I let myself breathe a minute longer until I felt it might be safe enough to move, and hesitantly stood up, stepping forward. Claire cocked her head to the side before rising to her feet and to my surprise she reached over and pulled me to her, cradling me in a way I hadn’t known since I was a child. If I had ever even known it, then. Claire was not someone with whom I might associate hugs and embraces. But there I was wrapped up in her arms, letting her cradle me close. “Alex, Alex,” she mumbled into my hair, her voice soothing. I imagined she had held many a patient’s loved one like this, allowing them to unburden their tears and their pain unto her. Instead, I merely stood there in her arms, hesitant to hug her back for it was simply something I had never done before, but grateful all the same.

When she pulled back her own cheeks were damp but she wiped at them quickly. I stepped away again and wrung my hands down at my side. “I um—I guess that means I don’t have to—you know—come out now, do I?”

Claire chuckled, her eyes as fond as her sad smile. “You already did, sweetheart. Look—this girl, Julia, was it? I’m looking forward to meeting her, alright? No more worrying, Alex. No more.”

“I’m…We’re going to…We’re gonna come out at school. Like, as a couple. I mean, everybody already kinda suspects but we…I think it’s for the best.”

“They can’t hurt you if you don’t let them. Oh, Alex…You’re so brave, sweetheart. You take after your dad for that, you know. So brave…It’s gonna be okay. When you tell them. You know that, don’t you?”

“I know…I’m a bit—well like I’m a bit nervous but…I don’t have anything to lose, do I?” I shrugged. “I don’t really give a shit what anyone says.”

“And, um…” Claire glanced away, sucking on her bottom lip. “Connie? Is she—”

Immediately I felt my shoulders tighten, and something in my stomach seemed to lurch. “Connie and I aren’t friends anymore. She—It doesn’t matter to me what she thinks.”

“But she already knows, doesn’t she? About you?”

I struggled to keep my face neutral, nonchalant. “Does it matter?”

Claire gave me a smile, weak and reluctant. Maybe Julia was right after all when she said I was easy to read. It seemed that no matter how hard I tried anyone that came too close to me could succeed in gauging my every thought. Claire knew. She had to have known. She might never broach the subject again, but we both knew that she knew. “I suppose it doesn’t,” she said with a shrug that mirrored my own. And then she crossed her arms again, adopting once more her relaxed stance against the counter, and grinned. “Now why don’t you tell me more about this Julia girl, hmm? I want to know everything.”

With a bashful grin of my own, I heartily obliged.