Page 16 of Mimosa (Murphy's Pub #2)

Chapter Sixteen

The plates were filled with chicken and gently sautéed vegetables and they all sat around the island, and each of them cast loving glances over at the two of them. Mims wished they’d stop, but Sonny didn’t seem to notice.

And he, like everyone else, had an opinion on Mims’s father. Only his was different than everyone else. “Go see him, but don’t hide yourself. Go in there and be strong, and say, hey, Dad, I’m good, even though you never asked. I know you’re not and I’m very sorry, but before you go, settle your debts. And you owe a debt to me.”

“I could see that. That would cure him, because he’d have to jump off his deathbed to murder me.”

Cosmo waved his fork back and forth as he disagreed. “I’m with Sonny. Just because you care that he’s dying, it doesn’t mean you grovel. You can go and tell him that you’re happy even if he wasn’t.”

Hippy joined that chorus. “If you see him, and that is an if, go in your best flamboyant clothes and let Abs put a ton of makeup on your face.”

“I’m going to say goodbye, not kill him myself.”

Murphy was the voice of reason. “It’s up to him. It’s what he can live with. Personally, my dad had the same issues.”

Mick cleared his throat and said, “Da ya blame me? It ain’t natural.”

“Dad, shut it.”

“Have more respect!”

Ignoring him, Murphy went on. “What I had to do, and it wasn’t easy, was to see that the time he grew up in and the way they were, it’s ingrained in him to dislike anything that doesn’t…go with the flow. Swimming against the current was always wrong to the older generations, and it’s no different for your father. He was raised in a place where they still, to this day, well…you know what they do with gay men and women.”

Mims knew well. “I get that. I forgave him for hating my sexuality long ago. What I can’t forgive him for, is him hating me. I’m his kid.”

“You have that right,” Murphy said.

Mims was miserable over the decision. His family, his found family, however, was there for him. No matter what.

“If my other family was like you all, maybe I’d be running there.”

Sonny grabbed his hand and said, “That is why people have chosen families. We can’t choose the families we’re born into, Mims. We can take them for how they are, or we can leave for our own mental health, or even somewhere in between. The point is, choosing a family is different.”

Cosmo added, “Sometimes we don’t have a choice. Like me, I didn’t. And Mims, well, he didn’t either. His family tossed him out.”

“True,” Sonny said. “Okay, Mims, before you eat out your own guts about this, would they let you in the door if you did show up?”

“Gee, I don’t know. Nadia didn’t…she didn’t say they would or wouldn’t.”

“That’s where you start, then,” Murphy said. “Ask if you show up, if you would even be allowed in the damn door.”

Haze surprised them all. “What you do, either way, babe, is write the old man a letter. Write down all your feelings, every single one, and put them all into words. Tell him you love him, you hate him, you’re hurt, you’re healed, whatever. Thank him for being a part of the reason you’re here and anything he did do for you along the way of your raising, but then dig in, tell him everything he did that hurt you. Then, when you’ve got all those words down, burn the thing. Burn it and know that those words are traveling to the other side, where he’ll soon be.”

“Burn it?”

Nodding slowly as he set down his fork, he whispered, “You’re too good a person, Mims. If you ever told him everything he did to hurt you, that would be what you could never live with. It would eat you alive, especially because you could never take it back, because he’d be gone.”

Mims slid off the stool and moved around the corner of the island to Haze, who’d turned on his stool. Mims hugged him as he silently cried and he felt hands on his back as everyone moved around him.

Later, Sonny walked with him to his room and went inside the door, looking around, smiling sadly. “I am sorry.”

“For?”

“I should have said what your friend did.”

Mims grabbed his hand and yanked him to the bed, and there they sat together, Sonny holding him. “I’m going to go, but with them. I’d go with you, but that would be like rubbing his nose in it.”

“Oh, so going with five other gay men is easing him into the idea.”

Mims giggled and said, “I’m not in love with them.”

It was the first he’d said it out loud. Sonny didn’t push him away, didn’t stomp out of the door, and he also didn’t change the subject. That was a good sign.

