u/Bubbly-Craft-5026

I know things have been a little unclear between us, but I figured I’d ask anyway. I’ve got a bunch of guest passes piling up, and since most of my friends either work here or are back in Texas, I’d rather use them with someone cool.

Just to be clear, this isn’t me asking you on a date I’m talking strictly a friends hangout. If you’d be down, let me know what day works for you. And if not, no worries at all.

I’m a white guy, and both of my parents were deeply racist when I was growing up. Hate was just part of the air in that house. I heard it constantly at dinner, in the car, during family gatherings, on TV, everywhere. Slurs, stereotypes, all of it. I never believed any of it, not even as a kid, but when you grow up surrounded by something that ugly, part of you starts worrying that maybe it stained you somehow anyway. I’ve spent most of my life trying to be nothing like them, and honestly, there’s still this quiet fear in the back of my mind that one day I’ll realize I became the kind of person I hate most.

I moved far away after I got older and barely speak to them anymore. I work as a photographer now, and a few years ago I was covering a comic con when I met her. She was dressed as Wonder Woman, and I swear the first thing I noticed was her smile. God, her smile. It was warm in this really genuine, wholesome way that made the whole crowded convention center disappear for a second. And her eyes… I don’t know. There was just something about her that made me want to keep talking to her.

I asked if I could take a few photos for her cosplay, and afterward we just kept talking. About comics, movies, stupid little things, life. Somehow I got lucky enough to get her number, and after that we just kept finding reasons to see each other again until eventually it turned into dating.

Early on, I told her about my parents. I didn’t want her blindsided by the reality of where I came from or the kind of people they are. I remember feeling sick while telling her, terrified she’d look at me differently afterward. But she surprised me. She understood that their hatred wasn’t mine. The only thing she said was that if I ever treated her or anyone the way they treated people, she’d leave without hesitation. And honestly? I respected her more for saying that.

That was years ago. Now I’m sitting here thinking about proposing to her because she’s the love of my life, and I can’t imagine a future that doesn’t have her in it. But there’s this one thing hanging over us like a storm cloud: she wants to meet my parents at least once before we get engaged. Not because she wants their approval, but because she says if we’re going to build a life together, she doesn’t want there to be this hidden, poisoned corner of my past that neither of us ever faced. She wants to understand where I came from and see for herself what I survived.

And I can’t explain how much that terrifies me.

Because I know exactly who my parents are. I know the things they say when nobody’s stopping them. I know the kind of look they’d give her before she even sat down. I know how quickly they could take the woman I love most in this world and make her feel small, unwanted, or hated. The thought of exposing her to that makes me feel physically sick.

What hurts even more is that my parents still call sometimes acting like everything is normal, asking when I’m finally going to “bring home a nice redheaded girl.” Every time they say it, I feel this mix of anger, shame, and exhaustion that’s hard to describe. I hate that I can’t even tell them the truth because I already know exactly how they’d react. And I hate even more that the ugliness in them is now hurting someone as kind as her.

She deserves a family that would welcome her with open arms. Instead, she got mine. And there’s something deeply heartbreaking about realizing the people you stopped loving a long time ago still have the power to cast a shadow over the best thing that’s ever happened to you.