Page 18 of Conflict Conclusion

“Hopefully it will give you a better idea of how much space there is, so you won’t let me try to bring the whole house.”

James’ eyes fell on a small, dusty box in the corner that held the few stray items they still had from his dad. The day he’d left, he’d been in such a hurry he’d forgotten a load of laundry still in the dryer, along with his toothbrush and comb on the bathroom counter. In light of the new life he was starting, those were things he could thoughtlessly discard. Just like James and his mom.

“There’s no chance of that,” James said, his gaze shifting to his old bag of rock climbing gear. He hadn’t climbed since his shitty ex had broken up with him in the parking lot of the gym they used to go to. “I think there are a lot of things we can both let go of.”

His mom squeezed his arm, then let go and picked up the tattered pride flag she put out every June. She’d been hanging it on their front porch since James was a little kid, long before either she or even he had known he was trans. It was one of the reasons he’d felt safe coming out to her almost as soon as he figured it out for himself.

“There are also some things that maybe we could do with an upgrade for,” she said, grinning at him, until he found himself smiling back. “Not all change has to be bad. Sometimes it can be exactly the kick in the pants we need.”

James huffed but accepted the next box lid she handed to him.

And the next.

And the next.

Until somehow, they had been up in the stuffy attic for three hours and had managed to organize all the decorations into piles to donate, dump, and pack.

“I’m going to talk to him,” James said, offering his mom a hand down off the final step of the ladder.

She accepted his hand, and he could feel the dirt and grime on both their fingers.

“There’s no⁠—”

“Mom,” he said, and she stopped, with one foot still on the bottom step. “I’m going to talk to him. I just want to get through Hailey’s going away party on Saturday, but I promise, we’ll talk on Sunday. I want him to be part of this…if he wants to be.”

The old house groaned as the air conditioning kicked on, as if the house, too, was sighing with relief. His mom did a pretty poor job of hiding her grin, and truthfully, he couldn’t blame her. A wave of excitement that felt suspiciously like indigestion rolled over him, and he had a bit of an anxious pep in his step as he followed his mom into their seldom-used dining room to begin sorting through the “good china” and excess cutlery.

Chapter Six

LEON

Leon

Take your time, darlin’. I’ll leave a light on for you.

Leon pressed send on the text, then sent a second message with an embarrassing number of hearts. If anyone besides James ever got ahold of his phone, he would have to throw himself off this rusty fire escape. No one needed to know that Leon “The Asshole” Rabinowicz was capable of such sappy bullshit. He’d clearly been brainwashed or hypnotized or otherwise taken over by his little mensch of a boyfriend.

Thankfully, the only other living creature around was a pigeon, so when James sent him an absolutely adorable selfie of him and his mom holding up a winning bingo card, and Leon’s face did something dopey and lovesick and stupid, he didn’t actually have to throw himself off the fire escape. He kept his butt planted firmly on the cold metal as he hearted the photo and took a long swig from his beer.

That evening, James had been busy with his mom, Howard, and Linda, and somehow they had ended up at a bingo game. As far as Leon knew, that hadn’t been the original plan, but he wasn’t really surprised. Linda loved games of all kinds, which was how James had found himself learning craps, mahjong, and bridge on the cruise. Given that Howard and James’ mom loved Linda, and James loved his mom, Friday night bingo didn’t seem like much of a stretch.

Leon took another swig of beer and realized he’d never heard what happened at their dinner the first night of the cruise. The past week had been a whirlwind between welcoming James back and Hailey’s frequent visits. He had embraced the first part with gusto, “welcoming” James at his apartment, in the stairwell at work, and after going to the Rainbow Bean Fun in The Sun drag show Wednesday night. He’d almost been able to convince James to sleepover and wear one of the few outfits he kept at Leon’s place, but apparently it wasn’t “office appropriate” enough, so James had scurried back to his house right as Hailey had been returning home.

Hailey seemed to be taking advantage of every last second of summer break before school started. Over the past few weeks, he’d heard her front door close in the early hours of the morning several times. With no bedtimes or curfews in sight, Leon had found himself reviewing syllabuses with her until three in the morning Wednesday and again Thursday night.

It had somehow felt both gratifying and like ripping off his fingernails one at a time. Yarmen’s coat was gleaming with how often Leon was anxiously petting him. If only he could bring Yarmen to Hailey’s going away party the following day. Although, his little, traitorous emotional support cat would no doubt leap into Hailey’s arms the second he saw her, abandoning Leon to his own issues.

Leon’s fingers began to tingle just as the window next door opened. Like mother, like daughter, she must have been able to smell weakness, because Hailey’s mom popped her head out and grinned at him.

“Oh, hello, Leon. Have you seen Hailey?”

Leon’s grip on the neck of the beer bottle tightened. “No, I haven’t. Is she not responding to⁠—”

“No, no, nothing like that. I haven’t tried texting or calling. I just got home and saw movement out here and thought I’d check.”

Leon nodded stiffly as he attempted to loosen his grip. “She’s probably out with Trina. I’m sure she has some last minute bulls–stuff to grab for the party.”

If he had been speaking to his own mam, he probably would have been cuffed upside the head and told to “mind his fucking language,” but Hailey’s mom just smiled kindly at him. He had never gotten to see her in action at the ER, having pulled her away from work the night of Hailey’s accident, but he bet she had great bedside manner.