Then a better sign happened. “Yeah, I guess the moony way you gaze at me, and the way I’d be on the watch for anyone hurting you because we’re desperately in love wouldn’t be the best idea.”

Mims laughed and snuggled closer. “I guess not.”

“By the way, I’m glad I’m the only one you’re in love with.”

“Ditto.”

Sonny lay there with him all night, holding him. When he’d wake for a moment, and felt Sonny there, he knew he could take on the world…or his father.

When Sonny was ready to leave the next morning, Mims held him tightly by the back door. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’ll be glad when this is over. I hate them and hate what they’re doing, but I have to play along, and that’s the hardest part of all this. Being able to get away and have…have something good waiting for me, it helps. A lot.”

“Get away more often then.”

“I’ll try.”

He kissed Mims long and slow, holding his face tenderly. “I do love you. I want to know what happens, if you go or decide not to.”

“I’ll text you. I promise.”

“Don’t ever break a promise to me, and I’ll do the same.”

Mims nodded on his chest as he hugged him again. “I promise.”

When he was gone, Mims arms longed for him, the smell of Sonny’s light cologne were still on his clothes. He sniffed his shirt and dreamily walked up the stairs to his floor and lay on the bed where Sonny had just been, wishing they could run away from undercover work, fathers on deathbeds, and everything.

The two of them, in some little beach house, watching the sun rise over the ocean, watching the earth wake and the ocean rise.

But the world would catch up to them. The realness of their lives would never let them hide. Besides, he’d miss the others at the pub too much.

His real family.

He called Nadia after he returned to his room, and she answered right away. “Hey, little brother.”

“Hey. How…is he?”

“He’s alive and cranky. Hurting, I think.”

Mims’s eyes slid shut as he said, “Oh.”

“And you? Are you okay?”

Mims shook his head, but he said, “I’m fine. I’m not the one who’s sick, but Nadia, would he even want to see me? I mean, I’ll come, but…but…”

“Honey, I don’t know. I haven’t asked, but you know Mom wouldn’t throw you out, and if he isn’t nice, well, he’s never nice. I figured you were used to that about him. Like I said, though, it’s not for him. It’s for you.”

“I’m coming, but my friends are coming with me, for moral support or whatever and if he’s mean to them, I’ll blow my top.”

“Good. Maybe that’s what the old man needs, eh?”

He was shocked. “Nadia…”

“Hey, I’ve been going there for years, only to get him grumbling about my kids, how they’re not as respectful as they should be, their hair is too long, the girls don’t help with dinner. He’s so stuck in old ways, it’s just boring, but what he did to you, well…”

He smiled and said, “I love you, sis.”

“I love you too. Bring them all. Do you have a guy? You do, right?”

“I do.”

“Bring him too. In fact, make out in front of him. Would do him a world of good.”

Mims had an inkling. “Hey, uh…what did he do? He said he didn’t want to see me, right?”

“What do you mean?” she asked a little too innocently.

“Come on, Nadia. You don’t get this mad at him except when it comes to me. You told him to make up with me before he dies, right? And he said something you’d never repeat.”

“Stop thinking you’re so smart, Ali. And get to see that old fuck. Come naked and do gay sex in front of him.”

He laughed and said, “I won’t go that far, even for you. Gee, that’s…weird to even say that.”

“Ew, yes, it is. I’m done. Do what you have to do, honey, and I’ll see you later.”

“Bye.”

The others were gathered in the basement to discuss their next job, a gorgeous seventeenth century painting that was just begging to be stolen and would be their biggest heist to date. Once they’d concluded the shop talk, Mims stood and announced, “I’ve decided to go see him, but, even though I’m totally in love with all of you for offering to go with me, and Sonny too, I…” he paused as his eyes moved over the faces that he loved more than his own life. “I really love you all, but if anyone goes with me, I’d like it to be Cosmo.”

Cosmo’s brows shot up as he stared in shock at Mims. “Me?”

