Coda 03 -The Letter Z

kind of sixth sense for this?” I asked him.
    Angelo snorted. “Zach’s gaydar sucks,” he said, before Zach had a chance to answer. “Worked with him for two weeks ’fore he figured out I was queer.”
    That didn’t surprise me, but Jared obviously found it funny. “Are you serious?” he asked, glancing back at Zach.
    “How was I supposed to know?” Zach asked.
“I didn’t know either,” I said in Zach’s defense. Jared and Angelo glanced knowingly at each other and didn’t answer us. “Not until halfway through that first day at Folk Fest.”
“Yeah,” Angelo said over his shoulder. “That’s different.”
“So how did you know?” Zach asked Angelo.
Angelo looked back at him in surprise. “What, ’bout you bein’ queer?”
“Yeah.”
Angelo’s eyebrows went up. “You’re jokin’, right?” He looked again at Jared, and they both laughed.
Zach slowed down, and I slowed down with him so that Ang and Jared pulled ahead of us a few steps. “I’m trying to decide if I should be offended,” Zach said, low enough that only I heard him. I wasn’t sure what to tell him. Angelo and Jared were still walking. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they were both laughing, and I was pretty sure it was at us. On the bright side, they had at least found some basis for solidarity between them.
Zach walked along in silence next to me, looking at the floor. Angelo and Jared were slowly pulling out even further ahead of us. Angelo was still wide-eyed at everything he saw. I couldn’t hear him, but I could tell he was talking a mile a minute, and Jared obviously found it entertaining. “What about that guy?” I said to Zach, trying to cheer him up. I nodded toward a man walking past us. He was our age, and dressed nice, wearing slacks and one of those old-fashioned looking wool coats with the double row of buttons. “Gay, or European?” I asked.
Zach looked over at the guy, just as he looked at us, and to my surprise, they both stopped dead in their tracks.
“Jonathan,” Zach said.
Of course I had been expecting him to say “gay” or “European”, so I was a little confused. “What?” I asked stupidly.
“It’s Jonathan,” Zach said.
“ Zach? ” the guy with the fancy coat said in pleasant surprise. “Is that you?” He walked over to us, beaming. Zach looked like a deer caught in the headlights; he obviously couldn’t run, but couldn’t seem to get his shit together enough to answer either. It didn’t matter. The guy—Jonathan, apparently—was still talking. “Oh my God, Zach, it’s been years.” He started to put his hand out, like he was going to shake Zach’s hand, but then at the last second he seemed to change his mind, and he grabbed Zach and hugged him. Zach was stiff in his arms, still looking shell-shocked. “I was thinking about you just the other day, Zach. It’s so good to see you.” He stepped back a bit, but still hanging on to Zach. “You look great,” he said sincerely. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
“Yeah, you too,” Zach managed to choke out. And then he stopped short, obviously unsure of what to say next.
Jonathan apparently wasn’t surprised or offended by Zach’s behavior. He let go of Zach and turned to me with his hand out. “Hi, I’m Jonathan.”
“Matt,” I said, shaking his hand.
“Nice to meet you.” He glanced between Zach and I, and I knew what was coming. “Are you—?”
“No,” Zach and I said in unison, and Jonathan’s smile got bigger.
“What are you doing in Vegas?” he asked Zach.
“Ummm…” Zach stuttered and looked over at me for help.
“Just being tourists,” I said, since Zach was apparently incapable of formulating a response.
“That’s great!” Jonathan said, turning back to Zach. “We should get together. I’d love to catch up.”
Zach didn’t even manage to stutter this time. He just stood there with his eyes wide, and I had a feeling I was going to have to answer for him again. The problem was, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to say yes or no. Then all of a sudden Jared appeared at my elbow, smiling like always, and I could have kissed him. He was so much better at this shit than I was.
“Hi,” he said to Jonathan, shaking his hand. They started doing the introduction thing, and I didn’t miss how happy Jonathan was by the fact that Jared was with me, and not with Zach. I was starting to have a very bad feeling about this. I looked around for Angelo, but he was nowhere in sight.