“No, I have definitely not, now or ever, dated or considered dating Jeff,” I reassured Madison. “Like I said before, we just played basketball together.”

Madison squinted curiously at me before finally shrugging. “Okay. I just don’t normally see that kind of anger outside of a nasty lover’s spat,” she replied in a tone that reminded me far too much of Maggie.

Speak of the devil, Maggie leaned forward conspiratorially. “Yeah, Jeff only really saw Lauren as a girl for the first time a couple weeks ago and suddenly started acting like a total ass!”

I cringed a bit at how literally correct that was. I mean, Jeff was never Mister Empathy, but he was also never this toxic and confrontational. This was personal. I let out a long sigh and sipped my water. “Well, at least I can enjoy my last meal before becoming a social pariah.”

“Girl, please. You think anyone in here believes anything Jeff said? No one’s gonna look at you and think you're a crossdresser, let alone a man. He’s just salty he couldn’t get in your pants,” Madison stated candidly.

I scoffed. “Jeff has money. He comes from a family that owns most of the city’s real-estate. He’s fit and attractive. Why would he waste time worrying about a mess like me when he can have his pick of any girl in town?” I took another long drink of my water, the ice cubes clinking musically as they settled in the glass. “Besides, I don’t think we swing in each other’s direction, if you catch my meaning.”

“What are you talking about?” Madison asked in surprise. “I mean, he was on a date with me, so I think he’d be pretty interested in you. Hell, we could pass for sisters separated at birth.” She paused. “Well, except for some facial differences. My nose is bigger and you have a sharper jawline.”

Mom laughed suddenly, causing me to wince. “What is so freakin’ funny?”

She reached over and booped me on the nose with her index finger. “You’re as dense as your daddy, dear.” Noting my confused expression, she explained, “Madison doesn’t know your circumstances, so you might want to decide how much you want to confide.”

I closed my eyes as my brain processed this information. “Wait. But Jeff just got done broadcasting it to the whole restaurant…” I began to say.

“Look, Lauren. His name might be Jeff, but he’s a Kevin. I doubt anyone actually took anything he said at face value,” Maggie replied. “That scene he made might actually earn him the title ‘King of the Karens’ if anyone posts this on Reddit.”

“Woah, woah, woah,” interjected Madison as she made a sudden realization. “You’re telling me that you’re actually-”

“Assigned male at birth? Yes. Beyond that?” I shrugged noncommittally. “Playing it by ear. We’ll see how this next week or so goes.”

Madison’s jaw dropped as she glanced wide-eyed at my mom and sister before turning back to face me. “That’s just… How?” she managed.

Before I could reply, Liang, Min, and another server approached our table, a variety of platters balanced in their arms and large smiles on their faces. “Okay, ladies!” Liang announced. “Now that we’ve removed that...unpleasant element from our restaurant, I just want you to relax and enjoy your meal!”

The three of them began distributing the plates among us - I couldn’t help but notice there were a couple dishes that were not part of our order. I exchanged a puzzled look with Mom before inquiring, “Was there some sort of mix-up? I don’t think some of these plates are ours.”

“Oh, don’t worry! These are all for you! Since your new friend didn’t get a chance to order an appetizer, I brought some extra! In addition, there’s a couple items I’d love for you to try. Don’t worry about the bill! It’s already been covered.”

I was about to protest the charity, but the scent of my meal began to tease my nostrils and, despite the appetizers I’d already eaten, my stomach growled loudly. I could feel the heat of my flushing face as I groaned and covered it. “Oh god, that’s so embarrassing,” I muttered into my palms.

Another loud growl was heard. I dropped my hands to glance at Madison, who was now also a bit pink in the face. “What? It smells really good!” she countered defensively.

Min had already departed and now returned with a pair of large-bowled glasses and a fancy-looking bottle of wine. Well, I’ll be honest. All wine looks fancy to me, with their dark glass bottles and shiny foil wraps around the corks. Who still used corks? Still, this seemed a bit excessive.

Mom beamed at the bottle’s arrival but her expression shifted suddenly. “Liang, I don’t mean to seem ungrateful, but you know I would have paid! Please don’t tell me you comped this whole thing?”

Liang grinned. “I wish I could take credit for that, but it was actually paid for in full, with a generous tip.” He gestured to a couple men seated a few tables away. “So please don’t feel indebted and just enjoy the food!”

Who would… ? I stole a glance at the table Liang had indicated and accidentally locked eyes with none other than Evan St. Claire - the host of the party that had started this whole situation. He smiled graciously and nodded his head toward me. As he did so, his companion, seated across from him, turned to face me. Icy blue eyes. Dark black hair. An expression of feigned disinterest. Wasn’t that Emily’s brother?

Oh, sweet baby Jesus. Had they heard everything Jeff yelled? Was Emily’s brother going to tell her what had just happened? I felt my breathing become shallow and my heart begin to race. If they told Emily before I had a chance…

Instead of making some sort of threatening gesture or knowing expression, they simply turned back to their meals and resumed eating. My mouth suddenly felt quite dry. No sooner had Min poured enough wine to fill my glass to the widest part of the bowl than I had snagged it by the stem and taken a few swallows. 

