Jake & Conor - 4. Chapter 4

At Christmas, I’d again gone east. The show had a short break, and ratings had been solid, if not outstanding. But it looked like we’d easily get another season. So I wasn’t worried about money.
“Wanna meet my folks?” I’d asked Conor.
He’d hesitated. “You really like your family.”
It wasn’t a question. “Yeah,” I replied.
We’d finished a game of Scrabble. For a moment, he was silent.
“My family’s... difficult,” he told me.
“In what way?”
Again, he hesitated. “Every.”
I didn’t known what to say. Conor never talked about his family, while I constantly told stories about mine.
“You should come to Massachusetts,” I suggested. “It’ll be fun.”
He wouldn’t agree. And though over the next few weeks I asked him several more times, I finally ended up going alone. My family knew about Conor – at least, they knew I was seeing someone. But they didn’t know so much about him that I’d have to explain why he wasn’t there.
Conor and I spoke every day. He always sounded fine. “I love Christmas!” he crooned. “Lots of good friends around!”
I flew back New Year’s Eve. It’s my favorite holiday, and I didn’t intend to spend it alone. We planned to watch fireworks from his balcony. His bedroom windows were too small.
“Thanks for coming back early,” he said.
“I promised I would.”
“What’re you missing?”
“A party. A big one. But I’ve been there before.”
“Will they miss you?”
I grinned. “They had me for two weeks.”
He laughed, kissed me, then gave me too many flashy presents. I really just wanted him to meet my family.