Page 23 of Yard Sale

“I wish I had called your brother,” I muttered.

He laughed again. “Everyone always does. Listen, Vanya and I are going on vacation in a few days. We’re heading up to Toronto for a week, and then we’re doing a month in Portland.”

“Gonna go get weird?”

“I feel like my people are there,” Micah said, and I could hear the grin in his voice. “You know you’re welcome to join us if you want to get away for a while. Vanya would be over the fucking moon if a few friends came along.”

I took a breath to make some joke about the trip being a fuck-cation, but then I realized that was a comment for the old Micah. And hell, maybe it was a fuck-cation for him and Vanya. But it wasn’t my business.

“I don’t want to intrude. Besides, I have a family thing coming up.”

“Uh. Your family?”

I usually didn’t talk much about my family, but unfortunately, I’d been drunk enough around my friends to spill some of the beans. “Yes, my family. It’ll be fine. It’s by the beach.”

“Well, if you need an escape, just call me, and I’ll let you know the closest airport to wherever we’re at. Vanya would be pissed if he found out you were in need and didn’t say anything. He loves you.”

“I’m glad your boyfriend loves me.”

“And I love you,” Micah said with a heavy, sarcastic sigh. “Also, he’s my fiancé.”

“You’re not getting married on this trip, right? You’re not eloping without your friends?”

“Never.” He went quiet again, then said, “I’m serious, Tiago. I don’t understand what it’s like to lose sight, but I do understand what it is to sit in front of your career and realize that maybe you made the choice to play for a version of yourself that no longer exists. It sucks, and it’s hard, and you don’t have to deal with it alone.”

Crisse, he really was a good friend.

“I’ll call you,” I told him. I was lying, and he probably knew that, but he was kind enough to hum some kind of agreeing sound.

“I’ll talk to you soon, bud. I hope you get a nice tan at the beach.”

“And I hope you have fun getting weird in Portland.”

The call ended, and while I had a lot to think about and I still had no idea what to do with myself, I did feel better. I also had an escape because I knew that while Micah treasured his time with Vanya in the offseason, I also knew he meant what he said.

I was welcome. And he was family.

Which was a far cry from my own.

CHAPTER 6

ARAVIND

“How many aunties are coming?”

My dad glanced across the desk at me. “Does it matter?”

The question was rhetorical. No, it didn’t matter. It could be two, it could be five. The aunties were going to do what they were going to do, just like always. They were now and would always be convinced that they knew better than me, and all of them hadn’t stopped worrying about me and my dad’s ability to take care of ourselves after Mom died.

So the house would be full of food, laughter, complaints, judgment, and unhelpful advice because while they meant well, they also didn’t understand the world we lived in.

Almost all of them were married—none of them were anywhere near my age, and most of them barely understood texting, let alone what it meant to have your access to the social world exist almost exclusively on apps.

God, what I’d give to be a nineties kid where cell phones were thick bars that did nothing but make calls with terrible connections and you only answered on nights and weekends because you had to pay for minutes. The expectation of instant and constant access to people was starting to weigh on me.

And becoming a hermit in the woods, living behind a waterfall in a damp cave, was starting to sound like the dream.

“I don’t know if I’m going to stay the whole summer,” I said, kicking my foot up on his desk.