“Hey, gorgeous, long time no see,” he said as she stepped back out of the hug. “How about a glass of fizz to start the evening?”

“Lovely,” she murmured and leaned against the breakfast bar while Matt reached up for fluted glasses from one of the cabinets on the wall and Jake pulled the chilled bottle of champagne from the fridge.

When they all had a glass in their hands, Matt raised a toast to good friends, and they each took a first hearty swig.

“Perfect,” said Stephanie after the cool bubbles slipped down her throat. “Thanks, guys. I really needed this.” And then, to her horror, the tears that had been threatening all afternoon spilled out of her eyes without warning. Her boys were both there, holding her close in a hug sandwich, and she couldn’t stop the sobs. She cried for what seemed like hours but was probably only a few minutes.

They made comforting little noises while one of them stroked her hair and the other stroked her back. They said nothing as they waited for her to quiet and be still. When she finished, Matt took her hand and led her to the sofa. He pulled her down, and they sat on either side of her.

Jake spoke first. “Time to tell us what’s going on?” His voice, although quiet, seemed loud in the hushed circumstances.

She nodded and gratefully accepted the tissue Matt passed to her. She blew her nose and used the second tissue he immediately handed over to wipe her eyes.

She looked up at them, smiling faintly. She couldn’t keep it in any longer.

“I’ve been fighting this so long, and I don’t want it to be true. It can’t be, but I am getting so tired of fighting, so tired of trying to be something I’m not. And now I’ve met someone, only I’ve fucked it up so badly she’ll probably never want anything to do with me again, and I am so totally lost. I just don’t know what to do.”

Before Matt could jump in, Jake stilled him with a raised hand. “Let’s be clear about this. What exactly are you fighting and why?”

She stared at him, at his kind face filled with compassion, then swallowed hard.

“I think I’m gay, and I don’t want to be.” She started crying again—oh God, it was just too painful. She didn’t want this. She didn’t need her life to be complicated by this. Didn’t need to risk everything she had built with her parents.

“Why don’t you want to be gay?” Jake again—gently, softly, coaxing.

“Because it would just about kill my parents, and I can’t do that to them! They mean everything to me, and after what happened with my uncle, I couldn’t put them, Dad especially, through it again.”