Coda 02 -A to Z

cartoon with the dogs?”
    He laughed. “No, man, but they’re based on the same book I guess. It’s a musical. It won the best picture Oscar in ’64.”
    “I don’t do musicals.”
“So I guess you never seen The Sound of Music , then?” “Hell, no.”
    “Yeah, okay, lotsa people don’t dig musicals. What about westerns? Like Clint Eastwood? You watch his old shit, right? I mean I know you seen at least part of Two Mules for Sister Sara .”
    “That’s the one with the trestle bridge?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s about all I remember about it.”
“What ’bout The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly ?”
    “Is that where he asks, ‘You feel lucky?’”
“No, that’s Dirty Harry .”
“I don’t think I’ve seen either one, actually.”
    He whistled. “You’re missin’ out man. Clint was fuckin’ hot back then, you know? Not Dirty Harry so much. But Blondie, for sure. I think it was mostly the attitude.”
    I stopped and looked over at him. He was standing practically knee deep in piles of DVD cases with his back to me.

    “What did you just say?”
    “I said, Blondie was hot. Smokin ’ hot. Seriously fuckin’ throwdownable. ’Course, he’d have to top. No way would Blondie bottom for anybody.” I sat there, stunned, and he finally turned and looked at me. I must have been looking at him like he had just sprouted another head, because he dropped the DVD he was holding. “What?”
    “You’re gay?”

    “Yeah,” he said with obvious amusement. “You didn’t know that?”

    “How would I?”
    He shook his head at me. “Un-fuckin’-believable, Zach.” He laughed, like I had just said something really funny, as he turned back to what he was doing. “You crack me up.” I didn’t have the nerve to ask him what I had done that was so funny. It didn’t matter, though. He was already talking about movies again. “How ’bout A Streetcar Named Desire ? Brando was kinda hot, too, back then. ’Course, he’s a fuckin’ rapist. I mean his character. Not him. And Blanche was a total bitch. I bet all you remember is him yellin’ ‘Stella!’”
    It was almost time to close and I was surprised at my disappointment. I was enjoying talking to him. Going home to my empty apartment definitely didn’t sound appealing. “What are you doing tonight?” I asked him before I had a chance to second guess myself.
    He looked up at me, surprised. “I gotta work tonight, but ’til then, I got no plans.” He had a night job at the gas station down the street—eleven at night until five in the morning, on weeknights. Then he would work with me from eleven until we closed, six on weeknights, and eight on Saturdays. I would have been a basket case if I worked that much, but he didn’t seem to mind.
    “Want to hang out for a bit?”

    “You tryin’ to get in my pants now you know I’m queer?” he asked in an impudent tone.
    “No!”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, what?”
    “Yeah, I wanna hang out.” He smiled over at me. “Will your boyfriend be there?”
    I bit back the urge to say that Tom wasn’t my boyfriend. Somehow “boyfriend” implied that I actually knew something about him, other than that he talked dirty during sex. “No.”
    “Why not?”

    “Does it matter?” That came out sounding angry and bitter, but he just smiled at me.

    “No. What we gonna do?”

    That was a good question. I had no idea. I looked around the store. “Watch a movie?”

    His smile got even bigger. “Only if I get to pick.” “You’re on.”

    Just then one of my regulars walked in. The one I thought of as Eddie, because he always wore Iron Maiden T-shirts.
    Angelo immediately walked over to the counter to help him. “Hey, Justin. I got it right here.” He pulled a movie out from under the counter. “Knew you were comin’ tonight.”
    Eddie, whose real name was apparently Justin, smiled. I realized I had never actually seen his teeth before. “Thanks, man.” After he was gone, I turned to Angelo. “How did you know what he was going to rent?” I asked.

    He shook his head at me. “He rents the same movie every time, Zach. Heavy Metal . You never noticed?”
    I shook my head.
“You gotta pay more attention to your regulars, man.”
    “If he always rents the same movie, why did he spend so much time here?” I asked, trying not to sound defensive.
    Angelo smirked at me. “’Cause he couldn’t ever find it. Said you put it in a different place every time. He thought you were doin’ it to fuck