9.11 - 28. Chapter 28

An early posting of this chapter to celebrate five years of writing:  August 13, 2008 - August 13, 2013. 

August 19, 2001

I woke up slowly, moaning because of my headache, then a whole new sensation hit me, and I jumped out of bed and charged to my bathroom. I almost made it to the toilet before I puked, but even then luck was with me, as I projected the vomit into the basin and only a little bit splattered on the toilet seat. I wiped that off, wondering why it was down in the first place, then put it up and sat on the floor; waiting for the next heave that I knew would come soon. I was right, so I sat there in the bathroom, vomiting my guts out and more, slowly piecing together my night.

I remembered making out with Erik, and how sweet he’d been. That made me smile. Then I remembered tracking down John and doing shots with him, then I went into the pool wearing only my boxers. I looked down and noticed that I wasn’t wearing them, and that jogged the memory of me coming out of the water, drying off, and deciding to just throw them away and freeball. I’d partied with a bunch of my friends, getting totally trashed, then I’d spotted Patrick, who’d seemed to have gotten rid of the hot chick he’d boned. He’d winked at me then vanished. I’d waited a little bit, and then gone up to the bathroom adjacent to his room, then into his bedroom, and he’d fucked me. It was really hot, because he was an older college dude, and he fucked me kind of like I was a chick, and he was really good at it. There was no denying that there was something really erotic about getting a straight dude, and a really hot straight dude at that, to have sex with me.

I decided that my stomach was calm enough for me to stand up, and since that went pretty well, I hopped into the shower. I ended up spending half the time in there sitting on the seat, but by the time I got out, I was feeling better. Some time with the toothbrush, some deodorant, and a little effort with my hair, and I was ready. Except for clothes, I thought, joking to myself. I put on some shorts and a T-shirt, slipped on my flip-flops, and headed up to the kitchen.

“Welcome back!” Carmen said. She was the cook. I guess it was appropriate that I would become pretty friendly with the cook, since I ate all the time. I thought of Rosa, our housekeeper in Malibu, and how tight we’d been. Maybe I could get down to visit her this week and surf for a day before school started.

“Thanks,” I said. I started eating toast, going slowly, so slowly that I got an odd, and then a knowing look from her, but I ignored her. I pulled out my phone, almost as an afterthought, and checked my messages. I was surprised to see there was one from Erik.

I hit play, feeling kind of happy, but slightly apprehensive. “Hey Will. It was good to see you last night. I’m glad we’re cool. I was thinking that I could try to make it up to you, me breaking your nose and everything, by buying you dinner on Monday night. Let me know if you can make it.”

I probably should have waited until I was done eating, then calmly called him back, but I was pretty excited to have a real date, so I strolled outside where it was quieter to return his call. “Hey,” he said, answering cheerfully.

“Hey,” I responded. “I got your message. Monday works for me.”

“Awesome,” he said enthusiastically. “How about I pick you up at five.”

“I can do five,” I said. “Is this formal? Black tie?”

Then he shocked the shit out of me. “Khakis and a dress shirt,” he said simply. I’d been joking about black tie, but khakis were way nicer than I’d planned. Damn, he was taking me to a nice place. A real date?

“I’ll be ready,” I said.

“You sure this is OK?” he asked nervously.

“It’s very OK,” I promised. I hung up the phone, grinning, and then went back into the kitchen to find Stef and Grand there.

“Your father, Robbie, Darius, and JJ have just landed and should be here shortly,” Grand informed me.

“Cool,” I said, then sat back down and started eating. “I have a date tomorrow night.”

“You work quickly,” Stef said. “And who is taking you out?”

“You’ll never guess,” I said, taunting him.

“Then I will not even try,” Stef replied.

“Erik Delgado.” It was funny to see even Grand seem surprised by that.

“Is he not the young man who broke your nose?” Stef asked.

“He is. He thinks he did me a favor because I look hotter now,” I said.

“I assume there was some reason for this change of heart?” Grand asked.

“I didn’t think you paid attention to my teen drama,” I noted.

“This would fall into the category of your safety,” he said seriously, “and as such, I do pay attention.”

“I appreciate your concern,” I said with mock severity, just to annoy him and make Stef laugh. “I ran into him at the party last night. I apologized to him for hurting him by messing around with Kyle, and he apologized to me for breaking my nose.”

