Page 40 of Dire Straights

“Oh. Yeah, of course. No problem. Is there anything else I shouldn’t mention?”

“Besides the obvious?”

He grinned, running a hand through his thick mop of black hair. “Well, yeah, I already know not to say anything aboutthat.”

“That conversation’s going to be pretty miserable.”

“Is your dad conservative?” He wondered, and I shook my head, grimacing a little as I tried to articulate my thoughts.

“No, not really. He doesn’t have a problem with gay people, or at least not that I ever heard him mention. I feel like if it was some random person then he wouldn’t care, but because it’s me… He just has this really specific vision of what he wants me to be. And I’m pretty sure I don’t live up to that vision.”

“Well… I think you’re great,” Ren said. “You’re totally a vision.”

I shook my head at him, but couldn’t help smiling anyway.

“A vision of what?”

“Hotness. And coolness. And being really fun to hang out with…ness.”

He made me feel so goofy and dumb, but when I was with him I didn’t feel like I had to worry about how I looked. It was really freeing, and he was the only person I could let go with.

“You’re that kind of vision to me, too,” I admitted, though I felt really fucking embarrassed saying it.

“You think I’m cool?” He asked doubtfully. I didn’t want to lie to his face. I respected him too much for that.

“Uh… You make up for it in other ways.”

He stared at me for a few moments, absorbing what I’d said, before breaking into a fit of laughter, covering up his face with his palms. How someone could be that hot and that cute and that adorable at the same time was really beyond me, but he managed it so consistently, and without even trying.

When we got to our stop, we hopped off the bus with our bags slung over our shoulders. My dad’s car was already there, and he was leaning on the outside of it, talking to someone from work on the phone. When he glanced up and saw us, he wrapped up the call and stood up straight. He gave me an awkward one-armed hug and then shook Ren’s hand.

On the ride to the house, he mostly talked to Ren, trying to get a read on him.

“You on the swim team with Maddox?” He questioned, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.

“No,” he answered from the back seat. “We met in a class we have together.”

“Mm. Do you know what degree you’re going for yet?”

“Software engineering.”

In the passenger seat, I raised my eyes up to the ceiling. I knew my dad would be polite, but he was probably wondering what I was doing hanging out with a guy like Ren. Little did he know, I enjoyed hanging out with Ren and his weirdo friends a lot more than I’d enjoyed my friendships in high school. We didn’t need to have that particular conversation just yet though. Let alone the rest of it.

At the house, we piled in and I prepared to usher Ren upstairs to show him my room and the room right to it, where he’d be sleeping. But the moment we were in the door, we were approached by a woman with long, blonde hair tumbling downher shoulders in loose curls. She was already dressed for the party apparently, in a short, sparkly dress and high heels that looked like they belonged on a stripper. She barely looked any different or older than some of the senior girls at school.

“Oh my gosh, hi! It’s so great to finally meet you!” She rushed toward me like she was going to hug me, and I instinctively raised my bag to my chest to block her from doing so. Her eyes darted down to it, and she stopped in front of me, giggling awkwardly. “Not a hugger, huh? Well, that’s okay. I’m Missy. Manny’s told me so much about you!”

Manny? My dad’s name was Manfred, and I’d never heard anyone call him any shortened version of that. Not even my mom. I was already a little squicked out by it to begin with, but then when the realization hit me that her nickname for my dad was only two letters off from Ren’s nickname for me, I wanted to die.

“Great.” I forced my answer out because I didn’t know what else to say. I really, really hadn’t expected this to be the woman my dad was dating. Did my mom know about her? Surely not, or I’d have seen post after post from her about men not valuing the women who had mothered their children and trading them in for a younger model, or some other lame, passive aggressive sentiment. Maybe she knew he was seeing someone, but didn’t know how young she was. Had the twins met her? Had they felt weird about it too? “Sorry, but how old are you?” The words tumbled out of my mouth like vomit I couldn’t hold back.

Ren’s eyes widened, and he choked, trying subtly to turn it into a cough, but it didn’t quite land. Leave it to him to take an awkward situation and make it even worse.

In that moment, my dad came up behind us and into the door.

“Oh good, you guys met Missy already,” he said, stepping over and putting his arm around her shoulder affectionately. Shelooked up at him, kind of helplessly, with a thin, weak smile on her face. I felt bad but at the same time… It was weird. He was, like, 45. “We’ll have lunch in a minute, so head up and put your stuff away and I’ll call you down when it’s done.”

“I’m making lettuce wraps, with curried chickpea salad,” she added, but the cheer in her voice now sounded kind of forced. Shit. I’d done that with my big, stupid mouth.

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