"No, we rented a house with another friend. Brent."
"Brent." Gia grinned. "One man and three women.
That must have been interesting."
Carolyn chuckled. "Brent was more like one of the girls than a guy."
Gia's eyes narrowed and then she murmured, "Gay."
"Yes," Carolyn answered, though it hadn't really been a question. "Few in school knew it though. He was still in the closet back then. His parents were older and he didn't think they'd accept him if they knew." She smiled faintly. "The funny thing is, he dragged me home as his "girlfriend" for years to keep his parents from finding out, and when he finally came out of the closet, his mother wasn't surprised at all. She'd known all along I was just his beard."
Gia turned her back to the counter, hefted herself up to sit on it, and picked up a bottle of water that had been resting beside her. She eyed Carolyn as she opened it and took a sip, then lowered it and asked, "Beard?"
"It's a fake girlfriend basically, so people don't know the person's gay," she explained, wondering what the Italian equivalent would be. Marguerite had said the band members were all Italian relatives of Julius's.
She glanced toward the door, but hesitated, not anxious to go back out while Christian might still be there.
Carolyn was afraid of making a fool of herself over the man by drooling or otherwise revealing her attraction to him. It just seemed better to avoid him. She'd go back after he'd returned to the stage and then slip away before the second set ended and avoid the lounge until the band left, she decided.
"Sit with me," Gia suggested, patting the counter beside her. When Carolyn glanced at her uncertainly, she smiled wryly and said, "I'm supposed to get to relax during the breaks, but if we go back out, guests will want to talk to me and then it's not relaxing. Talking to you is relaxing."
Carolyn didn't particularly want to go back out anyway, so moved over to settle on the counter next to her.
"So, you didn't mind being this beard for your friend?"
Gia asked at once.
"No, not at all. Brent was a sweetheart and a great friend. He still is. Besides, I felt for him. He really struggled with his sexuality back then. He wanted to be straight to please his family and basically fit in, but he just wasn't attracted to women. He had it tough there for a while. I was happy to help out," she said with a shrug.
"My cugino has the same problem," Gia announced when Carolyn glanced to the door again.
Carolyn looked back uncertainly. "Cugino?"
"Cousin," Gia translated. "He's gay, but... well, Italy is terribly into the whole machismo thing, and especially in our family, so he keeps it to himself. I'm the only one who knows."
"Oh, that's a shame. It must be hard for him," she said with sympathy, recalling many late-night talks with Brent on the subject. He really had struggled with it and it didn't seem fair to her. She didn't understand the anger and rage homosexuality caused in some people.
Some acted like they thought the individual woke up one day and said, Well, I think I'll piss off the universe today by switching my sexual preference. She was no expert on the matter, but it seemed to her that thinking a person could choose what gender they were attracted to was like thinking you could choose what you preferred to eat. Some preferred chocolate over vanilla, and others preferred vanilla to chocolate; it wasn't a choice, but a matter of taste and what appealed to their palette. Why did they think sexual preference would be any different?
"Si." Gia nodded sadly. "It wasn't so bad for a while, he had a-what did you call it? A beard?" When Carolyn nodded, she continued, "He had a beard for years. They were good friends and she would go to family functions and such with him. But she married last year and he has not had a beard since. Everyone in the family is bothering him about bringing home another girlfriend and he's afraid some of them are beginning to suspect. Especially Julius and the other boys in the band."
"This cousin is one of the guys in the band?" Carolyn asked with surprise, wondering which one it could be. She was pretty sure it wasn't Christian or Santo, and Raffaele didn't seem likely. That left Zanipolo. Of course, she could be completely wrong. It wasn't as if you could tell just by looking. Well, sometimes you could, she supposed, but not always, and definitely not if they were still in the closet.
"You could help him," Gia said now, and Carolyn peered at her blankly.
"Me? Help him? How?" she asked with bewilderment.
"You could be his beard," Gia said with a smile. "If they thought he was having an affair with you, it would lay their suspicions to rest for now and take the pressure off of him for a little while, even after this trip."
"Oh, Gia, I don't know," she began with dismay.
"Oh, but it's perfect," Gia said at once, moving to clasp her hands. "You have done this before so know how to be a beard. He will be able to relax with you and not worry that you will try to drag him to bed, or be hurt or complain if he doesn't try to drag you there because you know he can't possibly be interested."
"But I'm so much older than all you guys," she pointed out, her voice rising along with her alarm.
"No you're not. We aren't as young as we look," Gia assured her. "We just have to keep the youthful image to be in a band. And we age well in our clan," she added when Carolyn narrowed her eyes on her, looking for crow's-feet or any other telltale sign that the woman might be older than the twenty-five or so that she looked. "Besides, his last... er... beard was about your age, and everyone thinks he prefers older women because of it. They won't doubt it for a moment."
"Gia, I'd like to help, but I don't think-"