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“Thank you so much for bringing these here, Vera. Patrick or I would have been out to the farm to pick these up, but we’ve had our hands full with the Annual Single’s Week event.” David stacks the bouquets on the register.
“It’s no problem, dear,” Vera, their flower vendor, assures him. “I know that Rose Apothecary is a major contributor to the event. Is your sister still running it?”
“Yep!” David tells her, “Now that she’s an elected official on the Town Council, she gets to have total creative control over Single’s Week.”
“Well, I look forward to seeing it!” Vera says, smiling her kind smile. She’s an older woman, older than Moira, and she’s kind, and she grows the best flowers in the province.
“Me, too.” He smiles. “Can I give you a bottle of wine for your troubles? Or would you like some lip balm or a body cream? Again, I can not stress enough how much you’ve helped us by delivering this week.”
Just as David finishes his declaration of gratitude, a teenager storms into the store. She slams the front door and pushes passed David as she trudges through the store and into the backroom. David looks at her like she’s crazy.
“Oh. Um. I’m sorry about that Vera.” He apologizes as he looks towards where Cherry just stormed through. His face is scrunched up in confusion. He has no idea why Cherry would brood like that through his store, especially when he was with a vendor.
“It’s no problem, David. Go on, go take care of her. I’ll see you next week.” Vera gathers her bags and pats David’s arm.
“Yeah. Thanks,” he says. As she exits, three more children are trying to enter. Nathan holds the door for Vera. She gives a polite nod and smile to the boy, and waves to David before she leaves.
“What the hell is wrong with her?” David asks Nathan. He just shrugs.
“I don’t know. She barely talked to us on the way here. She walked ahead of us the whole time.” Nathan tells him, shucking his backpack behind the counter.
“Sissy didn’t even give me a hug when she picked us up.” Matilda, his youngest niece, pouts.
“She didn’t mess up my hair like she usually does. I’m not complaining, but it was weird.” Benjamin, Matilda’s twin, says.
Patrick comes out from back room, holding a box of massage oils for Single’s Week. He has an equally confused look on his face.
“Hey, kiddos,” he says as he sets the box down. He holds out his arms and the three kids crowd around him to give him a hug. When they release him, he leans against the counter with David. “What happened to her?” He whispers to the little crowd. “She went back there and threw herself onto the couch. Like, face-stuffed-in-a-pillow position. I think she’s crying.”
David slumps against Patrick. His shoulders are slouched and he’s using Patrick sturdiness to hold him up.
“She was angry when she picked us up.” Matilda tells him, her voice small as she twists her hands together. Matilda and Benjamin were eight years-old now, but they were the baby-babies of the family. Matilda loved Cherry, and Cherry absolutely adored Matilda. They were best friends, so David suspected that it gutted Matilda to be ignored by her older sister.
“Should I go talk to her?” Patrick asked.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll go.” David says before turning to the kids. “Do you guys have homework?”
“I do.” Nathan says.
“We just have to finish a math worksheet.” Benjamin tells him.
“It’s Valentine’s Day themed!” Matilda says excitedly.
David nods, “Ooh, that sounds fun.” No, it doesn’t. Patrick is the numbers gay, not him. “Alright. I’ll go talk to her. See if we can get you the desks back there to work at. In the mean time, can you guys help Uncle Patrick set up everything?”
The kids nod and dig in to the boxes. They had gotten used to helping their uncles out at the store. They went to the store everyday after school to do homework and hangout with their uncles while their parents finished up at the vet’s clinic. Cherry was going to be seventeen soon, so in theory she could babysit them herself at home. When her parents brought this up, she just told them that she didn’t want to be responsible for the twins setting anything on fire. Plus, their uncles loved having them around. They encouraged it, even, especially considering that they were well behaved and willing to help restock products.
David kisses Patrick on the cheek before he turns to go talk to his niece.
“Wish me luck.” He whispers. Patrick grabs his face and pulls him in for a real kiss.
“Good luck.” Patrick whispers back. He holds David’s face for an extra second and holds intense eye contact with him. They only break apart once all three kids start clearing their throats.
“Okay!” David rolls his eyes at them. “I’m going, I’m going.”
David steps behind the curtain to the back room. The room is dark, Cherry must’ve drawn the curtains after Patrick left the room. She’s face-down on the couch they have in their backroom/office.
“Okay, Delia Deetz. Who died?” David jokes as he crosses over to the couch. He sits on small coffee table so that he is somewhat on her level.
“Go away, Uncle David.” She tells him, not lifting her head up from where it is tucked in the couch. David scoffs.
