Page 19 of Due Dilligence (Takeover)
Eli swirled the last of his drink. He made no move to finish it off. “May I ask you a personal question, Fazil?” A softness in his voice that underwrote his hesitation.
As if this trip couldn’t get weirder. “Sure.”
“Both your parents are Turkish, right? From Turkey?”
Not the question Fazil had expected. And not the way Nathan had probed for the information. “Yeah. They emigrated after the coup in 1980.”
“How’d they...” Eli paused, then started again. “Do they know you’re bisexual? That you’ve dated men?”
Fazil watched Eli, the rising blush, the way he rubbed his thumb over his wedding band, and his chest hurt for the man across the table. “Yeah, they know. Told them before I left for college. They were dismayed at first, but now?” He shrugged. “I took a boyfriend home to visit once. They treated him like family. Still ask after him, even though it’s been years.” They’d probably ask after Kris, too. He’d dated her the longest—if you didn’t count Todd.
Todd, who, in all likelihood, he was about to start dating again. Or at least fucking.
Eli still stared into the last bits of his drink. “Mine... well, it’s a long story, but they immigrated to the US, too. It’s hard to grow up with that, sometimes.”
Bits and pieces clicked into place. He’d seen Eli’s folks at his wedding, how awkward they’d been, how conservatively they’d dressed—and guessed at the direction Eli was going. “My parents were never that religious. We fasted during Ramadan and went to a mosque sometimes, but they also drank and developed a taste for pork.” He pushed his empty beer off to the side. “I was raised secular Muslim. Like an Easter-and-Christmas Christian.”
Eli looked up. “I was raised religiously.”
Fazil winced. “So, the whole being-gay thing...”
“Didn’t go over well.”
That explained a lot. “But your folks came to your wedding.”
“They did, and things between us are changing for the better.” A small smile. “Look, I don’t know what happened between you and Todd. It’s not my place to know.” He cupped his hands around the copper mug. “But the one thing I’ve learned, the one thing Iknowfrom my life, is that people change. The past can be overcome. While there’s life, there’s hope.”
Pinpricks from his toes to his skull. “Eli...”
“If I had a chance to talk to my high school boyfriend...” Eli blinked a few times, his eyes far too watery, and he tossed back his drink. “I’m going to head upstairs. See you in a few.” He slipped out of the booth and collected his cane.
Fazil’s heart lodged in his throat as he watched Eli head out of the bar. Eli could never see his first boyfriend again. He’d died in the same accident that had damaged Eli’s leg beyond repair. Everyone at work knew that story.
Todd wasalive. They both were. There was hope. Fazil leaned back and studied the spot Eli had occupied. Pretty obvious from the comments at lunch that Todd had a different view of their shared past—and he did want to know more about that. And more about the Todd of now.
The waiter came with the bill, and Fazil paid but lingered in the booth for a while. He suspected Eli needed some time, and he wasn’t quite ready to go to sleep yet. Todd would be there in his thoughts when the lights went out. The engineer and the mechanic’s son. The cheater and the man who said he didn’t sleep with everyone.
He almost ordered another beer. Instead, he rose and made his way back to the room.
Three days until he discovered who Todd had become.
