CHAPTER FIFTEEN
They saved Gabe for last.
Well, he knew they would want to speak with Chloe one more time after him, but he was being saved for last.
He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
They all went out and waited on the front porch.
The first talk was a bit tense to wait for, mostly because they weren’t sure how it was going to go.
But he knew Ellen could hold her own. And so they hung out on the front porch, eventually going back to their cars after Ellen came out and Holly went in, since it was so cold.
Ellen said they’d been reasonable. Well, her mother had been, her father had been a bit more intense in his questioning.
She said they hadn’t asked anything inappropriate or weird, and her mother seemed to be down with it, and that this was mostly about giving her father some kind of way of wrapping his head around all this.
The tension remained unbroken as they waited. Most of the conversation that was had was spent convincing Krystal not to be a smartass.
And then it was his turn, and he found himself walking back inside with surprisingly less anxiety than he would have thought.
He walked back into the living room and sat down on the couch across from them.
Gabe tried to get a read on them, but it was difficult. Maybe her dad had calmed down. Her mom had a poker face by this point.
They both looked tired.
Her father leaned forward suddenly and said, “Look me in the eye and swear to me that you love my daughter, and intend to take care of her for the rest of her life.”
Gabe straightened up and looked him dead in the eye. “I swear that I love Chloe, and I will take care of her for the rest of her life.”
Gabe held the older man’s gaze until he broke it first, leaning back, seemingly satisfied. Then he looked over at her mother when she sat forward.
“Look me in the eye and swear that you love all of the others, and intend the same thing,” she said.
Now he looked her in the eye. “I swear that I love Ellen. That I love Holly. That I love Krystal. Liz and I are still getting settled in the relationship, and I love her as a friend and as a lover, and I have no doubt that I will love her as a wife in due time. And I swear I intend to take care of them for the rest of their lives.”
Chloe’s mother stared at him a moment longer, then relaxed, sitting back. “Well, I’m convinced,” she said.
“Wife,” her father said. “How...will that work? You can’t all get married.”
“No, we can’t. We’re still batting the idea around.
At some point, we do intend to have a big ceremony that basically acts as a wedding between us all.
I imagine Krystal and Liz will get actually married at some point.
Maybe I’ll get married to Ellen or Holly or Chloe, I don’t know.
But I do know that I don’t need a piece of paper or a certificate or a ceremony to know that I am committed to them all, and that they are committed to me, and to each other.
“And I also wanted to say that...inasmuch as I can as a childless twenty six year old, I understand where you’re coming from.
I understand your concern for Chloe, and I’m glad for it.
Because with the exception of Liz, all of us have cut our parents out of our lives, because they abused us.
Unequivocally. And I hate that. But Chloe still has you, and she should.
She wants you in her life. She’s going to be living in easy driving distance.
A lot of parents don’t get that once their kids hit this age.
And it’s not like I’m unreasonable. If you have concerns, questions, worries, I will listen and try to respond as honestly as I can. ”
He sat back then, waiting, looking at the two of them. Honestly, he was not just surprised but shocked by how confident he felt in all this.
“As I said,” her mother said after a few moments had passed, “I’m convinced. I’m okay with this.”
Gabe turned his attention to her father, who still seemed to be regarding him vaguely like he was looking at an alien.
He supposed that made a lot of sense.
Gabe did not look or sound like the type of guy most people imagined when they heard ‘five girlfriends’.
“I still don’t get it,” he said finally. “But I guess your girl Krystal made a good point: I don’t have to get it to respect it. The things I want for Chloe are that she’s safe, happy, and healthy, and that she’s doing something she loves. And I don’t get streaming either–”
“It’s like football,” Gabe said, without really meaning to. Her father paused mid-sentence. “Sorry,” he added, “just kind of slipped out.”
“...oh, that suddenly makes sense,” he muttered.
Gabe had to sit on the nearly overwhelming urge to ask if genuinely no one had ever made that comparison before.
“I guess I get that, performing and watching...anyway, you seem like you’re making Chloe happy, and keeping her safe, and helping her do the things she most wants to do, and you want to keep us in her life, and... what more can a father ask for?”
He paused for another moment, seeming to get lost in his thoughts, then finally sighed, long and loud.
“I don’t exactly like how this turned out but I know at least some of that is just me being a stubborn jackass.
Maybe even most of it. I guess we’ll see how it turns out, one way or the other.
And yeah, I can say I’m at least okay with it happening. Just...take good care of her.”
