Page 20 of Painted

“So we’ve agreed to ask Leland Page and his team to cater the event?” Robert Hawthorne asked as the meeting drew to a close.

“I think he’d do it,” Robbie spoke up, glancing at Toby, who nodded at him. “He’s also a member of The Brotherhood, and since Toby and I have been spending more time at The Chameleon Club, fostering the new friendships we’ve made, it’s become clear to us that The Brotherhood loves helping other members out with exactly this sort of thing.”

“The Brotherhood?” Mr. Flint asked, looking from Robbie to Robert in confusion.

“It’s a club we’re part of in London,” Robbie answered with a completely straight face.

Early fought a smile as a few of the family members exchanged looks around the table. They didn’t think Mr. Flint would dare say anything against The Brotherhood if they knew more about the queer organization, but it was interesting how the family downplayed the whole thing.

They glanced at Rhys, which they’d been doing throughout the meeting, and caught Rhys looking back at them. On any other day, Early would have freaked out and blushed from head to toe at discovering Rhys staring at him. Now, though, they just smiled back.

Things had changed. They felt safe and defended, not just in the meeting, but everywhere that the reach of the Hawthorne family extended. Maybe it was because they’d been sleeping well, even though they were sleeping on a couch. Maybe it was the heels, or the old-fashioned stockings and garter belt they’d found in the clothes room that even Rebecca didn’t know about.

They shifted a little in their seat, feeling the rub of those garters against their thighs. That was a bad idea, though, as it caused things to stir that their slacks definitely wouldn’t hide.

Which was why it was a good thing that their phone buzzed before things got too out of hand.

“So Robbie and Toby will reach out to Leland through The Brotherhood,” Robert was finishing things up as Early reached for their phone and turned it over to see who was calling.

Their smile dropped when they saw their father’s number lighting up the screen. A tight hollowness hit their gut. At the same time, if ever they were ready to face their father’s wrath, now was the time.

“Excuse me,” they whispered, standing and holding up their phone just enough for the family to see they had to take the call.

Robert continued with the meeting, giving Early a slight nod as they headed for the door.

Rhys leaned back in his chair with a curious look, as if he would get up and help Early with whatever they needed.

That, too, gave Early the confidence to answer their father’s call with, “Hello?” once they were in the hall.

“Don’t you hello me, boy,” their father shouted, as if they were in the middle of an argument instead of at the beginning. “Your mother and I have been calling and texting you for days. You haven’t been back here for four days. What game do you think you’re playing?”

Their father’s tirades usually withered them into dust, but for some reason, maybe it was the clack of their heels against the marble floor as they crossed through the front hall towards the office, it felt like the harsh words could only bounce off their back.

“I replied to Mum’s texts asking if I was okay,” they said, stunned that they could keep their composure in the face ofsomething that had terrified them so much in the past. “I didn’t return your calls because I knew you would yell at me like this.”

“Damn right I’m gonna yell at you, boy,” their father kept on.

Early merely winced in distaste at being called “boy”.

“You need to get your arse back here immediately, Earl,” their father went on. “Your mother is beside herself. You’re embarrassing me.”

“It’s Early now, Dad,” they said, stepping through the open door to the office, then walking around the desk and heading into the copy room with a short nod for a curious Rebecca. “And you gave me a choice of in or out. I chose out.”

“Don’t you double-talk me,” their dad said. “You know that was just the heat of the moment. You belong here, at home, where we can straighten you out.”

“I don’t need to be straightened out,” Early said. “I’m twenty-one, which is past the age a lot of people move out of the house.”

“Oh, so you’re just going to leave your mother upset like she is?”

Early sighed. “I’m not trying to upset Mum. I’m just trying to figure my life out. And I think it’s time that I set out on my own, one way or another.”

Their father snorted. “Like that sissy job you have at thearts centerpays you enough to afford a flat in this economy.” He said the words “arts center” as if they alone were an insult.

“I’m doing okay, Dad,” they said. “I have a place to stay, I have my job, and I’m going to be just fine.”

“Now you listen to me,” their father went on.

“No,” Early said. “I don’t think I will. I don’t think it’s going to do any of us any good.” Their father continued to rage on his end of the phone, but Early said a quick, “Bye, Dad,” then hung up.

---