Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 10

both."
    "Yeah. I don't know why I'm being such a crybaby." He picked up a bar napkin and wiped his eyes.
    "Aw, Jason," Glenn said. "Who wouldn't be emotional? You're human, and this is your dad we're talking about."
    "Glenn, my dad's not a bad person. He just doesn't know how to cope with his own feelings. He like has two emotions—if you can even call them emotions—contentment and anger."
    Glenn nodded.
    "I don't think he even cried at the funeral. I don't think I've ever seen him cry. He doesn't know how to express himself. When he is upset or hurting or afraid, all that comes out of him is anger. The more intensely he feels something, the more violent his rage is. You should have seen him yesterday when we were getting ready for the show. I knew he was nervous, and he just kept snapping at me."
    "These shows probably aren't easy for him," Glenn suggested. "I mean, with his history."
    "Yeah, that makes sense."
    The waiter was back with another round of drinks. "You know, if I'm gonna drink, I gotta eat something," Jason said. "Can we see some menus?"
    "Sure," the bartender said, smiling. If he were any friendlier, he'd be curtseying, Jason thought.
    "I was going to suggest that," Glenn said. He was now smiling broadly himself. "But I was afraid. If I asked you to dinner and you said no, it'd be a crushing blow to my fragile ego. I don't deal very well with rejection."
    Jason laughed. "Ha! Well, it's not like a date or anything."
    Glenn just looked at him, still smiling.
    "So does your dad know about you?"
    Jason's smile quickly vanished as he shook his head. "Are you kidding? How could I even think about telling him? But… uh… how did you know?"
    "Gaydar, maybe?"
    "Wait… are you saying…?"
    "I came out of the closet years ago," he said. "The company I went to work for was very progressive. They were one of the first to offer domestic partner benefits."
    "Do you … uh… have a domestic partner?"
    Glenn laughed. "I had a boyfriend for eight years, but I'm single."
    Jason felt his heart beating faster, but he willed himself to maintain his casual demeanor. "What happened?"
    "Long story," Glenn said.
    "Ah, another ugly separation?"
    "Stephen passed away two years ago. Cancer."
    "Oh… Glenn, I'm so sorry."
    "It's okay."
    Jason felt like a jerk for saying the wrong thing, for making the assumption he had. "That must've been hard. I can't imagine."
    "It was just so sudden," Glenn said. "He was a perfectly healthy thirty-two year old man, then BAM. He went in for what he thought was a routine checkup. They diagnosed him with lung cancer, and he'd never smoked a day in his life. Two months later, he was gone."
    "Unbelievable," Jason said, shaking his head. "What was he like?"
    Glenn smiled, staring for a moment over Jason's head, as if thinking. Visualizing, perhaps. "He was wonderful. The complete opposite of me."
    Jason smiled.
    "He was very outgoing. Artistic. High energy. Slender like you but a little shorter. He did graphic design."
    "Oh wow, two computer geeks sharing the same household."
    "Uh… well not really. He did have to do a lot of his work on the computer, but he also painted. He was a phenomenal illustrator. We had a life sized portrait of Cher in our living room."
    Jason burst out laughing. "Wow. You're right. He doesn't seem much like you. I can't picture it."
    "It's in our guest room now. I actually started to grow accustomed to it, hated to take it down, but after a while, it was just too hard—too painful a reminder." Jason wondered how long it would be until Glenn stopped using plural pronouns. He probably never would. His father still did it even though his mom had been gone for a decade.
    "We better look at these menus," Glenn said, "before you get me bawling too."
    "I don't mind seeing a grown man cry," Jason admitted.
    "Well that'd be a pretty sad way to spend a first date… both of us crying." Suddenly he stopped and set down his menu. "Did I just say that? I mean… that'd be a sad way to spend a first business meeting."
    "Could you imagine?" Jason said, chuckling to himself. "My dad would absolutely shit his pants if we did… uh date each other."
    "I'm almost old enough to be your dad."
    "You're seventeen years older than me. I figured it out last night…" It was now Jason's turn to be embarrassed by saying too much.
    "Ah, so you were thinking about me last night?"
    "A little," he confessed. He put his head down, staring at the menu. Without looking up, he daringly plunged