“Nothing to eat?” Gloria asks before the waiter can.
“I just came from a . . . a meeting, you can say. I ate a bit there.”
A meeting? He’s not normally so vague.
Gloria wants to ask with who, but for the first time in a long time, the answer scares her.
What if Rolando had a breakfast date? Who’s the lucky woman? Will Gloria be strong enough to attend that wedding? Can she hold back the tears when meeting his child?
She will.
Gloria is a planner, and she plans to be happy for her best friend.
Once the waiter steps away, Gloria follows up with Rolando. “You quit?”
“It wasn’t a good fit for me. It’s probably too heavy to talk about right now,” Rolando says, glancing at Pazito. “Are you both going straight home after lunch? Maybe we can go to the park? We can talk some more then.”
“Park!” Pazito shouts, scaring the patrons in the booth behind him.
“It looks like we’re going to the park,” Gloria says.
She won’t be able to spend her life with Rolando, but they can have today.
Orion
12:38 p.m.
“Next stop: Brooklyn Bridge,” I announce in my best train conductor voice.
The bridge is a couple minutes away from the train station, the perfect one-two punch for Valentino’s tour. He doesn’t seem super hyped, though, or even slightly hyped. The Brooklyn Bridge is an iconic part of New York where he can take in views of the city; I can even point out where the Twin Towers once stood. But Valentino seems . . . pained?
“You good?” I ask. “I promise the bridge isn’t going to collapse under us.”
“I’m not concerned about the bridge. That sounds nice.”
“Okay, cool. Then what’s up?”
“I’m thinking about your secret.”
“The secret that stays in the secret station?”
“I implied I’d take it to my grave. I never said we wouldn’t talk about it.”
We begin crossing the bridge, the first minute of what could be an hour journey as we walk to Brooklyn with the East River beneath us. That’s a long time to dig through this deep pain of love feeling out of reach, like it’s buried in the center of the world and I don’t have a shovel. But if Valentino wants to claw through the ground with me, I can’t knock that.
“What do you want to know?” I ask, unwrapping the hoodie from my waist and putting it back on, cozy inside it like I was when wrapped in Valentino’s arms on the train.
“Why do you think no one will love you before you die? Because you’re expecting you’ll die young?”
“It’s wild, but I could live until I’m a hundred and I think I’ll still never know love. Like, legit love. This world isn’t built for guys like us, you know.”
“That doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there for you.”
I want to scream that I think he’s that capital-s Someone. “I came out last month too and it’s not like a bunch of dudes started lining up outside my house.”
“Probably a good thing.”
“I had a shit ton of crushes in high school, and I didn’t know for sure, but I got some closeted vibes from a couple of them. I swore they were prob into me too, though no one hit me up with any confessions once I was out.”
“I’m sure someone wanted to, Orion. It’s possible they weren’t ready or were still figuring themselves out.”