Free Auld Lang Syne by Judith Ivie Page B

I’ve forgotten for the moment whose reappearance wouldn’t please me. Before Saturday night, Mindy Marchelewski would have been right at the top of my list, but she already resurfaced, and look how well that turned out.” I sighed. “What with one thing and another, this holiday has been among the most complicated and depressing I can remember, except for the time you and I have spent together.”
    “That is always good, is it not?”
    We were quiet for a minute, gazing at the dying fire. Gracie had decided to be magnanimous about Armando’s shameful inattention and curled up with her tail over her nose.
    “What resolutions did you make for the new year?” I asked him.
    “To make love to my wife more often,” he responded promptly, and his stroking hand found my thigh. “Starting now.”
    I returned his smile. “No sense putting these things off,” I agreed.

 
 
    Seven

 
    “By the way, how did you leave things with Charlie yesterday? I was so worried about having to tell Strutter about your conversation with him, I forgot to ask you.”
    Emma and I were stumping around the Broad Street Green Tuesday morning, almost glad to get back to our normal routine after the excesses of the holidays.
    “He didn’t want to go back to school this morning, I can tell you that.”
    “I can imagine,” I sympathized. “I seem to recall a few mornings years ago when you and Joey weren’t eager to face your friends, like the time the two of you got into a brawl on the school bus and were suspended from riding it for a week, or when Joey got braces.”
    “And the time in the eighth grade I burned off my bangs with the curling iron,” Emma grinned, “but being asked to dance by your same sex best friend you didn’t even know was gay in front of the entire school? That’s a whole new level of awful.”
    “Awful for both boys,” I agreed. “After all, Duane assumed Charlie was totally up to speed and ready to support him when he came out. Otherwise, Charlie never would have accepted what in Duane’s mind was a sort of a date for the dance.”
    “Was that realistic or just wishful thinking on Duane’s part? Those two guys have known each other forever. How could Duane have thought Charlie was anything but hetero?”
    “Good point. When you go through puberty together, you’re pretty clear about your best friend’s gender preference, I’d imagine.”
    “Except maybe for the bi’s,” Emma mused.
    “Buys? I’m not following.”
    “As in bisexuals,” Emma explained in her be-patient-with-clueless-old-mom voice. “Those can be pretty tough to spot.”
    My head started to swim, as it did so often these days when I conversed with people under thirty. Best to get back to the immediate problem. “So what did you advise him to do?”
    Emma shrugged. “I told him to man up.”
    I cut my eyes at her. “Probably not the best choice of words under the circumstances.”
    She glared at me. “Not everything in life is a double entendre, Ma. Grow up. What I told him was that it happened, it’s not going to go away, and everyone else who was there is probably as uncomfortable as he and Duane are. They don’t know how to act or what to say, so they’re going to take their cue from the two of them. Charlie and Duane are going to have to set the tone. Above all, they need to stick together and remember they’re best friends, just like they were a week ago. The less drama at this point, the better.”
    I kept forgetting that my daughter was all grown up and more perceptive than I could ever hope to be. “That’s pretty good advice,” I said, impressed.
    “It’s a different world now,” she went on, unintentionally emphasizing my sadly outdated frame of reference. “Kids today are way savvier about these things than they were in your day or even when Joey and I were teenagers. Lots more media exposure.”
    I had to admit that was true.
    “The good news is, Duane is out now,” she went on. “No matter what