Blood Noir - Laurell K. Hamilton [13]
He smiled and kissed me. “I had a long, hard childhood; it makes me older.”
He’d been out on the streets before he was ten. He’d been a child prostitute not long after. By thirteen he’d been addicted to drugs. He’d been clean since he was seventeen, but saying Nathaniel had had a hard childhood always sounded like calling the Titanic a boating accident.
I touched his face, drew him down for a more thorough kiss. He drew back, laughing. “Even I need more recoup time than this, Anita.”
I blushed, I couldn’t help it. “I didn’t mean that.”
Jason looked up with his body still tight against mine. “Blushing, that’s so cute.”
“Stop it, both of you.”
“Sorry,” Jason said.
Nathaniel just smiled at me. “Do you want to take a girl home to meet your dad?”
Jason frowned at him. “I’d love to rub my dad’s face in the fact that I like girls. I wouldn’t mind if I were gay, but having him not believe me is just…” He laid his head facedown on the pillow.
“Frustrating,” Nathaniel said.
“Infuriating,” I said.
Jason rose up enough to say, “Both, more. We never got along, him and me. I’m his only son after two daughters. I was his only chance for someone to be a chip off the ol’ block. He went through college on a football scholarship.”
“I take it he’s taller than you are,” I said.
“He’s over six feet. I’m closer to my mother’s height.”
“Bad luck,” I said.
“I don’t mind being short, but my dad hated it. If he hadn’t pushed so much I might have tried harder at sports, but it really wasn’t my thing.”
“Why don’t you take Anita?” Nathaniel said.
“Take Anita where?” Jason asked.
“Home to meet your dad.”
We both stared at him. We stared long enough and hard enough for him to look uncomfortable. “What?” he asked.
“What do you mean, what?” I asked.
“I’m with Anita on this one, Nathaniel. I mean that would be too sitcom. Taking home a girl who happens to be a friend, but isn’t my girlfriend, to prove to my dad I’m not gay. That’s just too sweeps week.”
Nathaniel sat up, the sheet pooling in his lap, barely covering. “You and Anita are friends, right?”
Jason and I looked at each other. “Yeah,” I said.
“Yes,” Jason said.
“You and she are lovers, right?”
We both said a slow yes.
“You hang out with us. We watch movie marathons, and go out to eat. You aren’t with us the way Micah is, but you spend a lot of time with us, right?”
“Yeah, but…,” Jason said.
“Why but?” Nathaniel said. “She’s your friend, she’s a girl, you really are lovers. It’s not a lie.”
Jason and I looked at each other. He shrugged. I turned back to Nathaniel. “I don’t think a fuck buddy is what his mom had in mind, Nathaniel.”
“You’re more than fuck buddies, Anita, even I know that.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I was speechless, not out of distraction, but because I just couldn’t think my way past it all. I knew there was a reason not to do this, a good one; I’d think of it in a second.
“I can’t take Anita home to meet my family; it would imply things that aren’t true,” Jason said.
There, he’d said it. “Yeah,” I said.
“But you aren’t going to say you’re engaged or anything. Your mom wants you to bring home a girlfriend, so bring one home. If you don’t care what your dad thinks, then screw it, but if it matters to you, then why not take Anita with you?”
Jason looked at me, and I did not like the look on his face. “Oh, no,” I said.
“You don’t have to do this, Anita; it’s too big a favor to ask of anyone.”
“You really think taking me home would help ease your father’s passing?” I tried not to sound sarcastic or too harsh, but probably failed.
“He’s a cruel bastard. He wouldn’t even let my mom tell me he was sick. He said if I didn’t care enough to see him when he was well, he didn’t want pity.”
“But…,” I said.
“But the doctors say he has only weeks. He won’t make another Christmas.”
“How long has it been since you’ve seen him?”
“Three years.”
I looked at Nathaniel. “I can’t feed the ardeur off just Jason for long.”
“You know you have more control over it now. Jean-Claude can divide the ardeur up among us. I know last time