Disclosures - SF4 (32 page)

"Are you nuts!!??" Mia shrieked, completely surprising Jamie with her outburst.

"N…n…no, I don’t think I am," she stuttered. "Do you think it’s a bad idea?"

"I think it’s a very bad idea, James. Why go asking for trouble?"

Jamie shook her head, still puzzled by Mia’s comments. "I think I know my parents pretty well, and it’s bothering me more to have the secret than it is to consider telling them. Just to get it over with, I might tell them next weekend."

"Boy, that seems fast to me," Mia said. "You do know that they'll flip out, don't you?"

"I know they won't be happy at first, but I think they love me enough to try to work through this with me."

"Uh-huh," she replied again, trying to keep her face devoid of emotion so that she did not exert undue pressure on her friend.

"Come on," Jamie urged, realizing that Mia was holding back. "Tell me what you’re thinking."

Mia smiled at her, glad that Jamie knew her so well, but sorry that she couldn’t hide anything from her, even at the risk of hurting her feelings. "I think it’s gonna be hard, James. I don’t think they’ll be nice about it at all, and I’m afraid it’s gonna get ugly."

"Do you really?" Jamie was amazed that Mia would assume this about her often emotionally distant parents. "Why?"

"You’re their only child, James. If they didn’t make you into what they want, they’re out of chances. And not to be mean, but your mom is totally into what her friends think of her. She’s not gonna want her social set gossiping about you."

Jamie nodded slowly, acknowledging that her mother’s clique loved nothing more than a juicy tidbit like this to gnaw on. While that thought was rumbling around in her mind, she remembered that she had promised to pass on some interesting information herself, and now was as good a time as any. "Speaking of parents having a bad reaction…I saw Melissa last weekend."

"M…My Melissa?" Mia squeaked

Jamie nodded slowly, puzzled at that particular moniker. "She’s a lesbian, Mia. And she seems pretty happy."

An unreadable expression crossed Mia’s face. Jamie thought she detected a note of sadness, but it was gone almost immediately. "So…how is she?" she asked lightly.

"She seems good. She’s got a girlfriend, and they live together. I don’t know if you knew this, but she’s at USF. She’s still a cheerleader—Ryan knew her when she was there and playing on the basketball team."

At Mia’s raised eyebrow, Jamie assured her, "Not in the biblical sense, Mia. They were just in a class together."

"So what was the bad reaction?" Mia asked, looking puzzled.

"Her parents freaked. Cut her off financially for the most part. She seemed pretty cool about it, though. It’s hard to tell with her, though, she has that cheerfulness that seems kinda forced sometimes."

Mia nodded, realizing that she was one of the few people that had seen through Melissa’s chipper façade. "It would be hard for her to lose contact with her dad," she said softly. "Her mom is a total whack job, but she cares for her dad." She wasn’t sure why, but suddenly she felt like crying. She didn’t want to tell Jamie that hearing about Melissa upset her, so she dunked her head into the steaming water and climbed out. "I’m gonna order another drink. You want anything, Hon?"

"No, I’m fine," Jamie advised, sensing that Mia was unsettled by the news she'd just shared.

When Mia returned a few minutes later, she carried a large plastic cup of orange juice that assaulted Jamie's nose with the smell of vodka when she set it on the deck of the spa. At Jamie’s raised eyebrow, Mia shrugged and said, "I’m not flying the plane, James."

Abandoning their previous topic, she asked, "So, is Ryan moving into the house?"

"Yeah, we're already staying there during the week, then we go to her house for the weekends."

Mia got a contemplative look on her face as she said, "I want you to be honest with me, James. I know this relationship is totally important to you. Do you want me to find someplace else to live this fall so you can be alone?"

"No!" she said firmly. "We both want you to live with us this year. I want you to get to know her better. You're really important to me, Mia and I want you to be a part of our lives."

"Thanks, Jamie. You're really important to me too. I'm glad you want me to stay," she said as she patted her shoulder. "I was afraid you were going to boot me when you got engaged, but I think things worked out well then. This will just be another little challenge."

