The Closet's Open!
823 Words
The next day had pretty much gone as normal, but I couldn't stop thinking about the man from the woods, or how he made me feel. Barbara had taken me to the airport to pick Aunt Kate, and I'd noticed that she seemed to have a glow about her, with her face plastered with a silly grin.
She spoke in the car about how well the project had gone, and how the hotel had wanted her to come back to remodel some of their premium suites as well. There was something else too, but she didn't touch on any of the details.
Back home, we'd waved goodbye to Barbara and Eryn, and after helping Aunt Kate to unpack her bags we went down to the kitchen and Aunt Kate made us both a fresh cup of coffee and we'd sat at the table to have a chat.
'So, how is school going?' she asked inquisitively.
'its great thanks, Eryn and I are getting on great and everyone is so nice! This was a good move!' I smiled.
'and the party? How was that?' she asked. 'any nice boys?' she chuckled.
Hmmmm... How was I going to put this? I wanted to tell her about the stranger, but what would I say? 'well, I blacked out and wandered deep into the forest in the middle of the night, and then saw a big animal which turned out to be a really sexy guy, and he spoke to me telepathically and gave me tingles when he touched me, then ran away.' Nope. She would think I was crazy, so I kind of edited it a bit.
'Um, well there was a really hot guy outside the party, and there was definitely a... Spark. But we didn't get to talk that much and he had to leave. I didn't get his name.' I crumpled my nose.
'Oooh, sounds mysterious and exciting!' she chirped. 'well, it's a small town, I'm sure you'll bump into him again.' she leaned over and squeezed my shoulder comfortingly.
'Thanks' I laughed. 'but what about you? You told us all about your trip, but there seemed to be something you're not saying?'
She lowered her head a little, and I could see a small flush of pink come to her cheeks.
'I.. I met someone.' she whispered.
I was taken aback for a second. Aunt Kate was famously single. Her career came first, and she always said she didn't have time for a man to come and upend her life. I'd always felt like I'd filled the void for her, in not having kids of her own, but mostly, she just seemed happy doing her own thing, and her personal life had always just revolved around her close family.
'Tell me more!' I said, wide eyed and full of excitement. 'What's his name? What does he look like? How did you meet? Tell me EVERYTHING!'
Aunt Kate paused, as if thinking about what she was going to say next.
'Well, the thing is... The person I met... Well... It's a woman.' her face went pale, and I could tell that she was terrified of the reaction she was going to get, but at the same time, I could see a sense of relief that she'd finally said something out loud that she had obviously kept to herself for a very long time.
'OH. MY. GOD' I said, in probably a louder and more shocked tone than was appropriate. 'That is frikken awesome! I mean, this explains so much, but I'm so happy for you! Tell me all about her!' I reached out and squeezed her hand in mine, and in that moment I felt a lifetime of weight being lifted off her shoulders. Her eyes started to tear up.
'You, you're really okay with it? I mean you don't care that you have a lesbian aunt, a shame on the family..'
I immediately interjected. 'Why the f**k would I care? You are my favourite person in the world and all that matters is that you are happy. And jeez, a "shame"? C'mon, it's not like we're living in the nineties!'
She laughed. 'The nineties weren't that long ago, you know!' I have her a hug, and then looked at her again.
'Now that we' ve establish that you like women, TELL Me all about this one that's made you so happy! Every detail, don't leave anything out!'
She spent the next hour telling me all about this architect that she'd met on the project, how they'd caught each other's eye and innocently flirted, how they'd gone out dancing, and how Aunt Kate felt like she had met her soul mate, even though they'd only met the week before. 'When you know, you know' she'd said.
I knew the feeling... But right now I just felt contented that I'd been let in on a family secret that I could wrap my head around.
- Writer
