Carson said, “Sure you can.” Then he gave Evan his number.
When Evan hung up, he walked into the living room and found Kenny hugging Cadin.
“I can’t believe how big you are,” Cadin said. “Your dad wasn’t joking around when he told me you’re almost a grown man.”
“You look good, too,” Kenny said.
“Come over here and give your dad a hug now,” Evan said. Now that Kenny was there, with several suitcases and a backpack, he didn’t feel as anxious as he had a few minutes earlier. He even thought about how nice it might be to have another person in the house.
While Kenny hugged Evan, he glanced around the apartment and said, “This place looks fantastic.”
Kenny smiled and glanced down at the floor. “I wanted to fix things up for you, and Cadin gave me a lot of help. I would have done more in the kitchen but there wasn’t time.” Even he had to admit the clean bright paint and all the cleaning out he’d done had turned that apartment into a new place. As a writer, Evan knew how important it was to edit. So he applied those editing skills to his apartment and he’d removed anything that didn’t need to be there. He’d removed tables, chairs, stacks of books, and wall hangings he’d grown tired of looking at. The apartment not only looked better, it felt larger and more open than it had in years and the good pieces of furniture he had actually stood out.
“It looks great,” Kenny said, taking a step back. “I’ll bring my suitcases into my room and unpack them later.”
Cadin reached for his coat and said, “I have to be going. I have a date and I don’t want to keep him waiting.”
Kenny gave Cadin another hug and carried his bags into his bedroom.
As Evan walked Cadin to the door, he said, “Thanks for being here and helping me out with everything. I honestly don’t know what I would do without my friends.”
When he reached the door, Cadin stopped and turned. He put his arms around Evan and hugged him tightly. “Are you going to be okay? You sound uptight.”
Evan smiled. “Yes. I’m fine.”
“What did the schoolteacher want?”
Evan had been hoping Cadin would forget about the phone call from Carson. He shrugged and said, “He wants to have dinner with me next week. I said I’d call him back.”
“I think you should call him back and have dinner with him,” Cadin said.
Evan’s eyebrows went up. “You do?” He’d seemed against it at first and Evan wondered what had changed his mind.
Cadin nodded and said, “It’s time to go out and have a little fun. You know it’s never going to work out with you and Jeffery.” Cadin had never hidden that fact that he didn’t think Jeffery was right for Evan. Though he didn’t dislike Jeffery as a man, he’d never thought Jeffery knew how to deal with Evan’s emotions. “He’s never going to change and you’re not the one who is going to change him. As soon as you figure that out, you’ll be much happier.”
“I know that,” Evan said.
“I wonder if you do sometimes,” Cadin said. “All these years you’ve been married to him you’ve been trying to change him and turn him into someone he’s not. He likes to screw around. He cheats and lies whenever he gets a chance. He’s the ultimate example of pure douchbaggery and you’ve never been able to deal with it.”
“He’s good to me and he’s a great father,” Evan said. He hated it whenever someone talked down about Jeffery—even if they were right.
“That doesn’t make him a good husband and you know it.” Cadin grabbed Evan’s arms and he held them firmly. He looked into his eyes and said, “I think it’s time to move on and put the past behind you. This guy at Kenny’s school sounds like he could be good for you and that would be a novelty in itself. Give him a call and have dinner with him. I don’t see how it can hurt.”
Evan knew he wasn’t wrong. “I’ll think about it. I’m not sure. I’m still a married man.” The arrangement he had with Jeffery, as far as Evan understood it, was to have sex, not date outside the marriage.
Cadin rolled his eyes and opened the door. “Give me a break. Do you honestly think Jeffery never takes anyone else out? Seriously, man. I’ll call you tomorrow to see how you’re doing. If you need anything, call me.” Then he told him he loved him, kissed him goodbye, and headed out the door.
When he was gone, Evan went into Kenny’s room where he found him unpacking jeans from a suitcase that reminded Evan of a doctor’s medical bag from the early 1900s. He sat down on Kenny’s bed and said, “I hope you like the changes I made. I tried to keep it masculine and butch. Nothing frilly or girly.”
Kenny dropped his jeans and laughed. “Dad, just because I’m straight doesn’t mean you have to overcompensate. I mean, it’s not like you have to hang baseball bats on the wall and put Playboy magazines under the mattress.”
Evan’s head went back. “I would never do that.”
Kenny laughed and said, “But I know you thought about it.”
This was true. Evan often did overcompensate because his son was straight. And he did this because he didn’t want Kenny to think he was trying to influence him with gay culture. He also wanted Kenny to know he loved him no matter what his sexual preference was. This, for Evan, was important. He often worried Kenny might wind up resenting him if he didn’t treat him like a straight kid. He’d felt that way growing up as a gay kid when his parents treated him like a straight kid. He didn’t want to make the same mistakes, and in turn he wound up going in the opposite direction, to the point of looking foolish at times. So Evan laughed and said, “Okay, I thought about it. But I didn’t do it. No girly magazines under the mattress. I promise.”
Kenny placed his jeans on a shelf in the closet and said, “What do you want to do for dinner? We can go out. We can order out. Or we can just call the grocery store on the corner and have a few things delivered.”
When Evan heard him mention having groceries delivered, he flung out his hand and said, “No. I’d rather not order from the grocery store on the corner.” The last thing he needed was for the nineteen-year-old delivery man to show up.
Kenny’s head tilted back. “Why?”
He laughed and said, “I did that yesterday. The kitchen is stocked with the best junk food ever made. I think we should order take-out from the sushi place two blocks away.” He knew they delivered and the person who delivered was a woman, not a man.