Cody

 

 

 

 

 

E THAN’S DENIAL ABOUT THE BREAK-IN at his apartment has me worried, but also pissed off. I don’t know why he thinks it’s just a coincidence because other places around him have had it happen as well. No one breaks into someone’s apartment, tears it up royally, and then takes nothing after the fact. I also don’t know why someone would break a picture of the two of us and my face is the only place where the picture is shattered.

“How’s he doing?” Carrie asks me a few days after the break-in.

“Fine,” I say, “I guess. He’s in denial about it and there’s something he’s not telling me.”

“He said that it was happening a lot around his block.”

“But they didn’t take anything, Carrie,” I say. “Who the hell breaks in somewhere and doesn’t take anything?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “If he is hiding something, it must not be good. Have you asked him if something else has been going on?”

“No,” I say. “He’s been a lot happier lately and he already told me so much about his past, so I don’t want to push him.”

“You make him sound so fragile,” she says. “He’s not glass, Cody. He won’t break.”

“I don’t mean to make him sound helpless or something,” I say, “but I know something is going on and he’s just trying to ignore it. I can’t help him if he doesn’t tell me.”

She takes a bite of her salad and points her fork over my shoulder to the cafeteria lunch line.

“What do you think about him?” she says.

“He’s cute,” I say, observing the new male-nurse that started a week ago. “Have you talked to him?”

“I worked with him last night,” she says. “He’s a really nice guy, but he isn’t sure if he’s going to stay around here.”

“Doesn’t like the city?”

“Not really,” she says. “But I don’t really want to even date him. He looks like he’d be some fun, though.”

“You sure you have time for that with school and all?”

“For him,” she says, sticking some lettuce in her mouth, “I’d make time. Are we still on for dinner tonight?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Ian is going to be a little late, but he’ll meet us there around eight.”

“Is Ethan sure he doesn’t want to come?” she says.

“He’s going over to Sam’s to help him sort all his stuff.”

“I wish at least one of your newly acquired friends was not gay,” she says.

“Hadley isn’t gay,” I say, smiling.

“You know what I mean,” she says. “Have you heard anything else from your brother?”

“No,” I say.

“Aren’t you the least bit excited that you’ll get to see him again?”

“Not really,” I say. “He’s just going to disappoint me some more.”

“Have you ever thought that maybe he didn’t come back for a reason?” she asks me. “Maybe he’s not just this big asshole that refused to come back and see your mom.”

“If so,” I say, “he probably should’ve told me that when he had the chance.”

“I want to meet him,” she says. “He played a big role in your life.”

“He helped me grow as a child,” I say, “not as a man.”

“Regardless,” she says, “you are who you are today because of him in ways you probably don’t even know. Maybe it’s because I have such a big family, but if it was just me and one other sibling, I just think I would try my hardest to be closer to him or her.”

“Family is not what it’s cracked up to be, I guess.”

“So,” she says, “why is Ian going to be late?”

“No idea,” I say, smiling, “Probably something to do with Hadley.’

“Well, good luck to her,” she says. “He’s a handful.”

“I think he’s met his match in her. I’m surprised it didn’t end after the first date.”

“Ian’s different from how he was years ago,” she says. “Maybe she sees something in him that I was never able to.”

 

***

 

 “I’ll help you,” I say, making my way into the patient’s room behind the other nurse on duty. My shift ends in five, but I have plenty of time to be generous.

We unlock the bed and move all of the wires out of the way so we can wheel the patient into surgery. I lock the bed back in place and make a path as the other nurse positions the bed in the middle of the doorway.

“Thank you,” she says. She continues down the hallway and I turn around, making my way towards the time clock.

“Excuse me,” I hear to my left. I see a man about my age with brown hair and deep brown eyes. He’s dressed in a suit and tie and has a clipboard in his hand.

“Yeah,” I say, “how’s it going?”

“Good,” he says, “good. I’m doing a survey about the hospital and the overall safety you guys feel working here.  Would you mind answering a few questions?”

