pedicures, but Julian doubted his father noticed. No man was a foot man, unless it was a fetish. Julian had been learning about fetishes. He was starting to think he had one.
“What was so good about your lesson?”
“I was hitting really well. I could feel it.” His mother beamed, and Julian thought she had the greatest smile. She’d been a cheerleader at the University of Delaware, and she still looked like one, with bright blue eyes and a short nose. Her hair was medium brown but she streaked it blond and wore it bouncy around her chin. She had met his father when she was playing in a local amateur tournament sponsored by Browne. His father always said that she was the prettiest girl there who wasn’t gay.
“Good for you.”
“What did you have for lunch, honey?”
“Hoagies from Wawa.”
“Again?” His mother frowned. There was never anything to make a decent sandwich with at his father’s house. He and his father always rolled in to the convenience store in the morning.
“It was fine.”
His mother picked at her salad, and Julian knew she was getting ready to pump him for information about his father. She’d caught him screwing his assistant in his Porsche Carrera at the office. Their divorce had become final last year.
“So is your father still seeing that girl?”
“Which one?” Julian realized it was a mistake when he saw his mother cringe.
“Lindsay?”
“Oh, right, I think he’s still seeing her.” Julian ate more quickly, to finish sooner.
“Weren’t you with him and Lindsay last weekend?”
“No.” Shit.
“So were you guys alone?”
“No.” Julian’s father’s girlfriends were always around, which was fine with Julian. His father didn’t act like a father, but like a cool older guy who had a younger friend named Julian. His father didn’t want to be a father anymore, if he’d ever wanted to. It worked for Julian, who didn’t need a father anymore.
“So he goes out with other girls, in addition to Lindsay?”
“Right, I don’t think they’re exclusive.” Julian used his father’s term.
“So which girl was he with?”
“Another one, I forget her name.”
His mother set her glass down. “Julian. You didn’t forget her name. Don’t lie to me.”
“I forgot her name, really.” Julian wasn’t lying, for once. He did forget the girl’s name. He didn’t forget how she looked in a bathing suit.
“Was it Brittany?”
“No.”
“Courtney?”
“There’s no Courtney.”
“There’s always a Courtney.” His mother laughed. “Tell your father to hop to. Find himself a Courtney.”
“Good one, Mom.” Julian wished she could laugh it off more often, but she couldn’t. They’d been married nineteen years, and his mother really loved his father, even though he’d turned into a selfish jerk after he became a successful developer. He’d developed into an asshole.
“Did you guys go on the boat?” His mother’s expression soured because the boat drove her crazy. His father had bought it after the divorce, and Julian had overheard his mother talking about it on the phone with her friends, saying since when did he start boating and who does he think he’s kidding and he can’t even swim. They used to sign off, man overboard!
“Yes, we went on the boat.”
“Again!” His mother rolled her eyes so hard the white showed.
“Don’t start.” Julian smiled, but they both knew she was going to.
“Was it an overnight trip?”
“Yes.”
“How many nights?”
“Just one.” Julian loved the boat trips because it was fun to dock in the small towns in New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. He always packed his binoculars.
“Not Friday night?”
“No, Saturday.” Julian explained the binoculars by telling his father that he had to bird-watch for an independent study. He even bought a National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds, Eastern Region with a waterproof cover that he took everywhere. Julian had convinced his mother, too, and she’d bought him a membership to the Audubon Society, which encouraged junior birding. So he’d become Julian Browne, junior birder.
“Did he get you the adjoining room this time, at the hotel?”
“Yes.” Julian stabbed his potatoes with a fork. The last time he’d stayed in a room on a completely different floor from his father, and his mother and her lawyer had thrown a fit, saying it was unsafe, that he was unsupervised, that he could even be kidnapped.
“Was it right next door?”
“Yes, it was adjoining.”
“You swear? Don’t lie for him.”
“I wouldn’t.” Julian was almost finished with his meal. Thanks to the lawyers, he got to listen to his father and his girlfriend having sex. His father said oh baby in orgasm, a fact Julian never wanted to know.
“So where did you