Grand nodded and tried not to smile, since he was probably happy that I got how dickish it was to fuck around with another dude’s boyfriend. “That was a good thing you did,” Stef noted.

“After we apologized to each other, we made out for a while, and then he left me a message asking me out on Monday. I must be a pretty good kisser,” I said to Stef.

“You certainly have had a lot of practice,” Grand noted.

“Practice makes perfect,” I quipped. “I’ll let you know when I get there.”

“You have not gotten there yet?” Stef asked, giving me crap.

“Maybe,” I said, and winked at him. I turned my attention back to Grand. “Can you let the Escorial militia know that it’s OK for Erik to be here?”

Grand gave me an annoyed look, even though he wasn’t annoyed at all. “I will call off the dogs and be polite when he arrives.”

“Thank you,” I said. Our conversation was cut short when the Malibu crowd arrived. JJ walked into the room first, looking annoyed so everyone would know he didn’t want to be here. It was cool that he shrugged his attitude off and got all animated when he saw me, and gave me a smile.

“You’re back on the mainland!” he said, as we shared a nice hug.

“I am. It’s good to see you.” There was no time for additional comments, though, because Darius was right behind him. He gave me one of his more stunted ‘cool’ hugs, but they were meaningful considering Darius was pretty strict about guarding his personal space.

“You doing alright?” he asked. He knew how tough it had been for me to leave Berto in Rome last year, and he knew Kai was as important to me as Berto had been, so it was a pretty caring thing for him to ask.

“I’m doing alright,” I said, and smiled. I’d been too busy to really think much about Kai since I’d gotten back, but now that I did, I really missed him.

Robbie gave me one of his trademark hugs and I just sank into him, only tensing up when I saw my father behind him, looking severe. “It’s good to see you back here, safe and sound.”

“Well, safe anyway,” I joked.

“I heard you did some extra decorating in Hawaii,” he said.

“We did some stuff to help Kai’s family out,” I said.

“Good job,” he said, and patted my shoulder in an approving way. Then he moved aside and Dad was there.

“You know, even if you’re mad at me, you still have to answer my calls,” he said to me, being frosty. Robbie and Stef both gave him dirty looks, but I could take care of myself.

“No, I don’t. If you want me to talk to you, don’t be an asshole. If you are, I won’t talk to you. That’s how it is. Period,” I said firmly. I was so not putting up with shit from him.

“If you cannot adhere to simple safety rules, we’ll have to review your situation,” he snapped.

“We’ll review my situation by you taking your safety rules and procedures and stuffing them all the way up your ass,” I said, and my voice got loud enough that Grand cleared his throat. Darius and JJ were trying not to laugh. They usually thought it was funny when Dad and I squared off like this, since no one else really challenged him like I did.

“He’d probably like that,” Darius joked, taking us away from this confrontational place, and making everyone but me and Dad laugh. Dad gave me a foul look, and then stalked out of the kitchen.

“You two sure know how to push each others’ buttons,” Robbie said, shaking his head. “Only now I have to go listen to him bitch about it until dinner.”

“No you don’t,” I told him. “Let’s go out on the patio and smoke a joint.”

“I’m going to my room,” JJ announced. He didn’t get high, because it was too coarse for him, and because he was always getting tested for drugs for skating. I decided that JJ probably wouldn’t ever be much of a pothead anyway, but he’d probably do drugs in college, or when he was done with his figure skating career, but only the really expensive, trendy, and popular ones. If Louis Vuitton made E, JJ would do it.

The rest of us walked out onto the patio and I pulled out a joint, lit it, and passed it around. I told them all about my time in Hawaii and about the party and my date with Erik Delgado.

“So all that drama over the Bastille Day party was for nothing?” Darius asked, giving me shit.

“I think the points Will made when he was upset were important,” Grand noted. “We will do better in the future as a result, although perhaps then our party won’t be quite so spectacular next year.”

“Spectacular?” Stef challenged. “I thought it was quite nice.”

“I agree,” Grand said, “but it was more ‘Hollywood’ than ‘Palo Alto’.”

