Eli and I are in a good place – finally. I could finally say that he and I were more in love than we had ever been, even more so than when we were married. Us being boyfriends was actually working out. I mean I had my doubts in the beginning but Eli was shaping up to be quite the boyfriend. The sex was amazing – like unbelievably great. Maybe I should have let Eli be top in the beginning of this relationship. He learned a few things since we’ve been apart. But anyways – I was in a genuinely happier mood than usual.
Eli and I were back and better than before. We could barely keep our hands off of each other literally.
“Dad,” Michael said awkwardly clearing his throat. “I’m standing right here. Could you not have your tongues in each other’s mouths for a second?”
“Sorry,” I said breaking away from Eli. Eli grinned at me, as Michael rolled his eyes.
“I’m glad you too are back together and whatever,” Michael huffed, grabbing juice from out of the fridge. “But anyways – my girlfriend’s parents invited us over for dinner tonight.”
“Girlfriend?” I repeated taken aback by the word. “Since when did you have a girlfriend?”
“I’ve had a girlfriend for like two months now,” Michael replied casually.
Two months? Two whole months, he’s had a girlfriend and this is the first time I’m ever hearing about it. God, where have I been? I’ve been so wrapped up in Eli and I’s relationship that I had forgotten about my kids. I’m such a terrible parent.
“That’s great Michael,” I said pretending as if I wasn’t the least bit shocked. “What time do they want us over?”
“Six thirty,” he replied. “So are you guys coming? I mean it’s completely fine if you guys have plans. I mean don’t feel obligated. It’s not like I’m marrying the girl or anything.”
“We don’t have any plans,” I said glancing at Eli. “Right?”
“No, none at all,” El grinned. “We’d love to come and meet your girlfriend and her parents.”
Having said that, Michael nodded walking out of the kitchen. Eli stared at him, his eyes following him until he was out of sight. I was confused. Eli had a weird look on his face.
“What?” I asked as Eli sighed.
“His girlfriend’s parents want to meet with us,” Eli said raising an eyebrow. “That means they want to talk to us about something and it’s probably something bad.”
“I doubt it,” I said shaking my head. “Michael is a good kid. They probably just want to get to know us.”
“Nope,” Eli interjected before I could continue. “Parents don’t meet with other parents for pleasure, Caleb. Trust me. I’ve meet with my share because of Michelle. It’s always about sex, drugs, delinquent behavior, my lifestyle, etc. They want to talk about something.”
“Maybe Michelle was about those things but Michael isn’t,” I replied shaking my head. “Michael – “
“Michael is a teenager, Caleb,” Eli replied. “You know as well as I know what teenage boys think about on a daily basis. He’s not a child anymore, Caleb, as much as you’d like him to be. He’s a hormone crazy teenage boy.”
“Michael isn’t like that,” I scoffed getting a little irritated by Eli’s suggestions. “I raised Michael practically by myself. He and I are close. If he was doing any of those sorts of things I would know. I’m his father. We talk about everything.”
“You talk about everything yet you didn’t know he even had a girlfriend,” Eli retorted. “I’m sure he’s kept other things from you too.”
“Don’t Eli,” I growled. “Don’t even continue what you’re about to say. We’ll just see when we get to this dinner. For now, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Caleb,” Eli said as I walked out of the room.
“Drop it Eli,” I huffed.
I didn’t want to think about all the terrible possibilities. I just thought that we were going to a normal dinner between four parents to meet his girlfriend. Now Eli had me all worried about it because of his experiences with Michelle. But I had to just keep reminding myself that Michael is nothing like that. He’s smarter than that. I raised him to be smarter than that. He knows about drugs, sex, peer pressure and all that other stuff. We talked about it before he started high school. Eli is just being paranoid. Everything would be fine.
So, at six, I wasn’t worried. I got dressed, hopped into my car, and Eli, Michael and I drove down to his girlfriend’s place. We pulled up to a beautiful home on the opposite side of town, or what I refer to as the wealthy part of town. So, Michael’s girlfriend’s family was obviously well-off. I was actually kind of excited to meet these people and to see the lovely young lady that Michael was dating.
“What do your girlfriend’s parents do again?” Eli asked staring at the house in awe.
“Her dad’s a business man and her other dad owns a restaurant,” Michael replied.
“Wait? Wait a minute!? Did you just say she has two dads?” Eli said.
“Yeah,” Michael nodded.
“Why didn’t you say that earlier?” I huffed. “I was worried about the awkward straight parents and gay dad’s thing.”
“Oh sorry,” Michael shrugged as we stepped to the front door. I rang the doorbell twice, shoving my hands into my pocket. This ought to be interesting. I grinned as the door opened wide and a girl with long brown hair greeted us at the door.
