Ethan ruminated on what to do in the roughly three and a half minutes it took him to fall asleep. Drifting off, he thought he had a decision, but maybe it was the codeine talking.
The next thing he knew, he heard someone calling his name. Opening his eyes he saw Tim standing in the doorway with the thermometer.
“Can I come in?”
Ethan nodded, coughing. “Yeah, come in, sit down.”
“You always snore or just when you’re sick?” He asked, teasingly, sitting next to him and taking his temperature.
Ethan flushed deep red. “Just when I’m sick.” He mumbled, looking down. “Or when my allergies are really bad.”
“Darn. I was hoping then mine wouldn’t bother you.” Tim commented. “And 99.4. From what Dustin said, you’re down half a degree from this morning. I think that’s improvement.”
Ethan nodded. “I feel better. Not so hot and cold.” He turned his head away quickly. “AhHatschoo!” Ethan gave a thick sniffle.
“Bless you. And that’s improvement. Well, maybe not the sneeze…that one sounded awful. But that your body temperature is beginning to regulate itself again.”
Ethan laughed, drawing his knees up to his chest, sniffling and running a hand under his nose. He yawned and looked at Tim. “Good.” Another sniffle, and when he spoke again, Tim noticed that that last sneeze had cranked up his stuffy and runny nose, but it seemed Ethan needed to say what he needed to say more than he wanted to blow his nose.
“I’ve been thinking…” Ethan started, then paused, looking down. “Been thinking…” And this time he seemed to lose his train of thought for a moment. “Hashoo!” He sneezed quickly into his shoulder. “Ugh. Sorry. One of those tickles…won’t go away,” he murmured. “Anyway,” he continued in his increasingly stuffed up voice, “I think I’d like it if you did stay.” He blushed, avoiding Tim’s gaze.
For his part, Tim just nodded. “Ok.”
“Do you need to go home?”
It took a minute for Tim to interpret Ethan’s speech. “No. Dustin asked me to bring things…just-“
“HatChoo!”
He was cut off by a third sneeze from Ethan. “In case.” He finished. “Bless you! Are you ok?”
“I don’t know.” Ethan started. And this time, Tim could barely understand him. “Nose itches.” Ethan mumbled, blushing.
Tim picked up the tissue box which had fallen on the floor. “Not trying to tell you what to do, but I can barely understand you.” He handed him a handful of tissues. “Besides, those stubborn tickles sometimes go away if you blow.”
Without a word, Ethan took the tissues for three long hard blows, then grabbed up more tissues from the box Tim held out for four more blows. “Thanks.” He mumbled at the end, again turning red.
“Better?” At Ethan’s nod, he continued. “I’ve had those tickles, where sneezing doesn’t help…they just don’t go away until you blow your nose good.”
“Yeah.” Ethan answered, softly. “Hasn’t happened to me in a long time. You’ll almost never see me sneeze that close together. Usually you gotta wait at least a minute for the next one.”
Tim nodded. “Thanks for not yelling at me with the tissues.”
Ethan gave him a tentative smile. “I’m remembering, you’re not Matt. That’s why I want you to stay tonight.” He said as his alarm went off. “Snack time.” He sighed, silencing it. He slid out of bed and followed Tim to the kitchen. Ethan selected his snack and sat down to eat, waiting for his phone to ring.
He had just finished eating when Dustin called, having sneezed once during his snack. He hoped it was over for the phone call. Ethan answered and got his permission to put him on speakerphone so he could talk to Tim at the same time.
“You sound better.” Dustin commented to Ethan.
“You still sound like shit.” Ethan replied, following a harsh cough from Dustin. “Worse than this morning actually.”
“Feel like shit. Didn’t feel this bad when I woke up this morning. Started after we took her morning nap. Hoping Ada will sleep a little longer this afternoon.”
“What’s wrong?” Ethan was in nurse mode, tired of being the patient.
“Coughing, sneezing, congestion, sore throat, headache, low grade fever, chills. I have to tell you, I don’t think I’m coming up tonight.”
“You got your flu shot, right? Hatchoo! Maybe you have influenza?”
“Shit. You got your flu shot, right?” Ethan confirmed he did. “Tim?” Tim also verified he’d had one. “I mean, I got one too, but…”
“And don’t worry about tonight. Tim’s got it. You go get checked out.”
“I will when Beth gets home. I don’t want to take AdaLyn with me to urgent care.” He paused, and they heard faint, muffled sneezing on his end. “Excuse me. Sorry.” He apologized when he came back to the phone.
“Bless you. You gonna survive the rest of the day with Ada?”
“Yeah. Beth’ll be home in a couple hours.”
“Hahchoo!” Ethan interrupted. “Sorry. My nose has a mind of it’s own since I woke up.” He said, and Tim laughed.
“When doesn’t it, E?” Dustin asked gravely, in a raspy voice.
“Point,” Ethan laughed. “Go get some rest. Call me when you know what’s up.” He hung up the phone and turned to Tim. “Looks like it’s just us.” He blew his nose on his napkin. “My fever’s down, so that means I get to lie on the couch, right?” He headed for the living room.
Tim followed. “Let me pick up my stuff.” He grabbed his book, notebook and pens and put them in his backpack, then picked up the few scattered tissues that littered the coffee table. After throwing them away, he came back in. “Move your feet.” He sat down on the couch, as Ethan curled up on the other end, in reach of the tissue box Tim had been using all morning,
“Did you stop sneezing?” Ethan asked. “Zyrtec do anything?”
Tim nodded. “Yeah. Stopped about an hour ago. Thanks for the pill.”
“No problem.” He looked expectantly at Tim.
“What?” Tim asked.
