I let that sink in for a bit as I lift my glass to my mouth, letting the water swirl before taking a sip. It mimics my thoughts. Restless first, then settled.
The morning sun is climbing higher in the sky.
I look around the yard, at the house.
It’s a disaster zone, but I guess we’ve got to start somewhere, right?
“So… tell me, what’s the plan for today?”
“We go back to Arcadia. I need to catch up on things.”
“Right. So you can drown in paperwork, and I’ll go sizzling like bacon by the pool.”
I catch the grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. He knows I’m full of shit but he likes that.
I nudge my foot against his under the table.
“Hear me out. We stay here. There’s still a mountain of things to fix, and I know you’re going to find excuses to avoid it.”
The way his lips twitch tells me he’s fighting a losing battle with himself, then he cracks under my stare.
“Alright, alright. I might have been procrastinating slightly.”
“Slightly?” I echo, nodding at the sagging structure out back. There’s more tree than shed.
“Tell me you’ve got a demolition hammer somewhere. That poor bastard’s been suffocating long enough. We’re freeing that tree today.”
“You’re serious about this?” He watches me with a look that says he’s not quite sure if I’m still joking, or if this is something we’re actually doing.
And I get it. Fixing up your house isn’t exactly something you do with your Arcadia mate. But I’m not that right now. And he’s not that either. Not this weekend.
I might not have all the answers, but whatever this is between us, he needs to know I’m here for him, in the ways that count. And if that tree matters to him, that’s reason enough to give it everything I’ve got today.
“What do you say? Should we break down that shed so we can build something better?”
He rises from his chair, eyes wide with wonder, but that smile is all I wanted to see from him. If he only knew how that makes my day.
He takes my hand and gives it a short squeeze.
“Let’s free that beautiful tree.”
And just like that, we had a plan.
Yosh had bought himself a ruin of a house that would keep him busy for months, maybe years. But I liked that about the place, how unapologetically broken it was. Fixable in ways some things in life just aren’t.
Not long after, we were standing in front of the shed, staring at the tree that had claimed it from the inside out.
It’s was ironic. My own walls had been crumbling all week, and I had a feeling Yosh’s walls were starting to show cracks too.
We work slowly because of the heat. Every fifteen minutes or so, we drop the hammers and collapse into a patchy shade near the house.
By noon, we take a break and go inside.
I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful for the AC to kick in.
We lay down on the cold floor tiles, staring at the ceiling, staring at each other. We talk about all kinds of meaningful and less meaningful things.
Eventually, I grab my phone and play a few tracks I’d produced earlier this year. Unreleased stuff and some half-finished trial and error.
