Jio rolled their eyes. “My dad gave me a long speech about how marriage is a trap, and this is the worst mistake of my life. But he also offered to pay for most of it, so who’s to say, really?” They grinned, and Matt laughed despite himself. “We’re thinking of just going to the courthouse and spending his money on a vacation.”
“Where are you thinking?” Nina asked. “Might I suggest South America?” She waggled her eyebrows.
“I’ve never left the country,” Matt mused. “Anywhere that needs a passport would be an adventure.”
“You tell me if Peru starts calling your name, I’ll put you up.”
“You’re all invited, duh,” Jio promised. “We’ll try to stream it on Twitch for people who can’t make it. And I still need ideas for the wedding hashtag!”
“Let me know if you need a witness, I can drive over,” Reece offered. “St. Louis isn’t that far.”
“Only if you bring dogs!”
Reece laughed. “We’ll put Hammer in a tutu. He can be the flower pal.”
The conversation turned to wedding attire and suiting trends. Charlotte zoned out, still processing the hurt in Matt’s voice as he talked about his family. Matt’s parents wrapped themselves in their faith as they exiled their son and kept him from seeing his younger brother. Thankfully they weren’t the most tech-savvy bigots, and they didn’t know Matt and Steve talked all the time on Signal.
Was it better or worse to have a sibling? What did it feel like to have someone in your family who loved you and accepted you, but who witnessed your humiliation at the hands of your parents? Would it have been easier to survive her mother’s disgust if Charlotte had a brother or sister by her side? Or would that mean there was one more person to vanish when she didn’t fit her family’s expectations?
As Jio shared their thoughts on stitched versus glued jackets, they ran their fingertips back and forth across Matt’s open palm. Matt didn’t squirm or give any sign he noticed at all, just nodded at some point his fiancé made. He accepted Jio’s physical affection like it was second nature, his fiancé the one person allowed beyond his proper exterior.
Charlotte wished she could ask him how he did it. Matt’s parents refused to love him for who he was, and now he was marrying the love of his life.
When the 3Ds exhausted their knowledge of professional tailoring, Matt turned to Jackie. “Your turn.”
Jackie sighed dramatically. She placed both her hands flat on the table. The pose reminded Charlotte of an executive building suspense before announcing a strategy shift.
“My dad has finally agreed to go to therapy.”
Charlotte’s heart dropped. Jackie avoided looking at her, smirking at Nina instead.
“WHAT?” Jio yelled. “How?”
“He didn’t,” Amy gasped.
“Oh,” Charlotte let out.
Mr. Slaughter was a generous, exuberant man, and a doting parent. He was also an alcoholic. He regularly attended Alcoholics Anonymous, but Charlotte knew Jackie’s dad white-knuckled it at best. Periodic bouts of depression made sobriety even more of a challenge.
Mr. Slaughter was the closest thing Charlotte knew to a father figure. He helped her apply for unemployment after ChompNews laid her off, and he personally invited her to Thanksgiving dinner every fall. Jackie convincing him to start therapy was a major coup, the result of years of careful coaxing and pressure.
And Charlotte didn’t know.
“It was all Mom,” Jackie explained. “She had a tough time at work and one of her friends recommended someone. When Mom liked it, she pushed Dad to book a session with someone else in the practice. She talked him out of all that bullshit about it being self-indulgent.”
The millennials around the dinner table nodded—they’d all had to convince an older relative that therapy wasn’t just talking about yourself for two hundred dollars an hour. The 3Ds had to have an emergency Skype meeting after the dressing-down Nina received from her dad when she mentioned her therapist in front of their priest at mass.
Charlotte’s thumb rose to her lips. She chewed her nail, noxious green guilt swirling in her stomach again. How could she have not known something this huge? Why hadn’t Jackie told her?
Or had she not been listening? It’d been a while since their last FaceTime call, but they’d just spent the entire day together.
Shit.
Charlotte hadn’t asked her about family. Or about work. Or anything other than a smug joke about dating apps. She’d been too distracted by her job and boy baggage to think of anything else.
In fairness, everyone else seemed shocked too. Everyone except Reece, who had his chin propped on his hand as he took in everyone’s reactions.
Interesting. Maybe she’d missed a big change in Reece’s life too. She would have to ask him later.
“I’m helping him find someone who specializes in addiction,” Jackie continued.
Reece raised his free hand. “Text me if you need a recommendation. I know where to look.”
“Can I call you about that too?” Jio asked. “Wedding stuff is going to wreck my brain and I need to find a practice with a sliding-scale system.”
Reece nodded. “Of course, anytime.”
“I hope it works out for him,” Nina said to Jackie. “He’s a good guy. I remember when he drove up from New York with a new laptop when you spilled soda all over yours.”
“You should probably get him a dude therapist,” Reece recommended. “He’ll have a lot of masculinity stuff to unpack.”
Charlotte tried to come up with something to say, but guilt clouded her ability to think. Her best friend must have picked up on the awkward silence. Jackie gave her a small smile, code for we’ll talk about it later.
Matt checked his watch. “Sorry to bail early, but we need to go to Mass Liquors before they close.” Jio stacked their plates as Matt stood and grabbed his messenger bag. “There’s a disco tonight at Acronym if anyone wants to come.”
“We’ll be there,” Jackie said for them both. Charlotte had been looking forward to dancing at Acronym again for months, if not for several years. And goodness knew she needed to ask her best friend some actual questions tonight.
Reece groaned. “Damn, I’ll be on Atwood. The hockey seniors are throwing a party and I promised Garrett I’d help corral the boys.”
