Bridget, one of the first-year teachers at Jensen’s school, held court with the lunchroom crowd. She said, “And he refused to let me see where he lived. He always drove me home, and I asked him up for a glass of wine three different times. Then I asked to see his place.”

Cass, with the tight ponytail that looked like it pulled her skin taut across her face, waggled an index finger and said, “He lives with his mom. I bet it all on that. He’s in Mommy and Daddy’s basement apartment.”

Jensen shook his head. “No, those types always tell you in advance, usually while they’re fiddling with their cell phone. I had a date that looked at his phone and asked, ‘Why doesn’t she leave me alone?’”

Rich, halfway down the lunchroom table, said, “Oh shit, J, that’s trouble. I bet he was married and in the closet.”

Jensen laughed. “That’s what I thought. Then he said that his mom sent a selfie from his bedroom complaining about the mess.”

The whole table laughed in unison. After she caught her breath, Angela said, “That’s the best I’ve heard recently. Did you extricate yourself from the situation?” She illustrated her question by gingerly pushing herself back from the table, cringing, and starting to stand.

“Close. When he double-dipped in the guacamole, that was the end. I’d had enough.”

Bridget waited patiently for the conversation to quiet down again. Jensen bit into his turkey sandwich with low-fat mayo and waited for the rest of her story.

She said, “So apparently I badgered him enough that he decided he would show me his place. I rode with him in the car, and he pulled into the driveway of this cute little bungalow. I was surprised. I suspected the reason that he didn’t want to show me his place was because he lived in a hillbilly dump. Everything looked great until he slipped inside the front door and said, ‘Wait a sec. I’ll be right back.’”

“Creepy,” muttered Rich.

“I mean he slipped through a crack that couldn’t have been more than ten inches wide. I don’t know how he did it. He wasn’t that skinny. I tried to lean around, but all I saw was a glimpse of the hardwood floor. No blood stains, thank God.”

Jensen finished the first half of the sandwich and asked, “Well, what was it for God’s sake? You can’t stop there.”

“He was some kind of intense neat freak. I sort of felt sorry for him, but I soon knew that we weren’t a match. Sometimes I have dirty dishes in the sink the next morning. If a date’s sexy enough, I forget all about cleaning up and race him to the bedroom.”

Angela laughed. She asked, “How often has he been sexy enough?”

Rich said, “There’s nothing wrong with neat and tidy.”

Bridget continued the story. “But putting three towels down on the floor to create a path for your date and keeping plastic covers on the couch like it’s Grandma’s house in the 1970s is weird.”

Jensen snickered as he turned toward Rich and heard him say, “Oh.”

Eager to participate in the conversation, Jensen added his own story. He never talked about Les, because he didn’t want to create a negative reputation for his best friend, but he could talk about the ones who disappeared from his life. “I don’t know if I ever told any of you about the museum guy I dated.”

Angela asked, “What kind of museum? Art guys can be so damned handsome and dangerous. They treat their whole body like, well, a work of art.” Light, nervous laughter spread around the table.

Jensen said, “He worked at the Field Museum in Chicago.”

Rich wrinkled his brow. “Isn’t that dinosaurs and mummies?”

“Yeah, it’s a natural history museum.” Before continuing, Jensen looked around the table. He loved the lunchroom crowd. It was mostly young teachers and student instructors still working on their teaching certificates. None of them could afford to eat out for lunch more than once or twice a month. They were a chatty crowd and treated each other with respect.

Cass reached out and touched Jensen’s hand. “I think I can tell where this one’s going, honey.”

Jensen nodded. “Yeah, I saw taxidermied stuff all over the house. It was a nice home, but I was worried he’d pull out human parts pickled in formaldehyde.”

Bridget groaned. “Eww, that’s gross. I’d have nightmares for weeks about him.”

“It was the last time we saw each other.”