Ethan didn’t answer right away. “Atchoo! That stupid tickle won’t go away. It’s always right in the background, teasing me.” He complained, blowing his nose as hard as he could. “I know I said I sneeze a lot, it’s seriously not all the time like this.” He blew his nose again. “But you were supposed to tell me your stuff today, since you learned about mine.”
Tim nodded. “Ok. Where to start…”
Tim looked down, fiddling with his watch as he started to speak. “Remember our first dinner together, where we ran into my friends…my friends who had only seen me with women…the women it never worked out with? Who knew I hadn’t been on a date in close to three years?”
“Yeah.” Ethan nodded, rubbing his nose. “Wait…three years?”
“There were a couple scattered two, three dates with other guys, but, they couldn’t handle…it never worked…”
“Handle what? A gay accountant?” Ethan teased.
“Before Alex and Freddie found us on our date, I could count on one hand the number of people that knew I was gay. I mean, I made the decision that, I’d at least introduce you to my friends eventually. But…Ethan, only my mom and sister know outside of my friends.”
He shifted on the couch and looked up and Ethan. “I want you to meet my friends though, and my mom and sister….if you want.”
Ethan understood. His sister accepted him as he was, but his parents didn’t. So, not telling, yeah, that was his world. For years, he’d passed himself off as work-focused rather than have anyone question why he didn’t date, or at least not date openly.
“Why don’t your brothers know?” Ethan was genuinely curious. Tim had talked about being so close to his brothers, so…
“Like my dad was, they’re very religious. They’ve made comments about homosexuality, so, I keep my mouth shut. I almost told Steve, but never worked up the nerve. Then he passed away.” Tim sighed. “So, I’m not open and out. I know I brushed it off in the restaurant, but you need to know.”
He looked down, playing with his watch again.
Ethan slid over next to Tim. “It’s different for me, sure. But, I think it’s also something we can work on. I mean, maybe not with your brothers, but with other people. I hid it for a long time, too, because it didn’t go well with family when I first came out. Some people will just never understand but plenty of others do. And it sees like it went well when you told your friends at least….”
He started to lean into Tim, then stiffened and pulled away. “Ahtshoo!”
“Bless you.” Tim waited for Ethan to blow his nose, then pulled him against him. “Yeah, it did. I mean, maybe most of my family won’t really know or understand, but at least I have a friend family that does. And I think I want you to be part of that. I really think we can make this work.” He told him, picking Ethan’s pillow up and placing it in his lap.
Ethan snuggled into Tim’s lap, pulling the blanket over him. “Hope so.” Ethan said quietly, starting to doze off again. Tim fell asleep shortly after Ethan.
When Tim woke up, it was dark in the apartment. A quick glance at his watch confirmed his suspicions. It was after 8. They’d slept through Ethan’s normal supper time. He shook Ethan. “E, wake up.”
“Huh…wha?…Hatchoo! What?” Ethan sneezed and mumbled.
“It’s almost 8:30. You should have had dinner…” Tim turned on the lamp.
“Two and a half hours ago.” Ethan groaned, realizing he felt light headed.
“I’ll go heat you up some soup. Go check your blood sugar. You’re pretty pale.”
Ethan ducked off to go check his sugar while Tim went to the kitchen to reheat the chicken noodle soup. He was dishing up the soup when Ethan came back in. “You ok?”
“I will be. I’m low.” He took the bowl from Tim. “Um, do you mind making me a sandwich, pleheease? Ahchoo!”
“Peanut butter and jelly or turkey and cheese?”
“Turkey.” Ethan opted, and Tim started assembling the sandwich, handing it to Ethan a minute later. “Thanks.” Ethan said, taking a bite.
Tim looked at Ethan, concerned as Ethan coughed and sneezed his way through supper. “You sure you’re ok?”
Ethan nodded. “I think I overdid yesterday. Maybe a bit this morning.” He coughed again. “I wonder why I haven’t heard from Dustin.”
Tim got up and brought him his phone. “I think we were really asleep,” he commented, handing over the phone.
Ethan looked at it. “Two missed calls; one voice mail.” He clicked in to see who they were. “Yup. Dustin.” He listened to the message. “Just a really bad cold apparently.” He said to Tim. “I don’t think we’ll see him tomorrow either.”
“Let’s see how tonight goes, but, I can stay again.” Tim reassured him.
Ethan nodded, coughing.
“I think it’s bedtime soon. That nap showed we’re both pretty tired.”
Ethan nodded. “Just let me call Dustin.” He finished eating and called Dustin while Tim checked his own phone.
3 text messages from Alex. “Haven’t heard from you…still with the new guy?”
“Seriously though, how are things going?”
“Seriously, call or text me. I want details.”
Tim texted back. “Gossip. I’m spending the night IN THE GUEST ROOM. His friend is sick and he still shouldn’t be alone. I’ll be here tomorrow. Will see you Monday. How much will it take to get you to go check on Cashew tomorrow?”
“You’re asking me to check on your cat now? A flobbity-billion dollars?”
“…”
“Fine. Just happy you’re happy. I want details over dinner on Monday. Freddie does, too.”
“Fine and thanks.”
He set down his phone as Ethan finished his conversation. “How is he?”
“Miserable. Just a really, really bad cold they said at urgent care. He’s got a fever, cough, the works. He was pretty drowsy. Beth went and bought him NyQuil after I gave her the heads up on how he was feeling this afternoon. They don’t use it with having a toddler but since he’s so sick, exception to the rule.”
“Ah, they both want to be able to listen for her?”
“Exactly.” Ethan scrubbed at his nose. “Do you, um, wanna watch tv or a movie in my room for a bit?”
“Sure. Go do everything you need before bed and take the NyQuil. I’ll clean up in here and then join you.”
Aggedy Ann 