My therapist, my brother, my mom. Those are the three people who know. I’m about to make it four.

Jackson and I incidentally first met by bonding over my therapist.

“You see Susan too? Oh, she’s great,” he said sweetly, eyes as innocent as morning dew. “She helped me come out to my family,” he said matter of factly. And that’s the first moment I knew I might just be able to love him.

You see, I’m different. I mean, sure I’m different, but not because of that. I love Jackson, and we’ve been dating forever, and everyone who knows us supports us, and if they don’t, they can go—

“Henry? You look worried?” Jackson asked from the passenger seat. Exit signs and freeway lights glazed over us in a steady rhythm as I focused ahead.

“I—I’m fine, I just—“ I needed to tell him sooner or later. I had been thinking about how I should do it forever. Nothing seemed to click, nothing seemed to take the fear away.

I didn’t care when I told people about Jackson. I didn’t fear then because if I wasn’t accepted, at least I had him. But what if he can’t accept this? What if he leaves me stranded, with no last resort. I know I can’t drag this out any longer. So I take an early exit and pull into a dimly lit grocery store.

“What are you—“

“I need to tell you this now, J.”

He looked at me with concern, like a vulnerable pet on one of those infomercials.

“You don’t know this about me. But I’m… my mom, and my brother and I, we’re…”

“What? You’re what?”

I took deep breaths, not knowing how to fill the space between us.

“I see things differently, and I can do things differently, I—“ How the hell do I tell him?

“Listen, it’s okay, whatever it is, you can say it.”

“I’m a—“

As if the universe, too, was fed up with my blabbering, my instincts had kicked in before I had the chance to recognize it. Three key moments flashed through my mind that I relayed to Susan the next week: a bolt of fear through my veins as quick as the two hooded figures that appeared outside our windows, a sudden jerk of my arm over to Jackson like a death grip, and the flash of his face realizing it all as we were suddenly transported beyond the car and into the safety of the grocery store.

I didn’t tell Susan, however, about about our culmination of understanding in the frozen foods into one sweet, sure kiss.