"Actually, I have news on that front, too," she admitted, rolling her eyes a little.

"Really? Have you talked to him?"

"I saw him," she said mysteriously.

"Get out! When and why?"

"I went to his graduation," she said simply.

"Did he invite you?"

"Not specifically. But he called me before the ride and was really sweet. I thought about it and decided that going would let me put our relationship to rest."

"Did it?"

"Yep, but not in the way I was planning. He has a new girlfriend," she said slowly.

"What a jerk! It's only been four months since you broke up and two months since you tried to reconcile!"

"I think he's had her for a while, too. But I can't complain, Mia. I'm already living with Ryan, and I decided I loved her the day after he broke up with me."

"That's no excuse. He should be in mourning for you," she said firmly.

"Well, he's clearly not. He seemed really happy, and I was amazed that it made me completely jealous!"

"Are you serious?" she asked, truly startled.

"Yes. I made a huge fool out of myself. I was crying so hard that he had to hold me just to calm me down. I think it really got to me that his new girlfriend is his law review partner. Do you remember Natalie?"

"That dog! How long do you think they've really been together?" she asked suspiciously.

"That's just what I thought!" Jamie shrieked. "But he convinced me that they didn't start seeing each other until we had broken up. I believe him, even though I think Natalie might have had her eye on him for a long time. You know how easy men are to manipulate."

"Hey, it's my life's work," she said proudly.

"Anyway, when I saw them together, I totally lost it. I felt like our whole relationship had been a sham, and I just got hysterical. His parents saw me, Natalie saw me, it was totally humiliating, Mia. I hope I never see any of them again."

"You poor baby," she said as she rubbed her arm. "What did you do?"

"I spent the whole day driving around Palo Alto, just letting myself feel the loss for the first time. It was really cathartic, but more painful than I ever would have guessed. I was a wreck when I got back to Ryan's. But she was really supportive and understanding when I told her everything."

"Everything???"

"Yep. And she was really cool about it. She said it made total sense that I was jealous. She said it just showed that I had loved him, and was really nothing to be ashamed of."

"Boy, she is understanding. Most guys would have killed you if you’d told them that."

"She really is, Mia. I’m telling you, I hit the jackpot with Ms. O’Flaherty."

Mia nodded, sharing a smile with her friend
.
"I’m totally prejudiced, Jamie, but I think it’s the other way around."

At four o'clock Ryan was racing down the street, pushing a laughing baby in her jogger. They had been touring through every mile of the park for nearly two hours after leaving Martin and Maeve near the Hall of Flowers with the promise to meet them back there at four thirty. "Hey, Munchkin, we've got 30 minutes left. Let's go to Stow Lake and watch the boats." As expected, Caitlin agreed wholeheartedly with this plan. She signaled her acceptance by grinning up at her big cousin. Ryan bent over to kiss her forehead as she said, "You are sure easy to please, Little One."

When they arrived at the small lake, she removed the baby from the jogger and let her stand for a few minutes while they watched the various paddle, row, and power boats cruise around. After a while she picked her up and sat her on her shoulders, so she could have a better view. She patiently and needlessly pointed out all of the points of interest to her, explaining that the small island in the center of the lake was man-made and previously used to disguise the water tanks that served the park. As she was prattling on, something caught her attention.
Is that…?
she thought to herself. She focused closely and saw that she had indeed seen her father and aunt standing near the Chinese Pavilion, so she decided to wait for them where she was rather than go back to the Hall of Flowers. She bent to get the baby ready to go, but after the few minutes it took to get her set, she saw that they had still not moved on.

She patiently waited, glancing up every few moments, but one glance nearly brought her to her knees. As her mouth dropped in shock, she saw her father lean over and begin to kiss her aunt. This was clearly not a friendly kiss from a favorite brother-in-law. This was the kiss of a man and a woman who were far more than friends. Ryan tried to avert her eyes, but she was mesmerized by the sight. Maeve had wrapped her arms around Martin's neck and was kissing him back with enthusiasm. This was obviously not the first time they had kissed, and her mind reeled when she considered what this meant to the family.

