Page 34 of Waste Some Time
She pressed her lips together. It was too soon to get into that part. One revelation at a time.
“Well, this is the best holiday gift ever.”
“It’s kind of a gift for me too,” Sydney said. “I’m really excited to come home. All the stress and hassle of physically moving aside.”
Stephen waved a dismissive hand. “Details.”
“You say that like it’s so easy to move across the country.”
“You got there, right? You can come back the same way. Well, minus Doug.” Stephen’s grin turned smug. “See. Aren’t you glad I had Katie reacquaint you with the city?”
In more ways than he knew.
“Yeah. That was great,” she said. “Reminded me of all the things I love here. In addition to the family I love.”
“Damn right!” Stephen laughed at his own comment, then tilted his head at her like a confused puppy. “Wait. What’s that look? What else aren’t you telling me?”
Sydney took yet another deep breath and blew it out slowly. Then another.
“Jeez, is it that bad?”
“No,” Sydney said with a shake of her head. “It’s not bad, it’s just…”
He leaned forward and placed a palm on the patio table. “Then tell me. You know I have your back, right? With anything.”
Right.
She knew that.
So why was this so hard?
“I don’t want you to think this has anything to do with my divorce, because it doesn’t. At all.” Sydney steeled herself and told him the hard part. The part that made her feel more vulnerable than she’d ever been, even though she knew deep down that he’d be completely accepting of her. “I’m bisexual.”
Stephen stared at her, blinking, then recoiling.
Oh, no.
Had she miscalculated how this would turn out?
His face scrunched as he said, “Is that it?”
“I mean, yeah,” she said, knowing full well that wasn’t the whole story. But it was the first hard part of this conversation.
“Christ, Syd. I thought you were going to tell me you were dying or some shit!”
“No,” she said. “No, I’m fine. Perfectly fine.”
He removed his hand from the table and put it against his chest. “Jeez, you freaked me out.” He dropped his hand and looked at her with a hint of pain in his face. “Wait, did you think I would be upset about that?”
“No,” she said with a tone of uncertainty in the word. “I mean, I thought you’d be fine. But I didn’t know for sure.”
“Syd. Of course, I love you. No matter what you tell me.Thank youfor telling me.” He stood and opened his arms. “Come here.”
Sydney realized hot tears were now streaking her cold cheeks. She walked around the table and let herself be engulfed by her brother’s long arms.
Stephen squeezed her tight, then kissed the top of her head. When he released her, he looked down and said, “Anything else?”
“Um.” Sydney considered waiting to tell him this part. Especially if nothing was going to happen any further between her and Katie. There would be no point. “Maybe.”