“Even though a lot of us have daddy issues, believe me, I know that, I also know that most, if not all of the rest of you wouldn’t have as hard a time talking to their dad as Cosmo.” He spoke directly to his newest brother. “I know how hard it would be for you. Maybe that’s why I need you.”

Cosmo looked away and nodded fast. “Sure, Mims. Sure, yeah, I’ll go.”

He felt Abs’s hand in his and he looked over at him. “That’s what you want, that’s fine. But we’ll all be here for you when you guys get back.” Abs looked over to a squirming Cosmo, who was trying terribly hard not to cry. “You too, Cos. I know it’s going to bring up shit for you too.”

“Nah, I’m okay. I got this.”

They all knew he was lying, but no one would have called him on it for anything in the world.

He broke the news to Sonny later on the phone. “I want to go and get it over with before the weekend.”

“I’ll be there Saturday night. That’s as soon as I can leave. Will you be okay until then?”

“I will, yeah. I know it’s going to be hard for Cosmo, but…he’s…”

“Strong. Even Goldie isn’t as strong that way, right?”

“How do you know that?”

“You get a sense of things in my business, Mims. He’s got a lot of anger.”

Mims nodded and said, “Maybe that’s why I’m taking him. He’s never really dealt with what happened to his family. I haven’t either.”

“I think you chose right, my love. Just make sure he doesn’t hurry your dad’s inevitable death along and get himself into trouble.”

“I won’t let him. Hey…”

“Hmm?”

“I really do miss you. Will you be done with all this soon?”

“The BBC are going to be hard to take down, even with me inside of it. I don’t know where their money is kept, how they are finding their partners in other cartels and gangs. There’s a lot of shit to get through. As long as I can keep them away from you, well, right now, if that’s all I can do, I’m going to do it.”

The end of the call had Mims quietly crying on the edge of his bed. Cosmo knocked and stuck in his head to see him that way, and without a word, came in to sit next to him, holding him while he cried.

Some of the guys didn’t think Cosmo would ever fit in, but he had. He was one of them, a building filled with misfits that didn’t belong anywhere else. They’d found a home and a family, and Mims kissed his cheek softly. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’ll be good for us both.”

“Where’s Daiq?”

Mims hadn’t seen the cat in days, and he could use that furry love right then. “Abs is bringing him to you. He said that Daiq can fix all the ills in the world.”

“He really can! I love his cuddles.”

As if on cue, Abs came in with the cat that seemed to be growing by the hour. He covered Abs’s whole chest as Abs carried him to the bed. “Someone wants to see his Aunty Mims.”

“Did he? Isn’t he the sweetest baby?”

The cat was purring loudly as Mims held him, and Daiq cuddled in and fell asleep immediately. “He’s gonna stay in here tonight with you, if that’s okay?”

“Food?” he asked in a whisper, unwilling to wake the cat.

“I’ll go get the bowls,” Abs offered then rushed off.

Cosmo had found the cat in an alley, three kids trying to catch him to hurt him. He’d rescued Daiq and he’d become part of his leverage for joining their crew. He wouldn’t join unless Daiq could join the family. No one had voted against that, and had since adopted him as a very important part of Murphy’s Pub.

He fell asleep with Daiq, and woke up with the cat nuzzling his chin. “Daiq, it’s too early.”

The purring got loud and the nuzzling continued.

“You want to eat. Damn that daddy of yours feeding you your can at seven every day. Doesn’t he know none of the rest of us wake up that early?”

Again, as if by cue, Cosmo came into the room, tiptoeing until he saw Mims’s eyes open.

“Sorry. He’s on a schedule.”

“It’s okay. That is the best way to get woke up in the whole world.”

Cosmo took the cat into his arms and kissed his little furry head. “Food time. So, Mims, when do you want to go?”

“About ten, if that’s okay.”

“I’ll be ready. Katie and Little Mick want Daiq for the day. He’s going to be so tired tonight.”

“Yeah, they run him. See you then.”

