Page 46 of Hello Forever
When I was through she gave a dramatic sigh. “That poor boy. I want to punch his father right in thekisser.”
“Aside from that, though,” I grumbled. “I keep thinking about his situation, trying to find a workaround. There’s nosolution.”
“He already told you his solution.” My mother covered my hand with her own. “It’s just that you don’tlikeit.”
I stared into the dregs of my cocoa. “I can’t believe I found him again, but we still can’t be together. And hewantsto…”
“It’s the pits,” my mom agreed. “Tell me more about this Jason guy, though. At least he’savailable.”
Why does it hurt so much when mothers areright?
* * *
After my week of vacation,I went back to Henning determined to get out more and mope less. My poor little bank account wasn’t quite so strained now that I’d had a couple of months of paycheckdeposits.
Josh and Caleb invited me out for an evening at a place called Ralph’s Tavern, and I accepted. It was a few miles out of town, though, so I’d planned to ride with them. But at work I got the idea to invite Boz to go with us. “You’ll have to drive,” I told him. “But I’ll buy the firstround.”
“Ralph’s is fun,” he said. “But I got all excited there thinking you were asking me out on a date. When really I’m just your chauffeur. Way to crush my dreams.” He threw a Barmuth teddy bear into the air andcaughtit.
“We’ll find you a nice girl at Ralph’s,” Ipromised.
“But you’ll be riding home again in my car.” He grinned. “How can I make all my smooth guy moves with youlisteningin?”
“If they were really that smooth, you wouldn’t mind anaudience.”
“You are full of excuses.” He looked at his watch. “When do weleave?”
Given Boz’s allergy to working overtime, we left the office at 5:01 and beat Josh and Caleb to the tavern. We were already on our second beers when my neighbors arrived with a couple of Caleb’s work buddies from the garage. “This is Danny and this is Jakobitz,” Caleb said as we shookhands.
“Are you a couple, too?” Boz asked the other twomechanics.
Josh and Caleb burst outlaughing.
“Are you KIDDING ME?” Danny yelled, pointing at Jakobitz. “He has the smelliest farts. If I was gay and he was the last man onearth…”
“Oh, as ifyou’reso appealing,” Jakobitz said with a disgusted look on his face. “Please. Thatmustache…”
“Whoops,” Bozmuttered.
“I’ll bet you ten bucks that I’m the first guy to get hit on tonight,”Dannysaid.
“Twenty says it’s me,” Jakobitzcountered.
Caleb rolledhiseyes.
My plan worked. I had fun in spite of myself. We ate pulled-pork sandwiches while Caleb and his friends told us a story about a customer who was convinced that a snake was lurking somewhere in hisengine.
“He felt something slither across his ankle,” Danny said. “But I think maybe the guy wasjustnuts.”
“But can’t a snake hide in an engine like that?” Josh asked. “I heard of that onCarTalk.”
“In Texas, maybe,” Caleb said, squeezing his husband’s shoulder. “How many snakes are slithering around in January inMassachusetts?”
“Good point. Did you look at his engine anyway? Maybe a snake escaped from a neighbor’shouse.”
“We looked,” Jakobitz said. “But only for a half hour, because we didn’t want to charge this guy a fortune for a fool’serrand.”
“Could have been a mouse,” Danny pointed out. “Mice make nests in cars all the time. But we didn’t find anydroppings.”
