“Yo, Dex!” he shouts. “Patio!” I holler through the open sliding glass door. Now that hockey season is fully underway, Leo and I spend game nights grilling and watching our favorite teams play. Being from Montreal, I’m a Canadiens fan at my core, while Leo pulls for the Hurricanes.
“Beer?” Leo asks as he opens my fridge to grab himself something to drink before stepping outside. “I’m good. Thanks.”
He walks out and sits in the patio chair not facing the setting sun and takes a swig from his bottle. “How goes it?” he asks.
“Good. Just trying not to burn the meat. You?” We’re a talkative pair, I tell ya.
Leo sets his beer on the table and leans forward on his elbows, hands clasped on the table. “Good.”
Silence stretches between us. Leo’s had so much shit going on with his ex lately I just expect him to fill in the space with complaining or hockey talk. But, nothing. He just continues to sit, leaning on his elbows, staring at me.
“What?” I ask, eyebrow raised.
“What, what?” he replies. Seriously?
“I’m waiting for your rant. What has Stephanie done this week?” I ask, prodding. If he’ll vent about his ex then I can stop thinking about all the ways I could fuck up my relationship with Alis by pursuing her.
“Haven’t heard from her. Not since I told her I’m no longer her emotional support animal.”
“I bet she took that well,” I laugh, imagining Stephanie’s rage face coming on full force with Leo’s dismissal.
“Wouldn’t know. I blocked her number. Figure if something happens with George, Linda can call me with an update.” George and Linda are Stephanie’s parents. They’ve been more like actual parents than in-laws for Leo, and even after the divorce, he’s remained close with them both.
“Anything new going on with them? George still in treatment?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Leo sighs, running a hand over his face. “I haven’t seen them in a few weeks, but when I talked to George a few days ago he said after this next round of chemo they’ll have a better idea of what comes next.”
“Next, as in, remission?” God, I hope so. Losing George would crush Leo.
He shrugs. “Maybe? Yes? I honestly don’t know.” Leo leans back in his chair and clasps his hands behind his neck. “Everything has been so up and down with this cancer shit. I want to be there for him through every step, but fucking Stephanie is always right there with her idiot husband. Rather than being supportive and mature about things, being near them makes me want to punch a fucking wall.”
“Yeah, I can see how that wouldn’t be helpful,” I smirk.
“Nope. Not at all,” he says. “After she called crying about hermarriage issues and asking me for advice or whatever I knew I couldn’t physically be around her anymore. I hate that it means I can’t be with George and Linda as often, but what am I supposed to do? They’re her fucking parents, man.”
“Rock, meet hard place.”
Leo scoffs. “No fucking joke.” He pauses and takes another sip of his beer, then says, “What about you? Talk to me about something in your life so I don’t have to think about mine.”
My life is literally the most uninteresting topic of conversation. I work, watch hockey, read books … that’s it.
“Sorry to disappoint, but I’ve got nothing.” I turn back to the grill and flip the steaks.
“What about the grader? You still into her? What’s happening there?” I’ve never gone to Leo for relationship advice — not that I’ve ever had a relationship to speak of since meeting him — but perhaps he can help me work out of my own rock-and-hard-place situation.
I grab my beer off the tray next to the grill and take a seat at the patio table with Leo. “Yeah, I’m still into her,” I say. “And I’m pretty positive she’s into me. But she shuts me down at every chance.”
Leo laughs. “Why is she shutting you down, again?”
“At first she said it’s because she just moved here and needed to find her footing. Then it was because I’m a professor and she’s a student, which I’d understand if she was in her early twenties or something but she’s thirty. It’s not like some old fuck coming onto a kid, eh?” I shake my head in annoyance, taking another swig of my beer.
I continue, “She has a kid.” This catches Leo’s attention.
“No shit?”
“Yeah. I met her a few weeks ago when I stopped by her apartment when she was out sick.”
Leo pauses his bottle mid-lift to his mouth. “You did what?”
