My Sunshine (11 page)

John
reached for his belt buckle
.
Chloewill never kno
w
, he told himself again. He undid the buckle and unzipped his jeans
.
Chloe won’t know, but I will.

He shook his head. “Put your clothes on,
Benice, and get out of here.”

                           Chapter Six

Chloesighed when she opened the door to Subwa
y
o
n
Saturday morning. Justin was wiping down the counter. She hadn’t had to work with him since their fight, and she was sure he was behind the scheduling. Since she only worked there a few hours on the weekends, it would have been easy for him to find a way to be scheduled opposite shifts as her.

“Hey,
Chloe,” he said as she approached.

She frowned. “I guess you got stuck with me this time,
huh? No one to trade shifts with?”

He shook his head. “I haven’t been trading shifts. I’m not
avoiding you. You’re avoiding me.”

She didn’t respond. It was true. He had called everyday for
the first few days following their fight. That slacked off to every other day, and now just every three or four days. When she knew it was Justin calling, she let the phone ring; and when she did answer it, she hung up as soon as he said hello. Daniel had had no better luck trying to get her to talk to Justin either.

“Why are you avoiding me?” He followed her as she went
into the back room.

“Because you didn’t believe me.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry. I believe you now.”

“Why because
Daniel said it was true? You believe him, is what you mean.”

Justin looked down and shook his head. He looked back up
at her. “I guess you’re right. I’m sorry, Chloe, but it’s still kinda unbelievable.”

Chloe
stared at her friend. Justin wasn’t a native of Canton. He had moved into a rooming house there to avoid living in the dorms at the nearby university. He knew her history, because she had told him, and because he had heard it from everyone in town. But he had never bought into the idea that Chloe was replacing her mother as the town tramp. She was his co-worker and his friend, and he chose to judge her on real-life instead of rumors.

She smiled. “It is, even for me.”

“Does that smile mean you forgive me and we’re friends again?” He asked.

She nodded. “Yeah.” Her cell phone rang and she dug it
out of her jacket pocket. “It’s him,” she said. “Hello?” She walked a few steps away from Justin, and he took her hint that she wanted some privacy.

“Hey
Chloe.” John said, not sounding like his usual

cheerful self.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“Nothing. I think I may have had too much to drink last
night.”

“Oh.” She was never quite sure how to respond to his
stories about drinking. She wasn’t supposed to drink while taking her medication, and as a Christian she felt a moral conviction not to overindulge. “So the party must have been pretty good.”

“Not really. I mean, it was a good party, but I just wasn’t
into it.”

“Why not?”

“Because you weren’t there. That would have made things a whole lot better.”

Chloe
frowned. She would have given her eyeteeth to have been able to go to that party, but with her work schedule it was impossible. Too many people depended on her, and she couldn’t risk losing her job. She needed the money. The insurance she had through the bank refused to cover her illness, claiming it was a pre-existing condition. She needed her job to pay for her meds.

“Have you gotten to spend a lot of time with your sister?”

“Ugh,” John moaned. “I haven’t even seen her yet. I know she’s here because everyone else has seen her, but she’s giving me the big brush off.”

“Why?”

“Christine says it’s because I hassle her about Cliff.”

“Do you?”
Chloe had heard John’s concerns before.

Unlike her, he was talkative and didn’t keep many secrets.

“Probably. I’m just scared, Chloe. I don’t want her to get sick.”

“You think it’s gotten that far? You think they’re sleeping
together?”

“I would hope that she would be
Smarter than that. I don’t know, though. She must have spent the night with him.”

“Would
Dennis and Shannon have let that happen?”

Chloe
asked.

“Well, I don’t think they would have put them up in th
e same room; she’s only seventeen, but they can’t watch them all night.”

Justin stepped into the back room and signaled that he
needed her help.

“Listen
John,” she said. “I’ve got to go. I’m at work, you know.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sorry. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye.” She clicked off the phone and hurried to the front to help Justin with the line of customers.

John
put down the phone then picked it right back up. He dialed Dennis’s number. Shannon picked up. “Hey, Shan,” he said. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, hey
John. Nothing much.”

“Are y’all going to be around today? I was thinking that I
might come by there.”

“Can you play nice?”

John sighed. “Yes.”

“Yeah, we’ll be here all day. When are you coming?”

“As soon as I get dressed.”

“Okay, sugar. See you in a jiffy
.”

John
jumped out of the bed, rubbing the back of his neck trying to work out the kink. He must have slept the entire night in one position to feel so stiff. He quickly dressed and left for Dennis’s house.

“
Garby and Cliff are by the pool,” Shannon said when John entered the den. Dennis was sitting on the couch playing a video game and Shannon, an architect, was sitting at her drafting table.

