Chapter 6
ALTHOUGH SHE’D NEVER BEEN TO VANCOUVER before, Simone felt at home as she waited for her suitcases at baggage claim.
She could tell just by looking around that she wasn’t the only traveler headed to the festivities in Whistler.
There were people with Pride flags, people with rainbow-colored hats and mittens, and even one person who’d decided to blast Chappell Roan from a Bluetooth speaker while they hung out by the carousel.
Simone bopped her head and mouthed the lyrics she knew, letting the music fill her up before her two-hour car ride with Ryan sapped her of all her energy.
She collected her two suitcases—the smaller one filled with her own belongings, the larger one with Rainbow Museum merch to hand out at parties—and wheeled them to the passenger pickup zone.
Her plane had arrived ahead of schedule—how on-brand for her—so she was surprised when she got a text from Ryan that he was already there to pick her up.
Well, actually, he’d just written: “Here.”
The blue SUV was easy to spot along the curb to her left.
When he saw her coming down the walkway, Ryan popped the trunk and climbed out of the car, dressed in his brown leather work boots, a pair of jeans, and a gray crewneck sweatshirt.
The mild breeze rustled his brown hair. He nodded by way of greeting, his eyes meeting hers for mere milliseconds before he looked away.
Do not let this straight man ruin your trip, she reminded herself. She would be a bubble of queer joy for as long as she possibly could—and as a bonus, her cheerfulness would piss Ryan off. “Hey, you!” She gave him a big, friendly wave. “Thank you so much for coming to get me. How was the drive?”
“Fine,” he replied flatly. Simone was surprised he’d even gotten out of the car to greet her. “Here,” he said, and walked right up to her.
“Huh?” She was startled by their sudden closeness, by their fingers touching on the handles of her luggage.
“Lemme take these.” Ryan grabbed the suitcases and carried them around to the back of the car. He made them look like they weighed nothing, even though Simone knew for a fact that they did not. She’d stuffed them both to the brim.
“Oh wow—thank you.” Had she touched down in Vancouver, or the twilight zone? Why was he being courteous all of a sudden?
“Just trying to get on the road as soon as possible,” he clipped out without looking up, and loaded them into the back. Aww, that was the Ryan she knew: doing everything in his power to shorten the amount of time they had to spend in each other’s presence.
As he reached up to grab the door, the hem of his sweatshirt rose just enough to reveal a sliver of taut skin and a trail of hair coming up from the waistband of his jeans.
Simone blinked and looked away when she realized she’d been staring.
“Nice… car,” she said. “Very…” Simone’s car knowledge was limited to the old Volvo she’d inherited from her brother Jason, which she only used on the rare occasions she couldn’t rely on Toronto’s public transportation options. “… blue,” she finished.
“Yes.” Ryan sighed impatiently and slammed the trunk shut. “Now, let’s go. Watch your step getting in.”
She wished she could sit in the back to be as far from him as possible, but then she’d be treating him like her driver, and that would be weird.
She climbed into the passenger seat next to Ryan, who pulled a small bottle of hand sanitizer from his pocket and squeezed a dollop into his palm.
He held the bottle out to her, too, and she let him give her a few drops.
“Was touching me that repulsive?” she teased as they both rubbed their hands.
He stilled, and for a second, she thought he might actually answer her—but instead, he ignored her as he pulled up the route on his phone’s GPS. Was his plan to conduct the entire ride in silence?
She took another swing, just to rile him up. “You know, for a carpenter, you sure don’t like to get your hands dirty.”
“Will you please put your seat belt on?” he muttered as he started the car, and they drove out of the airport in tense silence.
The next two hours were about to feel like two years. Thankfully, Simone had assumed this would be the case, and had planned exactly what she was going to do to pass the time in the car. “You mind if I make a phone call?” she asked as they drove through South Vancouver.
Her oldest brother, Matt, had sent her a very un-Matt-like text, checking in to see how she was doing, and asking if she wanted to catch up on the phone.
Not that Matt wasn’t friendly, but Simone and her brothers just didn’t have that kind of relationship.
There were six years between her and Matt, and four between her and Jason—big divides, when you’re kids.
She’d never overlapped with either of them at school, never had mutual friends, and certainly never talked about anything deep with them.
She’d been touched, and also a little embarrassed, when they’d both sent supportive texts in response to her coming-out post.
“Sure,” Ryan grunted, eyes locked on the road.
