Somehow, I survive the onslaught of questions, most of which I either skillfully avoid or redirect to make them talk about Gabriel. And then I talk about how ridiculous it was when I saw the Halloween costume he’d bought for his cat, and Gabriel eats up a significant chunk of our lives telling us about how “cute” the cat was.
“Liam, would you like to play a card game? What about rummy?” Mabel asks.
“I’d love to. I’m not sure I’ve actually ever played, but I’ll give it a shot,” I say as Gabriel’s parents begin to clean up dinner. We both offer to help, but they wave us off and stick Gabriel on the duty of teaching me.
“When was the last time I got to teachyousomething?” he asks, looking excited at the prospect.
“You taught me the art of patience. You also taught me true torture techniques by refusing to move in with me.”
“Ha. Ha. So funny,” he says as he starts going through the rules of the game. He would have been a good teacher… or maybe I just think he’d have been good at everything. “How about I show you my hand for the first round to help you out?”
“Sure,” I agree, even though I got the rules quite a while ago. I just love scooting my chair next to his and listening to how he’d play each move. I don’t even say anything when he clearly could have gone out the round before but was far too focused on helping me to notice.
And then I proceed to demolish the family. At one point, I consider losing a hand or two out of pity, but really… they shouldn’t be so bad at the game.
“I thought you never played this game before,” Gabriel says as he eyes his score.
“Just goes to show how phenomenal of a teacher you are,” I assure him.
“Ha. Funny and cute,” he says.
“Aww, you think I’m cute?”
He just laughs and deals out the next round even though he knows his fate.
THREE
Gabriel
As we walk out of my parents’ house, I turn to Liam. “That went shockingly well. I mean… you made my dad cry when you demolished him at every single game he had you play, but besides that,” I joke.
“You mean he cried and I didn’t get to witness it?” Liam asks.
I laugh, and as I get into the driver’s seat, I see that I have a message from my mom in a group chat with my dad.
Mom: He’s super nice. I very much like him and he’s sexy. I loved that he couldn’t stop looking at you all night. That boy is smitten.
Me: I’m really glad you like him. I was a bit nervous, but everything went so well.
Dad: Ask him when he wants to go fishing.
Me: I will.
“They just texted me a review of you,” I say.
“Oh yeah? If I didn’t get an A, I’m going to let Jesse lock me in a drawer.”
“You like my parents that much?” I tease.
“I likeyouthat much,” he says.
It makes me smile because he definitely knows how to say things that hit just the right way. “They definitely gave you an A and my dad wants to know when he can teach you how to fish.”
Liam stills. “Dear god no.”
“You laid it on thick with the whole ‘dead dad no longer around to teach you’ thing.”
“I was trying the tactic where they feel bad for me so they love me out of pity,” he says. “Hell, do I really have to go fishing with your father now?”
