“If you wanted company tonight you could have asked me, she’s not even pretty,” she says with a nasty gleam in her eyes.
“What the fuck did you say?” I demand.
Beth stands up abruptly, stalks to the door, and yanks her coat off the hook.
“Beth, please wait.”
She whirls on me, the cold fury in her eyes stops me cold.
“Don’t talk to her like that. Be a better man than that, please,” she hisses angrily while she buttons her coat and pulls her hat on.
She looks over my shoulder at Lisa, her eyes are cold. “That was very rude. You should get some help and stop working your pain out on other people. It’s really unattractive,” she advises in a terse voice. She stuffs her fingers into her gloves and walks out of my door.
“Wait, don’t go. We need to talk about this,” I grab her hand.
She yanks it away and glares at me. “DNA be damned, Carter. You can’t be my lover if you don’t know how to be my friend.”
I feel the indictment in her words keenly, It’s a rude awakening. My head is no longer up my own ass, but it’s too late.
I can see from the look in her eye that a simple, “I’m sorry” won’t cut it.
“I fucked up, didn’t I?” I ask, unable to meet her eye.
“Royally.” She presses the letter into my still outstretched palm, and then stuff her hands in her pockets as if to make sure I’m not even tempted to try again.
“Call Dean. He can tell you where to go for the test.” She casts a glance over my shoulder at my open apartment door.
“Have fun.” She says with cold grimace and then she’s gone.
Because I’m Happy
CARTER
ONE WEEK LATER
“What are you doing here?” my mother asks from behind the chained door of Joe’s apartment. I lean back, check the number on the door before I peer at her again.
“What are you doing here?” I raise my eyebrows.
“I’m helping Joe with a project,” she says cagily.
“Is Beth with you?” I ask, I didn’t know she and Joe were friends.
“It’s 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I think she’s at work. You haven’t said why you’re here. Shouldn’t you be at practice? Your show is in less than six hours,” she says and I forget her weirdness and light up when I remember what brought me down here.
I hold the paper up so she can see through the small crack in the door. “Because, The DNA results came.”
She screams and then the door slams shut, I hear the chain disengage and the door opens wide.
“Oh my God. What does it say?”
She freezes in the middle of trying to loop her belt and gapes at me. I hold up my phone, waving it in her direction.
“Phil and I - 99.9% full siblings. But Liz and I have absolutely no DNA in common.”
My mother’s eyes bug out of her head, and she covers her mouth, muffling her screamed “What?”
I nod, my heart feels like it’s dancing the reel in my chest. I laugh at her dazed expression as she crosses the room and takes the phone out of my hand. Her eyes race across the screen, growing more frantic in their paces as she reads the results.
Her head snaps up, her eyes full joy that’s tentative, as if she’s scared to believe it.
“So…what does that mean?”
“She’s not my sister, mom. She’s not even my third cousin removed.”
She blinks rapidly, her face tightening in confusion, her brown furrows with worry. “If she’s not related to either of you… But she’s his daughter. She was born to her mother while they were married, right? So, then who’s sons are you and Phil? I can’t believe that shitty little friend of hers could do this. That poor girl, she’s been crying her eyes out over it every day. If could get my hands on that little Dina, I would rip her—Why in the world are you smiling?” She demands indignantly and crosses her arms over her chest.
I laugh, I didn’t even realize I was smiling. But I’m not surprised. I’m going to get my heart back. And nothing can dampen that joy.
“Because I’m happy. None of those things matter. Who cares? We are her family. We’ve always been. And now, at least I don’t have to live with the horror of knowing that she can’t be anything else.”
Her expression softens, smoothing all of the worry, confusion and surprise from her face.
“Oh baby, I’m so happy for you. I know—"
The slam of a door makes her jump and her eyes go back to being wide, but this time from trepidation. Heavy footfalls rattle the picture frames hanging on the wall.
I turn and watch in horror as Joe comes down the hall. He’s reading the side of a bottle he’s holding. “Who was that at the door? You got my dick hard and left me alone with this shitty ass wine…” Joe’s words die on his tongue and he stops in his tracks - naked as the day he was born - when he sees me standing there.
My head whips to look at my mother and see what I missed in my excitement over the results.
Her hair looks like she’s be twirling on her head and she’s tugging at her robe, frantically trying to cover something that looks like it’s made of scraps of lace and not much else.
I look around the apartment. The two glasses of wine on the coffee table. The men’s underwear draped over the arm of the sectional. My stomach heaves at the picture unfolding in front of me.
“Oh my God,” I groan and cover my eyes with my hands and turn away from both of them.
“You can’t tell Beth, not yet.” Joe’s voice is frantic.
“Joe! Go, now,” my mother hisses and I hear the slap of feet on the hardwood and then the slam of the door, but I’m still afraid to open my eyes.
I don’t even know how to look at my mother. I don’t understand how this could have happened. Joe is…old.
“You can look now,” My mother’s says in a dour tone.
I move my hand, see her still struggling with her dressing gown and avert my eyes. “Mom, what the hell? He’s old enough to be your—”
She points a finger at me, her eyes shooting fire. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Carter Bosh. I don’t have to explain myself to you or anyone. And I’m certainly not going to. If you want to wait for Beth, go do it in the lobby. And if you don’t want to see what you just saw again, I suggest you call before you come by here and my place. Because whatever he’s old enough to be, I’m old enough to enjoy it.”
And then she swivels on the balls of her feet and marches indignantly down the hall to the room Joe must have gone into, slamming the door hard behind her.
I stand there stunned for a minute before my brain unscrambles. I’m going to pretend I didn’t see any of that.
My mother’s love life is none of my business and I’ve got my own to sort out. I’ve spent almost two years without the love of my life and I finally have the chance to make her mine again and for good. But first I need to explain about Lisa and hope she can forgive me.
Not a Good Time
BETH