Chapter 9
When I got home from work one cold, snowy night in February, my brother Neal called. Although my brother and I weren’t close mainly because (A) he lived in San Diego, (B) he frowned on my “lifestyle,” and (C) he could be an incredible asshole, we did manage to keep in touch and speak every few weeks and see each other during his infrequent visits to Philadelphia to see our parents. Neal and I also didn’t have a meeting of the minds concerning Jay. He never liked Jay and, when I told him Jay and I had broken up, he congratulated me.
“The guy’s a jerk,” Neal said. “You’re better off without him.”
My brother, like our parents, didn’t know the real reason Jay and I had parted ways. I’d just said the relationship ended due to Jay’s infidelity and that he was moving to Sacramento to
