Chapter Twelve
AARON
The back ofmy shoulders ached, and I set down the planter to massage them for a moment before hefting it up again. We were doing a little shifting, making room for the flats of vegetables and herbs that were coming in with the warmer weather.
“Put it over there.” Lennie pointed to a space in front of the register.
“Okay.” I gingerly put it on the ground and stood, stretching out my back. “Ow. Damn, that hurts.”
“Whassamatta?” Lennie leaned a hip against the counter. We were in the midst of the afternoon lull, and few customers were around. He’d been acting funny around me all day, and I’d already decided if he was going to ask me to come out tonight, I would. Frankie would understand why I wouldn’t go to the club. Thinking about Frankie gave me a warm feeling. Things were going so well, I was almost afraid to be happy, but damn. It felt good to be alive.
“Nothin’. Just doin’ that construction. I must be outta shape, ’cause my muscles are killin’ me.”
He gave me a strange look and without saying a word, turned around and went back into the office. Wondering what the hell was going on, I followed him. Marie had the day off, so it was only the two of us in the small space. He made a coffee and sat down in her seat.
“Doing a lot of work on that house?” Never taking his eyes from me, he sipped his coffee.
“Yeah. I ripped out all the carpet, stripped and sanded the floors, the French doors, and all the banisters and chair rails. The house is almost a hundred years old. Lots of nice wood there. Original floors and all that.”
“Yeah. I bet. You said it was on the corner of Twentieth Avenue and Seventy-First, right?”
“Uh, yeah.” Where was he going with this?
“Your friend who owns it, is it a guy or a girl?”
A little nervous now, I huffed out a laugh. “A guy. What’s with the twenty questions?”
“It’s weird. Me ’n my buddies were in the neighborhood the other day, and I wanted to walk by and see the house.” He took another sip of coffee.
“Oh yeah? What did you think? It’s pretty sweet, right?”
Lennie’s brows pinched together, and he set his cup on the desk. “I saw you.”
“Oh? You shoulda said something. Come inside, ya know?” I ran my hands over the top of my head. Sweat popped out on my forehead.
“I saw you…in the front window of the house…kissin’ some guy. I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ And my boys were like, ‘Yo, Lennie, you work with that guy? He ever make a pass atchu? Better watch yourself in the bathroom.’” Blinking rapidly and now unable to look me in the face, he couldn’t seem to stop talking. “I told them it was the wrong house, and we left. But it wasn’t.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“And you was so into it. You and that guy were all over each other. I couldn’t believe it.You?I thought you was a real man.”
I was shaking, but whether from the discovery or fury at Lennie’s words, I didn’t know or care. “What the fuck you mean, ‘real man’? I am a man.”
“Fucking hell you are. You suck dick. Real men don’t do that. You’re supposed to stick your dick where it belongs—in a woman. You ain’t no man.”
So disgusted that I wanted to throw up, I managed to hold my cool. If I did what I really wanted, which was to pummel him into the ground, I’d get sent away for a long time. And I couldn’t go through that again. Instead, I practiced the breathing Dr. Morrell had taught me, and after a few seconds I calmed down enough to speak.
“I ain’t no different than who I was when you hired me. The same guy who hung out with you last week. Why should my private life matter?”
But Lennie wasn’t having any of it. “And all along you let Marie think you might go out with her girlfriend. Holy shit. I can’t believe she almost set you up with Gina.”
“I never told Marie I’d go out with her friend. I never said nothin’.”
“I can’t believe it.” Lennie kept repeating it. “I can’t believe you’re into guys.”
“Can we stop talking about it?” I crumpled my coffee cup and threw it in the trash. “I’m gonna go back to work.” I left him sitting in the office and walked back outside. A few minutes later he followed me but stayed on the opposite side of the nursery.
For the rest of the day, we didn’t speak. I’d catch glimpses of him staring at me or whispering to the other workers. By closing time, all the other guys I worked with were giving me a wide berth. I’d gotten a friendlier reception in my cell than with my coworkers. People I thought were my friends. I clocked out and took my stuff out of my locker.