“I will,” Gabe replied. “Was there anything else?”
“No, nothing I can think of,” he replied, and her mother shook her head.
He nodded and got to his feet. “Thank you. Genuinely. For being reasonable about this. This meant a lot to Chloe and the fact that it went this way is a very big deal for her, and thus a very big deal for all of us.”
Her father nodded slowly, still seeming like he was digesting all this, and stood up. He stepped forward and offered his hand.
Gabe stood and went to meet him. He shook and her father gripped his hand tightly, looking into his eyes.
“Take care of her,” he said.
“I will.”
“Do you swear it?”
“I swear it. I will take care of her.”
He stared at him a moment longer, then grunted, nodded, and released his hand. Gabe turned to face her mother, who stood as well. “You don’t seem surprised,” he said.
“I’m not,” she replied, a small smile on her face.
“I saw you pulling up. I saw Chloe panicking a little. I saw you comfort her. I saw the way she looked at you, and the way you looked at her, and I knew. That isn’t lust, that isn’t dating, that’s love.
And I also knew that, like it or not, we were going to have to accept this.
But I’m convinced that you love her, really love her, and that you’ll make her happy.
And that’s really what life is about, enjoying the time we have with the people we love and who love us. ”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Gabe murmured.
She laughed. “Go on, send Chloe in, I imagine this has been as exhausting for you all as it has been for us. I know I need a bit of wine and a nap after this.”
“Right,” Gabe said. “Thank you, again.”
“Mmm-hmm. Good luck,” she replied.
He nodded once more to them and headed out. Chloe was waiting anxiously on the porch.
“Well?” she asked.
“Everything’s fine,” he replied, and she heaved a big sigh. “They want to talk with you one more time, then we can go.”
“Thank fucking Christ,” she whispered.
“You’ve got this.”
“...I guess I do.” She gave him a quick kiss and went inside.
Gabe looked out to the yard, everyone was out of their cars again now that it was so close to being over.
“What did they say?” Krystal asked.
“About what you’d expect. They wanted to be convinced that I loved Chloe, genuinely, and that I would take care of her–and all of you–for the rest of your lives.”
“All of us?” Holly asked.
“Her mother correctly assessed that if I wasn’t committed to you all, too, then I wasn’t really committed to Chloe.”
“Oh...that actually makes sense.”
“Her mom’s pretty sharp,” Ellen said. “Her dad...not so much.”
“He was out of his depth,” Gabe offered.
“How do you not get pissed about people accusing you of things?” Krystal asked suddenly.
Gabe shrugged. “I mean, I think it’s contextual.
Like I get where he’s coming from. And honestly, the more I live life, the more obvious it becomes that so many men–and women, too, but especially men–don’t have emotional intelligence.
But it’s not entirely their fault. Society set us guys up to fail, emotionally speaking.
We’re taught, out loud and tacitly, to wall off our emotions.
The only emotions we really get are anger and a ‘fuck yeah!’ kind of excitement.
That fucks you up. He doesn’t seem like a bad guy, just a guy who has serious trouble understanding and accepting his own emotions. ”
“...you are too nice,” Krystal said.
“Probably.”
“No, he’s plenty nice enough,” Holly replied.
“I think kind is more accurate,” Liz said.
“Because of ‘nice guy’ connotations?” Ellen asked.
“I mean yeah, but also because there is a difference between nice and kind. You can be one without the other, but if you’re gonna be one, you should be kind. Nice can be surface level, kind can’t.”
“That’s a good point,” Holly said.
They all looked over as Chloe came out. She looked like she was barely keeping it all together.
“We good?” he asked as she approached him.
“Yes, we’re good,” she replied, and hugged him tightly.
“Chloe! That was so badass,” Krystal said, laughing. “Like man, you’ve got a spine of steel!”
“I’m so proud of you,” Gabe murmured in her ear as he held her.
“Thank you,” she replied. “Can we go home now, please?”
“Yep.” He began guiding her over to the car. “Ellen, can you drive?”
“On it,” she replied.
They piled into the car, Gabe and Chloe in the back, and as soon as they started driving, Chloe started crying.
Gabe had been expecting it. Honestly, he’d been surprised she’d lasted as long as she had.
He held her and she immediately leaned against him.
He was glad it wasn’t the ragged sobbing of a complete breakdown, but the softer crying of someone who was emotionally overtaxed.
It only lasted a minute or so, and then she was done and rested against him.
They drove on in silence, but it was a happy silence.