“Mr. Williams?”
He spun to face the woman who’d spoken, a cop in uniform with the name Lester on her badge, but it wasn’t that which made Jared stop, it was the fact that half her face was purple, and most of her uniform. In fact there was a distinct pattern on her skin where it was clear she’d thrown up a hand to cover herself.
“Me, I’m Mr. Williams, Jared.”
“This way.” She led him down a corridor and through doors until Jared was all turned around. They arrived at a visitors’ room, and she shoved open the door. “He’s all yours, take him home. Now.”
“Jared! You came!” Ethan sounded like a kid meeting Santa, jumping to his feet, hugging Jared hard, then grabbing the bags on the seat next to him. “Let’s go.”
Jared decided there and then questions would wait, given Officer Lester had her hand on her belt and her purple-colored expression was dour. He hurried Ethan out of the room and then near-dragged him down the corridors, attempting to recall the way he’d come, and then they were outside the hospital, Ethan looking up at him with his patented puppy dog lost expression.
“Whoops,” he said with a forced smile.
“What happened, Ethan?” Jared couldn’t wait to hear the latest story. Ethan mad-scientist-in-the-making went from one guy to another, forgot about them when he was deep in experiments, and nearly always ended up getting himself in trouble.
“Thank you for coming to get me.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
Ethan clutched his bags to his chest. “Marcus lied to me. He was married,” he said, and Jared touched his arm in reassurance because even though Ethan kept doing this to himself, Jared wasn’t going to be a shitty friend and say I told you so. “He had all this baggage, kids, three ex-wives, but he swore to me that he was free now, to be with me. But he lied. I was running an experiment, and there was this purple byproduct… I mean, it’s harmless, but I took it, which seemed like a good idea at the time. I don’t know what I was going to do with it, but I was angry, you get that right?”
“Ethan—“
“Then I stood outside his apartment, the one he kept so he had his single life, because I wouldn’t do anything to him in front of his wife, it’s not her fault. In fact, she seemed as if she might be a very nice lady when I spoke to her on the phone, and I—”
Jared shook his friend to stop the verbal diarrhea. “Ethan, breathe… and stay on topic.”
“Oh, Marcus called the cops, but one of his neighbors turned up, Officer Lester, and there was an altercation, a scuffle if you will, and bang.” He couldn’t make a bang motion with his hands, so he replaced it with a heavy shrug and a little jump.
“‘Bang.’”
“The device had a premature explosion, all over the officer, and of course, Marcus’ fancy car.” He bit his lip. “Marcus was more worried about his car than me. That’s not right.”
“Come on, let’s get a cab.”
“Can we afford that?” Ethan asked, and glanced up and down the street with concern.
“Yes, Ethan, we can.”
Ethan was quiet on the way home, lost in thought, and Jared had learned there was only one way to get Ethan out of his spiral of thoughts, and that was to change the subject well away from Ethan’s married boyfriend and purple dye all over said boyfriend’s expensive car, not to mention Officer Lester.
“So I went to a bar to see the dad of that kid I found.”
Jared waited for the words to compute, and then Ethan turned from staring out of the window and faced Jared in the dark interior.
“The kid?”
“You know, the one I told you about, on the steps outside work.”
“Oh, yes, I remember the kid, a boy, right?”
“Luka, and he has a dad.”
“Biologically, we all have dads.” Ethan grinned, because to him that was a cool joke.
Jared ignored him, because that was the only way to keep him on task and to forestall any more jokes in the same vein. “The dad owns a bar, Rhea’s Bar, and I went there for a drink, and we sat and talked for a long time.”
“Is he married?” Ethan’s smile dropped.
“No, Nate’s wife died, so he’s a widower and a dad.”
“Wow, that’s a lot of stuff to unpack.” Ethan patted his knee. “Sorry.”
“Huh? Sorry for what?”
The cab had stopped on a red and streetlights illuminated the interior of the car, and Jared could see Ethan appeared sad. “Sorry for whatever has you telling me a sad story about a date with a dad who has a son. Surely it didn’t end well.”
“It was great, and it wasn’t a date.”
“You had drinks.”
“Did you miss the part where he has a bar?” Jared was used to these conversations with Ethan that went off on tangents no one could follow, not even him, and he’d lived with Ethan for three years now.
“Oh, yes, a bar is certainly part of the equation, but you had drinks with him which has a very different connotation.”
“I did.” Jared sat back in his seat as the car moved again, knowing they were only a few minutes from home.
“Was it good?”
That was a loaded question. Jared had never felt so settled and happy than when he’d been sitting next to Nate talking about percentages and orders. Even now he could remember the scent of him as they leaned close, a mix of alcohol and whatever shower gel he’d used that smelled faintly of lemon. Or maybe it was polish from the bar. Whatever. All Jared knew was that Nate smelled wonderful, and was warm, and had a smile that lit him up from inside, and that Jared wanted to see him again.
“It was fun,” Jared offered after a while, but
