The Seasons

Spring - Part Four

I hope you're enjoying this as much as I enjoyed writing it! This is the last part of Spring, and we will then move onto Summer!

Fun fact: the conversation Sammy has with Jenny about Vince being trans is inspired by a conversation I had with my friend's kiddo about me being trans! Kids honestly are so chill about it. My friend's kid just wanted to make sure we could still have 'girly nail days'. I reassured her that regardless of my gender, I would still paint her nails.

- Cam x

Meredith dropped Jenny off at my place on Saturday, as I now had enough confidence in Andy and Millie to open up and manage the day without me helping them at the start. Meredith looked more uncomfortable than normal when I opened the door, and I saw her eyes dart around my flat quickly. I realised she was looking to see if Vince was already here.

"Hey," I said awkwardly, and then felt Jenny throw herself at my legs. "Hey, Jellybean, why don't you go and drop your bag off in your room and then come say bye to Mummy?"

"Okay!" Jenny said, racing off towards the glitter infestation that was her bedroom.

"He's not here, you don't have to worry," I told Meredith once Jenny was out of earshot. "I wasn't going to be like 'hey meet my boyfriend'."

Meredith was visibly relieved. "Okay," she said, breathing out. "Not that I don't want to meet him – I just... well, you know. It's weird."

"It is weird," I nodded. "Remember when I met Dean?"

Meredith had a small smile on her face. "And you introduced yourself as Sally by accident? Yeah, I remember."

We fell quiet, but it wasn't the usual hellish silence filled with tension and hate. It was still uncomfortable, because we both couldn't find the words, but it wasn't what it had been. I wondered if we were reaching true civility, rather than just the fake civility we did in front of Jenny.

"Okay, I'm done!" Jenny ran up to us from her room and gave Meredith a hug. "Bye, Mummy! See you tomorrow!"

"Yes, tomorrow," Meredith nodded, and then cleared her throat. "Have a nice time with Daddy."

Then, she was gone, leaving Jenny and I with a much more pleasant day ahead of us. "So," I said, sitting down next to Jenny on the sofa. "Did Mummy mention to you that you might be meeting someone today?"

She shook her head. "Uh-uh. Who?!"

"Okay, so," I said. "Remember a while ago when you said if I got a boyfriend, I should tell you?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Well, I have a boyfriend," I told her, and watched her light up excitedly. "His name is Vince, and he's very nice. He's actually the man you saw with the flowers once."

Jenny frowned, looking confused. "You said he wasn't your boyfriend."

"Ah, he wasn't at the time," I nodded. "But then he became my boyfriend, and today I was wondering if you would like to go over to his house and meet him and his son Eric. If you're not ready, you don't have to, it won't be a big deal."

Jenny wrinkled her nose. "He has a boy?"

"I assume so, yes," I replied, amused by her response. Jenny was still firmly in the 'boys suck' camp.

She considered it, and then nodded. "Okay."

"Okay," I smiled, knowing that she was honest enough to tell me if she didn't want to meet him yet. "But there's something we need to talk about before we go over, okay?"