Better Than Home: Better Than Good Novella

“Oh…I don’t remember.”

Yeah, right.

“Try again.”

“Maybe…fifty or so.”

I gaped incredulously. “Fifty or so?”

Aaron held up his hand like a stop sign. “Before you grumble, I want to remind you that you okayed the guest list. We said family, friends, and a couple of work associates.”

“We have fifty of those?”

“We have hundreds of those, but this isn’t a wedding, silly. It’s a housewarming party,” he assured me, reciting the usual suspects. I sipped my beer and reached for an olive, tuning him out until he finished with, “Tania and Chandler are back together, Colleen and her husband are coming. Oh! And I bumped into the neighbors this morning and invited them too. Todd and Jess, I think?”

I coughed and sputtered, slamming the bottle on the counter with more force than necessary. “What is happening? The real estate agent who has a crush on you is coming? And my secretary who suspects we’re moving to LA? And Todd and Jess? This is not good. This is the opposite of good.”

He widened his eyes. “Matty, relax. Chandler is harmless, and Tania wants to do freelance work for me. I thought it would be a nice gesture.”

“Hmph.”

“I know you love Colleen, so I’m not sure why that bothers you. I understand Todd and Jess, but it’s a good idea to be friendly to our new neigh—”

“No way.” I shook my head resolutely. “We cannot invite them. Undo it.”

“Why?”

“They don’t like us.”

“They don’t know us.”

“No, but they’ve already made up their minds about us.”

Aaron squinted. “You’re not making sense. Am I missing something?”

I blew out an exaggerated gust of air, then filled him in on my entire conversation with the neighbors, including their son’s parting comment about boys marrying boys.

“He’s done-zo,” I declared, sounding vaguely like a nut bar to my own ears. “If that kid is going to bully our kids, I don’t want him here. We didn’t do our homework. We should have interviewed the six-year-olds in the hood to find out if they’d been brainwashed to hate us on sight.”

Aaron scoffed. “Matt, that’s crazy talk. He’s six and they’re our neighbors. They were very gracious when I invited them to stop by. Give them a chance. We’re probably the first same-sex couple they’ve been around.”

“So?” I paced the length of the blue-striped runner and turned, shaking my fist. “I should warn you now—if I hear some neighborhood kid spouting hateful shit he learned at home when we’re parents, I will go into full batshit-crazy dad mode. It won’t be pretty.”

“Good to know, but bullies don’t scare me. Been there, done that.” He set his hands on his hips and fixed me with a fierce scowl. “I’ve sharpened my blades so well, I’m like a ninja chef slicing through sirloin, and I promise you, our future offspring will be well trained in the arts of self-care and self-defense.”

“What happens when they get blindsided and they don’t know how to defend themselves? We’ll step in, and all hell will break loose. They’ll get picked on, or they won’t have friends at all, I’ll get banned from picking them up from school or coaching soccer teams. One night, we’ll lie awake worrying about Johnny and Susie and think, ‘Damn, we should have moved to LA when we had the chance.’ ”

Aaron opened and closed his mouth. Twice. “I’m not sure what’s happening here.”

I growled in frustration, unsure how to explain my outburst. “I’m losing my marbles” might work. But the truth wasn’t so easy to define. I wasn’t the type to spin over anything. And holding a grudge against an elementary school-aged kid I didn’t know was beneath me.

Maybe a little bonkers too.

Fuck, I sounded like my mother.

“Ugh. I’m not either. I’m—”

“Are you trying to tell me you want to move to LA?”

“What? No, I—”

“Then what is it?” he asked. No…implored. His voice was scratchy and his eyes welled ominously.

“Yoo-hoo! We’re here. And we found little cuties outside!” My mother’s voice bounced off the high ceilings in the living area followed by the pitter-patter of tiny feet.

My window of opportunity to make things right was closing fast. Too fast. I opened my mouth to say fuck knows what, but the right words wouldn’t come and everything else was a jumble. I stared at him, frozen in helpless silence, willing him to read my mind. But he just looked…hurt. And unhappy.

Christ, I’d done this. And for what? I had no clue why my defenses were high and my emotions were on the surface. I couldn’t explain myself easily, but I had to try.

I caressed his jaw and held his chin. “Aaron…”

“We’ll talk later,” he whispered, stepping out of reach. “But I have to tell you, I’m a little pissed right now. And I’m not referring to LA. It’s just…your timing sucks.”

“Yeah, I know,” I replied sheepishly.

He waved a greeting to someone behind me but continued in a fierce tone for my ears only. “I want to remind you what you told me the day we left New York. You said there’s no such thing as perfect and that if everything went according to plan, life would be boring. You were right. So we have more choices to make again…and that’s okay. It’s probably a good thing. We also have a lot of people rooting for us, and most of them will be here today. Including your mom, who will grill me over the coals and feed me for lunch if she suspects discord. For my sake, put a smile on your face and pretend you like everyone here. And that goes for our new neighbors too.”