“Mom and Hank can’t make it tonight,” Darius said, changing the subject before Stef totally derailed the conversation by talking about the party last month. “Hank couldn’t get enough time off. She said they’d try to make it out here after they get married.”

“They’re getting married?” I asked. “They can’t get married. Don’t you have to be Dutch to get married if you’re gay or lesbian?”

“It is a commitment ceremony, not a wedding,” Robbie asserted, rolling his eyes at Darius.

“How come no one told me about this?” I demanded, not a little pissed off. Hadn’t I been supportive of Mom and Hank? Wasn’t I the one that went house hunting with them? Yet they couldn’t call me and tell me they were getting as close to married as they could get? What the fuck?

“We’re telling you now, dumbass,” Darius said. “I just found out last night. Mom called me and told me about it. Made me late for my date. I told her I’d tell you, since you just got back in town and she didn’t want to bug you.”

“Whatever,” I said, not really mollified. But there was nothing to be gained by getting pissed off about it. “So what’s their plan?”

“They’re going to get married on September 11, at 9:11,” Darius said, trying not to snicker.

“They’re getting married at nine-eleven, on nine-eleven?” I asked, trying not to laugh. “Because Hank’s a cop?”

“They think it’s cute,” Darius said, smirking, since it was so kitschy and corny it was hilarious.

“Yeah, it’s adorable,” I agreed, as we snickered to make fun of how goofy Mom and Hank were being.

“I think it’s sweet,” Robbie insisted.

“Sweet,” Darius repeated, in a fake-sugary way, and then got snarky. “Right.”

“So who all will be at dinner tonight?” I asked, changing the subject so Robbie wouldn’t look like a total sap.

“Wade, Matt, Nana, and Tiffany are not coming in for it,” Stef said sadly. “They sent their regards, but their presence is required for a party Wade’s father is throwing at their country estate.”

“At Goodwell?” I asked, since that was the name of Wade’s family estate in Virginia, just for clarification.

“Yes,” Stef said, and then he looked at Darius more intently. “Ella came back in town for a visit, so she may be here. She brought a friend with her.”

I watched Darius trying to pretend like that didn’t bother him, so I jumped in for him, just like a brother should. “A friend?”

“Apparently she has been dating a young man, and he accompanied her,” Stef said. “She would like to know if it is alright for him to join us for dinner.”

“I could give a shit whether she brings him or not,” Darius said. Only he did give a shit, but if he admitted it, it would expose the whole charade of the way he was dealing with her dumping him and moving to New York. He couldn’t say this dude couldn’t be here without it looking like he was still upset over the way she left him.

“I would be very uncomfortable if she brought him with her,” I said to Stef and Grand firmly. Darius couldn’t admit to it bothering him, but I could.

“I don’t know if it’s reasonable for you to ban Ella’s friends from coming,” Robbie observed.

“I think it is,” I said. “This dinner is clearly important, since Dad badgered Stef about it for almost two weeks and still hasn’t found out what it’s about.” Stef chuckled at that. “There’s no reason for non-family members to show up when they’d make the rest of us uncomfortable.”

“I agree,” Grand said. “And I would note that the invitation was only for Ella, not for Ella and a guest.” In other words, it was quite rude for Ella to assume her guest should be invited in the first place.

We’d all been talking about this while pretending to ignore Darius, but the fact that he didn’t jump in and insist that it was alright for this dude to come spoke volumes about how he really felt. “I think that you both make very good points,” Stef said to Grand and me. “I will pass that on.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Well, I’d better go unpack and listen to Brad bitch about Will,” Robbie said, making us laugh. That served to break up our group, all except for Darius who stuck around.

“Thanks,” Darius said. “Probably saved me from kicking the dude’s ass.”

“No problem,” I said with a smile. “It’s really not his fault though, is it?”

“What do you mean?” he demanded.

“He’s going out with her, but you two aren’t together,” I said.

He looked at me like I was an idiot. “You think he knows about me?”

“I guess so,” I said. It made sense that if she liked this dude enough to bring him out here, she probably would have told him about Darius.

“He knows this is my family, and he’s coming out here to rub it in my face that he’s fucking my ex-girlfriend,” Darius spat. “She’s so fucking stupid, she probably hasn’t figured it out, but whoever this dude is, this is his way of telling me that she’s his now, and to fuck off.”