Jensen wanted to keep the conversation about dates going, but he knew that it was a fruitless exercise. The date topic always ended with the married teachers talking about their spouses. Those stories put Jensen in the small minority. At least they usually told positive anecdotes and didn’t throw anybody from home under the bus.

Rich said, “I knew Charlie was the right guy for me when his place looked like my best friend from high school’s house. Seriously, it did. We laughed so hard when we realized that the floor plan of his bungalow was nearly identical to my buddy Gordon’s house.”

Jensen said, “Aww, that’s so sweet. I don’t think I ever heard that. You live in that old farmhouse outside of town now. How did you meet Charlie?”

Jensen tried to avoid sounding like he was pushing too hard for his own benefit. He had neither the time nor the desire to look for a man, but he could store away good tips in case he needed them later. It would have been easy to warm up to Rich. He was like the ideal guy next door. He always dressed well, kept his short beard immaculately trimmed, and he wore his pants just tight enough.

“You’re all going to laugh, but Charlie was taking money at his family’s pumpkin farm out in the country. He’d moved into the city, but his parents still ran the family’s heirloom property in the hills. I took my niece out there, and Charlie was adorable. I caught him staring at my empty ring finger, and the rest is history.”

Jensen wished it was all that easy. He’d kissed enough frogs. If he ever decided to look again, he hoped that Les was correct and Prince Charming was right around the corner. He’d lost most of his patience for the dating merry-go-round. Even the good ones didn’t last.

Bridget piped up and said, “Fortunately, the next date was the one. I met Randy at the 4th of July fireworks.”

Everyone leaned in as Cass said, “We haven’t heard this story either. Did you spread your blanket down next to his? That would be so romantic.”

Bridget laughed softly and held her hand up to her mouth. Jensen marveled at the perfectly painted long fingernails. The hot pink color matched the patterns in her blouse. “No, he was selling hot dogs.”

Cass raised an eyebrow. “You married a hot dog vendor? I thought Randy was a firefighter.”

“He was selling hot dogs for the firehouse. He is a firefighter. I was so embarrassed, but looking back, it’s funny. He was sweet.”

Jensen asked, “Embarrassed by what? There must be a story there.”

“I’d squirted ketchup on my T-Shirt, and I needed napkins. Randy handed me a stack of napkins and asked if I needed some help. I started to wipe at my shirt, and then I looked at him again. Oh my God! You’ve all seen Randy. You know what I saw. I felt it in my toes.”

Randy was the kind of guy who spawned all of the legends about sexy firefighters. He needed to be in a firehouse calendar. He had a head of perfectly tousled dark hair and biceps that bulged out of any shirt. Topping it off, he had a dimpled smile that melted most hearts, male and female.

As he downed the rest of his sandwich, Jensen felt an urge to call for an after-dinner get-together. He said, “Hey, is anyone going out for drinks after work? Does anybody want to? I’d love to share a few more stories. Outside of the building, they can get a little more…detailed.”

His invitation raised a lot of smiles around the table, but as soon as Jensen’s work friends began to respond, he realized why they had to organize the last evening out together six weeks ahead.

Cass said, “I’d love to sweetheart, but between my man, my little girl, and the dog, my evening’s full up. With luck, I’ll get an hour before bed to put my feet up.” She waved her hand. “But don’t let me stop you. You all go on ahead, and save the good stories to tell me later.”

Rich pulled out immediately, too. He said, “We’ve got a dinner date with Charlie’s parents. We still help out with the pumpkin patch, and we’re going to discuss this year’s schedule over steaks and wine. Charlie’s dad is a dedicated carnivore. He’ll grill the steaks on the deck. It looks out over a gorgeous little pond.”

The story was the same from most of the rest of the table. Kids had homework, and husbands wanted to go shopping for hardware for a weekend project. Jensen didn’t wait for the entire room to respond before he called it off. He said, “Maybe we can all go out for Christmas.”

Bridget said, “Definitely, but get it on the calendar. Suggest a date tomorrow, and we can talk about it. Christmas is crazy. I have to work with the parents of my students and make sure that they don’t try and outdo each other at our classroom Christmas party. Competitive, parents are the worst.”

