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“I’m a little nervous.” Brenda admitted.
“What? Why?” Sharon furrowed her brow.
“Meeting your friends. It’s kind of a big deal.”
Sharon laughed, “Brenda… there’s no one here you haven’t met. It’s literally Hobbs, Morales, Mendoza, Gavin and Buzz.”
“I know.” Brenda pouted a little. She fidgeted with the hem of her cardigan. “It’s just… sometimes gay men give me a hard time about my clothes.”
“More than I do?” Sharon teased.
Brenda smiled. “Fair enough.”
Sharon wrapped an arm around Brenda’s waist and gave her a quick kiss. “You’ll survive.”
“I just… it’s been so long since I was with another woman and I never felt like I could be part of the LGBT community when I was with men.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m literally still married to a man.”
“Who you haven’t slept with in twenty years.”
Sharon shrugged noncommittally. “Seven… but I see your point.” Brenda pouted again and Sharon gave her a squeeze. “The B in LGBT is for bisexual. Do you identify as bisexual?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re in the club. Lifetime membership.” Sharon stole another kiss. “No more feet dragging. I don’t want to be too behind on the mimosas – Gavin drunk is best handled when also drunk.”
“I believe that.”
Sharon took Brenda’s hand and she smiled gratefully.
“There you are!” Mikki called as the duo approached the table; she waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Had a little delay, did we?”
“A lady doesn’t kiss and tell, Mik.” Sharon said playfully, taking a seat.
“Since when are you a lady?” Gavin grinned and Sharon threw the cloth napkin at her place setting at him.
Andrea leaned forward to see around Sharon. “Hello Brenda.”
“Hi.” Brenda said quietly, smoothing out her skirt. She felt a bit like being at the popular kids’ table in high school: slightly in awe and slightly terrified.
“Welcome to the Brunch Club.” Gavin spread his hands out, motioning to the table.
“The Brunch Club?” Brenda chuckled.
“It’s like the breakfast club but gayer.” Morales explained.
“For the record, I still vote for L-GAY-PD.” Buzz added.
“Me too.” Mikki agreed.
“But half of us are lawyers.” Sharon said diplomatically.
“Thanks, Shar.” Gavin patted her hand.
“On the other hand, we could be two subgroups.” Andrea interjected. “The L-GAY-PD and the DD-GAYs.”
Gavin snorted a laugh.
The waiter arrived with two pitchers of mimosa and took the food orders.
Hobbs snapped her fingers. “Hey. Baker. Eyes off the waiter’s ass. You were asked a question.”
Gavin’s head swiveled around. “Um, 42? Synecdoche, NY? War of 1812?”
“Not even close.” Buzz shook his head.
Sharon smiled indulgently. “I asked how your date with Rich went?”
Gavin rolled his eyes. “Ugh. I barely want to talk about it. Next time I develop a crush on a closeted man just shoot me in the leg. Seriously, it’ll be less painful. Why do I always fall for closet cases?”
“Because it’s hot as fuck.” Mikki scoffed. “Closet cases want you and they’re scared of how much they want you. I love fucking closet cases.”
“You’re young.” Morales shrugged, “when you’re ready to settle down you’ll want someone more stable and secure in their sexuality.”
Mikki shrugged noncommittally.
“Besides, I think it’s a little different for women. Correct me if I’m wrong, gentlemen.” Sharon started, “but I would imagine that a male closet case has to contend with the societal expectation of masculinity and might be less apt to experiment sexually than women.”
Gavin shrugged, “none of the closet cases I’ve had dates with in the past… five years? have gone to bed with me.”
Mikki sipped her mimosa. “Then you’re doing it wrong.”
“We were all in the closet once.” Buzz said. “Everyone’s on their own path.”
Mikki shook her head, “I don’t think I was ever in the closet. I married my Barbie and Skipper dolls when I was three. Only gave Valentine’s the girls in school, wore a tux to prom and made out with the prom queen in the girls’ bathroom.”
“You’re the exception that proves the rule.” Hobbs shook her head.
“That expression literally means nothing.” Buzz laughed.
“I get what Mikki means though.” Gavin announced. “So rare that we agree on something, let’s just take a moment to bask… I never had any doubt that I was gay. I didn’t have the word for it until high school but I told all my boyfriends I loved them.”
“Okay, you knew, but when did you tell people.” Buzz asked.
Gavin thought about it for a moment. “Well, my family pretty much knew but we didn’t talk about it. My dad tried to give me sports paraphernalia for my birthday and Christmas and all that – I almost always gave it to a boyfriend as a present, though.”
“Cute. I can just see baby Gavin giving a catcher’s mitt to one of his boyfriends.” Sharon grinned.
Gavin nodded with a smile. “I gave a catcher’s mitt to George White. He moved into my neighborhood and I was smitten instantly. It took me weeks to work up the nerve to talk to him. I was so tongue tied.”
“Did you get to date him?”
Gavin sighed. “Alas, no. But he never had any issues with me being gay – he was one of my best friends in high school. You know, I don’t know if I ever even said the words ‘I’m gay’ to my parents? I said it to George though. I guess he was the first person I verbalized it to.”
“I came out to a friend in high school too.” Brenda said.
“She speaks!” Morales laughed.
Sharon put her hand on Brenda’s thigh under the table. Brenda laid a hand on Sharon’s, stroking it with the pad of her thumb.
“It wasn’t the most supportive conversation I’ve ever had. I told her that I thought about dating girls and she said ‘so you’re a lesbian’ and I said that I didn’t know because I thought about dating boys too. She said I had to pick one.”
