Coda 03 -The Letter Z

I’d done with Cole too.
“You’re the only one in a long time, Zach. Almost five years.” I pull his head down and kiss him, my arms tight around his neck. I trace my tongue over his lips. “This, too, Zach,” I say, with my lips still touching his. “Only you.”
    And I can see in his eyes that it means a lot to him. He takes one of my hands and kisses my palm. “I love you so much, Angelo.”
    “That ’specially, Zach. Only you. Ever.”
“I know.”
“We’re okay, right? You and me?”
    He smiles down at me. “Angelo, we’re absolutely perfect.” And then he proves it.
    T WO months later, Zach and I are in our dinin’ room, workin’ on a puzzle. It’s what we do most nights after dinner. I have a beer, and Zach has a glass of wine. We turn on some music—we have this completely ridiculous playlist we made special, half his music and half mine, and if you thought Asa and Cocoon couldn’t live next to Pantera and KoRn on an MP3 player, I guess Zach and I are here to prove you wrong. And if it happens that I actually know every single word of half of Ellis’s songs, I’m not admittin’ it to Zach, any more than he’ll admit to me that he listens to my Green Day CD when he’s cleanin’ the house. Don’t ask me why. That’s just the way we are.
    So we’re sittin’ there like always workin’ the puzzle together when Matt and Jared show up. We haven’t seen ’em in a few days, and I’m happy to see Matt. I’m not so happy to see Jared. My encounter with Cole didn’t change anything between me and Zach at all, but it definitely fucked up my friendship with Jared. It’s not like he’s an asshole or anything. Not really. But somehow he’s a little more uptight with me now, and the smiles he gives me aren’t quite so genuine. I try to pretend like nothin’ happened; like I don’t know that he’s still a little bit pissed. But even now, after two fuckin’ months, things between us are weird. I know it annoys Zach and confuses and Matt, who has no clue what went down, but I don’t know how to make it right.
    They come inside, and Zach comes out of the kitchen with beers for both of ’em, and we all sit down in the livin’ room. I can tell Jared’s excited ’bout somethin’.
    “What’s up?” I ask him.
“Next week’s spring break,” he blurts out, all in a rush. ’Course that doesn’t matter to anybody but him. He’s a teacher, so it means he gets the week off.
“ And ?” I say, ’cause there’s obviously more.
“I think we should go to Vegas.”
“ Next week ?” Zach asks.
“Yeah! I found a great deal on rooms, and if we drive instead of flying, it won’t cost us much at all. It’s only about twelve hours if the weather’s good, and between the four of us we could easily drive straight through.”
“I’d have to close the store,” Zach says.
Jared’s smile gets bigger. “No, you wouldn’t. We can leave early Monday morning and be home by Thursday night.” That means Zach and I won’t miss any of the nights when we’re actually showin’ movies in the back half of the store. “And during the week, we got that covered. We—” Matt suddenly smacks him on the back of the head. Jared looks a little sheepish, but goes on, “ I already talked to Lizzy and the moms. They said they would take care of everything.”
When we were in Denver, Zach and I covered the store ourselves. But now that we show movies on weekend nights, too, it’s turned into a
    lotta hours for two people. We have part-time employees who help on the weekends, during the shows, but it still makes for a hella-long week. So a couple months ago, Lizzy volunteered to help. She decided she might like to work a few hours a week, just to get away from doin’ the mom thing all day, every day, and ’course Zach let her. But for some reason, after that Jared’s mom Susan decided she’d like to help out too. And then Lucy, Matt’s mom, decided to come along and keep Susan company.
    None of ’em have regular hours—they just show up whenever it suits ’em. I think they like bein’ able to hang out and gossip with whoever comes in the store. Zach tries to pay ’em, but only Lizzy ever bothers to clock in or out. Truthfully, it’s sort of a ridiculous setup, and at first I hated havin’ ’em ’round. Lizzy talks too much, and the moms just make me nervous. But it saves Zach money, and it gives us both a break from the store now and then.
    Jared’s still sittin’ there, with a