“Hello! Dad! They’re here!” the girl shouted. Well, she’s cute. I think I did a good job as a parent.
“Please come in,” she said ushering us inside.
“Dad? Dad? Uh – This is Alia,” Michael said running his fingers through his hair. “My girlfriend.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said shaking her hand. Eli did the same. She grinned at us, giving a warm smile. She seemed really sweet. I liked her already. She was cute, polite and had a great smile. Plus a really adorable name – Alia. That’s such a pretty name.
“Dad,” Alia called out. “Pop.”
“I’m right here,” a ridiculously attractive man with short blonde hair, blue eyes and a Gucci suit said. “Hello. I’m Jonathan. You must be Michael’s dads.”
“Um …” I said a little tongue tied. The guy was drop dead gorgeous. If Eli and I weren’t together . . . God, the thoughts running through my head right now are ridiculously dirty.
“Yes, we are,” Eli said filling in. “I’m Eli and this is my boyfriend, Caleb.”
“Nice to meet you,” Jonathan grinned. “My husband, Alex, will be down soon. He’s putting our son, Sam, to sleep.”
“I’m right here,” a voice said from behind us. I turned around to see another gentleman with dark hair, green eyes, definitely an Italian. He was attractive but not as attractive as Jonathan.
“I’m Caleb,” I said introducing myself. “My boyfriend, Eli.”
“Nice to meet you! I’m Alex,” he said shaking my hand and then Eli’s. “Well, now that, introductions are over. Let’s eat. I wouldn’t want the food to get cold.”
I nodded, following them into their dining room, which looked like something straight out of a magazine. Their house was ridiculous. It was extravagant and definitely had me in awe. Michael had really scored with this chick. It was like I was eating with the gay version of the Kardashians. I mean Eli has a great job, and he can afford nice things but he was nothing compared to these guys. They had it all.
I’m just a freaking sales associate at a clothing store. Definitely not my ideal job, but it pays my bills.
But anyways, dinner was fantastic. Jonathan and Alex were really nice. I mean it seemed like they just wanted to get to know us. Eli and I didn’t really have that many gays friends that were in stable relationships, so it was nice to finally have someone who understands what we’re going through especially with the divorce and getting back together thing.
“I think that’s sweet that you are guys are going to therapy and working out your differences,” Alex agreed. “It wasn’t easy for us in the beginning either. We were separated for a while and then we fixed everything back too. It was hard but we managed.”
“Same with us,” I nodded. “I actually couldn’t stand Eli up until five months ago.”
“It happens,” Jonathan chuckled. “But anyways, we really invited you over to talk about Alia and Michael.”
So maybe Eli was right about the whole parents not inviting over other parents to get to know each other thing.
“What about them?” I asked curiously.
“Well, you know,” Jonathan began. “How do I even begin? Um . . . Michael is a great kid but we just wanted to be responsible parents and let you know that Michael has been sending inappropriate pictures of himself to our daughter.”
“Wait? What? Inappropriate like. . .” I said unable to form a sentence.
“Photos of his penis,” Eli filled in. “That’s what you mean right. That’s what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah,” Alex replied. “Our daughter is way too young for that. So, we have already spoken to her about it.”
“And you want us to speak Michael,” Eli continued. “Thanks for letting us know. Sex is the last thing that should be on their minds. I’m too young and hot to be a grandfather.”
“Tell me about it,” Jonathan chuckled.
“Well - Dinner was lovely,” Eli nodded. ‘Thanks for not killing our son because I’m sure that’s the first thing that crossed your mind when you saw those photos.”
“It may have,” Alex chuckled. “Nice meeting the two of you. We should definitely hang out sometime as friends.”
“Definitely,” I replied walking towards the front door. “Michael! Come on! We’re leaving.”
Well that had been officially awkward. I swear I’m going to wring Michael’s neck as soon as we leave. How could he send photos like that to his girlfriend? I mean I could understand why but he’s too young to be doing things like this. What’s up with kids and sexting? I can’t believe how understanding Alia’s parents were about all of this. I would have killed the boy that had sent something like that to Michelle’s phone.
“What did I tell you?” Eli chuckled. “Boys will be boys.”
“I can’t even begin to think that our son could do something like that,” I huffed. “When he gets in this car, I swear to god-”
“Caleb, he made a mistake,” Eli explained. “I’m sure Alia was probably sending him pictures of herself too. It’s what these teenagers do now a days. At least we didn’t catch them doing anything else. Let’s think of the positives.”
“I’m positively going to take his phone, computer, Ipod – every damn electrical device he owns away,” I huffed. “Sending pictures of his stuff to his girlfriend. He’s sixteen for god’s sake.”
