“Right.” Rusty typed out a brief acceptance, passed it to Cross for proofreading, and sent it winging off. “So.” A grin slowly crept over his face. “I’m going to the AHL. Well, for development, and just a week, but, fuck, Cross, it’s the AHL!”
“We have to celebrate.”
“Shit, yeah. Pizza?”
Cross had to laugh. “That’s what you came up with?”
“I’m hungry and I like pizza.”
“How about steak?”
“I like steak too.”
“Now that I can sit with my leg under a table for an hour, I want to take you out to eat—” He was interrupted by a different ping from Rusty’s phone.
“Huh.” Rusty swiped, peered down.
“What?”
“It’s a text from my old landlady, Mrs. Murinko.” Rusty eyed the screen. “She says she was deep cleaning the apartment for the drywaller and found a sealed letter of mine, a set of ear buds, my black sneakers, and a discount card from Fedora’s.”
“Fedora’s?”
“Local Eugene pizza. I’m probably close to a free large pizza on that card.”
“Never heard of them.”
“You should try them.” Rusty typed back. “She wants me to come get the stuff. And she says to bring ‘the young man I am seeing.’ She wants to meet you. Wow, I thought she was more of a conservative type. That’s cool.”
Cross was a bit unsettled that she’d somehow figured out Rusty had a boyfriend, maybe even who. “I wonder how she knows.”
Rusty shrugged. “The walls are thin in that house. She probably overheard something. It’s cool, though. She’s clearly more gay friendly than I thought, but she’s also not a sports fan. She’d have no clue who you are. She still thinks football means soccer, and she told me to go have fun playing ball.”
“Okay. You could probably replace all that stuff for less than the gas to drive down there.”
“Maybe. But there’s that letter, whatever it is, plus I want my sneakers. And I want to stay on her good side. She was taking in short term renters for the summer, but I really want to be back in there next season. I amnotsharing a place.”
“You might be in the A—”
Rusty slapped his palm over Cross’s mouth. “Don’t jinx me.”
“Sorry.”
He typed back. “I’m telling her I’ll come down on the weekend… Oh, she’s heading out of town for a week.” He looked at Cross. “She mentioned you again, but it’ll take me four hours or so to run down and back up here today. That’s a long-ass drive. I can drop you off at the house.”
“Let’s go together.” Cross was hit with a sudden desire to get out of his rut. He’d spent most of the last two months inside walls and while they were luxury walls, he really needed to get out and go somewhere. “Now I have the cast off, I can sit like a normal person. I’d love to meet Mrs. Murinko.” He had a feeling the landlady had filled a minor family role for Rusty, in a worldwhere his real family had declared him dead. Cross wanted to thank her for that.
“Are you sure?”
“Hell, yeah. You can even show me, what was it? Fedora’s pizza? They do know a fedora’s a hat, right?”
“They know. The place is super cool, real 1920s vibes.”
“Okay, sounds great.”
Rusty still eyed him. “You have to put your foot up when we get there, for, like, a few hours before we drive back. I’m not screwing with your recovery.”
“If I’m sore, I can ride home in the back seat with my leg up.” Cross laughed. “Come on, boyfriend, let’s have an adventure.”
