Page 80 of The Kiss Principle

“Go on,” Zé said, wiping his cheeks again. “Check it.”

“No.”

He gave a wet laugh. “Fernando, look at your phone so I have five seconds to put myself together.”

I checked my phone. Mom’s name showed on the screen.

“You’d better answer it.” Where Zé had smeared the tears across his cheek, they left a salt track that caught the light. There was weariness in his eyes. Resignation. He knew, I guess, this was part of the package—if we were a package.

I answered the phone on speaker.

“Cannon took my necklace,” Mom said. “The emerald solitaire. The little shit has been eyeing it for weeks, and now it’s gone, and he’s gone.” Her voice rose into a scream as she repeated, “He’s gone!”

“Mom, I can’t talk right now.”

“Did you hear me? He stole my necklace!”

“I heard you. Did you hear me?”

“You have to find him. He’s probably trying to pawn it right now!”

“Mom, I’m sorry about your necklace. And about Cannon. And I’ll be happy to look for your necklace when I have some free time, but I can’t drop everything and do it this minute.”

“Fernando, I need you right now!”

“I understand. But I’m doing something important. I can’t do it right now.”

“What are you doing that’s so important?”

“I’m trying to convince Zé to be my boyfriend. And forgive me. Not in that order, I guess. Oh, and we had sex when he was living at our house, so I’m bi. You can tell Shannon at your next life-coaching session that you now technically have one and a half gay sons. That’s fifty percent for you.”

Her silence echoed across the call.

“I’m going to go now,” I said, “and I’m going to put my phone on do not disturb because Zé is important to me, and I have a right to my own time and to take care of my own needs.”

“But Cannon—”

I disconnected. It took a surprising amount of willpower to look at Zé.

His eyebrows made those fuzzy peaks again.

“I’m working on setting boundaries,” I said. “My therapist said I should be clear and concise and compassionate. Those are the three C’s. And if I need to repeat myself, that’s okay.”

He nodded slowly.

“I didn’t mean to tell her about the blow job,” I added. “That was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

He covered his mouth, but I could still see his smile.

“Also, I know I’m amazing at playing it cool—”

Zé’s eyebrows did their thing again.

“—but that was hard for me.”

“I know,” he said softly.

“I know I’ve still got a lot of work to do,” I said.

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