THE GOLDEN BOY ,
"I don't have the words to tell you how pleased I was the day I found out we were expecting a boy. Let me tell you, you don't have three kids in the space of a year and a half intentionally, so there's no pretending Tate wasn't an accident. But what a happy accident. Finally a boy! With two girls born to two women, you can imagine how outnumbered I felt.
Tate is a funny one. When he was a teen, it was like watching my life play out all over again. Girls, parties, slipping grades, wasted potential... it was hard to lecture him, knowing I was exactly the same way at his age. But Tate surprised us, because one day he woke up and decided not to waste his life, all those talents. He buckled down at school, he called his multiple relationships off, he even tried to get Aisha on the straight and narrow. I'm so proud of him, he managed to fill up his time with extra curricular activities and he did a mountain of extra credit. No one believes this, but I didn't pull a single string to get him into Cornell.
Since then he's had one foot in and one foot out of the life he used to have. He's settled down with a great girl, and he claims to be doing well at school. But he can get swept up in the party scene every now and then, and he hasn't quite managed to shake off his old crowd. It's funny, I guess he's halfway between Charlotte and Aisha, and in some ways I think he's got it right. Christ knows Aisha needs to get her act together, but Charlotte could do with a little more fun in her life... Tate's the kid I worry about the least, he's got a good head on those shoulders.
"....................................................................................
....................................................................................
TATE ON AISHA - First and foremost, Aish is
basically an overgrown kid. She is my
burden and I
prioritise her too much. When we were kids, I thought she was
amazingly confident, but now I think she's
aimless. I would be so much happier if she just
got a job, and I think she would be happier if she
did. She's too
comfortable, but it's
how we were raised. At the end of the day, she's totally
putting up a front, and she'll never
be truly happy until she admits it.
AISHA ON TATE - First and foremost, Tate is
my closest confidante. He is my
baby brother, though everyone assumes I'm younger and I
know him better than anyone else does. When we were kids, I thought he was
just like me, but now I think he's
taken a different path. I would be so much happier if he just
stopped lecturing me, and I think he would be happier if he
stopped worrying so much. He's too
guilt-ridden, but it's
understandable, I guess. At the end of the day, he's totally
there for me, and he'll never
let me down.
....................................................................................
ROSIE DE LA CRUZ My girlfriend Rosie is
the most important thing in my life, after my family. She keeps me
grounded but she
pushes me to better myself, she's never shy of telling me when I'm being an ass but she's also
my biggest cheerleader. We fight about big stuff and small stuff but she's the only person
I can't stay mad at, not least 'cause she's
the most beautiful woman in the room, no matter what room she's in. It drives me insane how much
other guys obviously want her. I know it's not her fault, but I sometimes feel like she entertains it, either for an ego boost or just to rile me up. We're pretty
different and a lot of people didn't think we'd last this long, but we're going
a year strong. I haven't told her this yet, but
I'm totally and utterly in love with her. I think she already knows.
I'll be honest, even though it makes me look bad-- when we first met, I had never been rejected by a girl. Not really. Maybe someone had declined a drink in a club once, or a girl at school was too wary of me to indulge my attention, but never when I really went all out. That's why I told people at school that I liked her, even though she'd carried our group project and I could tell she was pissed about it. It was just an assignment, how much could she care? Quite a lot, as it turns out. My peer reviews have always been mostly positive, but that semester I was torn a new one. Guess who.
Pretending not to notice her open dislike, I kept at it. Maybe because my dad raised me on stories of how he pursued Vegas relentlessly, maybe because they'd just gotten back together when I met Rosie, I don't know, something told me to keep trying. And I'm glad I did, because eventually I got to take her on a date. I'd like to say we've been obsessed with each other since, but that's a lot more true for me than it is for her. In fact, Rosie broke up with me, seemingly out of the blue, just a couple months after we first went out.
I was devastated. Seriously, my mom was frantic with worry-- she'd never seen me so heartbroken. I moped around her place, then dad's, then Aisha's, until one by one they all got sick of my relentless misery. Eventually I told Aisha everything, and she laughed in my face when I got to the part about asking Rosie to move in with me. Listen, it sounds more intense than it was! Or was meant to be, anyway. She was cooped up in this little dorm, kept awake by parties, distracted from studying... Rosie fucking loves studying. Plus, she's already being crippled by her mounting debts.
It made sense to me that she just move in with me and my pal Freddie. They got along, and more importantly, she could live rent free since Fred and I do ourselves. Looking back, yeah, okay, I get how it looks. It was intense, and it was disrespectful. Rosie has never wanted me to be her knight in shining armour, wielding an AmEx to save her from the horror of having to have a part time job. She just wanted me to be her boyfriend, her occasional study buddy, her best friend. She's as incredible as she sounds, yeah. I love her so much.
So we got back together, and it's been good since. We've found some balance, with her letting me pay for her when we go on vacation, and me letting her pay for her own Ubers to my place. I guess the hardest part of our relationship is trying to get used to each others' lifestyles. Like, I just wouldn't go on a vacation in her budget, and ok yeah that's a real douchey fact, but it's just not worth it to me, I'd rather stay home. The same way she doesn't want me to spend thousands of dollars on a Cartier bracelet for her, 'cause she thinks that's insane and would rather just have the card. I know these sound trivial, but it's been hard, figuring it all out. We still fuck up. But it's worth the effort, she's worth the effort.
