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Walt couldn’t hold back his chuckle as he watched the rather comical reactions from the young men. A waiter rushed over to the table with a rag to mop up the drink that was on the floor. Josiah’s face was red with embarrassment as the other patrons in the restaurant eyed their table.

As soon as the waiter left with his soaked towel, Josiah turned to glare at Carson. “Why would you ask him that?”

The brunet’s eyes widened and he grew defensive instantly. “What are you mad at me for?”

“Because! We could have denied it! Now he knows it’s a thing, because you had to confirm it. Way to go, Carson.”

Hurt flashed through his blue eyes as Carson said, “You must be joking.”

“Okay, boys,” Walt said, cutting into their argument. “Just relax. I don’t want you two to fight; believe it or not, that wasn’t my intention for today.”

Carson put his elbows on the table and dropped his chin into his hands. Josiah sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked at Walt and shook his head.

“How did you find out?” Josiah asked.

“It wasn’t that hard for me to figure out,” Walt said. “Carson never was really good at hiding his crush on you.” The brunet blushed and looked down at the table. “And I’ve been watching you two get closer over the last few months. It wasn’t hard to miss.”

Josiah rubbed the back of his neck. “Then how does nobody else know?”

“I have my ways. Oh, and I also spoke to your mother, Josiah. She filled me in on what you told her.”

Carson turned his blue eyes on his friend accusingly. “You told your mother? Joe, what the hell?”

“W-well I needed someone to talk to,” the dark-haired boy spluttered. “It was before we even got together. You wouldn’t hardly talk to me, and she’s my mom, man. I thought I could trust her not to tell Walt.”

The brunet covered his face with his hands. “I can’t believe this.” Carson lifted his head to look at the middle-aged man across from him. “Are you mad? Do you hate us for this?”

Walt laughed and shook his head. “Of course not! Boys, listen to me. I get it. You’re young and you never know what you want. That is, until you find that special person. Carson, you’ve liked him for a long time.” He looked at Josiah and said, “And with how invested you with my daughter, Carson must be pretty special to you in order for you to break up with her.”

“I haven’t broken up with her,” Josiah said quietly. He looked at his boyfriend and said, “And he is special. I really love him.”

Carson blushed again, but let Josiah take his hand in his.

“Either way,” Walt said, “I can’t be too upset with you guys. Carson, you know you’ve always been like a son to me. And Josiah, you’ve been around long enough. I know you’re good kids. You don’t want to hurt Ayden.”

“Exactly,” Josiah said. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. It’s just...I guess I finally let myself fall for the guy.”

“What are you going to do about Ayden?”

Both the young men looked at each other and then shrugged. Carson spoke up first. “We don’t really know yet. We’re on a break right now.”

“We weren’t expecting Ayden to wake up when she did. It kind of caught us off guard,” Josiah added. “I don’t know what to do yet.”

Walt sighed and leaned back in his chair. He watched the waitress walk towards their table and a moment later she was setting all of the plates of food down in front of them. After making sure they were all set, the waitress went back to the kitchen and Walt looked at the two men sitting opposite him. Nobody at their table made a move to touch their food.

“Listen, boys,” Walt said calmly. “I’m going to be honest with you. I know what you’re going through because I can relate. Something similar happened to me before as well.” Upon the blank stares and slack-jawed expressions, Walt continued his story. “Not many people know this, but I’m actually bisexual, and--”

“You’ve got to be shitting me!”

“You can’t be serious!”

Carson and Josiah were leaning forwards over the table and their eyes were wide. They both were sure that they had to have heard the older man wrong because if they hadn’t, they didn’t know how to process the information. To think that Ayden’s father was bisexual was simply insane.

Walt smirked. “Yes, I’m serious. I’ve had my fair share of relationships with both men and women.”

“Does Ayden know?”

“No, she doesn’t. At least not yet. It’s never really had to come up in conversation before. Now listen to me, boys. There’s a reason I’m bringing this up now.”

“We’re listening,” Carson said, urging the man on.

