Chapter 25 #2
“I suspect any woman he attracts would likely like cozy spaces to disappear into,” I mumble as I pop open a box labeled kitchen shit. I snicker a bit when I see it is literally just shelf goods like pasta and jars of sauce.
Virus beams at me. “Not sure a woman is what I want right now, but long term… sure. Yeah. Maybe I need one of those book girlies. She reads, I do my thing, in the same space. I have a bunch of hoodies she can be all cozy in. Yeah. That would work.”
I laugh. “You sure a woman isn’t what you want right now? You seem to have thought about it.”
He shrugs. “Always open to the possibilities!”
It hits me, in the two years I have known him not once have I seen him with a woman.
I know he likes women. He has made that point a couple times casually, like now, but I have never seen him actually spend time with a woman romantically or even one night style.
I might have to ask Frankie about that, he probably would know.
Jolt sets another box down. “You really didn’t have much.”
“Dumped a lot when I moved into the clubhouse. I knew wherever I ended up I’d want to start fresh.” Virus runs his hand through his hair. “But yeah, looking around, I really don’t have much.”
A flash of sadness quickly washes from Virus’s face. I keep it to myself because I don’t know if it would be welcome to check on him, but then I glance between Jolt and Frankie and realize these two would be the ones most likely for him to be open with besides Wally. “You good?”
He turns his head to look at me, and he knows I saw it. He frowns. “Yeah. Just… it’s the first time I am seeing, you know… the life I have built.”
“I guess I had the good fortune of moving what little I had into an already filled space.” I say gently. “Trish will get you set up real fast…”
His lips tip up. “Yeah. Mama Carbon totally will.”
When we get back home, I look over at Frankie. “Love, what is Virus’s story?”
He glances my way as he picks up Ronny’s water fountain to clean it and change the filters. Something we do every trash day.
“Ah, well…” He goes quiet as he starts to take apart the fountain.
I stand on the other side of the counter watching him. “Frankie?”
He sighs. “His parents are alive and all, but they are not part of his life. He has been on his own since he was fifteen. Some shit went down—legally—and he kind of was left to fend for himself after.”
“Oh. I… he is so…” I frown not understanding how his parents could just walk away from someone as good and lovely as Virus. I am a raging bitch, so I get how I could get dumped.
“Hey. No. Don’t do that. There is never an excuse for parents that duck out of their kids’ lives. He didn’t deserve it, nor did you.” Frankie’s eyes sear into mine to push his point.
I nod slowly. “Yeah. I… I am glad he and I both found our way here. Your mom sounded happy when you talked to her.”
He eyes me a moment, clearly trying to decide if he wants to follow my deflection. “Yeah, she adores him and knowing him, he will at least have some starter ideas of what he wants.”
“She help any of the others?” I ask.
Frankie chuckles. “Yeah. All of them.”
I eye him. “I thought Mint and Wally had Meads do theirs.”
He smirks. “They had Mom help them pull together ideas based on the colors Meads seemed to like. She chose from Mom’s major suggestions.
Kev’s place needed a full gut before he could move into it, and she helped him with everything.
Mouse, Jolt, Hemmy, all of us have asked Mom for help.
Colors, ideas, sourcing stuff. It helps that Mom knows how to talk to people and get them to come down on prices. ”
I love that. I love how connected these guys are. I love how close I feel to each of them, and I love that Frankie and Ricky share it all with me. “You happy he is our neighbor?”
The cute smirk I like so much pushes up his face as he wipes down the clean fountain. “Yeah. I am. I hated the old guy. I like that he will let me change shit up more without throwing a fit.”
“Mmhmm. Those the only reasons?” I lift my brow at him.
He chuckles. “You know he is going to be here more, raiding the fridge.”
I shrug. “I suspect Trish is going to stock more food for us. She seems to like taking care of… us. And I don’t mind, especially since he seems to be good with the knock and wait now. Better than the rest of them. Do you think he really isn’t interested in finding a woman right now?”
Frankie’s hands pause as he places a new soaked filter in the fountain.
“You know something.”
He finishes with the filter and looks back up at me. “His story to tell.”
“Is she alive?” I question since clearly there is or was already a woman for Virus.
“Yeah, as far as he knows.” Frankie fills the fountain.
“How does he not know? Can’t he find pretty much anyone?” I prod, highly interested in this turn of events.
He shrugs. “He can’t find her, but there is no evidence of her death.”
“So… like Hem.”
His head tilts side to side. “Not sure. I don’t really understand what their deal was. The way he talked about her suggested they were best friends, platonic. I don’t know how to read into what he said because he himself seems a bit frustrated by the situation.”
“But you are talking like it is more than friends.”
“There could be more than friendship there for him since I never see him even hook-up. Well… rarely.” He shrugs.
“He does hook-up with women.” I nod as I consider that information.
“Rarely. Like… rarely. I can only think of twice it has happened in all the years I have known him. Maybe he just isn’t really into…
you know, that kind of thing. There are demisexual and asexual and all kinds of variety of sexual interests or non-interests out there.
So, thinking there could be more with that friendship may be all wrong. I try not to invade.”
He is right, there are a lot of different kinds of interests out there and to assume or assign something as true or normal would be faulty.
I decide to follow Frankie’s lead and not invest much thought into that side of things.
I also decide to follow his lead in letting Virus be, unless or until he asks for more.