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A new job wasn’t so scary-sounding. It could even be exciting.
Here I was, dancing with Robert, at the start of a fresh new life.
Part VIII
Late-August 1991
Chapter Six
‡
Bobby was stayingon the third floor of Baptist Hospital with a bright view of the river. He lay in the bed, with tubes and wires everywhere. He hadn’t had any weight to lose, but now he was a skeleton, and my gut twisted at the sight. His red-rimmed, foggy eyes lit up when I walked into the room.
“Well, doggone if it isn’t Peter,” he croaked, smiling, but it looked horrible, like his mouth was crumbling into his chin. It was hard to believe that a little infection from cutting his foot on a bottle cap had taken him down this far in less than a week. That’s what AIDS did to a person. I knew that, and yet it gave me chills.
I swallowed back my horror and walked toward him. “Hey, Bobby.” I tried on a smile. “Why’d you go and scare us like this?”
He let out a rattling chuckle. “You know how it is, life wasn’t exciting enough, so I thought why the hell not?”
My smile felt all wrong, so I tried to hide it by bending down to hug him. I was glad I’d left my camera in the trunk of my car. I didn’t need to capture him like this. When I straightened, Bobby looked over my shoulder and grinned at the sight of Daniel standing in the doorway with a big bouquet of yellow and white roses.
Daniel smiled at us both as he stepped into the room. He looked as handsome as ever in jeans, a white t-shirt and an open, dark blue button-up. “Hey, Bobby. Milky Way wanted me to bring these for you.”
“Did she now?” Bobby asked, and then looked between us with a raised brow. “Oh, I see, Isee. Here I was expecting everything to get awkward now that you’re both here, but it seems you two have zoomed past the apologies right into shaking-the-sheets territory, haven’t you?”
“Not quite,” Daniel said, laughing and placing the bouquet on a table with three other, smaller vases of flowers.
“We made up,” I explained. “But we’re not—”
“We’re friends,” Daniel said.
“Yeah, right.” Bobby fixed his gaze on me. “And that other young rascal you were seeing?”
“Broke up with him.” I busied myself by buttoning up my light gray cardigan. “It’s chilly in here.”
“Hospitals. Freeze you to death or kill you with second-hand germs. I’d be better off at home.”
“What’s the latest on that? When are they releasing you?” Daniel asked, and I smiled at him, grateful he’d changed the subject.
“Eh. Not soon enough. Seems I’ve popped a recurring fever, and they suspect it’s a staph infection.” He rattled a sigh. “If it ain’t one thing, it’s another. And not even one single beautiful boy here to take my mind off it.”
“Until now,” I quipped.
He smiled. “Yes, until now.”
But Daniel wasn’t as easily swayed from discussion of the serious issues at hand. “Staph. That’s not great.”
“Tell me what I don’t know.”
“What’s the treatment for that given your compromised immune system? Is it—”
“Stop.” Bobby waved Daniel’s question away. “I don’t want to talk about it. Don’t deprive me of my joys in life by making me focus on miserable things.” He turned to me. “So, how’d the ex take you dumping him?”
I wanted to know more about his prognosis given this complication, but I knew better than to push him. He’d talk when he was good and ready and not a minute before. So I indulged his craving for gossip. “Not well.” I rubbed my wrist. “But he’s stayed away, at least.” I didn’t mention the calls he still put through to the house. I wouldn’t even answer the phone for fear it was him. I let my parents handle it.
“Well, he’s got a good shoulder to cry on, doesn’t he? In that pretty girlfriend of his.”
“What good’s a shoulder when you can’t even be honest about the tears?” Daniel asked.