I look at the guy’s nametag and nod my head up and down. We make our way over to the waiting room and sit down.

“My name is Adam, by the way,” he says.

He holds out his hand and I shake it and say, “Cody.”

He smiles and I feel uncomfortable when he squeezes my hand. He lets go of it quickly and his smile turns into a grin as he looks back down to the clipboard and focuses in on the questions that are on it.

“How long have you worked here?”

“Four or five years this December,” I say.

“About how long does it take you to get to work?”

“Fifteen minutes, usually,” I say. “It just depends on how traffic is.”

“Do you believe you’re treated fairly here as a gay man?”

I raise my eyebrows and quickly look from him to the rest of the people in the waiting room, confused.

“How do you know that I’m gay?” I ask him.

“I asked around here about the community within the hospital,” he says. “The survey is for an LGBTQ magazine that I write for and I’m doing interviews on how safe people feel within their work environments. I only asked to talk to people who are openly out and comfortable with the fact. It’s up to them whether or not they want to talk me.”

“Shouldn’t you say that to people before you even start the interview?”

“Yeah,” he says, smiling. “I’m sorry. If you don’t want to continue I understand.”

“It’s fine,” I say. “Yes, I do feel like I’m treated fairly here. No one seems to care.”

“Awesome,” he says. “Has there ever been an incident that you were involved in where you were punished for your sexuality?”

“Like, was I beat up?”

“Yeah,” he says.

“No,” I say. “I’ve never been beat up for being gay.”

“So,” he says, “overall, do you feel safe walking to your car after a long shift?”

“Yeah,” I say, confused.

“Do you mostly work day shifts or night shifts?”

“Day,” I say. “What—“

“I think that should be all I need for now,” he says. He gets up off the chair and I’m confused as hell as I try to understand what just happened.

“Okay,” I say.

“It was nice meeting you,” he says. “I’m sure I’ll see you again at some point.”

He winks at me and I sit there, trying to make sense of the stranger I just met and the completely random questionnaire he presented me with. All I can think about is that I hope I never see him again.

 

***

 

“I know,” Ian says as he sits down next to Carrie in the booth, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so late.”

“It’s OK,” I say. “We just got here ourselves not too long ago.”

“Carrie,” Ian says, “you look nice this evening. I didn’t know you owned anything other than scrubs.”

“You look nice as well, Ian,” she says, smiling. “And you smell good, too. I didn’t know you wore the scent of anything other than your own ego.”

I laugh and look down at my phone to see a text from Ethan.

HE HAS SO MUCH SHIT! I’m already exhausted and we have barely started.

You can do it. I have faith in you.

I put my phone back in my pocket and look up at Ian who is reading his menu.

“How’s Hadley?” I say.

“She’s fine,” he says. “I wasn’t with her, though. I was helping someone out at the gym.”

“Exciting,” I say.

“How’s Ethan doing?” he asks me.

“Fine,” I say. “He’s already exhausted helping Sam move he said.”

“By the way,” Carrie says, “I think Ethan should just move in.”

“What?”

“I’m serious,” she says. “I know it’s only been a few days, but he can’t go back to that apartment and you guys practically live with each other anyway, so why not?”

“You really want another person in the apartment, though?”

“I’m never home anyways,” she says.

“I’ll tell him later.”

She smiles and says, “I’m glad we got to do this. We never hang out anymore; the three of us.”

“Not now that our Cody has himself a boyfriend,” Ian says.

“You’re next it sounds like,” I say.

“No,” he says. “I mean, Hadley is cool, but I’m taking it really slow. Trying not to get too attached too quickly.”

“I think it’s cool that you’re talking to someone,” Carrie says.

“Me, too,” I say. “I’d prefer it wasn’t my boyfriends sister, but it’s still nice, regardless. Carrie, what’s with that guy doing that survey today at work?”

“What?”

