“Oh. Right. Sorry. My days are running together. Was it really just yesterday that the horse kicked me?”
“Yes. You’ve had an eventful weekend.”
Chad started to feel drowsy and found himself letting Jeff take control again and help him upstairs. He used the bathroom, then slid into bed.
Jeff sat on the mattress. “Look, you text me or call me for anything, okay?”
Chad nodded, struggling to keep his eyes open.
“I’ll be here in the morning. Around seven?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
The bed shifted as Jeff stood to leave. Chad grasped Jeff’s wrist, holding tight for a moment. “Night,” he murmured, his hand falling to the mattress.
“Night, Chad. See you in the morning.”
4
Over the next week, it became Jeff’s habit to show up with dinner after work and hang out with Chad for the evening. Chad assumed that Jeff had taken his words to heart and realized they were going to be only friends since he never said another word about “love” or made a move toward him.
Chad found he enjoyed Jeff’s company. They had quite a bit in common when it came to music and current movies, although he thought Jeff was going to lose it when Chad admitted to never having seen any of the old classics that Jeff seemed to love. Apparently Rock Hudson and Doris Day had inspired him to get intoacting.
He finally agreed to watch one of their movies just to shut Jeff up, and the very next night he showed upwith a DVD of Pillow Talk. Jeff filled him in on trivia about the movie and the actors, and Chad found himself enjoying the movie. It wasn’t his favorite, but it was cute and he loved seeing how happy it made Jeff.
Okay. So that threw him a little. He had never really cared that much about making someone else happy. Weird. But he let it go.
He was finally ready to start back to work the next day, although he was going to have desk duty for quite some time. At least he would be out of the house.
Jeff brought over Chinese food that night and they sat at the kitchen table, eating and talking.
“You nervous about going back tomorrow?”
Chad shrugged. “Not really. Looking forward to getting out and start doing things again.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” Jeff gave him a wistful smile.
“What?”
“Well, you’re doing pretty well. Less pain, able to do things. Do you…do you want me to swing by tomorrow with dinner? Or would you rather be alone your first night?”
Chad grinned. “Bring dinner. There’s a soccer game on tomorrow night and we can watch it. I’ll make asoccer aficionado out of you yet.”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “Maybe if they danced while chasing that damn ball.”
Chad shook his head and took another bite of his Kung Pao chicken.
“Tomorrow is going to be hard for me, too,” Jeff said.
Chad raised an eyebrow and stared across the table at him.
“I’m handing out parts to the kids for the spring play. Some are going to be heartbroken.” He sighed and raked his hand through his hair. “I hate hurting them.”
“Little Shop of Horrors, right?”
Jeff grinned. “Yeah. It’s a great play. But it means that over the next five weeks I’ll be working after school every day until the performance. My two busiest times of the year are when we put on the school plays. Every spring and fall. Each year I joke about putting a cot backstage and just living there until the play is over.”
Chad shifted in his chair, unsure why that thought bothered him so much. “How many performances are there?”
“We do two total—one each on Friday and Saturday night. The spring play is always the weekend before graduation.”
“Will you…um—” Chad cleared his throat, “—I mean, will you be working weekends, too? And how lateinto the evenings?”
Jeff beamed. “I think somebody’s going to miss me.”
Chad took another bite and avoided looking into Jeff’s eyes. He was perturbed that Jeff had hit so close. He was going to miss Jeff. And that was not okay with him. When had he ever missed anyone? Other than his sister, anyway.
Jeff reached across the table and tapped his finger on the back of Chad’s hand. Just a gentle rap, but it felt good. “I’m not going anywhere, Chad. I know you don’t believe in what I shared with you last weekend, but I still do. But I’m willing to take it as slow as you need.”
Chad swallowed and leaned back in his chair, wiping his mouth with his napkin. “I thought we were just hanging out as friends,” he shot out, his voice more accusatory than he planned.