Page 41 of Goodbye Paradise
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Three days later, I still hadn’t gotten any calls about jobs.
“Sometimes they take applications when they really don’t need anyone,” Daniel said.
“But theytoldme they did,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. It was so tight back there. How was I going to support Josh and I if I never got a call back?
“All right,” Daniel said, his big calm eyes on me. “Then go back in there tomorrow and politely ask whether they need any more information from you. Call ‘em ‘sir’ and everything, the way you do.”
“Why? I filled the application out completely.”
“Yeah. But some people want a guy who won’t take no for an answer. They might want to see some initiative.”
So I took his advice. Maggie let me borrow her car, and I went back to the garage, met different guys, and filled out asecondapplication.
It had to work. Because I was running out of ideas.
That night, Maggie fed us lasagna. Afterward, I washed the dishes. Before coming to Massachusetts, I’d never washed a dish. But these days it was my big contribution to the family. Maggie wanted to teach me to cook a few things, but there hadn’t been much time.
While I dried the plates, she came into the kitchen wearing a skirt and a sweater. “We’re supposed to go to a cocktail party tonight,” she said, taking a platter out of my hands and putting it away in the cabinet.
“You feel up to it?” Daniel asked, coming in from the mud room.
“I do,” she said. “But I wish it wasn’t thirty minutes to this place.”
“That’s what we get for living in the sticks.”
She folded her hands. “We should go, though. It might be a long time before I make it to another party. So if Caleb and Josh don’t mind…”
“Go!” I said. “We can watch some TV without you.”
“I’ll change my clothes,” Daniel agreed.
After the truck drove down the drive, and the lights disappeared down the road, I went into the living room and sat on the couch. I held the clicker in my hand, but I didn’t turn the TV on, yet. I waited to see if Josh would join me. I couldn’t have even said why, but it was suddenly very important that he did. Even though I knew his reasons, more than a week of Josh practically shunning me had taken its toll.
From the back of the house, I heard a drawer open and close. Then the sound of bare feet crossing all those wood floors. “Caleb?” he called softly.
I’d been listening so hard that he did not know where I was. “In here,” I said, my voice rough.
Josh appeared, circling the sofa. I expected to sit at the far end, keeping his distance. But that’s not what happened. He sat down on the middle cushion.
Then, like two magnets suddenly aligned, he reached for me and I reached for him.
Josh’s head landed on my chest with a welcome thud, and I pulled him close. “Where did you go?” I asked.
“Changing clothes,” he said, his voice muffled.
But that’s not what I’d meant. I wanted to know where he’d been the last eight or nine days, while I twisted in pain at the loss of his affection. But I didn’t want to say that. So I ruffled my fingers through his hair, instead.
Josh had changed into Daniel’s old sweatpants and a long sleeve T-shirt that read Cal Tech down the arm. I would have preferred that he changed into nakedness, but you can’t have everything.
Pressing the button to turn on the television, I began to flip through the channels. But it was really just an excuse to sit there, with Josh cuddled up to me. I ended up leaving the channel on a cheery comedy, with a laugh track that rose and died whenever one of the characters said something funny.
Josh turned his face toward the screen, and we watched the various members of an extended family repeatedly offend one another. I wasn’t paying attention, though. The weight of Josh’s head on my chest was too distracting. His clean scent, and the feel of his hair sifting through my fingers was all the entertainment I really needed.
Beneath my hand, Josh went very still. I looked up to see what he was watching so intently. On the screen, two men were chatting about buying Christmas gifts. But their conversation wasn’t the reason Josh was so captivated. These two men were cuddled up on a sofa, just like us!
The laugh track rose and died at one of their remarks. Then one grabbed the other’s chin and said, “And that’s why I love you, even though you have poor taste in tablewear.”