As she stared at them in dumbfounded shock, she forced herself to look at the situation as objectively as possible. When she looked at them with some detachment, she was able to see them as they would appear to a casual observer. Martin was, by any standard, a very handsome man. He was tall, with broad shoulders and a very trim, muscular body. Even though he no longer fought fires, he firmly believed that he had to be physically ready to do so if called upon in an emergency, so he worked out regularly in the small gym the firefighters had rigged up in the station.

His temples were touched with gray but rather than making him look his age, the gray just made him look more distinguished. When Ryan paused to consider it, she had to admit that he had begun to look even better in the last year or so. He switched barbers and started going where Conor went, and his new cut was more stylish and complimentary to his ruggedly handsome face. He had also started wearing more casual clothes at home and on the weekends. Traditionally he wore an old pair of dark blue uniform pants around the house, but now he could be found in a pressed pair of khakis or some Dockers. His shirts had also undergone a transformation. No longer did he wear a clean white T-shirt at home; now
he was just as likely to be seen in a sky blue polo shirt that perfectly matched his eyes, or an oxford cotton shirt, ironed to perfection.

Maeve had changed a bit also in the past year, Ryan observed. She was always a stylish woman, and Ryan had honestly never seen her without a tasteful amount of makeup and an attractive hairstyle. Recently she had put even more care into her appearance. She often wore just a touch of an appealing perfume, and her hair color had lightened up recently, going from her natural auburn to a lighter shade of reddish brown. Her clothes had also softened up a bit, now consisting mostly of sweater-sets or shells over tasteful print skirts.

From a distance, they just looked like two mature adults who were falling in love, and Ryan knew that she should welcome this news enthusiastically. But her roiling stomach didn’t agree with that sentiment.

Her first problem was what to do with this information. She could let them know that she had seen them and ask them to explain, or she could act as though she had seen nothing. She doubted that she could pull that off without them knowing something was wrong. Her moment of decision was drawing near as she saw them break their embrace and begin to walk back to the shore of the lake. They stopped on the footbridge for one last kiss, and she knew that she either had to disappear for a while to collect herself or just be honest with them. With a heavy sigh she decided to bite the bullet. She was waiting for them when they stepped onto solid ground. They were laughing and paying attention only to each other as they walked along, hand in hand.

"Hi," she said quietly from behind the happy couple.

Martin whirled around, dropping Maeve's hand as his eyes locked on his daughter's. He knew the second he saw her face that she had seen at least some of their intimacies. He cast a quick glance at Maeve, and she gave him a dismayed look and quickly looked away. "I guess we owe you an explanation," he said as he looked straight at his daughter.

"No, Da, you don't
owe
me an explanation, but I would like to know what is going on."

"Did you see us together on the hill?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," she admitted, staring at her feet.

"Then I guess it's pretty obvious what's going on," he said as his face flushed a deep pink.

"That's not what I meant, Da," she said softly. "I know this is private and if you want me to drop it I will, but I don't think I can ignore what I saw. I know this will change how I act around you, and that's why I wanted to tell you that I saw you together."

"Why don't we go have a cup of tea so we can talk about this," Martin suggested. "I think it's time we shed some light on this issue."

They walked to the car in silence. Ryan had brought a pair of running shoes, and she quickly changed into them and tugged on a sweatshirt. Maeve drove to the first coffee shop she spotted, and she and Martin went in to grab a table. Ryan spent a few minutes extracting Caitlin from her car seat before going inside. They were all a little uncomfortable with each other, and they stood in front of the menu board for a moment in silence. "Tea for you both?" she asked, and received two nods in return. She ordered a latté for herself and a biscotto for the baby, along with the tea. Martin indicated that he would wait for the drinks while Ryan took Caitlin out to a table.