The pub/restaurant was half full, and Rand fought to keep up with the client's orders when Ethan came in through the main entrance and waved at him. He waved back, quickly making notes and nodding to the clients, one, a businesswoman wearing glasses, and the other, probably her husband. They seemed in a hurry like everyone else was in their lunch break. The woman wasn't a regular, and would probably complain about the food, but there was nothing that Rand could do about that.
"It will be coming right up," Rand said and walked away.
He went behind the counter and gave the recent orders to the kitchen staff and looked around, for his friend. By the bar, Ethan waited for him, looking at his cellphone and with a piece of cheesecake that was always his order on a plate ready for him. Smiling, Rand grabbed a spoon and sneakily took a piece of the cheesecake.
"Oh, come on," Ethan said. "Get away from here." But he laughed as he said it, and pulled his food closer, protecting with an arm.
"I can't help it, you make it too easy," Rand said. "What's up, man? You look gloomy."
"More than usual?" Ethan said. "Too much to do and not enough time."
"Ah. So, the same as everybody else. But you're still up for tonight, right?" One of their friends was a musician. His band was to perform tonight in a club, and they promised to show their support.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll pick you up." Between the two of them, it was Ethan who owned a car. He had a generous father. As if he could hear Rand's thoughts, Ethan said, "Listen, my father asked you to come by today if you can. He broke his computer and I don't know how to fix it, and he said, and I quote 'Call that nerdy friend of yours, the one who meddles with this stuff.'"
"Nerdy?" Rand said, abashed.
"Yeah, he's not wrong, no matter how much you try to hide it."
"How does he even know that anyway? You two talk a lot about me?" Rand didn't have much of a bright future, he didn't go to college like Ethan, neither did he want to, but he was studying computer science because he enjoyed it. He had his family business, the restaurant slash pub, to work on and get some money and didn't need much more.
"He must have heard we speak sometimes," Ethan said, defensively. "You're not such a hot topic." His cheeks changed to a shade of red.
"Oh, but I am," Rand said, and grabbed another piece of cheesecake, and ate it sensually, provoking a small giggle out of Ethan. "Tell your dad I'll be coming as soon as I finish my shift."
"Thanks, bro. You're the best."
At that moment, as Ethan looked at him with a big smile on his face, some customers called for him, and he moved away. Before he could say goodbye, Ethan was waving at him as he left.
As promised, when his shift ended, Rand hopped on his bike and went to Ethan's house. He didn't bring anything with him because, as it usually was the case, people who thought they had broken their computers needed only a few easy step-by-step guide to reset them in the right way and not repeat the same mistake.
Hank opened the front door and welcomed Rand inside. Ethan's father was tall and resembled his son very little, with his mustache, dark eyes, and long hair. He was wearing a sleeveless white shirt and sweat pants, and, by the thick arms and long shoulders, showed that he took very good care of his health. Rand couldn't help but be intimidated by the bear of a man. In contrast, Rand was small and slender with not much space for fat, but neither his muscles were as big as he wanted. That an older man worked harder on his appearance than Rand made him feel very self-conscious.
"I don't know what I did," he explained, as he guided Rand towards his room and to his laptop. "But now, everything is sideways, and my son was as useless as me."
Rand laughed. The problem had nothing to do with what he studied, as he knew it would be the case, but a simple matter of hitting the wrong shortcut.
"No worries. I'll show you, it's very simple. I could've even told you by the phone."
"Oh, damn. Sorry for bringing you here, then."
"It's okay, really," he said and sat down by the computer. He was about to show how it was done when the house phone ringed and Hank excused himself to quickly answer it.
Alone, he waited a moment and then decided to just do it without the man. He could always show him later. So he fixed the computer, and to be through, checked some apps to see if they were working properly. When he opened the navigator, though, the first page was a gay porn site.
He was so surprised that he didn't even realize that Hank had returned. Ethan's dad shoved down the laptop and muttered some excuses, while Rand stepped slowly away as if he could outrun the revelation. He felt so bad that words failed him, and at the same time, he didn't process what he had just seen.
"This is not what you think," Hank's secure voice said. "I don't know how... I..." He shut up. He wasn't even angry that Rand had invaded his privacy, only really ashamed, his face as red as a strawberry. That reminded him of his son.