She rolled her eyes and called her brother.
“Hullo?”
“Hey, Matty. How’s it going?”
“Just at work, doing stuff.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah. Uh, what about you?”
Even though they weren’t used to talking on the phone, there was something warm and relaxing about hearing her brother’s familiar voice. She rested her head against the window. “I’m actually in Vancouver, on my way to Whistler. For a work trip.”
“Whoa. What’s the trip for?”
“My company’s helping sponsor Whistler Pride.” Her heart thudded.
“Cool,” Matt replied.
“Yeah. It’ll be fun.”
“The new job’s going well, then?”
“It’s great.” Except for the jerk sitting next to me. “The place looks amazing. We’re officially opening next month.”
“Megan and I were just saying we should bring the girls one weekend.”
She grinned, her right cheek pressing into the cool glass. “That would be awesome. Cici would love the ball pit.” Cici—Cecilia—was Matt and Megan’s three-and-a-half-year-old daughter. “It has these awesome rainbow slides going into it.”
“Why do I feel like Jason would love that, too?”
Simone chuckled at the thought of her floppy-haired middle brother catapulting into the ball pit. She could see it, too. “You’re all welcome anytime. I dare you to bring Mom and Dad, while you’re at it.”
Matt’s laugh turned into a sigh. “Yeah, well, that’s part of the reason I wanted to check in.
Megan and I were on the phone with Mom the other day, and she told us she called you crying about your Instagram post, and it sounded kinda extreme.
After, Megan was like, ‘Yo, you might wanna check on your sister.’ ”
Her chest swelled with affection for her brother and his wife. “Matty, you have no idea—that call—it was the worst thing ever.”
“Oh God, what’d she say? I’m sure she didn’t give us the full story.”
As Simone went into detail—starting with Kathy’s “Call me” text—it hit her: Ryan was her captive audience.
Sitting next to her in the otherwise silent car, he had no choice but to listen to what she’d been through.
Oblivious, my ass, Simone thought with triumph as she continued telling Matt the story.
“Shit, Simone,” her brother said when she was finished. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. This is how she’s always been with me—trying to like, mold me into this perfect daughter who makes her look good. And I have to stop letting her.”
“Hmm.” Simone worried that Matt would say she was selfish.
Instead, he replied, “Megan has a theory, and I think I agree with it, that Mom’s always resented Dad for letting Grandma and Grandpa bully her into giving up her law job.
Maybe she feels like having a ‘perfect daughter’ would validate this big sacrifice she made. ”
“Whoa.”
“What?”
“That was… really insightful, Matty.”
“Oh—thanks.”
There was a beat of silence. Simone pictured her relationships with her siblings like a blank canvas, full of possibility.
“Anyway,” Matt went on, “I’m sorry you’ve been dealing with all this.”
“It was rough for a while, but everyone at work has been super supportive.” Everyone except for the man sitting next to me, who’d better be feeling like a dick right now. “I’ve been doing a lot better lately.”
“You sure?”
“I promise. I’m super excited to spend the week at a Pride festival.”
“Okay, good. And, uh, if there’s anything you ever wanna talk about, I’m, uh—I’m here.
Megan, too. And the girls. They don’t know what’s going on, but they’re cute.
” She chuckled again. Who knew that talking to her brother about feelings could actually be sort of…
nice? “Shit, my boss Slacked me ten minutes ago and I didn’t see it till now. I gotta get back to him.”
“Go, go, go,” she said.
“Have fun on your trip.”
“Thanks. And Matty?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for checking in. Seriously.”
“No problem.”
“Talk to you later.”
“See ya.”
She hung up with tears in her eyes. She loved Matt a lot, although she’d never said it out loud. That would be weird.
Speaking of weird…
She’d been off the phone for a few seconds, and Ryan still hadn’t said anything: no “Sorry I assumed you were a careless ditz who thinks everything is sunshine and roses”; not even a “Sorry to hear that happened to you.” And when she stole another quick glance sideways, she found a tight frown on his face, as though he couldn’t tolerate hearing one more word out of her mouth.
Dick. “Thanks for your patience with that!” she chirped. “Don’t worry, I’ll shut up now.”
Simone looked out the passenger-side window and rolled her eyes in private. She was getting tired of his moodiness, and they were only thirty-three minutes into the two-hour drive—barely a quarter of the way there. If she didn’t put on some music, she would perish.