Page 35 of Back to You

Lake shuffled over to the chair next to Brandon’s desk. “Have you talked to Ethan?”

Brandon sighed. He was still trying to work through the discussion from their Sunday together, and time really hadn’t made it any easier to bear. “Yeah, we talked, for all the good it did.”

“You know where he’s coming from?”

“I mean, I get it, he doesn’t want to be his parents. But there’s no way, he’s already light years ahead of where he was then. When is it going to be enough, you know?”

Lake took a long minute to think. “When I first met Ethan, he was a lot like he is now — driven, focused, hard-working. But he was fragile. It was like he didn’t understand the affection I was giving him. It took a long time for me to realize it was because he’d never really received affection before me. Sure, he had friends, but none that he was really close to. And his parents … yeah.”

Brandon shook his head. If he ever ran into Ethan’s parents, he didn’t know what he’d do.

Ethan had been born to a pair of lazy, aimless, useless layabouts. Neither bothered to hold down a job. They could, they just didn’t want to. If it hadn’t been for government assistance and free school lunches, Ethan would never have been able to eat.

Neither parent was physically abusive, just neglectful. It was as if Ethan was a third roommate in their house, and he was usually left to his own devices. Teachers, seeing the lack of care anyone showed the boy, had reported his parents more than once to CPS. But nothing ever came of it, because he wasn’t being physically abused, and he was fed and clothed. Barely.

Ethan had busted his ass studying and working all through school, knowing only he was responsible for making a better life. Once his parents kicked him out the day he turned 18, he took a year to work multiple jobs, stashing away as much money as possible to pay for college. Even once he’d started school, he still worked full time, on top of taking a full load of classes. When most kids were out partying or dating, Ethan was cleaning school buildings after hours for a salary plus discount on tuition. Ethan had worked hard for everything he had.

Brandon knew all this, and he understood how much his childhood defined Ethan. He’d always respected the hell out of Ethan for how far he’d come, especially considering he’d done it completely by himself. But …

“I told him I can’t do this forever. I never see him, Lake. What kind of partnership is that?”

“I know, I’ve told him that myself. I just … I don’t want to see him lose out on the best thing in his life because of this obsession he has with being promoted.”

Brandon nodded sadly.

“Oh, I meant you, you’re the best thing in his life.”

“I got that, thanks.”

“But, please be patient with him. I love Ethan, and I love you too. I know he’s not doing the right thing, but you two belong together more than any two people I know. You’re my ideal of what a relationship should be. Not that I have relationships, but you know what I’m saying.”

“I understand. I appreciate it, Lake.”

“Now can I have my usual?”

“No. Go home and sleep.”

“Rats.”

***

Daunted at the though of another night alone with Barnabus in an empty apartment, Brandon ran home to feed the cat, then went to Michelle’s for dinner. He was lucky his sister was cool with him coming by, but they were in similar boats right now with Ethan working so much and Steven being deployed.

He cooked them all dinner as thanks for letting him mooch, then helped Riley with some homework while Michelle cleaned up a bit around the house.

He heard his sister tidying the living room. A electronic tinkling sound was immediately followed by her muttered “oh shit.”

“Let’s learn colors!” screeched one of Samuel’s favorite toys, which Brandon now recalled would hibernate until touched. He rolled his eyes and went back to helping Riley. He was basically immune to all toy sounds now anyway.

“Let’s learn numbers!”

“Let’s not,” Michelle suggested.

A moment of silence, then: “Hi! Is anybody there?”

“No,” she told the toy.

Brandon snorted when the toy piped up again a minute later with another “Are you still there?”

---