“If you say so,” I said, unconvinced. Besides, maybe she was his, and maybe this was Ella’s way of making that point.

“So you left that dude behind, and you seem to be doing OK,” he said, referring to Kai. Evidently he was finished talking about his love life.

“I’m trying not to think about him. I’ve been really busy since I got back. It’s helping.”

“Sounds like he was a nice guy,” Darius said. “Not the normal kind of asshole you fall for.”

I laughed at that. “He is a nice guy. And I’m not the only one who falls for assholes.”

Now it was his turn to laugh. “True that. I’m going to go crash before dinner. I was out late. It was a good date.” He leered as he said that last line, cracking me up. After he walked off, I called Kai.

“Hey, you enjoying being home?” he asked, trying to sound upbeat.

“No, I miss you,” I said.

“I miss you too,” he said, and let his happy façade fall down as he did. “I’m pretty lonely without you around. And I ended up surfing with some dudes who were totally lame today.” We distracted ourselves by talking about surfing, which actually just made it worse. By the time I hung up, I was pretty depressed. I decided that Darius had the right idea and went back to my room to crash, setting my alarm for 6:00 so I’d have enough time to wake up and get ready for dinner.

I’d just stripped down to my boxers and hopped into bed when someone knocked on my door. I sighed, got up, and answered it. “Hey, did I interrupt you?” Dad asked.

“I was just about to take a nap,” I said, holding the door open to invite him in. I walked back and grabbed my shorts, like I needed the extra layer of clothing to shield me when battling with him. “What’s up?”

“Sometimes I feel like you’re just trying to push my buttons,” he said, but in an exasperated way, not in an open, communicative way.

“Oh? Why would you think that?” I asked.

“You have a full bar in your house in Maui, and you want to build a room with a sling in it? It’s like you’re just trying to piss me off,” he said.

“I don’t know why you’d think that, since neither one of those things is any of your goddamn business,” I said.

“Your emancipation comes with obligations, and those don’t include you drinking alcohol,” he said.

“And where does it say I can’t build a sexual playground?” I asked, making it sound much more exotic than it would have been.

“Seriously? You don’t think a court would have an issue with that?” he demanded.

“Well, the only one of my relatives who’s a big enough asshole to even think about making me answer for that to a judge is you, so I think a real easy solution to my problem is to keep you as far out of my business as possible. That starts now.” I walked over to the door and opened it, indicating that he should leave. “And the next time you try to fuck with Mom’s head over this shit, I’m going to make your life a living fucking hell. Are we clear?” The door was open, and I was yelling, a very daring combination at Escorial.

“How did I fuck with your mother’s head?” he demanded loudly.

“Why did you tell her about that room? Why?”

He looked nervous, because I had him with that one. “You don’t think she has a right to know?”

“I don’t think you have a right to know, and I sure as hell don’t think she has a right to know, but she doesn’t need that kind of stress in her life, and I don’t need you fucking around with our relationship.”

“I wasn’t doing that,” he said.

“I worked really hard to get back to a decent place with her, and I’m happy with it. Don’t you fuck it up.” He looked at me, as if understanding what had really pissed me off the most about this whole thing. “Now get the fuck out of my room!” He didn’t move, he just stood there. “I said get the fuck out!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “NOW!” He gave me a dirty look and stalked out of my room. He paused as he left, turning as if he wanted to say something, but I slammed the door in his face. If he’d been any closer, it would have smacked him in the nose. I locked it, and went back to take my nap. He was so clueless sometimes, and such a fucking idiot. Ironically enough, his attitude didn’t surprise me at all, nor did it upset me, and I slept soundly until my alarm went off.

August 19, 2001

I walked into the dining room at 6:45pm, and unsurprisingly, I was the first person there. I took my seat at the head of the long mahogany table, and looked at the row of seats that lined each side. The leaves had been added to bring it to the appropriate length to accommodate all of our guests. The staff had put out our formal china and silver, along with our best crystal, and the table glistened as those items sparkled in the artificial light of the chandeliers.

I was surprised to see Will stroll in next. He smiled at me, and then took the seat next to me on my left, the one his father normally sat in. “Is it alright if I sit here?”

“Certainly,” I said, smiling internally at how much that would irritate Brad.