“See you. And Mims, it’s gonna be okay. I’ll make sure it is.”

He left after that and Mims settled into his pillow, unable to sleep a second longer. He grabbed his phone to find a text from Sonny.

I’ll be thinking of you all day. Call me when it’s all finished.

“Sure. If I’m not in jail.”

He took a long time getting ready, fighting with himself over what to wear so long that he finally called Abs for help.

Abs came in and spent ten minutes in his closet before he grabbed Mims’s hand and pulled him from his room. “Haze has the only conservative clothes that might fit you.”

“I don’t want to be overly conservative.”

“Yes, you do. Use your words, not your looks. If you wear a skirt in there, he won’t hear you.”

While what he said made sense, he was kind of counting on getting booted out on his ass for wearing pink or something to that affect.

At Haze’s door, Abs knocked and Haze was quick to answer, a cup of water in his hand that was full of a cloud of paint. “Hey, what’s up?”

“I need your closet.”

“Go ahead, I need to get some clean water.”

The moment they entered, they saw the entire room was pointed to one small piece of wood that looked like it was from the arc that Moses built.

“What the hell?”

“It’s the painting,” Haze said as he came back into the room. “Well, I haven’t started it yet. We’re doing another meeting tonight, just so you know. Goldie is excited about this one.”

“We all are,” Abs said. “I just didn’t know it was so tiny!”

“Yeah, isn’t it great! All that beauty on one tiny piece of wood. One tiny piece of wood worth over twenty million dollars and it’s right here, in Denver.”

Mims had found it while they were looking at their next jobs. He was proud of Haze wanting it, being it wasn’t easy to replicate a work like that. “What was the cup of water?”

“Oh. Well, I was doing another painting for myself. I need to start on this, but there’s time. It’s going to be about six months of staking out the place before we can even attempt it.”

Abs nodded. “Yeah, the security is tight, but it’s worth so much, it might be the last one we ever have to do.”

That made Mims sad. “I mean, we can still do things to help people. Right?”

“We’ll all have enough to help whoever we need, but with something like this? We’ll be out of the robbery business and we won’t have to worry about the BBC or anyone else,” Haze said. “Then we can just be a family.”

Abs was pulling clothes from the closet and holding them up to Mims, and each one landed on the bed.

“Don’t leave them there,” Haze warned.

“I won’t. None of these are right. Don’t you have a nice silk?”

“Silk is gay,” Mims told him.

“Silk is gay? No, it’s good taste.”

“That’s why it’s gay. A guy like my father would never wear silk,” he said. “And he’s got enough money to, but cotton and wool for him. Manly fabrics,” he spat while he looked through the closet and came out with a nice blue collared shirt with marbled blue and black buttons down the front. “This.”

“Ugh, that is so dull.”

“Exactly. I thought you wanted my words and not my looks.”

“Right. I forgot. That’s perfect. Now, jeans, not too tight, and a tie, maybe?”

“Sure, a tie. Do my hair, parted on the side and no product.”

Abs gagged and then commented, “Straight people. No flare, no fun at all.”

Cosmo came into Mims’s room while Abs was fixing his hair an hour before they were to leave. “You look straight. I guess that’s what we’re going for?”

Mims laughed at his T-shirt and jeans, which were his normal attire except for the weekends while they worked. Abs had gayed him up plenty for those nights. “You’re probably very happy.”

“I am. I may get a lot of tips with the clothes Abs has me in, but they’re not exactly comfortable.”

“Who needs comfort when they can look good?” Abs asked to no one in particular. “There. All set.”

Mims looked in the full length mirror on the inner door of his closet and sighed, “Ick. I do look straight. Man, I’d have never got a girlfriend.”

“None of us would,” Abs commented.

“Speak for yourself,” Cosmo said, lifting his t-shirt to show his six-pack abs in the mirror. “Girls love this shit.”

If their eyes could pop out and roll across the floor, Abs and Mims could roll them a little harder. Mims grabbed Cosmo’s hand and said, “Let’s go, lady killer.”