Coda 02 -A to Z

Matt says he has to go to work.
    “See you two tomorrow,” he says to Zach and me, and then he turns to Jared. He doesn’t kiss him when he leaves. Instead he reaches over and grabs a handful of Jared’s hair, tugs on it a little while they smile into each other’s eyes. The contact between them only lasts a second. Yet I see a lot in that little gesture: possessiveness, desire, tenderness, and love. It’s incredibly intimate, and I have to look away.
    I hate them both so much at that moment.

Zach…
    A FTER lunch, we went to see the store. Jared was there of course, along with his brother Brian and Brian’s wife, Lizzy. Brian looked just like Jared, except his hair was darker, and he had obviously had his cut sometime in the last three years. Lizzy was all smiles and flashing blue eyes and frizzy blonde hair, and I couldn’t help but like her. It was also immediately apparent that she was in charge. Brian and Jared deferred to her on everything.
    The store was huge. The main room was twice the size of my store in Denver, with windows all around. There was another room in back that was about half that size, plus an office, two bathrooms, and a mop room.
    “It’s perfect,” Angelo said. But there was something in the way he said it, like he was disappointed. When I looked over at him, he wouldn’t look at me.
    “We’ve been trying to rent it or sell it, but nobody’s needed it yet,” Lizzy told me. “We own it, so it’s not like it’s costing us anything to keep it here empty. Still, we’d love to have you here, Zach. Why don’t you and Angelo come over for dinner tonight, and we can talk about it?”
    I looked over at Angelo, to get his reaction to the dinner invitation, but he still wouldn’t meet my eyes. “That sounds great,” I said to Lizzy. She and Brian left. Jared insisted that we ride with him. I tried to talk to Ang on the way to the car.
    “What’s wrong?”
“Nothin’.” But I knew he was lying.
“What do you think about the store?” I asked.
“Not really up to me, is it?”
    “That doesn’t mean I don’t value your opinion.” He didn’t answer, and there wasn’t any more time for me to talk to him without having Jared listen in.
    Jared took us on a roundabout route to Lizzy and Brian’s house, showing us most of the small town on the way. We finally arrived at their house. Lizzy met us at the door, with their son James, who was not quite a year old, in her arms. We were then introduced to Jared’s mom, Susan, and Matt’s mom, Lucy. I knew from my conversations with Jared at Folk Fest that his father had passed away years before, but I was surprised to learn that Matt’s mom Lucy lived with Lizzy and Brian. Nobody mentioned his dad, and I wondered if Lucy was a widow too.
    Angelo was obviously overwhelmed by Jared’s family. I could tell that he was suddenly self-conscious of everything he said. He barely spoke at all. He was wary of Lizzy and seemed terrified of Lucy and Susan. It reminded me of his first encounter with Ruby, when he practically knocked over a shelving unit trying to get away from her. It seemed strange until I thought about his past. Being shuffled through foster homes. He obviously didn’t know how to respond to women at all. Their efforts to draw him out only made him more uncomfortable. I didn’t know how to make him relax, especially since he was still avoiding me too.
    I wished Matt was there. He would have known what to do.
    Finally, after dinner, we got down to business. We started talking about rent. “I might have to get a loan,” I told Lizzy. “I have enough for a deposit, but with moving costs, a deposit, and first month’s rent on a place to live, I’m going to be stretched pretty thin.”
    “You give us the deposit, and we’ll give you the first three months rent-free.”
    I was shocked. “Lizzy, I couldn’t ask you to do that.” “You didn’t.” She smiled. “So it’s a deal.”
    She stood up and walked away from the table, into the kitchen, and I was trying to figure out what had just happened. Jared smiled at me. “Get used to that,” he said. “Lizzy always gets her way.”
    After dessert, Angelo, Lizzy, and I piled back into Jared’s car and drove back to the store, where my car was parked. Now that I had decided to go forward with the plan, I wanted to see it again, so we went back inside. It was all happening so fast, and yet, I couldn’t see any reason to delay. I only had two more weeks before I had