Page 92 of Rat Park
They looked at each other for a moment before kissing lightly. Dominic rolled onto his back, taking Flor with him, who settled on top of him again, face tucked back into Dominic’s neck.
They breathed together for a while, letting their bodies speak for themselves.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Dominic?”
Dominic froze from where he’d been peering into the fridge, looking for a snack. He’d picked up the phone absently, glancing at the screen just long enough to see it was a number he didn’t recognise. The voice on the phone, however, he definitely knew.
“Mom.”
“You still have your old number. I thought maybe…”
“Yeah. I, uh. I didn’t want to change it on all my accounts,” Dominic said numbly, not even knowing why he was explaining himself. He shut the fridge door, but the cold air had already seeped through his pores despite the warm day.
“How are you?” Dominic’s mom asked.
“I’m. I’m good.” There was an awkward pause as Dominic tried to make his brain work. “You?”
“I’m okay.” Silence settled through the line again. Dominic could hear his mom smoking on the other side.
“Did you…why are you calling? Is everything okay?” Dominic asked.
Something must have been happening for his mom to call after so many years. Dominic was still trying to catch his breath from hearing from her at all. It was like he was watching it happen from a foot away. It was a scene in a movie, abrupt and uncoordinated, missing the lead-up that would allow it to make sense. But life wasn’t like that.
“Yeah, everything’s okay. I just wanted…I wanted to see how you were doing. I haven’t heard from you in a while.”
Dominic bit back his knee-jerk response. “Well. I’m good. I’m clean. I’m doing good.”
Dominic heard his mom take a deep breath. “You’re clean?”
“Yeah. Few years now.”
“That’s. That’s real good, honey. You working?”
“Yeah. At a car shop.”
“A mechanic? I didn’t know you liked cars.”
How would you know anything about me?“I didn’t really. It’s a good job, though. I like it,” Dominic said instead.
“What about—you got a girl?”
Dominic paused. Never in his life had he thought he would have to come out to his mom. The whole conversation was so out of the blue that Dominic still felt like he was falling through open air.
“I’m gay, Mom.”
Dominic’s mom made a noise of surprise, followed by an excruciatingly long pause. Dominic leaned back on a kitchen counter, closing his eyes.
“You gonna say something?” Dominic demanded after the silence had gone on for too long.
“I just—it took me by surprise. You. You got a guy, then?”
“Yeah. I do.”
“The gays can get married now.”
Dominic laughed incredulously. “Yeah, I heard about that.”
