“Come on, Jasper. Michael Blake is a character, a persona. He’s not me.”
“Who did I have drinks with yesterday, then?”
“Me, Rob.”
“Just an average Joe?” Jasper asked.
Rob laughed. “Average Rob.”
Jasper considered calling him Rob, being so chummy, and it made him cover his mouth with his hand to hold back a giddy burst of laughter. It was just too familiar, like calling Lady Gaga “Stef.” Or the Queen of England “Liz.” He didn’t know if he could. And now, with the prompt he’d just been given, Jasper’s mind went completely blank.
After several seconds of dead air, Robert or Rob asked, “You still there?”
With surprising eloquence and economy, Jasper said, “Yup.”
Rob waited again and Jasper supposed he got disappointed again if he was anticipating, maybe, more words. “Well, I just wanted to call you before heading out to say that, despite the circumstances, I was really glad we had a chance to meet.”
“Um, me too.”
“You sure? You don’t sound like it.”
Jasper sighed. “It’s just that…. It’s just that…. Honestly?”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Yeah, I’m a little, um, overwhelmed by who you are. I probably seemed like an idiot.”
“Why would you say that?” Rob chastened. “You know what? Never mind. I get that. It happens. People buy into the rich-and-famous crap—think I’m something I’m not. This ideal I could never live up to even if I wanted. Which is why I didn’t say anything about who I was when we were together. I needed that time, those drinks. I wanted to share my grief with someone who was close to Heather… or Lacy as you call her.”
“Lacy was her name. It’s what she wanted. It’s what she always went by.”You’d know that if you were in touch.
“I’ll remember that. Anyway, please don’t feel I’m any different from anyone else. I’m just a regular guy. I sit to pee, just like everyone else.”
Jasper snorted. “Okay. But youaredifferent. ‘Ya are, Blanche, ya are.’”
“Only in the sense that we’re all different. We’re all unique,” Robert said, then added, “Just like everyone else.”
Another long silence followed. Jasper had to pee now that his regular morning wood had subsided. The urge made his mind even blanker.
“They’re boarding in a few minutes. You have my number and my email. Can we talk some more? I like texts and emails myself. I’ve always been better on paper.”
Jasper was tempted to ask him why he wanted to stay in touch, what he saw in Jasper. But he had the good sense to hold the question in and the understanding to know that, if he’d asked it, he would have done himself a disservice.
“Texts are always good.”
“It’sthevehicle for communication for your generation, that’s for sure.”
“I’ll shoot you one later. What time do you get in?”
Rob told him, and they hung up.
Jasper leaned back against the headboard, the nerves in his face singing as if he were a little high.
He smiled.
And then shivered.
After he took care of peeing, he returned to the warmth of Lacy’s sheets and her dark comforter, holing up in the slatted sunlight and allowing himself to imagine knowing someone like Rob.
