He makes this joke all the time. The old me would have said something bratty along the lines of Did Mom have an affair? But not tonight! Tonight I am going to be pleasant. I am going to show them that everything is different now. So I just laugh along with my dad as if I’m in on the joke, as if I invented the joke. As I laugh, my mom shoots me a concerned glance. She always seems on edge around me, as though I am about to release a grenade or detonate the vest. I want to put her at ease.

“So, what do you do, Thomas?” my dad asks.

I am excited he is asking because it is a topic Thomas and I rehearsed.

“I’m a consultant,” Thomas says. “At a firm downtown.” We decided to omit the firm name in case my parents did research, and I know they’re too polite to pry.

“That’s fantastic,” my dad says. For the first time in years, he seems proud of me. I am addicted to it. I try to think of the last time he’s been proud of me or if he’s ever been proud of me. All my parents ever seemed to care about were my SAT scores.

The waiter comes with the expensive bottle of wine, and I suggest my dad taste it first. My dad seems delighted with the new me. My mom is more suspicious. She’s always been the tougher one—a Taurus, bullheaded and charmless. If it were just me and my dad, I think we might figure out how to get along. My dad is a Pisces—dreamy and gentle—and he understands my obsession with Winona Ryder. He understands film. My mom cares only about books and plants and paying bills on time.

“It’s hard to stay afloat in this city,” my mom says. I take a deep breath. I can’t let her get under my skin. Thomas brought a cannabis vape pen, so I won’t lose my cool. Since I don’t have any pockets, we agreed that when I need it, I will tap his right knee three times and he will hand it to me, and I will smoke it casually in the bathroom.

I hit him with the three taps.

As I pee and inhale, I try to remember the things my therapist had said to me. My mom came up all the time, and my therapist always said things and I always zoned out. Her office was on the third story of this building with huge windows, and there were these gorgeous palms that swayed against the San Gabriels. And I was always a little high.

I vaguely recall her telling me my mom was threatened by me.