“I thought you may want some charming dinner conversation,” he joked.

“And you think you can provide that?”

“I can,” he said confidently.

“I thought I heard your voice at an unacceptably loud level this afternoon,” I said, to let him know that I’d heard him yelling and that it bothered me.

“I’m sorry about that. There was an intruder in my room,” he said.

I raised an eyebrow. “Then you should have called the Escorial militia.”

He laughed at that. “Next time, I will.” John walked in next, followed by his mother and father. Marie had still not made an appearance at a family dinner since earlier this summer, and she was not with them. Will motioned John to sit next to him, while Claire chose to sit on the other side of him, and Jack beyond her. I thought about my historical studies of pre-revolutionary France, and how those who were closest to the King had the most power; it was a mark of royal favor for them to be in his orbit. In this way, Will was showing Brad how irritated he was and asserting his position. I found it all quite amusing. Next to arrive was Stefan, who greeted everyone cordially and took his place at my right hand. Darius and JJ arrived next, and looked confused by the changes in the normal seating arrangement, but conformed and sat next to Stef.

“I understand you had an interesting date last night,” Stef said to Darius.

“I would have called it hot, amazingly hot,” Darius said, and winked at him, making us all laugh.

“Hot enough to miss my charming company last night?” Stef asked, pretending to be in a snit.

“It was that hot,” Darius said with a leer. Part of me wondered how much of this act was being promulgated so that it would get back to Ella via Claire, Jack, or John, but it was possible that it was genuine, since Darius was quite charming, and quite the wolf.

Isidore and Frank came in, followed by Ace and Cass. Courtney was a bit young for this kind of gathering, but it saddened me that she was at home with her nurse and I wouldn’t get to see her. Brad and Robbie came in last, and it looked like they had either been arguing or having sex, since their faces were quite red. When Brad looked at the table, and saw Will in his seat, his eyes narrowed. I managed to repress a smile, but just barely. They sat near the middle of the table. “We don’t usually sit down here,” Robbie said to Frank. “It will be nice to hang out with you.” Frank said nothing, but smiled at Robbie.

“No, we don’t,” Brad said, showing his irritation.

“Pays to get here early,” Will said to him in a smarmy way.

“Maybe we’ll have to resort to using place cards,” Brad said to him, being bitchy.

“You could do that, if it was your house,” Will responded. Their exchange had been annoying to Brad, and amusing to the rest of us, but it was time to intercede since that is not what this dinner was about.

“We would like to thank you all for joining us this evening,” I said, and nodded respectfully at Isidore, who nodded respectfully back at me.

“It’s not every day we get a formal invitation to dinner,” Claire said.

“Well, we have two important things to attend to this evening,” I told them. I stood up and walked over to JJ, surprising and slightly bothering him, since he usually liked to be inconspicuous at these dinners. “Earlier this summer, you surrendered this to support your brother,” I said, handing him back his ring. “It would please me if you would wear it again.”

“Sure,” JJ said weakly, and held out his left hand. I slid the ring back on his finger, and patted him on the back as I did. I saw Will looking at us out of the corner of my eye. He was distraught, although he was hiding it well. To him, this ring, this symbol of family, was much more important than it was to JJ. It clearly bothered him that he didn’t have his ring. I walked back to my seat and acted as if I were going to sit down, just to taunt him, then froze and looked at him. I pulled his ring out of my pocket and pretended to ponder it.

“You surrendered your ring as well,” I told him. “You did so in anger, over an incident that upset you, with no small amount of justification. I have not returned it to you because even though other family members had harmed you, you did not treat them with the respect they deserved, and you did not give them the chance to right their wrongs.” It was interesting to see how unhappy Claire and Isidore were that I was laying into Will about that. They clearly felt guilty about the way they had treated him, and after he had apologized to them, as far as they were concerned the incident was over and did not need to be dwelt upon. “However, I have been impressed by the way you have tried to repair those relationships, and how you have apologized most sincerely. And I have been impressed by the way you have tried to treat other family members respectfully since then.”

“Not all family members,” Brad snapped.

