Love Means No Boundaries - Andrew Grey

there, as well, but he wasn’t sure. “Yeah. I did.” He smiled in the direction of the voice, hoping he saw it.
“I’m glad.” He heard Geoff bring him a cool drink, placing his hand against the sweating glass. “I’ll be back in about an hour.” Robbie sipped the fresh lemonade and sighed as it slipped down his parched throat. He heard Eli respond, confirming for Robbie what he’d suspected. A hand rested gently on his shoulder, and Robbie recognized Joey’s touch. “I’m going to get cleaned up. Do you need anything?”
    “No, I’m good.” The hand slipped away, and Robbie felt a momentary loss as the warmth went with it. He heard retreating footsteps through the house. Robbie took a huge gulp of the tart lemonade, imagining the bite felt like a shot of liquor, trying to screw up his courage. “Mr. Eli, are we alone?”
“Yes we are. That must be difficult, trying to keep track of who’s in the room.” There was a caring kindness in his voice that Robbie found himself responding to.
     
“Can I ask you a question?” Robbie set the glass on the table, feeling carefully to make sure he didn’t spill. He felt self-conscious enough and didn’t want to add a drippy mess to the list.
     
A chair scraped across the floor, and he heard Eli sit down across the table from him. “Of course, what’s on your mind?” Robbie took a deep breath, steeling his nerves. “How did you know you were,” he swallowed wondering how he could get the 30
    Love Means … NO Boundaries
word out, “gay.” He whispered the last word like it was the worst curse word in the history of curse words.
    He felt Eli take his hand and squeeze gently. “It’s perfectly fine to ask whatever you want to ask here.” He waited, hoping Eli would continue. “I’m probably not the best person to ask because my experience is different. I was raised Amish, and being gay was unthinkable. But I wasn’t happy and couldn’t figure out why. My family suggested some time away from the community, and I intended to use it to figure things out.” Robbie listened intently as the chair scraped on the floor again, and Robbie listened for other movement, but the house remained quiet except for the sound of water running upstairs. “I was lucky. The first night, I didn’t have a place to stay and happened upon a barn. Geoff found me sleeping in a stall and gave me a job. Best day of my life.”
“But how….” Robbie’s frustration seemed to bubble out, and he felt Eli’s reassuring hand on his.
    “When I met Geoff, I felt happy, peaceful, and I just knew almost from the first. Deep down I knew it was right. The hard part was allowing myself to accept it.” Robbie felt Eli’s reassurance again. “Geoff helped me understand that being gay isn’t about liking boy bits or girl bits—it’s about who you fall in love with, who you want to spend the rest of your life with, and I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone other than Geoff.” The deep emotion in Eli’s voice caught Robbie off guard for a second. “Do your parents know about you?”
“No, and they never can for their own sake. They’d be guilty by association, and some in their community would shun them. There are already people in the community who treat them differently because I left. I love Geoff, and my life is here, but I don’t want them hurt because of it. Do your parents know about you?”
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“God no!” Robbie let his head bow forward. “I can’t be gay, I just can’t.” He thought he was going to start to cry, and he held it in because that would be just too embarrassing.
    “It’s not something you get to choose, but it is something you can choose to accept.” Robbie felt Eli’s fingers lift his chin. It was such a strange gesture for him because his family never cared if he was looking toward them. They only cared if he was listening to them. “I’ll tell you this, once I figured out who and what I was and accepted it, I was happier than I’d ever been in my life.”
“Yeah?” Robbie felt a glimmer of home spring from deep inside him.
    “Absolutely. Geoff told me once that part of being gay is the journey to accept who you are. It’s often not an easy journey, but once you make it, you’re stronger and happier because of it.” Footsteps in the house signaled the end of their conversation, and Robbie heard Eli get up and begin moving around the room.
“You won’t say anything to anyone, will