52
Merrick
Present Day
It’s been three days since the news broke, and while there’s still paparazzi hanging around, it’s not too bad. Ali’s gotten better at putting his head down and tuning them out, but we’ve still been pretty prominent in the news.
Guitar player, Merrick Kingston, from the rock band The Unwanted, and his boyfriend, Alejandro Barerra, step out for a bite to eat, holding hands.
Merrick and Alejandro leave the hotel hand-in-hand and spend time with family. Do we hear wedding bells for these two?
Finally, a kiss! Since Merrick came out in the middle of a show in his brother’s bar, we have yet to see these two lock lips, but today they gifted us this adorable picture. Merrick and Alejandro kiss good-bye before they go separate ways.
Today, we’re finally having lunch with Ali’s mom and sister. I’ve yet to see them since everything came out, but I’m not too worried about how things will go. We’ve always gotten along.
“Babe, you ready?” I ask.
Ali comes out of his room, looking too damn good. “Yep.”
I push up from the couch and saunter over. “Why do you have to look so good?”
He wraps his arms around my back, grinning at me. “You’re just trying to get in my pants.”
“Mm.” I let my fingers dip into the waistband of his dark blue jeans. “Is that so bad?”
“When we have to be at my mom’s in forty minutes, and I live forty-five minutes away? Yes.”
I groan into his neck. “Just keep clothes at the hotel and stay with me. You don’t even need to live here anymore.”
“We’re building a house from scratch. It won’t be ready for a year, and school starts up in a couple months, so maybe you should live with me here until we can move into our house.”
I pull back and smile at him. “Our house. I love how that sounds.”
“Me too.” He kisses me softly, but it quickly turns passionate. “Mm. You’re too tempting. We have to go. Mom and Lil are gonna kill us both.”
“All right, all right.”
“You’re ten minutes late,” Lili says as soon as she opens the door. “Hey, Merrick.”
“Oh, he gets a hey, but I get scolded,” Ali complains.
“It was probably your fault,” she says, “Come on in, Mami’s waiting.”
I give Lili a peck on the cheek before I enter. “It was all his fault.”
Ali spins around and pins me with a look and Liliana giggles.
“Ma? We’re here,” Ali calls out, heading to the kitchen while I stay put with my hands in my pockets.
“Don’t look so nervous,” Lili chides, hitting my elbow. “You’ve been here a million times.”
“Do I look nervous?” I ask with a lopsided grin. “I thought I was confident coming in here, but now I’m worried your mom’s gonna smack me on the head and get onto me for lying.”
She laughs. “She might.”
I glance to my left as Ali trails behind his mom, coming toward me.
“Come here,” she says, holding her arms out for a hug.
I sneak a peek at Lili who just raises her eyebrows, and remove my hands from my pockets to embrace Luisa.
“Thanks for having me,” I say.
She pats my back a few times, and when she’s easing away she smacks my hand lightly. “Why didn’t you tell me you loved my boy? I’m over here thinking he’s doomed to never find love, and yet he had it his whole life.”
“Mom!” Ali exclaims, throwing his arms up. “Doomed? I’m only twenty-seven.”
“Ah!” she says, waving her hand at him. “You two didn’t do anything in my house did you? You know, behind my back?” she stares at me with an intensity that makes me start to sweat.
“Uh.”
“No, Mom,” Ali says.
He’s not lying. We did everything at Elijah’s house. We may have snuck in a quick kiss over here, but Lili followed us everywhere, so we were always afraid to get caught.
“Mmhmm,” she murmurs, grabbing my hand and taking me to the kitchen. “Let’s talk.”
Ali and Lili try to follow us, but she looks over her shoulder and stops them. “Just me and Merrick. Go watch TV.”
My eyes connect with Ali’s, but he just mouths good luck before turning and making his way to the living room.
“I understand why you kept this a secret,” Luisa says. “The world can still be so ugly and cruel. Add fame on top of that, and I wouldn’t want to deal with that either.” She stops at the stove to stir something in a pot. “Alejandro came out to me when he was twenty, but you know what? I already knew. Call it motherly instinct or something, but I knew. It wasn’t right away, though. It was right around the time he graduated high school, but I just waited for him to feel comfortable enough to come to me.”
“He might’ve come to you sooner, but that was my fault.”
“What do you mean?”
“We planned on coming out together when we were eighteen. We had made plans, but they never came to fruition because I was busy with the band, and I was afraid. Ali’s always been braver than me, and he held out for me until he just couldn’t any longer.”
She frowns and places a lid over the pot before stepping back. “I see.” Luisa gazes up at me with the same whiskey-colored eyes Ali has. “You loved him, though.”
“I still do. I’ve never stopped.”
She smiles. “Not everyone moves at the same pace. You did what you felt you had to do. You chose yourself over a relationship.” Luisa holds up her hand when my face falls. “I don’t mean that in a negative way. Over and over again people put lovers before themselves. I was one of those people. My ex-husband wasn’t a good man, but I constantly did what he wanted me to do. I didn’t take time for myself. I
