I glanced back at the screen and saw a tall, deceptively muscular actor waving at the slew of blinking cameras. I remembered watching a superhero movie he starred in with Dee a few weeks before, and without the costume and the extra hair he’d grown for the movie, he did actually resemble Gerry.
“Oh wow,” I said. “Actually, that brings up something I wanted to talk about.”
“Ah,” Dee said. “I figured this was coming.”
“Yeah. We just need to talk about it and get it out of the way.”
“Absolutely,” Dee said, muting the TV and turning her body on the couch so she could face me. “Hit me.”
I paused, unsure of how to start the conversation, and tried to think my way through it.
“Well, so, I wanted you to know, things with Gerry are pretty serious,” I started.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Dee laughed. It broke the tension I had built up for myself, and I laughed. “I mean, you haven’t slept here in, what, two weeks? I kind of figured that things had gone beyond casual banging at this point.”
“Dee!” I yelled, kicking at her playfully.
“What?” she said. “You’re an adult!”
“I know, but still,” I said. “You know that was never who I was.”
“True. But the point remains. Maybe that’s who you wanted to be. And I would have supported you. Maybe judged you a little but supported you as your sister.”
“Well, thank you for that,” I said, cocking my eyebrow and pursing my lip to one side. “I am so glad you would have judgmentally supported my hoeing around.”
“As a good sister should,” she said, popping another piece of kettle corn in her mouth. “But yes, you and Gerry are an item, and I support it. You seem happy together, and that’s what matters.”
“You don’t care about the age difference?” I asked, getting right to the heart of the matter. Dee shook her head.
“No. Do you? Because that’s what really matters,” she said.
“No.”
“Then it doesn’t matter,” she said. “Like I said. You are an adult. You know full well that if it’s weird or you feel uncomfortable for any reason, you just say the word and I will come get you and that’s that. But if two are happy, then who gives a shit about the age difference?”
“You really think that?” I asked.
“I do.”
“Alright.” I beamed. “Good.”
“Feel better?” Dee asked.
“I do,” I said. “Also, you need to come over and meet his cat.”
“The one you called Max for a week?” she asked.
I laughed.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m sorry, Clovis is just such a clunky name. Captain Max sounds so much better. Besides, he responds to it when I say it.”
“You still call him that?” Dee asked.
I put my finger to my lips in a shushing motion.
“Only when Gerry’s not around,” I admitted.
“Weirdo,” Dee said, laughing. “So, how is it over there? I haven’t asked yet, mostly because I didn’t want to embarrass you or make it seem like I was too nosy.”
“It’s amazing.” I sunk a little further back into the couch with a grin. “His cabin is gorgeous, and it has this amazing game room that I thought we would spend more time in.”
“Where do you spend your time?” Dee asked and then almost immediately looked like she regretted it.
“Mostly, the giant tub in his master bath,” I laughed.
“Malia!” she said, joining me in laughter and throwing a piece of popcorn after me.
“What? You said I was an adult!”
“Yeah, but I don’t need details,” she said. “Well, maybe I need details. This is a really weird position to be in. I want to gossip with you, but you are my little sister, and we haven’t done this about guys you dated before, so give me a minute!”
We continued to laugh, and eventually, she got over her weirdness and I told her about my experience with Gerry. She was happy for me, even if she seemed a little grossed out, and by the end of the night, she had broken into her wine stash.
It was a little weird sleeping in my room, and while it had been my place for months, I had already started to think of Gerry’s place as my home. Little touches in his bedroom that I had made stuck, and I brought over a fair amount of my clothes, taking up space in his closet, and most of my makeup assortment was in his bathroom.
But, curling into bed in the post-midnight hours, I noticed that when I left the last time, I had made the bed and not noticed that one of his socks was down inside it. I laughed but didn’t move it. I liked having that little piece of him there.
Spending the night there was fun, but in the morning, a message on my phone changed all plans for the next few days. I sent off a text to Gerry to tell him and got back an excited series of emojis. He was learning, finally.