“
John!” Dennis said, pushing a controller toward him. “Play some football?”

“Sure,”
John agreed, sitting on the couch and taking the controller. “What are you working on, Shannon?”

“Mr. Lloyd took on these new clients this week who want to
see something by Monday for their kitchen. They are closing in their carport and it’s just a big mess. Anyway, they need it done right away, and he gave the whole account to me.”

“So what happened with you and
Benice last night?” Dennis asked.

John
shook his head. “Nothing. She just drove me home.”

Dennis
laughed. “Right.”

“That’s right. She just drove me home.”

Dennis shook his head. “Well, you should have heard her talking last night. That girl has got one filthy mouth on her. She was definitely looking for some last night.”

John
frowned and thought about the previous night. “Well, she didn’t get it from me.”

“Okay, let’s play,”
Dennis said. The conversation fell to the wayside as the football game progressed.

“Well, you still suck,”
Dennis said almost an hour later when the game was over. He turned off the machine. “I guess Mel’s probably still out by the pool.”

John
nodded, taking the hint. “Okay.” He exited the house through the second story back door and looked over the balcony to the pool. Garby and Cliff were sitting at a patio table playing cards. “Hey guys,” he called to them. He bounded down the stairs and approached the table.

“Hey
John,” Garby said, looking up at him and shielding her eyes from the sun. “What’s up?”

“Nothing.” He sat down. “Hey, Cliff, how are you?”

Cliff nodded a greeting. “Good.”

John
clenched his jaw. He hated the tension. He and

Garby
had always had a good relationship, but the more serious her relationship with Cliff grew, the more strained the sibling relationship became. As for Cliff, John had considered him a friend until recently. What he hated more than the tension was knowing that he was the reason for it all. He would have never stood for someone telling him whom he could and couldn’t love, and he knew he shouldn’t be doing it to his sister.

“You think mayb
e
w
e
could get together later?” John

asked, implying that he wanted it to be just he and
Garby.

Garby
glanced across the table at Cliff. “I guess so. What did you have in mind?”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter to me. I’ll take you to
dinner later.”

Garby
nodded. “Okay, can I pick the place?”

John
smiled. “Of course.”

That evening, John waited until the conversation between he and Garby was easy and comfortable before broaching the subject of Cliff. “Mel, I want to talk about Cliff.”

She rolled her eyes. “Jeez,
John. We almost made it through the whole meal.”

He held up his hand to stop her. “I don’t want to fight. I just
want to talk.”

“About what?”

“I’m worried about you, and your future if you stay with him.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I know y’all are getting serious. It’s becoming pretty

obvious to me that you aren’t coming to Orlando for college
because you miss me. I know he’s moving here, too. I think it’s great that you’ve found someone.”

“I love him,
John.”

“And he loves you?”

She nodded and smiled. “Oh yeah.”

“There’s no cure for AIDS.”

“He doesn’t have AIDS. He’s HIV-positive. That’s a big difference. And his viral load count is undetectable and has been for a long time.”

“Does that mean he’s cured?”
John asked. He knew the answer was no. “Does that mean he’ll never get sick?” He didn’t wait for Garby to answer. “I’ve known Cliff for a long time, and I like him, but it scares me to death that you are going to get sick. If you catch this from him, there’s no guarantee that you will respond the way he has to the meds. You might get AIDS.”

Garby
shook her head, but she didn’t speak. John knew she had no argument. “I just wanted you to think about things like that.” “I have, John. Cliff knows a lot about his disease. We’re careful.” She bit her lip as soon as she said it, as if she wished she could take it back.

John
’s heart fell into his stomach. His seventeen-year old sister was making the conscious decision to have sex with a man she knew had deadly virus
.
Don’t start an argumen
t
. He was afraid she might start crying.

“Besides,”
Garby continued, “I’m probably safer than you are.”

“I don’t do that anymore.”

“What? You’ve taken a vow of celibacy?”

“No, not celibacy. I have a girlfriend, and she’s the only
one I’m seeing.”

Garby
raised her eyebrows. “Just one?”

“Just one.”

“What’s her name? How come I haven’t met her?”

“Her name is
Chloe. She lives in this little town in the mountains. You know, where my car broke down.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Do you love her?”

John shrugged. “I care for her, a lot, and I think about her twenty-four hours a day, and want nothing more than to see her again, but I’ve never been in love. I don’t know what that is.”

“Never?”

He shook his head. “How do you know?”

“Well, you care for someone a lot and you think about them
twenty-fours hours and day and want nothing more that to see them again.”

John
smiled. “I like her a lot and I want to spend time with her and get to know her better.”

“When are you seeing her again?”

“She’s coming with me to the World Series.”