Page 46 of Tito

I laughed. Whether he tried to be or not, he was very entertaining to watch, and to listen to. When he talked, he spoke with his hands, waving them wildly and touching whoever it was he spoke to.

In response to his statement, I struck my best manly pose—hand-on-chin, gazing at nothing, with my bicep flexed.

“I was joking,” he said with a wave of his hand. He gave me a quick once-over. “Kind of.”

Completely comfortable with my sexuality, I was a million miles from being homophobic. Gay men were attracted to gay men no differently that heterosexual men were attracted to heterosexual women. That was my belief, anyway.

I lowered my hand. “I’m flattered.”

“You should be,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’m not easily pleased.”

I glanced around. Short of the woman Reggie was helping, the store was empty. I looked at Raymond. “I’ve got a few questions.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Are gay men attracted to heterosexual men?”

“I can’t speak for the community,” he responded, tidying a stack of shirts while he spoke. “But I can tell you this. I don’t want to be in a relationship with a straight man. Not someone who’s experimenting with his sexuality. That’s a recipe for disaster. If you met a woman who was lesbian her entire life, and then decided to experiment with a man, would you want to pour your heart and soul into a relationship with her?”

I wondered how many heartbreaks a man could withstand before he isolated himself from women altogether. “No,” I said. “I would not.”

“You’d have this fear that one day she’d go back to her roots, right?”

“Right.”

“But.” He scanned me from the tips of my boots to my shoulders, then looked me in the eyes. “I often daydream about men I find attractive. It’s hard not to.”

“I think that’s healthy,” I said.

“Thank you.” He smiled. “What are the other questions? You said you had several.”

“What about the fire?” I asked. “You said Reggie used the big back yard to burn—”

His eyes went wide. “She didn’t tell you?”

“No. She didn’t.”

“Oh. My God.” He took a glance in Reggie’s direction and quickly returned his attention to me. “She and that crazy friend of hers, Mel? They took all of Jared’s belongings to the back yard and piled them up. Then, they doused everything in gasoline and set it on fire.” His brows raised dramatically. “Yes. On fire. Like, a blazing inferno that could be seen from El Cajon—maybe even as far as Chula Vista.” His eyes shot to Reggie, who was still talking to the girl. He waved, flashed a smile, and then looked at me. “When the police showed up, they were both standing there with a bottle of wine in one hand and a knife in the other. The police pulled their guns and screamed at them to either drop the knives or get shot. Complete insanity, if you ask me.”

He was right, burning a person’s belongings in the back yard sounded like insanity, for sure. “The fire? Yeah, that’s crazy.”

“Not the fire,” he said. “The police. I mean, really? They were in Reggie’s backyard burning Jared’s things. They weren’t hurting anyone, that’s for sure. Police scare me. They’re always too quick to pull the trigger. Luckily, Reggie blurted out that her father’ a detective, and they lowered their weapons.”

“Why were they holding knives?”

“They used them to carve up the couch before they lit it on fire. Reggie said it was all slippery and sticky, and she was afraid that it wouldn’t catch fire unless they exposed all the poofy stuff in the cushions.”

“The green couch?” I asked.

He tapped my shoulder with the tips of his fingers. “You’ve been there. I forgot. Yes. The green one. Sadly, it’s no more. Personally, I liked it. She, on the other hand, hated it. I think it was a personal matter with Jared loving it. You know, a subconscious thing.”

“I didn’t think it was too bad.” I shrugged. “Kind of a weird color.”

“Apple green? It wasn’t for everyone, but I loved it. I’ve got socks that match it perfectly.”

Reggie stepped behind the counter and was ringing the girl’s purchases up on the register. I looked at her and then at Raymond. “Tell me something about her that you think I should know, but that she’d never tell me herself.”

“About Reggie?”