“Um, no. Could you imagine? Like, you tell me to leave my own office in my own store and I just listen to you? Not today, Cher.” This gets her to sit up, even if just to give her uncle a dirty look. “Now, tell me what’s wrong.” He crosses his arms and waits for her. He’s dealt with a lot of temper tantrums in his day, he could wait out a sixteen year-old.
“Nothing.” She mumbles and David laughs.
“Nothing? Cherry Rose Mullens, I have literally known you your whole life. And I mean it! Literally! I was in the room when you were born. I swaddled you up in my chest minutes after you were born. I know you.” He tells her, waving his arms crazily to emphasize his words. “And the Cherry that I know doesn’t mope. And she certainly doesn’t ignore her siblings when she’s supposed to be in charge of making sure they get home safe.” David’s face is stern, but he’s cautious not to say anything that will send Cherry over the edge. He just wants to get her to a point where she’ll let him in on whatever is bothering her.
“Nathan is thirteen! He can be responsible for making sure that Matilda and Benjamin get here in one piece. And, while we’re on the subject, they are eight years-old. They know better than to run into traffic.” Cherry sasses him.
“That’s not my point.” David tells her. “My point is that you’re the big sister to those kids. They look up to you, whether you like it or not. Especially Tilly! And if she develops this kind of behavior, I am making you deal with it.”
Cherry rolls her eyes. “Tilly will be fine.”
David softens a little bit. “I think she was really upset that you ignored her on the way here.”
“I had a bad day.” She says. And David can see it: she’s going to crack open for him.
“Well, what happened.”
“It’s not a big deal.” She says shyly.
David waves his arm at her and at the drawn curtains. “Obviously.”
Cherry slumps her shoulders, quiet for a few seconds. David can wait. If he could wait with Anderson Cooper to be rescued after the parasailing incident after being freshly broken up with, he can wait for Cherry to tell him what’s wrong. Finally, she sighs.
“Alex kissed Julia.” She says. Her head is down, and she’s picking at her cuticles.
“Alex P or Alex Q?” David asks.
“Alex Q.” She grumbles.
“I see. And Alex Q is boy Alex or girl Alex?” David asks.
“Girl Alex, Uncle David!” She says, exasperated and annoyed. David holds his hands up in a surrender.
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. And this is bad because…?”
“Because I like her!” She all but yells.
Oh. This is a bit of information David didn’t know about his niece.
“Julia?”
Cherry throws her face into her hands. Her hair falls all around her. “No!” She shouts. “I like Alex!”
David leans back on the coffee table and nods.
“I see. Does Alex know that?”
“No,” she responds weakly. “Nobody knows. Just you… and me, I guess.”
David nods, taking this all in.
“Well,” he says after a second, choosing his words carefully. “Are they dating? Or was it just like a one time ‘happened-and-it’s-over-now’ type thing?”
She sinks further into the couch. “I don’t know,” she says forlornly. “Julia doesn’t think it meant anything. It just sucks because I’ve had a crush on Alex for a really long time.”
“How long?” David asks. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to, obviously. I know this probably isn’t the way you wanted to come out, you know? So if this conversation goes any further than you want it to, we can wrap it up.” He tells her quickly.
She nods and takes a deep breath.
“No, it’s okay, Uncle David. I mean, what are you going to do? Disown me for being gay? You’re married to a whole man, a whole homosexual.”
“Hmm.” David starts. “See, here’s the thing though. My husband is the one that’s technically a homosexual. I’m pansexual.”
“Really?” She asks, eyebrows scrunched as she looks up at him.
“Did you not know that?”
“No, Uncle David. I saw you with Uncle Patrick and never thought to ask ‘Hmmm. I wonder what my uncle’s sexual preferences are?’” He scrunches his nose at her.
“Okay, fair enough. Well, I’m attracted to people, not gender. Gender is not a deciding factor in who I end up with. I just got, like, really lucky that Patrick was attracted to me, too, so that I could snatch him up.” He feels like he doesn’t need to explain this to her, but he does anyway. Who knows what she needs to hear right now? “Does that sound like you? Attracted to people and not gender?” He asks gently.
She shakes her head immediately. “I think I just like girls. Maybe, though? All I know is that I’ve been, like, basically in love with Alex for as long as I can remember. I haven’t really thought about anybody else like that.”
“You and Alex have always been really close, right?” David asks.
“Yes. She’s been my best friend since, like, fifth grade.”
“That’s a long time to get to know someone.” David moves to sit next to her on the couch. She immediately leans against him.
She smiles weakly. “Yeah. I guess.”
David hesitates before continuing. He plans his next words carefully.
“So there are some good things that came out of this.” He settles on.
Cherry looks up at him like he has three heads. “No.” She shakes her head.