The smell hit me before the taste. There were scents of earth and spice and mushrooms that tickled my nose just as my tongue began to register the flavor. Pomegranate? Or black cherry? It was hard to say. The acidity danced across my tongue and I know I made a weird face. I thought wine just tasted like alcoholic grape juice? What was all this? Did they make the wine out of a bunch of stuff, or was this really just grapes?

Liang and Min had already taken their leave but in my panic, my brain hadn’t really processed any of that. I was so distracted by the interesting array of flavors and smells in the wine that I had momentarily forgotten my fears and actually looked around the table. Mom and Maggie were happily digging into their plates as Madison watched me curiously over the top of a teacup she had been provided.

Feeling for the moment like an exhibit in an exotic zoo, I put my wine glass down and forced a smile. “I’m going to guess that you have a lot of questions.”

“So many,” Madison admitted. "Like, do you do cosplay?"

I snorted. “Let me start at the beginning while we eat.”

---

I learned two things very quickly from this meal. The first was that wine hits me much harder and much faster than hard cider. The second was that Madison thought I was an absolutely beautiful idiot; she seemed to repeat that assessment multiple times as I described my adventures and discoveries over the past couple weeks.

After two glasses of wine I was feeling pretty relaxed and very chatty. The wok-fried lamb was incredible. It had just enough heat to invigorate me and leave a little bit of sweat on my forehead, but not so much that it overpowered the gamey taste of the meat. We also enjoyed fried rice, a strangely-shaped clay pot filled with a variety of seafood, as well as a sampler platter of various appetizers. Over the course of the meal, my nerves relaxed enough for me to gush about how adorable and amazing I thought Emily was and how stupid I felt and how confusing it had been to realize the disparity between my self image and how others viewed me. I was also informed, repeatedly, that I looked and sounded far more feminine than I gave myself credit for.

“Okay. I think I get it,” Madison said at last, washing down the last of her plate with some tea. “Even though I don’t understand how you could not notice that you made Jeff question his sexuality, I can at least get why you would feel like you can’t tell Emily the truth about your gender.”

Mom snorted derisively as she proffered the last serving of wine for me. I paused for a moment before accepting. I wasn’t driving.

“She seemed so stoked to have a friend that was another woman. I didn’t want to ruin that for her,” I said as I took a sip of the wine. No wonder housewives loved this shit, I mused. My whole body felt nice and relaxed right now. “And honestly, it’s been really great for me, too. I feel like I just connect with her so well! She makes me feel... elevated?” I sighed. “And I’m scared. I’m scared that after I tell her the truth, it will be all over.”

“Lauren, I can’t say I know you that well. We just met tonight. But trust me when I say this - I really doubt Emily is going to care too much about your gender expression. What’s going to bother her most is that you feel like you can’t trust her with the truth. The longer you drag it out, the worse that’s going to be,” Madison said, sounding wise beyond her years.

My mom nodded sagely. “You just have to be honest about all of it. Including the fact that you’re questioning some things right now, so you may not know the whole truth about yourself.”

Maggie was distracting herself with the dessert menu that had been placed on the table by Min when she came back with a fresh pot of tea and refilled our water. How could she honestly be thinking about dessert after everything we’d eaten? Although something sweet did sound really good right now.

“Okay, okay. I get it. I’ll tell her tomorrow, I promise,” I finally conceded.

Mom gave me a patronizing smirk and said, “Good girls get treats.” I stuck my tongue out at her. “Since we didn’t pay for dinner, how about a round of parfaits?”

“Yes!” Maggie exclaimed excitedly. “The chocolate-”

“-coffee parfait sounds perfect!” Mom finished. “I’ve been dying to try it since I saw it on the menu.”

Madison grinned. “I’m in. I don’t mind paying for my own, though.”

“Nonsense. You stood up for my child. This is the least I could do.”

Min had returned and looked around the table expectantly. “So, are we feeling up for dessert tonight?”

“Yes!” I found myself blurting out. 

Our dutiful waitress grinned. “Good, because Dad said it’s on us, tonight!”

I blinked in confusion. “Why would your dad pay for…?”

“Because he owns the restaurant,” Min replied. She looked toward my mother. “Liang is my father. He said it’s his small way of saying thanks for coming back.”

“So much charity tonight!” Mom tapped her chin thoughtfully for a moment before breaking into another smile. “It would be rude to refuse!”

The parfaits were, in fact, delicious. The bittersweetness of the coffee and dark chocolate contrasted with the vanilla cream and milk chocolate fluff. I experimented by spooning out different combinations of the layers to find out which worked best only to discover to my chagrin that each combination was equally tasty. The narrow spoon clinked along the bottom of the inverted bell-shaped glass as I scraped the last of my treat into my mouth.

I couldn’t help but start mentally tallying all the extra calories I’d eaten the past few days. Madison apparently recognized the look in my eyes because she said, “I know. I’m going to have to hit the gym tomorrow to work some of this off, but I don’t even care. It’s all so good!”

“Do you play basketball?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“I’ve been known to play a bit, for fun,” she replied. “And varsity state playoffs were very fun!”

“Oh shit, you’re good? Never mind, I don’t want to play anymore,” I quipped.

“Give me your number, we can meet up tomorrow and I can kick your ass.”

I laughed as I fished my cell phone out of my purse. “You’re on!”

Maggie stared at the two of us before turning to face Mom. “Are you sure you didn’t have another kid? I can’t believe someone else made one just like yours.”

Mom smiled in response. “Her parents better watch out, I might steal her.”