As his laughter dies down, he looks at me and frowns. “Ah, crap. I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to laugh. But was I not supposed to know you were gay?”

What. The. Fuck.

“Um. No?”

“You lived with your boyfriend in Boston, didn’t you?”

Okay, I don’t know which way is up anymore. He knew Christian was my boyfriend? I never told him, and I assumed he was clueless about it. I assumed that he assumed I was straight.

With a long sigh, he gets out of his chair, sets his beer on the coffee table, and comes over to sit beside me, looking serious now. “I think I ruined your big coming out moment, huh? But I swear, I didn’t know that’s what this was. I only thought you were trying to tell me that you finally got your head out of your ass and realized you were tired of being alone.”

“That’s... Yeah, that’s part of what I was saying, I guess. But how did you know I was gay?”

Slapping me roughly on the back, he says, “I’m your fucking dad, aren’t I? Jeez.” Like it’s that fucking simple.

I just sit here stunned.

He knew this whole time?

And he’s acting like it’s not a big deal to him.

I didn’t entirely expect him to react awfully, but the fear was still there. So for him to have no problem with me being gay, but to also not even be surprised by it... I wasn’t at all prepared for this.

Now I’m mentally recalibrating everything I thought I knew about my dad and my relationship with him.

“I don’t understand,” I finally say. Because I really fucking don’t. “You’ve always hounded me about when I’m gonna settle down and get married.”

“Yeah. So?” He gives me a few more quick pats on the back before he gets up and goes back to his chair. “Forgive me if I didn’t want you to spend most of your life alone like me. You’re a good guy. You’d do anything for people you care about, and you’d make a great husband. I think you deserve to have someone who’d do anything for you too. I never said it had to be a woman.”

Well, fucking hell. I guess he didn’t. I just assumed that was what he pictured for me when he mentioned marriage. Have I been underestimating this man my whole damn life?

As I stare at him, I try to come to grips with this reality. One where my dad is completely accepting, just wants me to be happy, and doesn’t care if I marry a guy. I want to believe it, but something is still nagging at me, making me doubt it.