“Yes, Cherry Rose. We know a few things. Alex also likes girls, or at least has some interest in kissing them. And we know that her and Julia aren’t going to kiss again, or date, or anything like that. Those are some positive outcomes of this situation. And, I think if you and Alex are really close friends, you can talk to her about what happened. You don’t even have to confess your love to her or anything if you aren’t ready. You can just… talk about it. Like friends do.”
They sit next to each other and David lets her melt against him. It’s been years since he’s been in this position. Hell, this year will be his and Patrick’s 20th wedding anniversary. He’s had over twenty years of unconditional love from Patrick Brewer, not a moment of (actual) instability to call from. They stopped lying to each other two decades ago; they listened and they cared deeply. They fought with each other but always for each other. They climbed into bed at the end of the day with a kiss.
Patrick had melted away all of David’s insecurities. Before Patrick, he was accustomed to self-sabotage. He knew how painful it could be to ruin something for yourself. He’d had his lowest lows for reasons that were, at the core of it, his fault. Before Patrick, he used to run from good things. He used to make things harder for himself. He couldn’t let Cherry make the same mistakes he made. His niece deserved to know her worth and to fight to maintain it.
“Either way, Cherry. You should talk to her. You don’t want to lose a friend because of this. Not one as important to you as Alex is. You don’t have to do it today, or even this week, but I would.” David tells her, rubbing her shoulder as she’s tucked into him.
Patrick peaks his head around the corner. David catches him, luckily Cherry doesn’t. David gives him a soft smile and a tiny nod. Patrick returns the gesture and quietly leaves.
“You know, Uncle Patrick and I very briefly broke up once.”
“Really?” She sits up to face her uncle, wiping a tear away from the corner of her eye.
“Well,” he starts, “No.” Cherry laughs at him. “We took about a week off after I found out something about Uncle Patrick that I didn’t… handle correctly. He might have withheld some important information, and I might have overreacted. That being said, we could have avoided that little bump in the road if we would have just been honest with each other.”
Cherry stares at her lap, picking at her cuticles.
“Uncle David, I know the Aunt Rachel story.” She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear and looks up at him.
“Then you know the significance of honesty in a relationship.”
“Yeah. I do.” She whispers.
David gives her an exaggerated nod. “So, talk to her. Whenever you’re ready.”
“Thanks, Uncle David.”
“Anytime, Kiddo.”
“I’m literally 17.”
“Nope, not for another month.” He wraps her in a bear hug. “But also not ever. You’re still a four year-old, crying because your mother brought you home a baby brother. And you’re still that little baby that I was forced to hold in the hospital. And you still can’t tie your shoes.” He rocks het back and forth in his arms. “And if you ever leave me, I’ll drag you by your little elf ears all the way home.”
She swats him away. “Ew, Uncle David! I do not have elf ears!”
“You did when you were a toddler. I have the pictures to prove it.”
“I like Uncle Patrick better.”
“Me too, Kid.” He hugs her again, tucking her head under his chin. “You know.” He says after a second. “You should invite Alex to some of the Singles Week events.”
“Ew, no way. Plus, Singles Week is for, like, lonely, middle-aged people.”
“No, think about it. Your mom is literally running the event. It’s not there if you invite Alex. You’re going to end up as a volunteer anyway. Rope Alex into volunteering with you.”
Cherry eyes him carefully. Nevertheless, he continues.
“And you can, like, stand off to the side and play the games with her. Chat her up, woo her.”
Cherry cracks a smile. “I don’t know.”
“What?” David asks. “Do I need to teach you some moves?”
Cherry full out cackles in his face. “God. No! I’ve heard the stories of how you and Uncle Patrick got together. He’s the one with the moves.” She tells him.
They hear a little clap and a “Yes!” from the other side of the curtain. Cherry and David burst out in laughter. Patrick knows he’s been got.
“Get in here, you oaf!” David calls to him. Patrick sheepishly enters.
“Sorry.”
Cherry smiles, “It’s fine.”
“I think inviting her to help out with Singles Week could be a good idea. If you’re comfortable with that, of course.” Patrick says, his hands stuffed in his too-tight jeans. You’d think he would have retired the practically-skinny-jeans in his 50’s, but no. He just pulls them off better now, somehow, and David hates him. But, he loves to watch him leave…
“I think that might be a good idea. If for nothing else then a reason to hang out with her.”
David and Patrick nod, feeling satisfied with the fact that Cherry is out of her mood.
“Great. We’ll go over how I secured Uncle David for the long-haul.” Patrick tells her, coming to stand behind the couch to pat her shoulder and kiss David’s cheek.
“Although, Uncle Patrick” she says, “We might have to edit and refine the skills a little bit. I’m not trying to invest in her business, or anything like that. I have to do this the old-fashioned way.” She giggles.
“Oh,” Patrick starts. “You might be out of luck then, Cher.”