Chapter 94
Must be asleep.
Pad looked at his watch and it was close to midnight already. The humidity still made it uncomfortable. At least some stars were out. The moon was just a sliver. Here and there the streetlights illuminated Magnolia. Farther down, several large buildings loomed. Still, this area of offices was a ghost town during the nights and weekends. A couple of miles down the road and around the corner, however, was vibrant ViMi where Virginia and Mills intersected. A mixture of new hipster restaurants had recently popped up, nestled among the older Vietnamese restaurants that dotted this area. The locals affectionately called this section of Orlando, Little Vietnam, or Little Saigon. Because of low property values in the last decade, different gay nightclubs were scattered in too, mixing in with the Vietnamese businesses.
The Gay and Lesbian Center was also located in ViMi. Pad would like to say he rarely visited there but since he and RJ got back together they went down there after they got back together to get tested for HIV twice. RJ admitted he fooled around during their break-up and even though RJ used a condom and he believed him, they still wanted to be safe. The testing was free and confidential on Mondays. Pad and RJ agreed not to use their health insurance for the HIV testing. Instead, RJ donated money to the Center to make up for the costs the Center incurred.
Pad looked at his friends down the street. He caught Jack talking to Officer Blackstone for a few minutes. In the shadows he couldn’t tell if he was talking to Belinda. He suspected Tristan would be near Wayne.
Wayne.
The feelings that had surfaced in the bookstore, the feelings of hurt and anxiety seemed a memory. Now Wayne was just—Wayne.
Pad moved away from the trunk of the Mustang and moved closer to the hood, where he sat trying to see what was going on. As he did so, he saw Officer Blackstone step from the shadows and walk towards him.
“Let me give your driver’s license back. Your story checks out. I don’t know if your friends will let you drive their cars anytime soon, though.” Officer Blackstone smiled. The normalness of the interaction lessened the anxiety that Pad felt for standing there away from his friends.
“Thanks,” his voice trembled, partly from relief.
“I’ve called a tow truck to help them out. They should be here in a few. So, tonight was supposed to be your bachelor party, huh?”
“Yes. It was. Pretty much a big dud.”
Blackstone talked on his speaker-mic and canceled the back-up he ordered. After doing that he turned to Pad. “Which one is the guy you’re marrying?”
“You mean up there?” Pad pointed to the dark shadows ahead. Some of the streetlights illuminated the vehicles, but not really the people. “My future husband’s at home. Sleeping. He doesn’t know anything about what happened. The ditch. The DUI stop.”
Officer Blackstone handed the driver’s license back to Pad. “Come on, let’s see if they’ve made any progress.”
Pad followed the cop. Jack stood there by Belinda’s truck and Belinda. Neither of them said anything to him as they eyed the cop. Belinda raised her eyebrows and Pad just nodded to signal everything was okay. She made the OK sign with her fingers, placed her hand on her chest to exhale. Pad focused on Wayne and Liam as they put the strap through the last point. Belinda got in the truck and after they shouted, she backed the truck up a little and the Honda moved. When the Civic’s back tires hit the top of the concrete. It didn’t budge. Wayne and Liam went up to push the front of the vehicle to give it more momentum when Officer Blackstone intervened.
“You guys need to get away from the vehicle in case the strap breaks. Come on back up here.”
Wayne and Liam walked up. Both were shirtless, covered in sweat. Pad glanced over to Tristan, who stood as if in a trance. He took a couple of steps and stood behind Tristan and placed his hands on the shoulders and whispered. “Liking the show?”
Tristan nodded his head, as he didn’t want to take the focus off. Liam, his muscles leaner than Wayne’s, had definitive abs. Pad checked on what Blackstone was doing and he noticed that Blackstone eyed Liam. He knew that look.
“Hey, Tristan do you have a pen on you?”
“Yeah.”
Belinda gunned the gas and the Civic jumped the curb so that its back tires were on the concrete.
“Holy shit!” yelled Jack.
Belinda gunned the gas again and now the front tires were brushed up against the curb. Wayne and Liam moved to the front and pushed the hood, hunkering down and pushing, using their quads, hamstrings, and calves to provide lift. Belinda gunned the gas again and the Civic made it over the hump. Pad jumped back as did Jack and Tristan.