Sweat trickled down my neck into the collar of my shirt.
She put the fork in the dishwasher.
I scrubbed a plate until it was spotless.
I handed her the plate.
She smiled wider.
“I’m not playing with his heart,” I blurted out. “And I’m not getting lost in the game, oh baby, baby.”
She stared at me.
?
?I feel better,” I said.
“Because you’re not that innocent?” she asked.
“Can I be honest?”
“Sure.”
“I’m pretty sure this was the gayest moment of my life.”
“Wow,” she said. “Coming from a drag queen, that’s impressive.”
“Well, we did just use Britney lyrics to have the beginning of a conversation.”
“You should have seen when she first came out,” Sherry said. “Darren listened to that album over and over again. I thought he had a crush on her. I should have known better.”
“You have to tell me everything,” I demanded. “Every embarrassing thing you can about him.”
“That could take days.”
“I have all the time in the world,” I said.
“Do you?” she asked. “For Darren.”
“Uhh,” I said.
She snorted as she took a plate from my hand. “You two are idiots.”
“That’s something I’ve heard before.”
“Often?”
“More than I would have thought,” I admitted.
She watched me for a moment, before glancing out toward the living room. We heard a loud burst of laughter, followed by Darren and Vince trying to speak over each other about something, and I tried not to focus on how nice it sounded, having him here. How perfectly he fit with the rest of us.
She looked back at me. “Can I tell you a secret?”
“Sure,” I said. “As long as it embarrasses Darren, I’m down.”
“When he was little, I used to worry about him,” she said, looking down at the sink. “He never really seemed to need anyone, least of all me. And it was just the two of us, you know. I learned very quickly that Andrew Taylor wasn’t going to be a part of our lives, at least not physically. Financially, sure. It was hush money. I wasn’t fooled by it at all. But I was a single mother raising a son, so I had no qualms in taking it.”
She sighed and gave me a sardonic smile. “Darren never really asked questions about him. Not even when he was younger. It was always understood that he had a father, that his father was alive, but that his father wasn’t there. I didn’t talk shit about him to Darren. I didn’t force my own opinion of Andrew on him. I always told myself that if he asked me, I would answer any question he had honestly. But he never really did. It was like there was an understanding there, like he knew Andrew was never going to be a real part of his life, at least nothing more than a distant figure who fed us cash to keep us quiet.”