Chapter Seven #3
“Yeah, I had a Roman phase when I was in junior high school. I watched all kinds of old movies about him and then started reading about the Roman Empire. I’d come home with my backpack filled with books from the library.
Mom teased me a lot about being a bookworm, but she liked that I read so much.
So, your dog was Julius. Was your mom too feeble to care for him?
We had a neighbor who had a stinky beagle.
I think he was too old to bathe him. Both Mr. Crabtree and his dog smelled bad, so maybe he couldn’t take good care of himself either. ”
“Perhaps not. My mother wasn’t too feeble to take care of her dog.
She was too high most of the time. Then she was in and out of rehab.
My aunt Wendy tracked her down in Toledo.
Julius was with her in some rundown crack house, skinny and with an eye infection.
I’d been in my senior year of school when this happened, so Wendy kept Julius until I graduated and could settle down into a practice.
Then I took over his care. Mom refused to come home with her sister and then fled.
Ended up in a rehab in St. Louis that didn’t take. One of about ten now at last count.”
“Wow.” I let my hand still on Lady’s side. “I’m really sorry about your mom. Is she better?”
“Not really. I’ve not spoken to her since Julius died. She called me from a gas station in Toronto, asking for money, which wasn’t happening. That train left that station years ago. I told her I wasn’t giving her cash for dope and that her dog had passed. She called me a greedy fuck and hung up.”
“Wow.” I let it all sink in. “Sorry. I know I’m repeating myself.”
“It’s okay. Most people who haven’t dealt with addicts firsthand don’t know what to say. This all got really deep, really fast,” he halfheartedly joked. “I guess what they say about sharing your darkest secrets at the midnight hour with someone you trust is true.”
He trusted me? That seemed like a big entanglement sort of confession.
Should I share some of the trauma of my past year with him?
Would anything I told him fall under patient/doctor confidentiality?
Or was that only for humans? God, it would be nice to have someone other than Bella to talk to about it all.
Still, maybe best not to share. It might put him in danger.
Bella and I had sworn to each other that her secret was her secret and only she could decide who was told.
“Ford? Are you still awake?”
“Sorry, yes.” I moved to my back, my boner gone thankfully.
Lady snuggled in more tightly to my side.
“I was processing. Sometimes it takes me a minute. My brain snags a lot. Someday you should meet my mom. She’s great.
My stepdad is too. My real dad was nice to me, then he ran off, which is a pattern with him, it seems. I ride out to where he’s buried to talk to him sometimes when I’m alone.
I don’t take the other guys with me as they all seem to really hate him a lot.
I don’t hate him. I’m disappointed in him, but he stuck around with me for longer than any of my brothers, so I don’t want to rub it in.
But if you meet my mother, she’ll call you sweetie and make you food. She’s Italian.”
That made him laugh. “I would love to meet your mother and stepfather someday. Do you feel odd that you got so much time with Cash when the other boys got little to nothing out of him?”
“Yeah, I…yeah. I try not to talk about him in front of them. They all really hate him for abandoning their mothers, and I get that, but…I don’t know.
” My fingers slid into soft fur once more, carding through it in a steady little rhythm.
“I don’t hate him. Not really. Mom found Paul within a year of Cash taking off, so we really didn’t suffer much.
I guess I did emotionally, but Paul stepped in to be a father right away, and that was that.
But yeah, I don’t talk with my brothers about Cash Bastian.
When they go off, I sort of nod and grunt.
Guess I was the only one who had a different experience with him. ”
“I am sorry he ran off on you, on all of you. I know what that’s like.
My father was some random junkie. A man with no name who introduced sperm to an egg one night in a flophouse, so I only had one parent to disappoint me.
Thankfully, Aunt Wendy was there to take me in when things were bad. She and my uncle have been amazing.”
We both fell into silence for a moment. “Are you okay?”
“Sure, yeah. You?”
“I have a dog with me. That makes everything less painful. Can we come over tomorrow to do more notes?”
“I would really like that. Come over in the evening. I should be home. I’ll make a stir-fry for dinner.”
Oh, that sounded good. I missed Chinese food. In Brooklyn, we had tons of great eateries to pick from on every block. Out here, there were a few bars, a diner, and a bakery. None of them had anything but American diner/pub food.
“Okay, Lady and I will be there at six. I really liked talking to you in the dark like this.”
“I liked it too. Now you and your bed partner should get some sleep before I start whispering sweet nothings in your ear.”
“I’m not sure I would mind that.” Shit, that was out there now. Things just seemed to slip out more easily in the middle of the night.
“Temptation thy name is Ford. Good night.”
“Night.”
I pulled the phone from my ear to end the call. Then I lay there groggy with lust until I dozed off with a warm pooch at my side as dreams of soft whispers carried me off.