Page 89 of Against The Boards

I made my dad get into my car, and we drove to a nearby sandwich place I loved. I had no idea why he was here. We ordered food and ate in a terse silence for a few minutes.

“Roxie, I didn’t agree with what your mother said all those years ago,” he said as he put down his sandwich.

I mimicked his action and wiped my mouth with a napkin before I spoke. “She told me I was being selfish and had to choose.”

He sighed. “I know, and it wasn’t right. It wasn’t right that Tristan was put in the middle of it either.”

“I never asked him to pick a side.”

“I know.”

“So, why are you here? Why now? It’s been years.”

“Someone asked me about my daughter, who was couch surfing because her partner kicked her out. I had no idea, and you wouldn’t answer your phone. I finally called Nat, who told me the truth. You know, you could have come to us for help.”

I held up my hands. “Did you really expect me to come to you for help?”

He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “I hated leaving things like we did. I’m not saying I understand being bisexual, but I love you, and I want you to be happy.”

“What about Mom?”

“She wants to make amends, too. She knows she was wrong. It took her a long time to figure that out.”

Is that what the voicemail was about? Is that why she called me on occasion? I just always thought it was so she could berate me some more that my sexuality wasn’t real.

“Then why isn’t she here? What caused her to change her mind?”

Dad ran a shaky hand through his hair. “Roxie, when you had that concussion...”

A year after I came out, I had that nasty spill on the ice. It was my last year of university, and I hadn’t spoken to my parents in an entire year. I blocked out a lot of what happened when I healed from the concussion, but I vaguely remembered having a screaming match with my mother when she tried to visit me in the hospital.

I stared at him. “Dad, that was three years ago.”

“You told your mother to go to hell and have ignored us anytime either of us calls you. We’ve spent three years trying to win you back.”

I clenched my teeth and tried not to yell at him. “You both said what you needed to say, that who I was wasn’t acceptable to you.”

Dad’s face fell, and he put a meaty hand on top of mine, but I pulled mine back as if his touch was fire.

“Roxie, we both messed up, but we love and miss you.”

“She’ll accept me now that I’m dating a man,” I muttered to myself.

I was sure she would think me being with Benny meant I had ‘chosen’ to be straight. Even if my relationship made me look ‘straight-passing,’ it didn’t change that I was always gonna be bisexual. I didn’t think she would ever understand that.

Dad furrowed his brow at me. “What’s that?”

“I’m dating someone new.”

“Oh, that’s good. What’s her name? Is she good to you? What does she do?”

“Dad! Stop!” I picked up my sandwich and took another bite to calm my nerves. “It’s a man. I’m dating a man again.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Okay, those questions again, but now I want to see a copy of his 401K and his—”

“DAD!”

He gave me that cocky grin that I knew we shared. Jerk.