“Bet it wasn’t the last time you heard that.”
“Hardly.” Brenda smirked. “I never actually told my parents. I always thought if I got into a real serious relationship with a woman I’d tell ‘em but I always seemed to end up with men. In the CIA there was one analyst that I dated for about seven months but she was transferred to an outpost for a two-year classified project. By the time she came back I was married to my first husband. I came close to telling my mama once but she anticipated it and stopped me and told me my daddy wouldn’t get it.”
“Yeah, that happens.” Andrea nodded.
“I think if I told my daddy now though he’d be more amenable. He’s a bit more enlightened now and since my mama died I don’t think he’d want to alienate me by not taking it well.” Brenda shrugged.
“I told my parents as soon as I had my first serious girlfriend. She was this stunning Irish girl with red red hair that she always braided and put in a bun… she was my first love. I have three older rowdy older brothers, one younger brother and an older sister and - ”
“Your mother had six kids??” Gavin demanded.
Sharon shrugged, “they’re old-school Catholic. Anyway. One day I bring her home and my mother’s in the kitchen making dinner and I march in and I say ‘mom, this is Lily and I love her.’”
“The direct approach.” Brenda nodded, “how’d she take it?”
“I have replayed this moment in my head so many times. I’ll never forget it. She doesn’t even falter and she says ‘that’s nice, dear, would she like to stay for dinner?’ And I think that she doesn’t get it and I was feeling emboldened my passion and I attempt to clarify by saying ‘I’m dating Lily. We’re a couple.’ She looks at me and says, ‘I heard you the first time. I need to know how much pasta to make.’”
Sharon laughed, “I had envisioned it very differently. I thought it was going to be my grand rebellious moment. I was very studious and proper as a child - ”
“You?” Morales feigned shock.
Sharon stuck her tongue out at him. “But my older siblings had just put my parents through so much they were completely unfazed by it. I made good grades and attended church with them every Sunday. I think that my father was actually relieved. My sister had had a lot of boys after her and my father found it exhausting. My sister got married at eighteen and my father was very glad that I chose to go to college. Boy, was he surprised when I came back from school with Jackson for break and told him that I was pregnant.”
“I’ll bet!”
“My siblings would sometimes bandy about some nasty words in the heat of arguments, as siblings are wont to do, but my parents never had any problems.”
Morales nodded. “Wow. That must be the difference between Irish Catholics and Spanish Catholics. I was terrified to tell my parents and I never told them until I was thirty and I’d been dating my boyfriend for three years. I confided in my sister and she also was scared of my parents. I only had one sibling to deflect the attention so that might have made a difference.”
“I told my sister and she immediately told my parents.” Buzz rolled his eyes a little. “She didn’t do it out of malice she’s just very enthusiastic. I’m just glad that my parents were chill about it.”
“That’s the worst.” Gavin sighed, “when someone else does it for you. I feel like it’s a rite of passage.”
“I almost accidentally outed my brother once.” Brenda admitted, “my little brother, Jimmy, is gay and my daddy was complaining about Billy Crystal’s character on SOAP and I wanted to say something like ‘why would you say those things in front of Jimmy?’ partially because it made me nervous for myself but I just felt how uncomfortable Jimmy was.”
“Billy Crystal played the first openly gay character on television. That was a big deal.” Gavin agreed.
“And the fact that his boyfriend was a professional football player. It really was ahead of its time.” Sharon nodded.
“How about you, Andrea?” Brenda asked.
“Oh.” Andrea shrugged, “it’s very hum-drum. There were no grand entrances or childhood dalliances. I didn’t even realize I was gay until I was thirty-one. I wrote my parents a letter. It just became a fact. I don’t really introduce my parents to anyone I date.”
“When was your last date again?” Sharon asked with a mischievous grin.
“Ha. Ha.” Andrea laughed, “laugh it up, Raydor. You have double the dating pool I have.” She teased.
“I want to hear how you two got together.” Mikki said, indicating Brenda and Sharon.
“I’ve told you the story already.” Sharon protested.
“I want to hear it from Brenda. Make sure you didn’t tweak the truth.” Mikki winked.
“Me? She’s the one who lies.” Sharon laughed.
Brenda shrugged and grinned, “I can’t even argue with that.”
“So, come on. Dish.” Gavin set his elbows on the table and leaned on his hands. “Story time.”
“Okay, well.” Brenda paused for a moment. “Sharon and I had been getting coffee together a couple of times a week and then we started grabbing dinner, especially when we were both working late. It was just… so easy to be with her.”
“It’s so sweet I think I’m going to vomit all over my omelet Florentine.” Mikki teased.
“Right behind you.” Morales agreed.
“It happened a little at a time, I guess.” Brenda continued unabated. “She kissed me good night one night and I… sent her flowers the next day. The next time I saw her after that I just walked up and kissed her and there was essentially no turning back then. The rest is history.”
“When was the flowers and the kiss that started it all?” Mikki asked.
“When?” Brenda stopped to think. She looked over at Sharon, “five months ago? Maybe a little over?”
“And when did you and Agent Howard get divorced?” Buzz leaned forward.
Sharon winced a little. Brenda bit her lip, “um…”
“Busted.” Gavin announced, pointing at Sharon.
“So I fudged the timeline a little…” Sharon admitted begrudgingly.
“For clarification, though, we were separated.” Brenda insisted. “We were sleeping in separate bedrooms and… maybe I could’ve told him earlier that I was ready to move on… but I wasn’t exactly being dishonest.”
“Is Fritz still single?” Gavin interrupted. “I’m asking for a friend.”