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I nodded and smiled as Bobby looked me up and down, saying nothing.
Daniel headed over to the fridge to pull out fruit and vegetables. He grabbed a colander from the cabinet. “I see Kerri did the shopping. I’ll prepare a few things for you, okay?”
“Sure.” Bobby motioned at the seat across from him, and I sank into it, keeping a smile fixed on my face. He grunted. “You’re not really thinking of volunteering, are you, kid?”
“I, uh, I wasn’t sure, but—”
Bobby grimaced. “You want to watch people die? What’s wrong with you? Don’t put yourself through it.”
Daniel frowned but didn’t say anything, starting to hull strawberries and cutting them up into a bowl.
Bobby continued. “Watching men waste away, it’s not good for anyone. Least of all a young kid like you. So, I tell you what, after you leave today, never come back. Just go out dancing, have fun, kiss some boys, and take Daniel with you. Both of you are too young to be dealing with this crap.”
“Oh.” I shifted uncomfortably on my chair. “Well, that’s one way to look at it.”
I glanced at Daniel. His shoulders were tense as he cut the green off the strawberries. This wasn’t what I’d been expecting. Daniel had said Bobby was laid-back. He must be having a bad day.
I fumbled on. “I guess another way to look at it is that we’re all in this together, right? A big world family of human beings and we should take care of each other.”
Bobby shrugged, obviously not convinced. “Jeff died,” he called over his shoulder to Daniel, not taking his eyes off me. “Jeff Rosenthal. My ex. Remember me telling you about him?”
Daniel stopped working and turned to look at the back of Bobby’s head. He leaned against the counter. “I remember. I’m sorry to hear it.”
“He was sex on legs when I met him. At the end, he couldn’t have weighed a hundred pounds. Nothing but bones.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, a lump rising in my throat and a burning sensation filling my chest. I wanted to reach out and hug the man, but I was anxious about touching him. Not because of his illness, but because I just didn’t know how he’d react.
“We’re all going to die,” Bobby said gruffly, his eyes filling with tears. “All my old friends and lovers. We thought we were safe here, away from the plague in the big cities. We weren’t safe at all.” His lips trembled.
Daniel wrapped his arms around Bobby from behind, pressing his face against Bobby’s cheek, and when the man closed his eyes and tears started down his face, Daniel made hushing sounds in his ear.
“We were young like you once,” Bobby said, his voice breaking. “We didn’t know. We had no idea what was coming. If we had… I never even told Jeff I loved him. How stupid was that? Such a dumb kid back then.”
I half expected Daniel to tell Bobby that Jeff had known anyway, but he didn’t. He just hugged him and let him cry. I patted Milky Way’s head as she wriggled in her owner’s lap, unsure what was causing his distress. I tried to calm her with long strokes down her silky ears.
When Bobby calmed, he said, “Don’t end up with regrets, boys. Regrets are the worst.”
“We won’t,” Daniel promised.
“Liar.” He scoffed. “We all have to deal with regrets. Every last one of us.”
I had no idea what to say, so I just sat there as Bobby eventually dried his tears, and Daniel went back to the food.
Bobby couldn’t walk very well, so after Daniel made his meal, he helped him to the living room and into a La-Z-Boy chair. As he ate, he chatted about soap operas.
“Not much else to do with my life now but watch stories,” he said to me, like he needed to justify it. “Daniel claims he doesn’t have time to watch them, but I keep him up to date on the happenings.”
“When is Marlena going to reveal herself to Roman?” Daniel asked, sitting on the sofa next to me and taking a brush to Milky Way’s fur. She struggled but he held her firmly in his big hands until she submitted.
I reached out to stroke her ears again as he worked, and she licked my hand.
“Beats the hell outta me. I guess she likes hearing what everyone says about her since they all think she’s dead.”
“You said you saw a commercial, though, right? And it hinted that Roman would find out she wasn’t dead sometime this summer?”
“Hopefully soon,” Bobby said. “I’m real tired of waiting around for the big reveal. I’ve only got so much time left. One little infection, and boom, I’ll never get to see the look on Roman’s face when he sees she’s alive.”
“Let’s be optimistic.”