Walt took a deep breath before speaking. “When I was a teenager I was attracted to both genders, but I was more interested in men. In college that didn’t really change at first. I met a man in one of my classes during my freshman year and we dated for a few years. I was so in love with him.” He paused to get his thoughts straight. He wanted to keep the story vague and only tell Josiah and Carson what was relevant. “During that time, though, things managed to go sour.”

“What happened?” Carson asked.

“About a year into our relationship, he got really sick. It took forever to convince him to go to the hospital, but once he did, we found out he had Leukemia.” Josiah froze and Carson’s hand finally slipped from his. “It was a lot to deal with, that was for sure. But we did our best. It was just a few months before he died that I met Ayden’s mother.”

Josiah’s hand dug into his tufts of curls while his eyes remained fixed on Walt’s face. He didn’t like where this story was going. He didn’t like it one bit. It seemed to be hitting too close to home for him, and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do about it.

“Before her,” Walt said, “I had only dated a couple women, but she got under my skin rather quickly. We clicked so well, and the whole situation tore me apart. I was only twenty, I didn’t know much about real life problems back then, but the guilt of getting closer to a woman while my boyfriend was dying was enough to make me feel miserable for a long time.

“I was a mess after my boyfriend died. The guilt was killing me. I couldn’t sleep, I didn’t have an appetite, but I had Keri. She was there for me when no one else could be. It took years to get over him, and even the pain of knowing I had somehow betrayed him by wanting to be with Keri still lingered until Ayden was born.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Josiah asked, voice tight.

“I just wanted you to know that even though it’s not the same exact situation, this kind of thing does happen. More often than you would think,” the older man said. “This is why I’m not upset with either of you. I couldn’t be; if I were, I’d only be a hypocrite. But I’ve gotten through enough to know that there’s more to life than being angry over things you can’t control. Unfortunately, love and betrayal tend to fall into that uncontrollable category.”

Carson bit his lip anxiously as he watched Josiah pinch the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes. The way the green-eyed man was reacting had him worried.

Josiah shook his head as he felt a sense of nerves settle in his stomach. Walt’s story hadn’t made him feel better about what he was doing. Although, admittedly, it didn’t make him feel worse either. It just unnerved him to think that Walt had to go through something so traumatizing.

The middle-aged man eyed his lunchmates. “Do you guys have any idea how you might want to handle this? I could help, if you needed advice or anything, because I know it’s hard.”

“We weren’t really sure...” Carson said, glancing at a stoic Josiah.

“Is continuing what you two have something that you wanted to do?” Walt asked. “Or do you want to try and make it work with my daughter?"

Walt narrowed his eyes at the older of the two men. Josiah wasn’t looking at anyone. He looked like he was breathing heavily and his hands were clenching and unclenching where they were tangles in his curls.

“I know it’s confusing as hell. And it’s difficult. But you gotta choose, Josiah. Either you stay with her because you love her...or you leave her because you can’t love her enough. Because you can’t have both, son.”

“I know,” Josiah blurted. He pushed his chair back and got to his feet, a bit unsteadily. “I-I can’t deal with this right now. I need--need some fresh air, I’ll meet you at the hospital later.”

The twenty-one year old turned around and hurried to get out of the cafe. He narrowly dodged a table and a waiter with a tray full of sodas as he stumbled his way outside.

“Josiah, wait!” Carson called, trying to get to his feet.

Walt reached across the table and gripped the brunet’s wrist. “Carson, let him go. He needs to process everything.”

Carson’s face twisted up into pain, but sat back down anyway. “Do you think--”

“He’ll be okay,” Walt said with a reassuring smile. “Just give him some time, alright?”

The brunet rested his cheek in his hand. “I guess.”

“Come on, how about we eat lunch? It’s a shame to let this delicious smelling food go to waste, huh?”

Carson sighed, but nodded his head. “Yeah, okay.” He picked up his fork and tried to smile over at his best friend’s father. “Thanks for everything, and...I’m sorry, Walt.”

The older man reached across the table to lightly touch Carson’s shoulder. “It’s alright, kid. And I’m here for all of you whenever you need me.”

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