Coda 02 -A to Z

looking for didn’t hurt either.
    Tom called once. I saw his name on the caller ID and didn’t answer. He left a message. “Hey, baby. I’m drawing up leases this week. I want to give you one more chance. Just give me a call, and we can work everything out. I promise.”
    I didn’t call him back.
    Two weeks later, I received a new lease in the mail. My rent had almost doubled. Failure to sign meant I had to quit the premises by the end of the month. That gave me about three weeks. There was a sticky note on top which said: We can still fix this. Call me.—T .
    “What happens now?” Angelo asked when I showed it to him. “I have no idea.”
Ruby and Jeremy came in at the same time.
“What’s wrong?” Jeremy asked.
“I’m being evicted.”
He looked shocked, but Ruby just nodded. “Me too.” “You’re not, Jeremy?”
    He shook his head. “No. Tom mentioned the rent might go up. But the lease that came today is for the same amount as always. Sensei said his went up a little but not too much.” I had to wonder if it was coincidence that the two straight men were the ones not being evicted. Or maybe it was more a matter of Sensei’s black belt and Jeremy’s seat on the city council.
    “You gonna fight that asshole?” Angelo asked Ruby.
    She smiled at him. “No reason to, dear. I was planning to retire after Christmas and move to Florida with my sister. This just means I’ll move a little sooner.”
    We barely talked the rest of the day. It was like we both felt some dark, ominous beast dogging our steps, just waiting for us to let our guard down. At the end of the day, Angelo showed up at my door. He had been coming over almost every night. I didn’t even ask him anymore. It just seemed to go without saying that he would be there.
    “Thought you might like company.”

    “You thought right.” He blushed and turned away. “What are we watching tonight?”

    “ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest . Wanted to find somethin’ happy, but,” he said with a shrug, “this one seemed appropriate.”
    I vaguely remembered reading the book in high school, but all I could really remember was a nurse with blond hair and big boobs. “What’s it about?”
    “How people will do bad stuff to get control over you. But I think maybe it’s about hope too.”
    “It’ll be great, Ang.” I had an urge to hug him, but I knew he would never tolerate that. Instead I grabbed the back of his neck and kissed the side of his head. He turned red and pushed me away, which made me laugh. “I’ll order pizza.”
“Get jalapenos.”
    “Only on your half.”
    He was in an unusually somber mood. He wasn’t laughing or joking at all as we watched the movie, and I had no idea if I should try to talk to him or just leave him alone. Finally he looked over at me and said, “What you gonna do, Zach?”
    “I have no idea. I imagine I’ll have to close the store.” “Can’t just move?”
    “I guess I could. But I’ll never find another location as cheap as that place was. My profit margin is pretty small. I’m just not sure it’s worth it.” He looked more upset about it than I was. “It’s true what I told Matt. It’s amazing I’ve managed to stay in business this—”
    “Matt!” he suddenly said.
    The way he said it, I actually thought for half a second that Matt had walked into the room. I barely managed to stop myself from turning around to see if he was behind me. “What?”
    He was really getting excited now. “Matt! And Jared! They have a location. Remember? We should call them! You should go check it out. Jared said it’s just sittin’ there. His family owns it. They might give you a good deal. And they said there’s no movie rental place in Cobra. Or Cola. Or whatever fuckin’ town they live in!”
    “Coda?”
“Yeah!”
    His excitement was infectious. I couldn’t help but smile. “Are you serious?”
    “Why not?” He pulled his wallet out, dug through it, and finally pulled out a coffee receipt with Matt’s number on it. “I’m gonna call him right now.”
    He disappeared into the kitchen for a bit, and when he came back out, he was smiling. “Hope you don’t have any plans this weekend.”
    T WO days later, we put the top down on my old Mustang and took the winding mountain road to Coda. We left early. It was a gorgeous day; the sun was shining, the sky bright blue. As we climbed higher into the Rockies, we saw patches of aspen, their leaves just starting to turn.
    Angelo was