Chapter 12
PAIGE
“Hey, sorry, I’m driving,” Paige says, answering Kennedy’s FaceTime. She angles the phone in her general direction, but keeps her focus on the road. “I’m about to park though.”
“Oh, no worries. I can let you go,” Kennedy says.
Paige frowns. “Don’t you dare hang up on me. I’ve been trying to talk to you about something for two days.”
They’ve been playing phone tag since Paige left Remi’s apartment the morning after meeting her mom. She’s not passing up on the first opportunity to talk to her best friend.
“Okay.” Kennedy chuckles. “What do you want to talk about?”
“First, how are you? Things at the restaurant okay?” Paige asks because she knows she’s about to monopolize the conversation, and she wants to check in with Kennedy first.
“Good, and surprisingly, yes. We actually had what can be called a ‘dinner rush’ last night which was a breath of fresh air.”
Sitting at a red light, Paige gets her first good look at Kennedy. While there’s still a strained look to her best friend’s features, Kennedy’s small smile is genuine.
“I’m glad, Kenny. That’s great.”
“Thank you. So … what’s the emergency?”
“Hold on.” Paige pulls into the parking lot of the restaurant she’s meeting Remi at for dinner and finds an open spot in the shade.
Once her car is in park, she repositions in her seat and sends Remi a quick text that she’ll be inside in a minute.
Then she adjusts the camera angle. “Okay, so have you ever been caught by, like, a girlfriend’s parent when you two were … ”
“Were?” Kennedy prompts when Paige doesn’t finish the sentence. The corner of her mouth twitches. This jerk knows exactly what Paige is trying to say.
“Were …” Paige rolls her eyes. “Hooking up.”
Kennedy bursts into laughter. “Nope. I mean, when I was sixteen, Lindsay’s mom almost caught us.”
“Oh, shit.” Paige didn’t know that. Lindsay was Kennedy’s girlfriend of five months junior year. She was nice.
“Why’re you asking? Did you and Remi get caught?” Kennedy grins mischievously.
Paige caved and told Kennedy all about the fake dating and what happened when Remi and Paige were away for the wedding the first second she was alone. The way this damn girl screamed and couldn’t stop shouting, “I knew it!” Paige is surprised Kennedy didn’t start punching her fist in the air.
“Wait. You did?” Kennedy jumps up from her relaxed position on her couch. “Spill, bitch. I want to know everything.”
Paige laughs and gives her a quick rundown of what happened, ending with, “So, here I am—no bra, in my underwear and one of her daughter’s T-shirts and—”
“Not ‘her daughter’s T-shirt.’” Kennedy cackles.
“—I’m grabbing our takeout from the front door when a woman clears her throat. I look up, embarrassed some random stranger caught me, only it ends up being her damn mother!”
“Oh … my … god.” Kennedy wipes her face, she’s laughing so hard she’s teary-eyed. “My soul would leave my body.”
“It nearly did.” Paige huffs.
“What did Remi do?”
Her cheeks flare with heat. “Well, she rushed out into the living room in a shirt and socks and, well … just a shirt and socks.”
Kennedy’s eyes widen. “God damn, you two have the worst luck.”
“Ugh, I know.” Paige drops her face into her hands.
“What a first impression.” Kennedy tries to look sympathetic, but there’s a ghost of a smirk on her lips.
“Thankfully, I was able to reset and went into full charming hospitality mode. I think her mom likes me—well, I hope she does.”
“Of course she does. You’re amazing.”
“Stop.” Paige’s heart clenches. “You’re biased though.”
Kennedy playfully rolls her eyes.
“But, also, it got me thinking. And this is what I really wanted to talk to you about.”
“I’m all ears. Especially if it’s more of what you just shared.” Kennedy smirks.
Paige glares, then clears her throat. “I think I’m ready to come out to my parents.”
“Really?”
“It was so nice having dinner with Remi’s mom. We’re getting to know each other—she’s lightly grilling me—and she thinks I’m Remi’s girlfriend. Which—am I? I’m not totally sure. But it feels unfair for that to have happened yet my mom doesn’t even know I’m attracted to women.”
Kennedy rubs the space between her brows, thinking. “Do you want to know my honest opinion?”
“Always.”
“Well, first. If someone doesn’t feel safe to come out to, that’s on them not you. You should never feel bad or that it’s unfair for them to not know something.”
“Okay,” Paige says, even though that’s a hard truth to swallow.
This is her mom. Paige loves her. She’s the person who taught and passed down Paige’s love for baking.
She made sure to chaperone every field trip, never missed one of her school plays, and she made the best homemade hot chocolate every weekend in the winter after her sister, Amelia, and she would come in from playing in the snow.
Still, to this day, when temperatures drop below freezing her mom makes a cup.
Yet she’s also the person who stresses her desire for Amelia and Paige to settle down with a “nice man” and give her grandbabies.
Even after Kennedy came out to her, her reaction wasn’t bad, but it always felt like she may have made an exception for Kennedy, and it wouldn’t be the same for Amelia or Paige.
“Second,” Kennedy says, pulling Paige from her thoughts. “While I understand your hesitation in telling your parents, I’m also curious what you think the worst-case scenario is.”
Sighing, Paige admits, “I’m not totally sure. Like, I know they wouldn’t stop speaking to me or cut me out of their life.”
Kennedy nods.
“But … I don’t know. My mom could flat out refuse to accept it. Like every time I told her I don’t want kids, she’d tell me ‘I’m too young to know what I want’ like it’s a phase I’d grow out of. Meanwhile I’m thirty-two, and I still don’t want kids. What if it’s the same for liking women?”
“That’s valid,” Kennedy admits. She doesn’t need to say it’s a real possibility, they both already know it is.
“If I’m being honest, my dad will probably be fine.”
He’s laid-back and the definition of unbothered. He always tells Amelia and Paige as long as they’re happy, he’s happy. But that man is a goner for his wife and tells her everything, so there’s no way Paige can tell him unless she wants her mom to know within the hour.
“I’m pretty sure he took my breakup with Maria harder than I did.” Kennedy laughs, and Paige smiles. Maria was a diehard basketball fan, unlike Kennedy and me, and would talk sports with him for hours. He definitely shed a tear when Kennedy ended things with her during March Madness.
“I’m not worried about coming out to him, it’s just … I don’t know. I wish I didn’t have to make a big deal of this. I want to introduce them to Remi and that be it—no long or emotional conversation.”
“You could always invite her to stay the night at your place, and if there’s a run-in with your parents, you just roll with it?”
Paige’s brows pull together as she considers this. “What if they think she’s just a friend?”
“You keep opening the front door in your underwear and you won’t have to worry about that.”
“Oh, my god, shut up!” Paige groans, but can’t resist joining in with her best friend’s laughter. “You’re so annoying.”
But, also, Kennedy may be onto something.