“His name was Adam, I think. He was doing a survey about the gay community or something at the hospital? He asked me random questions that don’t even relate to anything and I was so confused when he left.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says.

“You didn’t see a guy walking around in a suit and tie?” I say. “Had a little clipboard attached to his arm?”

“I was around the desk for a lot of the day and I never once saw the dude,” she says. “I even worked with a couple of people who are special, like you, and no one said anything or got interviewed while I was there.”

“That’s odd,” Ian says.

“Very,” I say. I already thought that the guy was weird as fuck, but hearing her say that she has no idea what I’m talking about kind of freaks me out. If he wasn’t interviewing people, then what was he doing there?

“Maybe he just thought you were cute and didn’t know how to talk to you?” she says.

“That still doesn’t explain how he knew I was gay,” I say. “He asked me weird shit, too, like if I felt safe walking to my car after work and if I worked day shift or night shift.”

“I don’t know, Cody,” she says. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. He was probably just some weird fucker who thought you were cute. I’ve had patients ask about you before and such.”

“I just hope he isn’t a stalker or something,” I say.

“What was the story with dinner?” Ian says. “He didn’t look very good.”

“He thought he saw something outside and it freaked him out.”

“Oh,” he says. “Tell him thank you, by the way, for giving me Hadley’s number. I know it must be weird for him, and for you, for me to be talking to her. I don’t want something to go wrong and then things get awkward.”

“I thought you said you were just friends?” Carrie says, smiling.

“We are,” he says. “At least for right now.”

“I think it’s great, man,” I say. “Just please, don’t get into something serious with her if you don’t plan to commit to it.”

“I won’t,” he says.

 

***

 

 “Sam has more clothes than his sister does,” Ethan says, as he closes the front door. I get up and give him a hug as he makes his way into the living room. “He just has so much shit. It’s ridiculous. I never thought it would end.”

“It’s all sorted, though?”

“Yeah,” he says. “Well, mostly, but the rest is just stupid stuff like his clothes and books. How was dinner?”

“Fine,” I say. “Ian seems to be enjoying Hadley.”

“She hasn’t said anything about him,” he says. “Usually she tells me about the men in her life, so I don’t know.”

“I want to ask you something,” I say.

“Alright?”

“Would you want to make your living here official?”

“You asking me to move in?” he says.

“If you want,” I say. “I’d just feel better if you weren’t at that apartment and we’re basically together every night anyway.”

“What about Carrie?”

“She’s, actually, the one that suggested it.”

“Oh,” he says. “Interesting.”

“I’ve been thinking about it, though,” I say. “But like I said, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“Can we move everything in later in the week?” he says. “I’m exhausted enough as it is and it wasn’t even my stuff.”

He lies down on the couch and rests his head in my lap. I push the hair back out of his face as he closes his eyes.

“Did Elliot and Will find a house yet?”

“They looked at one,” he says, “but they didn’t like it.”

“So,” I say, resting my arm along the back of the couch, “the weirdest thing happened today.”

“Do tell,” he says, smiling.

“This guy was at the hospital and he interviewed me about how safe I feel at the hospital.”

“Huh?”

“As a gay man,” I say.

“How’d he even know you were gay?” he asks me.

“He said he asked around for all of the openly gay people who worked at the hospital. It’s for some magazine or something.”

“What’s the magazine?”

“He didn’t tell me,” I say. “Honestly, I forgot to ask.”

“That was stupid of you.”

“I know,” I say, laughing. “I don’t know. It was just odd.”

“Maybe he secretly has a crush on you and just made it all up to talk to you.”

“Maybe so,” I say. “To bad I’m already taken.”

“Where am I going to put all my stuff?”

“Hadley’s storage stall?” I say.

“I could probably sell a lot of it,” he says. “It’s not worth anything anyway, apparently.”

“Or you could put it all in storage for when we have more room for it.”

“Or that,” he says.

“You sure you want me here?” he says. “Permanently, I mean.”

“I’ve never been more sure about anything in my entire life.”