“Ok Ok,” Eli said rubbing my back. “Look – Here he comes now. Let me handle it.”
“You? You handle it? Ha! Don’t make me laugh,” I scoffed.
“You don’t think I can handle it,” Eli asked obviously taken aback by my attitude.
“Eli? Really? You’re asking me that question,” I said raising an eyebrow at him. “You couldn’t handle Michelle.”
“Caleb, trust me,” Eli said grabbing my hand. “I got this one. Ok? He and I will talk one on one at home. Do not mention anything ok?”
“Fine,” I said folding my arms across my chest. “I won’t say anything. I’ll be as quiet as a mouse. Since you’re so sure you can handle it.”
“Your sarcasm isn’t really helping,” Eli huffed as Michael slid into the car. I stared out the window as Eli pulled out of the driveway, driving us back home. I cleared my throat, as Eli glared at me.
“Let me have it,” Michael said. “I know they told you. Go ahead, Dad.”
“Alia is a sweetheart and her dads are nice,” I said trying to avoid the topic of sexting even though I really wanted to slam him for it. I told Eli I’d let him handle it, so therefore I’d let him handle it. Ok – So I didn’t do that. Did you think I’d honestly give Eli this one? I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t.
“How could you Michael? How could you even – My god,” I began. “I raised you better than that. Sexting things to your girlfriend. You’re sixteen for god’s sake. You shouldn’t be taking pictures like that anyways. You know she could send those around or worse post it on the internet and there goes your reputation.”
“I’m sorry dad,” Michael replied. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“You’re right,” I huffed. “You weren’t thinking. You’re grounded. No cell phone, no computer, no ipod, no ipad – Nothing for a very long time.”
“What does that even mean? What do you mean a long time?” Michael argued. “How long?”
“Until I decide to give them back,” I retorted. “The more you complain, the longer I keep it. You want privileges you have to earn them.”
“This is bullshit,” Michael growled. “Michelle has sex in school and you ground her for like a month.”
“Caleb,” Eli interjected.
“Don’t get that tone with me, Michael,” I huffed. “Or you’ll never get your things back. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” Michael mumbled, sliding out of the car angrily. I slammed my car shut as I walked into the house behind him. Before I could say anything else to him, Michael slammed his bedroom door shut. I sighed running my fingers through my hair, as I walked back into my room. Eli just gave me a look.
“What?” I asked.
“Forget it,” Eli shrugged. “You don’t listen to anything I say anyways.”
“Eli, you don’t understand,” I began. “I – “
“No! You don’t understand, Caleb,” Eli replied cutting me off. “You shut me out of anything that has to do with Michael. You didn’t even let me speak. I asked you if I could talk to him alone but of course, you just had to jump in like always. It’s always Caleb’s way.”
“Eli I – “
“I’m not finished,” Eli continued. “I’m trying to be a better father and a better boyfriend because I love you Caleb. I know things aren’t going to happen overnight and people can’t change. But Caleb, I need to know that you trust me. Tonight, just showed me that you don’t. So, you know what, I’m going to give you your space tonight to think about everything. I’m going to sleep on the couch, ok?”
I nodded as he walked out the room. Well, at least, we didn’t argue. But, we were definitely moving backwards in terms of our relationship. Maybe I was a little hard on Michael and maybe I should have let Eli take care of it like he asked. But it’s hard for me to completely trust Eli. It's so hard.
"Eli," I called out following him downstairs. "Please don't sleep on the couch. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you. I was upset."
"So am I," he retorted. "Plus, don't even think for a minute, I didn't see the way you were looking at Alia's dad."
"What way was that?' I said coyly.
"Don't do that," Eli huffed. "You were drooling over him. You really know how to shoot down a guy's confidence."
"I said I was sorry," I replied kissing him on the neck. "I love you, Eli and if you want to talk to Michael you can. I won't take away all of his things."
"Oh no," Eli retorted. "We're still taking away his things. He's still grounded. All I wanted was for you to trust me."
"I do trust you," I replied. "I do and I'm sorry. I swear to you that next time any of our kids screw up - you'll handle it. I promise. I won't even say one word."
"Promise?" Eli asked.
"Promise," I grinned kissing Eli on the lips. And almost like clockwork, the front door, slams shut and Michelle comes running into the living room.
"Dad! Dad! Good the both of you are here," Michelle said out of breath. "Don't be mad. But something happened to your car."
"Well that's all you Eli," I smirked walking away gleefully. It was of course, Eli's car she was using. Eli said he could handle it, so I guess I could let him handle this one.
"What happened to my car? What happened to my car?" I heard Eli shouted rushing out the front door. I had a feeling Michael and Michelle would be home for a while. They'd definitely be bonding every weekend for the next month or so.