Page 45 of Harboring Secrets
“Where are we going?” Liam added a bill to my stack and I rolled my eyes at him.
“We’re going to figure our shit out together.” I took his hand and dragged him out of the diner and back into the sunlight.
Chapter 22
Liam
Brodiewasbetteratthe whole figuring out his shit thing than I was. He bought a new laptop and planned to spend the morning at Bennett’s drinking coffee and writing. While he worked, I was going to… I had no idea. And that was the crux of the problem. The very thing I’d worried about.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come in?” Brodie asked as I pulled into the parking lot to drop him off.
“I’m sure. You’ve got your shit to work on, and I’ve got mine. I’ll be a phone call away when you’re ready to go.” I stopped the car in front of the diner and put it into park so I could lean across the seat and steal a kiss. I kept it brief because kissing Brodie was my favorite thing and it was all too easy to fall into more with him.
“As long as you’re sure.” Brodie paused, reaching for the door handle, his other hand clutching his laptop bag.
“Yes, love, I’m positive that I don’t want us to turn into codependent nightmares for each other. Go to work.”
“What will you do?”
“I think I’m going to call Carol. I haven’t talked to her since I left.” I had to come out to her, sooner rather than later. The idea of coming out to her made my stomach turn to ice.
“Well, I’ll see you in a couple hours. Have a nice chat.” Brodie stole another kiss then got out of the car. I waited until he was in the diner before pulling away.
Truthfully, I had no fucking idea what I wanted to do and part of me hoped that Carol or Oren would tell me what to do. Brodie was sweet and insisted that I figure things out on my own. He didn’t want to influence my decisions or my ideas. I think he was worried about me doing what would make him happy, and not what would make me happy. And he was probably right to worry about that.
I drove back home, well, to Brodie’s house. I’d had my phone off since last night when we were trying to watch a movie and Oren kept texting me. I was wrapped up in Brodie and hadn’t wanted to come up for air so I turned it off. Oren was going to shit a kitten, but he’d forgive me.
I powered my phone up and it went nuts as it loaded in all the missed calls and messages. It was hard not to panic when it took an eternity to stop. Oren and Carol had been the most frequent callers so I called Oren back first. He answered on the first ring.
“It lives. Jesus fuck, Liam.”
“Where’s the fire?” I put him on speaker and leaned against the counter, bracing myself with both hands.
“Have you been under a rock? What do you mean, where’s the fire? You and your boyfriend hit the society pages, my friend. Which we will circle back to later, by the way. So not only have people been calling me to try and get in touch with you, but your in-laws have called several times.”
“My in-laws. Wait… what?”
“Have you not looked at any of my messages?” Oren groaned in disgust. “Liam, you’ve been outed. They have pictures of you and your boyfriend holding hands and kissing. Eating breakfast at some little diner. He hand fed you bacon. That’s pretty gay, dude.”
“Bisexual. Actually,” I corrected him. I’d expected the word to be harder to say, but it came tumbling out and my shoulders rolled back, suddenly lighter for having said it out loud. “I’m bisexual. And so what if he’s my boyfriend? Aren’t I allowed to be happy?”
“According to me and the sensible half of the internet, yes. Your sister wants you to call her, by the way. Expect some flak for being unreachable.”
“Why does the internet even care that I have a boyfriend? I’m a nobody.”
“You’re rich and you were just in the headlines for opening the memorial wing for your deceased wife. Some little reporter was tipped off that there might be an interesting follow-up story. It turns out that your sexuality is of great interest to people who make money off of headlines and clickable links. It’s also of great interest to your in-laws.”
“What on earth could they possibly want?”
“Well, it’s not like they can get money from you, so they probably want blood. Speaking of blood, call your sister.”
Calling Carol was the last thing I wanted to do, but I knew I had to get it over with eventually.
“Fine, I’ll call her right now.”
“Thank you. And, Liam, I’m happy for you. You’ll have to bring him around for a visit.”
“I’ll do that. Say hi to your fireman for me.” I ended the call and barely managed to take a breath before my phone rang with a call from Carol.
