Chapter 98

He did. “Sounds like he’s quite a guy.”

What was the point of denying it all the way out here? “Yeah, dad, he is.”

“Sounds like he cares a lot about you.”

Now listen, my dad has never given me anything but unconditional love, but we’ve never talked about men like this. He’s always accepted the fact that I’m gay, but I’ve never so much as mentioned a boyfriend to my dad, much less calmly discussed pros and cons over cocktails on the front porch. But he was serious, I could tell, interested. So I felt comfortable telling him, “Yeah, Dad, I think he does.”

“Sounds like you might care about him, too.”

“Does it?”

“Listen, Walter.” I hid my inner cringe. He continued, “Your mother was way out of my league when I married her, do you know that? She was. Pretty as she was. Smart. She’d been to college, been to New York. She’d even been to England. She’s where you got your wanderlust from, you know that? I’ve never been to England. Shit, son, I’ve never been to Chicago.”