fuck, that’s gonna be an awkward conversation. Do we tell Maddy?”
“I don’t wanna think about that right now,” I admit. “Let’s just focus on getting through brunch.”
Seth still has a smirk on his face as we follow Maddy and Katy to the house. I try not to overthink it and focus on proving to Father that I’m serious about Seth. All things considered, it’s probably best if he doesn’t find out how we know Katy, that’s not going to make him think any better of Seth or Katy. We find everyone gathered in the dining room, the table already filled with fresh fruit and breakfast pastries. Grandma must have been up early cooking to get everything ready.
“This looks amazing, Grandma.” I hug her and she looks over my shoulder at Seth.
“I wish you two would’ve told me we were expecting company,” Grandma answers. “I hope there’s enough for everyone.”
“Sorry it was kind of a last minute invite,” Maddy says taking the spot next to her girlfriend.
“Yeah, Seth invited me to eat dinner with his family for Christmas Eve, so I figured it made sense to ask him to join me for Christmas day,” I explain.
“I don’t think we’ve met,” Taylor says, looking at Seth first, then Katy.
“This is my girlfriend, Katy.” Maddy puts her hand on Katy’s shoulder, and Father practically chokes on his water.
“Girlfriend?” he asks in a gruff voice.
“Yup, We’ve been dating for what … a month now?” she turns to Katy, who nods.
“And Seth is my boyfriend,” I add, sliding my hand onto his thigh under the table. Seth covers my hand with his and gives it a squeeze to reassure me.
Father sets his water glass down with a thump. “Is this some sort of joke?”
“It’s not a joke,” Seth answers, his grip on my hand tightening. He meets Father’s stare as he talks again, “I’m not going anywhere.”
“You,” he raises his hand to point at Seth, but his words trail off.
“We got our final grades for the semester,” I change the subject. “Thanks to Seth’s help, I got a solid B plus in my Bio class.”
Father grabs his napkin and wipes his face before he stands up from the table. “I need a moment.” He doesn’t wait for a response before he leaves the table, heading for the kitchen.
“Okay, what is going on here?” Taylor asks.
Maddy grabs a pastry and takes a bite. Clearly, she’s in no hurry to answer.
“Father doesn’t want me to see Seth. He told Seth to break up with me,” I say, and Grandma’s eyes widen.
“He what?” Taylor asks in surprise.
Grandma scoots back from the table. “Excuse me, please.”
Within minutes, we hear arguing in the kitchen. “Think she’ll change his mind?” Maddy asks, still nibbling on her pastry.
“I don’t know,” I admit, grabbing a pastry for myself. “Doesn’t really matter, I guess. I don’t need his approval.”
“Cheers to that,” Maddy grabs her water glass, holding it out over the table. I mirror her movement, clinking my glass to hers. Grandpa and Taylor watch us with an offhanded manner as they eat.
A door slams and Grandma walks back into the dining room, holding a quiche. “Sorry about that,” she says as she takes her seat again. “Where were we? Right, we should eat.”
“What happened with Dad?” Maddy asks. All eyes turn to her, and I almost can’t believe she asked.
“Oh, he’s fine, just needs a few minutes to wrap his head around some things. We don’t have to wait though, everyone dig in.”
An awkward silence spreads through the room as we all fill our plates and eat. This isn’t how I thought brunch would go. Yeah, I counted on Father getting pissed, but I couldn’t have guessed Grandma’s reaction. We’re still eating when Father walks into the room again. The chair screeches as he pulls it back from the table. “Sorry for the wait. Maddy, can you pass me those orange slices?” He starts eating like nothing happened. I’m on edge waiting for the other shoe to fall, but as more time passes, I don’t know what to think.
I was expecting this to blow up. Instead, we’re all eating in an awkward silence. In between bites of breakfast pastries and quiche I look at Maddy, but she’s as bewildered by the change in Father as I am. Taylor is the only one who doesn’t seem phased. She makes small talk with Katy, asking about her major and hobbies. It’s odd that I’m learning more about her now than I knew that night at the party. It all seems so long ago now, and it doesn’t really seem to matter. Seth finishes first, setting his silverware down and taking small sips of his water until I stop pushing my food around with my fork.
Father dabs at his face with his napkin and clears his throat. “Tyler, may I speak with you and Seth?” His food is mostly uneaten like mine, but I don’t point that out.
“Uh, sure,” I mutter.
“We’ll meet the rest of you in the living room,” he addresses the table.
Seth gives my thigh a reassuring squeeze before he stands up and pushes in his chair. I wipe my sweaty palms on my pants as I follow Father to Grandpa’s study. He takes a seat in his desk chair, facing us. With no other seating, Seth and I are forced to stay standing.
“It’s come to my attention that maybe I judged you too quickly before,” he says facing Seth. “You’re young and there’s every chance that this is just a temporary thing. Either way I’ll do my best not to get too wrapped up in it.”
Coming from my father it’s probably the best apology we’re going to get. I guess him saying he thinks we’ll break up on our own rather than forcing it on us is the better option.
“Thanks,” Seth answers. He wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me toward him, probably because I’m still standing there dumbfounded. “We should get back to the others.