In the end, Jensen ended up sending an invitation to Les on his cell phone half an hour after lunch wrapped up. He appreciated the response. Les typed back,

The rest of the work day dragged. Jensen loved helping the kids who needed his assistance, but he dreaded the amount of time he had to spend filling out assessments on the computer. It was an endless process, and most of it had little to do with direct care for the kids. It had a lot more to do with covering the school and his own liability in the case of a legal attack.

Fortunately, the day ended on an upbeat note. Angus Jessup, a fifth grader, stopped by late in the afternoon for a follow-up. His mother joined him, and Jensen was happy to see them both smiling as they stepped into the office.

Carla, Angus’s mom, gave the boy a slight push on the shoulder blade until he stepped up to the desk. He handed Jensen a small package wrapped in a bow. “This is for you, Mr. Thomas. Thank you.”

Jensen pointed at the chairs opposite his desk and encouraged them both to sit. Carla said, “It’s nothing big, but we had to bring something as a token of our gratitude. You helped Angus so much. Everything is better. I’m sure Angus’s dad is smiling down on him and all of us. Please, go ahead and open the box.”

As Jensen pulled the bow off the small package, he remembered the day halfway through the previous school year when Angus first appeared in the office with his mom. They were both distraught. She attempted to hide the dark circles with concealer, but it didn’t work. Angus refused to look up and stared at the surface of Jensen’s desk during the entire conversation. The emotional pain was readily apparent.

The box held six mouth-watering chocolates. Jensen grinned and said, “Oh, these won’t last long. Chocolate is one of my weaknesses.”

Carla said, “Angus’s grandparents operate a small candy factory outside of Chicago. If you like chocolate, they do amazing work. When I suggested a gift, Angus thought of these right away.”

“I hope you like them, Mr. Thomas.”

Jensen smiled and said, “I have no doubts about that.” He placed the lid back on the box and set it to the side of the desk. Looking up at his visitors, he asked, “Is everything still going well? The last time you stopped in together you thought you’d turned a corner. I caught up with Angus on the first day of school, and he was all smiles. He told me about the trip to his aunt and uncle’s place in the mountains in Virginia.”

Carla said, “Oh, that was a perfect trip, and yes, we’re both doing as well as I would ever expect. We still miss Max like crazy, but it’s different now. Instead of feeling sad, we tell stories until we both cry from happiness. We’ve got so many great photos with Max, and I have some video, too.”

Jensen looked up and saw a small tear forming at the corner of Carla’s right eye. Angus said, “We took flowers to Dad over the weekend. I ran my finger over his name. I never did that before.”

Carla said, “Angus talked to him, too. He was still talking after half an hour. I didn’t know so much happened since Max passed. Angus remembered it all. I sat in the grass and listened. It was great.”

The session was enough to give Jensen a bounce in his step as he left the school for the day. His good fortune continued when he didn’t have to park three blocks away from Smiley’s, the bar Les chose for their after-work drink.

Jensen shared a warm hug with Les. His smile faded when Les started an interrogation. He should have seen it coming. Les peppered him with questions about Alec as soon as they sat.

“Have you gone next door and shown appropriate concern yet?”

“Can you lay off me on that? I told you he doesn’t like me. Why would I want to make a bad situation for him even worse? I’m sure that he doesn’t want to see me.”

“That tension is exactly why you should go next door. You’ll make him smile, and he might even hug you. People love to see gestures of care from unexpected directions. Promise me you’ll go next door by lunchtime on Saturday. You can tell me what happened later in the afternoon while we watch Lars get his comeuppance.”

Jensen sighed and was silent for a few moments. “Okay, yeah, fuck, I’ll do it then to get you off my back. So, how was your day?”

“Same old, same…wait! Actually, it wasn’t. We had a kind of wild situation for a change.”