Before I could intervene, Stef jumped in, which was interesting in and of itself. “This does not involve you at all,” he said firmly, in his most strong and rigid business demeanor, one which completely shut Brad up. It was a nice way for Stef to show that he was not going to just be Brad’s lap dog, but would define his relationship with Will separately from his relationship with Brad.

I held out my left hand to Will and he put his left hand in mine. I slid the ring back on his finger, and could not stop from smiling not just at the gesture, but from the look of sheer happiness on his face. “Thank you,” he said, then stood up and gave me a big hug. I was not usually big on physical and public displays of affection, but I found that I rather liked it when they came from my grandchildren. This hug was special, because I could feel how returning this bejeweled gold ring had healed Will’s rift with the family, and I could feel the physical relief he felt as he grasped me in a virtual bear hug. It was very sweet.

We sat down and began to eat our salads, with everyone wondering why we had sent out an invitation for an event that must have seemed somewhat anticlimactic. After we finished our salads, and the staff brought out the main course, I sat there and did not start eating, and neither did Isidore. Frank and Stefan sat quite motionless as well, and of course Claire picked up on that and did not start eating either. “There is another important announcement that I want to make this evening,” I said. “Although this is not one that I make alone.”

I paused and looked at Isidore, offering to let her tell them. “I will let you explain it to everyone, JP,” she said.

“Isidore and I have decided to get a divorce. The papers are signed and will be filed on Monday, so but for the formalities, it should be finalized within a few weeks or so,” I said, as if this were of no great import. The people at the table besides Isidore, Frank, Stef, and I looked completely stunned.

“What happened?” Ace asked, quite upset. He tended to get very emotional, and got excited easily. “You guys have been together for years! What screwed things up?” He glared at the others around the table, as if planning to blame them. They all looked guilty in their own ways, as if they in some way contributed to this. Claire, Jack, and Will looked horrified, as if their blow up over the Bastille Day party had precipitated this. Brad looked just as upset, worried that his fight with Isidore over how she’d treated Will had caused the problem. And Robbie just looked confused, probably wondering if any of his drama had contributed to the situation. John, Darius, and JJ looked relatively unconcerned, since they didn’t really create enough problems to worry about it. Ace was a hot head, but one who could be calmed relatively easily, in this case, by a stern look from me.

Before anyone else could say anything, Isidore stood up, indicating that she wanted to speak, and that she was demanding our undivided attention. “JP, I want to thank you for many years of happiness. Our marriage for me has been first one of convenience, then one of friendship, and finally one where that friendship transformed itself into love. You have done so much for me, helped me through some of the toughest times of my life, and I will always love and treasure you. Thank you.”

“We have weathered the good and bad times together,” I told her. “I love you too.”

She took off her rings, the rings I’d given her in 1963, and looked at them meaningfully. Then, as if she had made a major decision, she stood up and walked over to where Darius sat. “Someday, you will meet a woman who will be your partner, and who will complete you. If you will promise me that you will love her, and care for her, as much as your grandfather has loved and cared for me, I will leave these rings in your safekeeping.”

Darius looked at her and blinked, since the engagement ring I’d given Isidore was huge, and had cost a fortune back in 1963. It would be worth tens of thousands of dollars today. But the sentimental value, and the words and emotions attached to it, were even more significant. Darius was a traditional young man, so this had great meaning for him. He stood up and took the rings, put them on his right pinky, and held her hands. “Grandmaman, I promise that I will only give these rings to a girl who is as awesome as you are, and I will do my best to treat her as well as Grand has treated you. Only since I’m not gay, I may even do better in some areas.” And then everyone, me included laughed uproariously at that. Isidore gave him a nice hug, one that was very genuine, and then went back to take her seat.

The food was growing cold, but none of us was overly worried about that. Shortly after Isidore took her seat, Frank stood up, and then knelt next to her. He pulled a small case, a ring case, out of his pocket as he did, then opened it up and showed it to her. “As you are soon to be a single woman, I am wondering if you would do me the honor of becoming my wife.”

She smiled at him lovingly. “I would be honored to be your wife,” she said, and gave him her hand so he could put the ring on her finger.

“To my new stepmother,” Robbie said, holding up his glass in a toast. We all cheered and toasted, and the mood, which had started out as somber, then transitioned to maudlin, now became celebratory. It was a wonderful dinner, one of the best I could remember at Escorial.