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“Like in a path from the door into the dining room,” Jonesy says, picking up one of the balls.
“Yes!I love it!”
We grin at each other, pleased at our simpatico moment, then start brainstorming how to go about hanging them.While Jonesy threads ribbon through the tops to hang from the metal framework that holds the tin ceiling tiles, I start to lay out the ornaments on the floor in a rough approximation of where they’ll hang, mixing the red, green, and gold balls to form a gently curving path from the entrance that explodes outward once it reaches the dining room.
Jonesy steps next to me and cocks his head.“What if…”
When he doesn’t finish the thought, I say, “What if…?”
“I dunno, I was thinking…” He rubs the back of his neck.“What if it’s all red leading in from the entrance, then mix it a bit until it’s all green as it flows into the dining room, with the gold as a border?”
I cock my head at the same angle he’s holding his, looking from the door to the seating area, until I see exactly what he means.“All that red in the middle of the green lobby, and then it turns to green in the red dining area.Like one room’s being pulled into the other.”
“Exactly,” he says with an almost shy grin.We shuffle the colors around until we have it nailed down, and I can’t help but applaud as we both step back to see how it looks on the floor.
“It’s brilliant.”
He gets a little pink at my words.“I like this kind of stuff.”
“You’re good at it,” I say, but he waves me off and grabs the ladder to start the ceiling installation.
“Speaking of art,” he says from the top of the ladder as I hand up the first ornament for him to hang.
“Were we speaking of art?”
“We are now.”When he stretches to place the red ball, his untucked button-down lifts to reveal a line of smooth, taut stomach above his black pants.
I really shouldn’t gawk.I really should avert my eyes.Any time now.Looking away aaaaany time now.
“Why do you hate the lions?”
My eyes snap to his face.“What lions?”I ask dumbly, trying to erase the unexpectedly attractive sight of his belly button.
He jerks his head to the right.“The Lion Fucks Tonight.When I waited on you that first night, you glared daggers at it.Made me think you might be an uptight bitch.”
“Who says I’m not?”
He gives an amused hum.“Trust me, you’re not.”
“I’m surprised you noticed,” I murmur as I work through the fact that Jonesy noticed me noticing that terrible mural and thenrememberedthat he’d noticed a couple of weeks later.
“You shouldn’t be.”He descends the ladder to move it forward a few feet.
I gather more ornaments to hand up to him.
“I’ll tell you what I think about the mural if you’ll tell me what’s up with you and Gabe.”I fully expect him to inform me that it’s none of my business because it is, in fact, none of my business.
He hangs another two ornaments before speaking.
“Gabe’s been my best friend since high school.He lived with me for a while after he dropped out.”He positions another ornament, then continues.“We’ve talked forever about opening a landscape business, and last year he went ahead and did it.He wants me to quit and go full-time with him, but…”
He gives a restless shrug, the one he does where it looks like his joints are attached to his body with rubber bands.
“What’s stopping you?”I ask once I’m done writing silent poetry about what a pleasure it is to watch him move his body.
He laughs and ruffles his hair.“Oh God, let’s see.It’s a new business, and there’s no reason for it to support two full-time people right away.Gabe’s the plant expert.I just give advice on what might look good in the design.That’s not important enough to make me a partner.”His face flushes red, like he’s embarrassed that his friend would offer him a position like that.“And then there’s Darby.He fell in love with her two Christmases ago, and he…”
I hand up another ornament and wait for him to finish.When he doesn’t, I list a couple of suggestions.“He changed?Got smug and happy?Unintentionally started cutting you out of his life?I’m speaking from my own experience with my friends here.”