Jensen raised an eyebrow and issued a warning. “Don’t make shit up. I can smell b.s. a mile away. You know that.”

Les held his hands up. “I kid you not. I think I’ve told you about Sally, the middle-aged woman who works with me. Almost all of the techs are around my age, but she’s on a second or third career. I admire her for that. She keeps plugging away.”

Jensen sipped his Old-Fashioned. It was the right amount of sweet. The slight burn of the brandy going down was perfect. The bartender Greg knew what he was doing. Jensen smiled at Les and said, “Yeah, I think you’ve mentioned her before.”

“Well, we were all minding our own business in the lab taking care of samples, and we heard this commotion out in the hall. Sally looked at me, and I looked at her. I mouthed, ‘What the fuck?’ about ten seconds before this guy crashed through the door. He wasn’t wearing a lab coat. He was an outsider. He had to get past a small army of other people to get back there.”

Jensen’s eyes opened wide. “Shit, don’t tell me he had a gun. Well, I guess it wasn’t that. You look fine, and I didn’t hear any stories about shootings on the radio.”

Les shook his head. “He was one of Sally’s exes. He started screaming and yelling at her. He was drunk at like 1:30 in the afternoon. He was messed up enough that I couldn’t understand what he was yelling. He slurred the words, and the sentences didn’t make sense.”

“Wow, did they get him under control?”

“She did. It was wild. It was like she was dealing with an out-of-control pet dog or something. She knew exactly what to say and do to calm him down. The security guards eventually dragged him out, but she got him to quiet down well before that.”

“Crazy, isn’t it?”

“After he was gone, she lost it. She started crying. The mascara ran, and she left for the day. So how was your day?”

Jensen smiled. After he asked the question, Les sipped his drink with an adorable sparkle in his eyes. He loved having the best story of the day. Watching his friend, Jensen understood how he fell for Les when they first met.

“I can’t complain about my day, but you know when all those teachers start talking about their adorable husbands and their sweet kids, I get the gnawing feeling in my gut. Do you get that?”

“Wow, who do you work with? I hear about deadbeats and lazy asses all the time. It’s enough to make you never want to date again. I’m not kidding. There’s one horror story after another. This one woman says her husband has to go back to his parents’ place and play video games with his little brother three times a week.”

Jensen shook his head. “You know, that is kind of messed up. So no prospects for you this weekend on the dating front? Are you still trolling that app?”

Les nodded. “Yeah, I’m staying away from the bars for a little while and giving online a chance. You’ve got to be dedicated to have it work out. I check for new guys and messages every night. I’ve had a few nibbles, but after a while, it’s mostly the same old ones. It’s like we’re standing around in a room together daring each other to say hi.”

“And why don’t you make a move?”

Les smirked. “Because I’m shy. You know that.”

Jensen rolled his head back and laughed. He could pick a thousand words to describe his friend, Les, and shy would not be one of them. “You’ll have to come up with a better excuse than that.”

“Hey, why don’t we go out this weekend? We could do dinner and a movie. I know it’s not a date, but you can be pretty good company when you try hard. That new superhero flick is out, and I know you like guys in spandex.”

Jensen held up an index finger. “Correction. You like the guys in spandex. That’s what’s behind the singlet thing.”

“Well, that’s why they call it a package. It has to be nicely wrapped. So, it’s a date?”

Jensen laughed again. “Yeah, it sounds like a fun night to me. I’ll even pick you up, and I promise not to keep you out past curfew.”

“Will you invite me up for a nightcap after?”

“Now you’re starting to push it.” Jensen felt his mouth go slightly dry. He did wonder what would happen if he invited Les into the house at the end of one of their weekend evenings. He thought there was a better than 50% chance they would end up in bed. He knew there were many issues another roll in the hay would bring up, and it would be against his personal principles, but Jensen wasn’t sure it would be all bad.

Les sighed. “Aw, man. My parents would have loved you when I was in high school. You’re such a fucking gentleman.”