Gregor

Our conversation before I left for my parent's house in Walnut Creek was a great example of what Keith and I were to each other, a reality check. We needed our space. I understood that. I wanted to be supportive, but that was hard when our interests conflicted. It played back in my head on the drive to my parents.

"They don't like me, Greg. I don't think they ever have."

"That's ridiculous. I know things can be tense sometimes, but they'll come around."

"You didn't have a problem with me not going before; why now?"

"Because you're important to me. My parents have to see that. We've worked through our shit. They have to support it."

I almost told him that I wanted to propose to him. I wanted to do it with my parents there, so that they'd see how serious we were and how much we meant to each other. I had the ring in my pocket.

"No, they don't, Greg. They support you. They don't want to support us. I know I fucked up, but I'm not going to wait around to get their respect back. I don't feel like I have to."

"Would you do it for me?"

"Greg." His tone clearly said he wouldn't.

I never asked for much. Keith had his time with his coven that he'd never invited me to because I didn't want to watch them perform rituals and then have sex with each other.

It was more than that. I knew that logically, but I wasn't a witch, and participating seemed contrary to everything I'd grown up with, even if I didn't believe in it any longer. It was important that I didn't impose on Keith religious beliefs, and the ritual sex was part of that, except when it wasn't.

It was a party we were both at, mostly Keith's friends, and while I was talking with a few people, Keith had disappeared. When I found him, he was being fucked by a guy I'd never met, physically bigger than me. He saw me, and they kept going. I think, in some way, Keith was hoping I'd join them. Instead, I left the party.

When Keith eventually made it home, instead of a fight, we had a rational discussion about where my boundaries were and what I was willing to accept. His face had been streaked with tears, and he said he was upset with himself for letting things go too far with Brice. I hadn't wanted a name, but it was blazed in my memory. I proposed boundaries, and he agreed with sobbing relief.

It took me two weeks before I could touch him again without seeing Brice holding him down and his look of utter ecstasy and wanton need on his face. He'd never looked that way with me.

We set boundaries. Keith could have sex with his coven, and as long as he didn't bring anything back to our house and practiced safely, I would be okay with it.

The coven was a mixed group. I didn't ask who Keith would have sex with, but it wouldn't have surprised me if he'd been with everyone there. I'd hear him talk about orgies sometimes, and that was before Brice. At the end of the day, he loved me. I loved him. It wasn't his fault that I wasn't as open-minded as he was, and I accepted him as he was instead of trying to push him to something he could never be for me.

My parents found out about it by accident. My parents found out about it by accident. We’d stayed at their place for Yule. It was my parents' idea to honor Keith’s witch heritage and holiday celebrations. He was on the phone with someone talking about plans for new years. Jennifer, my stepmom, overheard, then asked me later what my plans were, and I said I'd taken extra shifts to help out with holiday crowds working foot patrols. When she put things together, my parents sat me down and asked me some very pointed questions. Even though I tried to explain that things were alright between us and we were happy, but I knew they wouldn't let it go.

In the two years since they found out, a wall of ice grew between My parents and Keith. Each dinner he missed would make that wall a little thicker.

Keith wasn't close to his family. They all lived in Connecticut. I was the only family he had here, and I desperately wanted my parents to like him and to accept him. Especially if we were going to take the next steps around commitment and building our own family.

"Alright. But next time. Please. It's important. To me."

He kissed me, and I melted a little. "I know it is Greige. I promise. No matter how uncomfortable I'll be, I'll go have dinner at your parents."

I nodded, and he kissed my cheek as I left him at home.

Philip, my father, and Jennifer have lived in the same house since we moved here after my parents divorced. My mother was heiress to the Saint George line. At some point, he'd left her and took me with him. I had to visit her for weekends and summer vacation until I was nineteen, when I told her I was gay. She promptly wrote me out of the family and told my father she didn't want to see me again.

My mother had remarried before that, and I had four other siblings from that relationship. The oldest of those siblings contacted me when my mother had kicked them out for being trans. Maybe my father had known about me when he left her, and that's why he took me with him. I've never been brave enough to ask. When I told Dad and Jennifer, and explained to them what happened, they said they were sorry my mother had treated me like that, and they loved me. No surprise, no questions as if they'd always known.

When I pulled my vehicle into my parent's driveway, I opened the storage compartment, tucked the ring from my pocket into it, and slammed it shut. I took a deep breath, grabbed my bag from the back seat, and got out. Coming home was something I enjoyed doing, and I didn't want my disappointment in how things were going with Keith to ruin it. I talked myself into a personal attitude adjustment as I walked up to the front door.

"Hey, I'm here," I called out as I closed the front door behind me.

"In the kitchen, sweetie!" Jennifer called back. I tossed my bag on the couch as I walked back to the kitchen and found them working on dinner together. I kissed Jennifer's cheek, then kissed my Dad's. They both smiled as I grabbed a beer from the fridge and took a seat at the table that had vegetables piled on it, waiting for someone to cut them up. I quickly got to work.

Jennifer's dark brown hair was up in a ponytail. She was a teacher until recently. She was actually my first-grade teacher when we moved here from Washington State. Even standing in the kitchen, you couldn't mistake her demeanor for anything but a quiet, patient authority as her light brown eyes watched how I cut up the vegetables. She turned back to the counter after grabbing another handful of flour that showed stark white against her light brown skin.

"How was the drive?" Dad asked. Philip Lyndon worked in tech for most of his life. He'd retired recently as well. His black hair had gone mostly gray and thinned out over the last year, and his tall frame had started to stoop a little, but he still had a keen intelligence in his dark brown eyes that told me that the first question he asked was a warmup.

"The usual," I said. My Dad nodded and continued stirring the sauce while Jennifer made dough. Calzones were on the menu, considering all of the veggies I had to cut up. It was one of my favorites.

"Are you spending the night?" Jennifer asked.

"Yeah. I brought my bag."

"How's the new work partner doing? What's it been, three months now?" Dad turned from the stove to look at me.

"Brantley is good. He's smart, works hard. We've worked out pretty well." I hadn't mentioned the few hiccups we'd had, but we'd both seemed like we'd gotten past it, which was fine with me. I could be an adult and admit my partner was hot. He could be one and not tell me what his nose picked up unless it was related to a case. It was a mutual, somewhat unspoken agreement after the weird dinner date where he'd met Keith. I hadn't mentioned anything about him being a dragon either. I suspected that Dad would have had a few words to say about that.

We talked about some of the cases I had and what they were planning for the fall now that they were retired. Road trips and Learning vacations seemed to top the list of things they wanted to do. They asked about the holidays and if I would have time off this year, and I wasn't sure yet.

The whole weekend, my parents didn't bring up Keith once. I was thankful and annoyed at the same time. I didn't want to talk about why he wasn't there, but I was starting to suspect Keith was right. I wondered on the drive home if things had reached the point where they couldn't be fixed. I left the ring in the vehicle storage compartment, unable to bring myself to look at it again.