The Romantics(11)
Gael raised his eyebrows. “I thought you said we were going to do stuff separately.”
“Well, I changed my mind, okay?” Immediately, she forced a smile, as if surprised at herself. Angela Brennan, who made her living raising her voice to young college students, entreating them to open their eyes to the bullshit of the system, was a beacon of cheerfulness at home. He’d gone with his dad to pick her up once, and they’d caught the tail-end of her lecture—it had been crazy to see the petite woman who cut the crusts off his bread talking vehemently about housework being the “second shift.”
Of course, only now could he really see that her cheerfulness took work. Now that his dad was gone, she was constantly trying to hold it together—Gael wondered sometimes how long she’d been doing that before his dad left.
(A long time, actually. Longer than even I had realized.)
She took a deep breath and clasped her hands together. “I just meant, I know this has all been very hard for you, and so I thought, in the transition, that it would be nice to do something as a family.” Her smile fell flat as she waited for his reaction.
Gael just shrugged. “Whatever.”
Her smile came back in full force. “Oh, by the way,” she said as she moved toward the door. “I ran into Sammy on campus this morning. I asked her to come, too. We’ll pick her up on the way.”
Another shrug. “I honestly don’t care who comes, Mom.”
She tilted her head to the side, smirking. “Whatever you say . . .”
The truth was, all Gael wanted was to binge-eat cake and Snickers and watch anywhere from two to ten movies.
But he guessed he should be used to not getting what he wanted by now.
It was dim inside the sushi place, which was decorated to make you forget you were eating raw fish nearly three hours from the ocean, with earthy colors and paper shades and potted curlicue bamboo plants and waiters wearing all black. Sizzling sounds came from the kitchen, and the place smelled salty and delicious.
Even though they arrived early, Gael’s dad had beaten them there and was sitting at a big table in the middle. Arthur Brennan was passionate about four things in life: running, Russian history, UNC basketball, and punctuality.
His dad, easily the tallest person in the room, stood up as they walked in and shifted his weight from foot to foot while nervously running a hand through his meticulously cut and parted sandy blond hair. His dad and his mom proceeded to do an awkward dance of deciding whether to hug (they didn’t) and where to sit (Piper and Sammy ended up taking two spots between them so they didn’t have to be too close). Gael took a seat next to his mom, and it didn’t take him long to realize there were two extra seats, right next to him.
“What’s with the chairs?” he asked.
And then—
“Anika!” His mom stood up, and Gael turned around, already feeling ill, but it wasn’t just Anika. It was Mason, too. Both walked in all smiling, like they hadn’t just mutually broken his heart and ruined his life.
Gael forced his mouth into a smile as Sammy caught his eyes, her teeth clenched awkwardly, a look of pity creeping its way across her face.
Gael felt his body tense as Anika gave him a hug. “Happy birthday,” she whispered, and she smelled like she always did, like coconut shampoo. She pulled back way too fast and yet not soon enough.
Then Mason suddenly clapped him on the back, saying, “Happy birthday, bro. I wasn’t sure if I should show up or whatever, but when your mom called to make sure I was still coming, I was pumped.”
“My mom?”
“She arranged the whole thing, dude.”
The two of them quickly sat down, Anika sandwiched awkwardly between Gael and Mason. Gael wanted to explain that his mom had no idea what had happened between them—and that any calls from her absolutely did not have his blessing—but he couldn’t exactly say anything with everyone there at the table.
(Just so everyone’s clear on this, Anika and Mason showing up was about the last thing I wanted to happen at this juncture. I did my best to prevent them from coming—I tried to lure Mason to change his plans with a glimpse of a blockbuster action movie poster on the drive home from school, and Anika even had some, ahem, mysterious car trouble. But it was no use. Anika’s mom is a whiz with cars, and Mason cared far more about potentially healing his friendship with Gael than any movie, no matter how many car chases it promised.)
For Gael, the minutes stretched by endlessly, as his dad began to get anxious about whether the waiter had forgotten about their appetizers. As his mom made a show of unfolding and refolding her napkin and trying to avoid his dad’s eyes. As Piper looked just a touch too happy, probably na?vely hoping that after one joint dinner his parents would actually make up. As Mason made a totally Mason comment about how it was good to see Mr. and Mrs. Brennan together again, and his parents scrambled to say how they had such a good friendship, and it was all going well, and blah blah blah. As Anika caught his eyes, and delivered a compassionate glance that only made him fume inside. If she was really so sorry about what had happened with his parents, she wouldn’t have destroyed him like she did.
After another agonizing few minutes of placing their orders, his parents fumbling because they always got the “Sushi for Two” special, Anika fiddled in her bag and pulled out a cellophane-wrapped Blu-ray. “I wanted to give you this,” she said quietly.